Best places to go in March: sun, festivals and wildlife

If you want beach warmth, book the Canary Islands or Oman; if it’s culture and festivals, head to Seville or Rome; for nature and wildlife, Kyoto’s early blossoms or a South African safari deliver; and for winter thrills, Tromsø or Chamonix still have snow and northern lights to spare. March is one of the most flexible months on the travel calendar, and after years of matching clients to their ideal window, I can tell you it rewards travellers who know exactly what mood they’re chasing.

A few reasons March performs so well: the ETC’s Long-Haul Travel Barometer shows travellers leaning towards closer-to-home, value-led trips this year, and shoulder-season pricing across Europe tends to undercut the Easter rush by a wide margin. Here’s where that value shows up best:

• Canary Islands – reliable 20°C+ sunshine while the UK still shivers.
• Seville – orange blossom scent and Semana Santa preparations without the peak-season crowds.
• Kyoto – early sakura windows in late March, often quieter than the April peak.
• South Africa’s safari regions – dry, cooler conditions make for excellent game viewing.
• Tromsø – the last strong month for the Northern Lights before the nights get too short.
• Chamonix – deep snowpack still holding, but with noticeably longer, warmer days.
• Oman – desert heat hasn’t yet arrived, so daytime temperatures stay comfortable.
• Iceland – equinox light and a genuine shot at aurora and ice-cave season together.

Key takeaways

March works because it lets travellers choose between spring warmth and lingering winter conditions in the same month, often at shoulder-season prices well below the Easter peak.

What does March actually give you as a traveller?

March is unusual because it straddles two seasons at once, and that’s exactly why it’s worth planning around rather than defaulting to. You can find genuine spring warmth in the Canaries or southern Spain while Norway and the Alps still deliver proper winter conditions. That split matters: sun-seekers, culture lovers, wildlife watchers and snow fans can all find a March that suits them, often at prices that soften noticeably once Easter demand kicks in.

A few things March uniquely offers:

• Shoulder-season value – flights and hotels across southern Europe typically offer better value outside of peak times in April.
• Earlier blossom windows – parts of Japan, especially Kyushu, can bloom before the late-March to early-April peak, with far fewer crowds.
• Equinox aurora chances – geomagnetic activity around the spring equinox gives Arctic destinations some of their best light shows of the year.
• Late-season skiing at altitude – snow is often at its deepest in March, with longer daylight for the slopes.
• Southern hemisphere harvest and festival season – South Africa’s wine regions and Australia’s autumn events peak just as the UK’s winter drags on.

Pro Tip: If you can’t decide between snow and sun, look at multi-centre trips. A week skiing in Chamonix followed by four nights on the Riviera coast gives you both seasons without wasting a single travel day.

The best March destinations, organised by mood

Sun and beach escapes

The Canary Islands stay warm enough for a genuine beach holiday in March, with average temperatures around 20 to 22°C and minimal rainfall according to this March holiday breakdown. Flights from the UK run around four hours direct. It suits families and couples who want reliable sun without the summer premium, and crowds remain light outside half-term weeks.

Lisbon sits at a slightly cooler 16 to 18°C in March, with occasional showers, but it’s an excellent hybrid of beach-adjacent charm and city culture. Flights take under three hours. It suits city-break travellers who want walkable streets, good food, and a coastal feel without full beach commitment. Shoulder-season hotel rates here are some of the best in Western Europe.

Oman offers dry, pleasant heat before the punishing summer arrives, typically in the mid-20s°C. Flights from the UK run around seven hours direct with several major carriers. It suits couples and adventurous families keen on desert landscapes, dhow cruises and Muscat’s souks rather than pure lounging. Budget runs medium to high, but crowds are noticeably thinner than the winter peak.

Dubai rounds out the warm-weather shortlist with temperatures still comfortable before the summer heat spikes, and it remains a reliable direct-flight option from most UK airports.

Culture, cities and festivals

Seville is arguably the standout culture pick for March. Temperatures hover in mild spring ranges, and the city builds towards Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions that transform the streets with candlelit parades. Flights from the UK take around two and a half hours. It suits travellers who want atmosphere and tradition over lounging, though prices spike sharply during the festival dates themselves, so book well ahead or aim for the week before.

Rome in March sees temperatures around 14 to 17°C with occasional rain, but far fewer queues at the Colosseum and Vatican than in peak summer. Flights run around two and a half hours.

Sicily, particularly the southeast around Syracuse and Ortigia, offers a gentler version of mainland Italy’s culture with almond blossom in the countryside and temperatures around 16°C. Flights take roughly three hours. It suits travellers who want history, food and quieter beaches without Rome’s crowds.

Cornwall deserves a mention for UK-based short breaks. March brings daffodils, early coastal walks and a genuine off-season calm to St Ives and the Lizard Peninsula, with average daytime temperatures around 10 to 12°C. No flight needed, just a train or drive, which makes it the easiest option on this whole list for a long weekend. It suits nature lovers and walkers rather than sun-seekers.

Nature and wildlife

Kyoto is the destination most people ask about for March, and for good reason. Late March can catch the earliest cherry blossoms, especially in southern microclimates, giving travellers a real shot at sakura with lighter crowds than the April peak, as National Geographic notes when framing March as a genuinely tactical month for mixed-season trips. Temperatures sit around 8 to 14°C, so pack layers. Flights from the UK run around 12 to 14 hours with one stop. It suits culture-and-nature travellers willing to plan precisely around a blossom forecast, which shifts year to year.

South Africa’s safari regions, including the Kruger area and Sabi Sands, hit a sweet spot in March. The rains are easing, vegetation is still green, and animals congregate around remaining waterholes, making sightings easier than in peak dry season. Daytime temperatures average 25 to 28°C. Flights from the UK take a long-haul journey to Johannesburg. It suits wildlife enthusiasts and honeymooners who want a big-ticket trip without June’s premium pricing.

The Maldives offers something different: March sits at the tail end of the dry season, with calm seas, minimal rain and excellent visibility for diving and snorkelling before the wetter months arrive. Flights take around 10 hours direct. It suits couples and honeymooners chasing overwater villas and marine life rather than land-based sightseeing, though budgets here run high regardless of season.

Winter and mountain adventures

Tromsø in Norway holds onto Northern Lights potential right through March, and the spring equinox period often brings some of the year’s most active geomagnetic conditions. Daytime temperatures hover around minus 2 to 2°C, with genuine winter conditions underfoot. Flights from the UK take around three and a half hours with a connection. It suits aurora chasers and adventure travellers who don’t mind proper cold, and daylight hours are noticeably longer than the December peak, giving more time for dog-sledding and snowshoeing too.

Iceland pairs beautifully with a March trip for similar reasons: ice caves are often still accessible, the aurora season hasn’t ended, and lengthening days mean you get both dark skies at night and enough daylight to explore waterfalls and glacier lagoons properly. Flights from the UK take around three hours direct.

Chamonix and the wider Alps remain genuinely excellent for skiing in March, often with the season’s deepest snowpack and considerably longer daylight than midwinter. Flights to Geneva take under two hours, followed by an hour’s transfer. It suits skiers and snowboarders who want good conditions without January’s bitter cold, and lift queues tend to ease once half-term crowds clear.

According to the ETC’s Long-Haul Travel Barometer, travellers are increasingly favouring closer-to-home, value-led trips this year, which makes several of these European and short-haul picks particularly well timed for anyone watching their budget.

If you’re weighing up whether to travel a little earlier instead, our guide to where is hot in February covers destinations that peak just before this window.

How do you choose the right March destination for you?

Prioritise weather, then flight time, then activities, then budget, in that order, because getting the first one wrong undoes everything else. A perfect itinerary in a destination with the wrong March weather for your expectations is still the wrong trip.

Run through these four checks before booking:

1. Define your mood first. Are you chasing sun, culture, wildlife or snow? Don’t try to force one destination to deliver all four.
2. Check flight time and connections. A three-hour direct flight to Lisbon behaves very differently on a long weekend than a 14-hour trip to Kyoto with one stop.
3. Check seasonal events and local holidays. Semana Santa dates in Seville, St Patrick’s Day crowds in Dublin, or half-term overlap in the Alps can all shift prices sharply.
4. Confirm visas, health advice and budget together. Some destinations need advance visa applications or specific vaccinations, and shoulder-season savings can evaporate if you book against a festival date.

Watch for these red flags specifically:

• Festival dates (Semana Santa, St Patrick’s Day) that spike flight and hotel prices well above the shoulder-season norm.
• The clocks changing in late March, which can complicate connecting flight timings if you’re not paying attention to local time shifts.
• Regions like the Alps or northern Japan where March weather swings wildly between snow and sudden warmth, so pack for both.

If you’re a festival seeker, Seville is your match. An early-blossom watcher belongs in Kyoto, not the April crowds. Someone after cheap, reliable sun should look straight at the Canary Islands rather than gambling on Mediterranean weather further north.

Practical checks before you book a March trip

Check official government travel advice, confirm any vaccination needs, and buy flexible insurance, because March’s variable weather and festival calendar make last-minute changes more likely than in high summer.

Work through this before you commit to dates:

1. Read the Gov page for your destination, which covers entry requirements, safety alerts and visa specifics.
2. Check FitForTravel for country-specific vaccination and health guidance, particularly for long-haul destinations like South Africa or Oman.
3. Review Travel Aware guidance on local safety and common scams, especially in busier cities like Rome or Seville during festival periods.
4. Confirm your airline’s change policy before booking, since March weather can still disrupt short-haul European flights.

Pack in layers regardless of destination:

• A waterproof shell, even for supposedly sunny trips, since March showers catch people out constantly.
• A UK-to-EU or worldwide adapter, since voltage and plug types vary even within short-haul destinations.
• Sun protection for southern escapes; the UV index climbs faster than the temperature suggests.
• Sturdy, broken-in shoes for anywhere involving hiking or cobbled old-town streets.

Pro Tip: Book flexible fares wherever the price difference is small. March weather and festival scheduling shift more than people expect, and a £20 flexible fare can save a £200 rebooking fee later.

Travellers who check official advice before booking, rather than after something goes wrong, consistently have smoother trips. It’s a small habit that costs nothing and prevents most of the avoidable problems we see.

For anyone weighing up airport logistics on either end of a March trip, this UK airport taxi guide covers reliable transfer options worth booking ahead, particularly for early flights.

Sample March itineraries by trip length

March suits everything from a long weekend to a full two-week break, depending on how far you’re willing to fly and how much you want packed in.

1. Long weekend: Seville. Three nights is enough to see the cathedral, wander Santa Cruz and catch a flamenco show. Fly direct in under three hours; book restaurant tables ahead if visiting near Semana Santa.
2. One week: Canary Islands beach break. Seven nights lets you settle into one resort area, Tenerife’s Costa Adeje or Lanzarote’s Puerto del Carmen, without rushing. Internal transfers are minimal since most resorts sit near the airport.
3. One week: South Africa safari. Combine three nights in Cape Town with four nights in Kruger via a short internal flight. Book safari lodges months ahead, as March availability tightens for the best-value camps.
4. Ten days: Japan cherry blossom circuit. Base in Kyoto, then take the bullet train to Osaka and Nara. Track blossom forecasts closely and build in flexible dates since the bloom shifts yearly.
5. Five to seven days: Iceland landscapes and lights. Hire a car for the Golden Circle and south coast, watching aurora forecasts each evening. Book ice cave tours in advance since access varies with conditions.
6. One week: Alpine ski trip. Chamonix or a similar resort suits a full week on the slopes, with direct flights to Geneva keeping travel time low. Book lift passes online to skip queues.
7. Long weekend: Rome. Four days covers the major sights comfortably, with shorter queues than summer. Pre-book Vatican and Colosseum tickets to avoid on-the-day scrambling.
8. One week: Tromsø aurora and adventure. Combine dog-sledding, a fjord cruise and several aurora-hunting evenings. Choose accommodation slightly outside the city centre for darker skies.

Why the “best time to travel” advice usually misses the point

Most seasonal guides treat March as a consolation prize, somewhere between winter and the “real” travel season starting at Easter. That’s backwards. March rewards travellers precisely because it doesn’t fit neatly into one category, and the destinations that genuinely shine this month are the ones playing to that in-between quality, not fighting it.

The mistake I see most often is travellers picking a destination based on what worked for a friend in July, then wondering why Rome feels chilly or why Kyoto’s blossoms haven’t opened yet. March asks you to plan around specifics: a blossom forecast, a festival date, an equinox aurora window. Get the timing right and you’ll often pay less and see more than the same trip booked three months later.

If there’s one thing worth prioritising above all else, it’s flexibility. Book fares and hotels that let you shift dates by a few days, because March’s value comes precisely from its variability.

Let Toogood Travel help you plan your March escape

Toogood Travel gives you something the guides and comparison sites can’t: a real conversation with someone who’ll match your March mood, whether that’s cherry blossoms, safari dust or Alpine snow, to a route and budget that actually works for your dates. Rather than scrolling between a dozen booking sites trying to piece together flights, transfers and the right week to avoid a festival price spike, you get one plan built around what you actually want from the trip.

That matters most in March, when timing genuinely changes the experience: a week either side of a blossom forecast or an aurora peak can be the difference between the trip you pictured and a disappointing miss. Toogood Travel’s advisers work with these seasonal windows constantly and can flag the dates worth protecting and the ones worth avoiding. Browse the current latest travel deals for shoulder-season pricing, or get in touch to start planning your next adventure with a specific March destination in mind.

Sources

Use official government and health sites alongside trusted editorial guides when planning a March trip, since seasonal advice changes yearly.

• Long‑Haul Travel Barometer 1/2026
• Where to travel in March | National Geographic
• Foreign travel advice
• Travel Aware
• FitForTravel
• Holidays in March – Best Destinations, Weather and Deals for UK Travellers

FAQ

Where is the best place to go on holiday in March?

It depends on your mood: the Canary Islands and Oman suit sun-seekers, Seville and Rome suit culture lovers, Kyoto and South Africa suit wildlife and nature fans, and Tromsø or Chamonix suit anyone chasing snow or the Northern Lights.

Where is warm and affordable in March?

The Canary Islands remain one of the most reliable warm, affordable picks, with temperatures often above 20°C and short flight times keeping costs down compared with long-haul alternatives.

Where in Europe is warm in March?

Southern Spain, the Canary Islands, Sicily and parts of Portugal, including Lisbon, offer the warmest and most reliable conditions in Europe during March.

Where can I find temperatures over 25°C in March?

Oman, the Maldives and Dubai typically offer daytime temperatures well above 25°C in March, while South Africa’s safari regions also run warm without the peak summer heat.

Is March a good time to book with a travel adviser?

Yes. Shoulder-season pricing and shifting festival dates make March a month where expert timing advice, like that offered through Toogood Travel, can meaningfully affect both cost and experience.