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I am looking for a resource to help with picking a holiday destination. This year I would like to take some time off in August (school holidays), and I would like to find counties or regions that usually have reasonably nice weather, e.g. I would like to avoid the worst monsoon season Asia or the winter in Northern UK. In this case the obvious candidates are Europe and North America, but I am specifically looking for somewhere different.

Now, if you know where you want to go, it's fairly easy to find out what the typical weather will be like in that place over the course of the year. What about going the other way though? For a given time of year, and a given ideal set of weather conditions, how do you find out where in the world is likely to have them?

Bonus marks for a likelihood factor associated with them - e.g. somewhere with an average temperature of 15 degrees in Spring might seem nice, but if in late winters it's zero and early summers it's 30 with not much in-between, that's possibly a different story!

(This question may seem subjective, but still I think this kind of resource would be handy for anyone planning holidays. Of course, at other times one might be interested in different time of the year.)

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    Subjective yes, but also too broad to be useful, IMHO.
    – Mark Mayo
    May 15, 2014 at 12:19
  • My hunch is that this would need to be split into several different questions, such as one on resources to find out what the weather will be like, one to check for when places are very busy with tourists etc
    – Gagravarr
    May 15, 2014 at 12:56
  • @Gagravarr, let me concentrate on the climate first then .
    – Grzenio
    May 15, 2014 at 13:03
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    It does not seem broader than asking for flight search engines, say. You could always argue about the specific criteria used, etc. but it's interesting to know if someone tried to put together something like that. A good answer would be neither broad nor subjective.
    – Relaxed
    May 15, 2014 at 13:05
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    sounds good to me, but emphasize the question being "for a given time of year, and a given ideal set of weather conditions, how do you find out where in the world is likely to have them?" (put it in the title for example)
    – Vince
    May 15, 2014 at 15:51

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For a given time of year, and a given ideal set of weather conditions, how do you find out where in the world is likely to have them?

Here is where some knowledge of geography and general weather conditions comes in handy, as it gives you a way to narrow down the search. For example, anywhere close to the equator will be fairly constant temperature year-round, while places north of it will be in spring roughly April-June, in summer roughly July-August, in fall roughly September-November, and in winter roughly December-March. The further north, the shorter and less extreme the summer, but the longer and more extreme the winter. Everything is reversed if you go south of the equator.

You can then look at a globe, figure out the time of year you want to travel, the kind of weather you desire, and determine bands north or south of the equator likely to have that weather at that time of the year.

Obviously, this is a very crude and rough tool, but it gives you a way to focus your search on a smaller area. You can then look at area-specific factors. For example, for the same latitude in Southern California, the temperature is likely to change significantly as you move even small increments east or west. It might be 72F during the day near the coast, but 90F during the day and 60F at night just a few miles inland.

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    On top of that you get cold and warm currents, monsoons, mountain ranges, etc. which all change the local climate...
    – Grzenio
    May 22, 2014 at 8:47
  • Of course there are many other factors, but using latitude can be a big help by narrowing down the possible destinations. The more places can be ruled out at the start, the fewer places need to be researched for specific details.
    – jetset
    May 30, 2014 at 22:31
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I would like to take some time off in August (school holidays), and I would like to find counties or regions that usually have reasonably nice weather

Depending on how far you wish you travel, you might consider places such as Stockholm, Sweden (in Europe but not as crowded as Rome or Paris), Cape Town or Johannesburg in South Africa (their winter, but those are fairly temperate so the weather should be pleasant), Curaçao (where it is 80F year-around), etc.

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