The best places to go in March, ranked from twenty years of historical climate data. Pick by what matters to you — warm sun, sightseeing, or a relaxing break — then open the live tool to fine-tune.
Choosing where to go on holiday in March comes down to one question: which destinations are actually warm, sunny and dry that month — not in general, but in March specifically? This ranking is built from twenty years of historical climate records (ECMWF ERA5, served by Open-Meteo). For each destination we average the daily mean temperature, sunshine hours, rainfall and wind speed across every March on record, then score the result against three traveller profiles: all-round, beach and city-break.
March sits between the main travel seasons, which makes the ranking more useful than usual: weather varies a lot between destinations that look similar on a map. The current top five for March are Tenerife, Phuket, Cancún, Maldives, Sri Lanka, drawn from across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic islands and the tropics.
The tables below are split into three bands. All-round (the default) rewards destinations that are simply comfortable in March — mild temperatures, decent sun, low rain. Beach holiday tightens the criteria for swimming and sunbathing (22–33°C, 7+ hours of sun, fewer than two rainy days per week). City break loosens the temperature range to 15–26°C for sightseeing. Each row links to the destination's full guide and the live weather tool so you can check the specific dates you have in mind.
In March the warmest, sunniest spots in our dataset are Tenerife (18.1°C, 11.2h sun/day); Phuket (28.1°C, 10.9h sun/day); Cancún (25.3°C, 11.5h sun/day). The full ranking averages temperature, sunshine, rainfall and wind over twenty years of historical climate data.
March sits between the main travel seasons; the ranking below is the cleanest way to find a destination that genuinely works this month rather than relying on guesswork. The ranking above shows the top destinations for March across three traveller profiles: all-round, beach and city-break.
March is one of the strongest shoulder-season months — fewer crowds, lower prices and weather that still works for most beach and city destinations in the ranking.
March is a strong shoulder-season month for several Mediterranean and Atlantic-island destinations. Look outside the top three for places that score well but get less mainstream coverage — Madeira, Cape Verde, Sicily, the Algarve and Croatia are often overlooked.
Our sightseeing band ranks destinations by mild temperatures (15–26°C) and low rainfall in March, so you can pick a trip with comfortable walking weather. Tenerife, Phuket, Cancún score well this month.
Each row in the ranking shows the average rainfall (days per week) and sunshine hours for March, based on twenty years of historical data. Sea temperatures lag air temperatures by about a month — so for swimming, look for destinations that were already warm in the previous month too.