In January the hottest of the eleven winter-sun destinations compared is Langkawi, at an average high of 33.0°C, and in February it is Phuket at 33.3°C. Bali matches them — 33.0°C and 33.4°C — but January and February fall in its rainy season, with 27 and 22 rain days. The cheapest is Dubai in both months — from £579pp in January — and the least rain of the eleven in February falls on Zanzibar: 4.75mm across the month, at 32.8°C. Every temperature below is a published climatological normal, and every price is what that holiday actually costs in that month.
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The short answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Hottest in January | Langkawi, 33.0°C average high |
| Hottest in February | Phuket, 33.3°C |
| Hottest in November | Bangkok, 31.6°C |
| Driest in January | Bangkok, 1 rain day |
| Fewest rain days in February | Bangkok, 2 rain days |
| Least rain in February | Zanzibar — 4.75mm, at 32.8°C |
| Cheapest, any winter month | Dubai, from £579pp in January |
| The surprise | Dubai is the coolest of the eleven in January |
Where is hot in January
January splits the list cleanly in two. The South East Asian and Indian Ocean destinations sit at 30–33°C, the Caribbean at around 28°C, and Dubai well below both.
| Destination | Average high | Average low | Rain days | From, Jan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Langkawi | 33.0°C | 24.3°C | 2 | £1,299pp |
| Phuket | 32.4°C | 23.9°C | 4.2 | £999pp |
| Kuala Lumpur | 32.1°C | 22.5°C | 11 | £1,299pp |
| Zanzibar | 32.1°C | 23.3°C | 7 | £1,499pp |
| Bangkok | 32.0°C | 21.0°C | 1.0 | £999pp |
| Maldives | 30.3°C | 25.7°C | 6 | £1,629pp |
| Seychelles | 30.0°C | 24.5°C | 20 | £2,049pp |
| Mauritius | 29.8°C | 23.0°C | 16 | £1,199pp |
| Antigua | 28.2°C | 22.3°C | 10.0 | £2,049pp |
| Jamaica | 27.9°C | 20.7°C | 9 | £1,749pp |
| Dubai | 24.0°C | 13.7°C | 1.8 | £579pp |
Three things worth pulling out.
Langkawi is the hottest at 33.0°C, and it is also nearly dry — two rain days in the month. That combination is unusual; most places this hot in January are wetter.
The Seychelles is the wettest on the list at 20 rain days, which is two days in three, and it is also among the dearest at £2,049pp. It is a beautiful place in January and it is not a reliable sunbathing month.
Bangkok records one rain day. That is the driest January of all eleven destinations, and it is the reason a Thailand trip in January tends to deliver what people expect of it.
Where is hot in February
February is the month most people actually search for, and at ten of the eleven destinations it is a slightly better month than January — warmer, and in the Maldives, the Seychelles and Zanzibar considerably drier. Mauritius is the exception: no warmer, and wetter, with 267mm of rain in February against 237mm in January.
| Destination | Average high | Average low | Rain days | From, Feb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phuket | 33.3°C | 24.3°C | 3.0 | £1,049pp |
| Langkawi | 33.2°C | 24.3°C | 3 | £1,349pp |
| Kuala Lumpur | 32.9°C | 22.8°C | 12 | £1,349pp |
| Zanzibar | 32.8°C | 23.2°C | 4 | £1,449pp |
| Bangkok | 32.7°C | 23.3°C | 2.0 | £1,049pp |
| Maldives | 30.7°C | 25.9°C | 3 | £1,649pp |
| Seychelles | 30.6°C | 25.2°C | 13 | £1,999pp |
| Mauritius | 29.5°C | 23.1°C | 16 | £1,149pp |
| Antigua | 28.3°C | 22.1°C | 8.0 | £2,099pp |
| Jamaica | 28.2°C | 20.4°C | 8 | £1,779pp |
| Dubai | 24.6°C | 14.5°C | 3.7 | £599pp |
The Maldives is the standout. It goes from six rain days in January to three in February while the average high rises to 30.7°C and the night-time low sits at 25.9°C. Warm sea, warm nights, and the driest it gets.
Zanzibar improves the most. Seven rain days in January, four in February, and the highest average temperature it records all winter at 32.8°C — at £1,449pp, which is £50 less than January.
The Caribbean barely moves. Antigua and Jamaica sit within half a degree of their January figures. What does move is the price: both rise, and Antigua is £2,099pp in February against £1,829pp in November.
For Jamaica specifically, February is the best-balanced month we price: 8 rain days in Montego Bay for £1,779pp, against September’s £1,599pp in hurricane season. The Jamaica guide covers every month, the C5 form and what all-inclusive includes.
Where is hot in November
November is the month people forget, and it is often the best value of the winter: it is cheaper than December for every one of these packages, and the cheapest or joint-cheapest winter month for seven of the nine.
| Destination | Average high | Average low | Rain days | From, Nov |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangkok | 31.6°C | 23.1°C | 5.0 | £949pp |
| Kuala Lumpur | 31.6°C | 23.2°C | 18 | £1,299pp |
| Langkawi | 31.3°C | 24.5°C | 13 | £1,299pp |
| Phuket | 31.3°C | 24.3°C | 16.1 | £949pp |
| Zanzibar | 30.8°C | 21.9°C | 13 | £1,449pp |
| Dubai | 30.5°C | 18.3°C | 0.3 | £599pp |
| Seychelles | 30.3°C | 24.4°C | 16 | £1,999pp |
| Maldives | 30.1°C | 25.2°C | 13 | £1,559pp |
| Jamaica | 29.7°C | 22.8°C | 11 | £1,699pp |
| Antigua | 29.5°C | 23.7°C | 13.0 | £1,829pp |
| Mauritius | 28.0°C | 20.4°C | 10 | £1,199pp |
Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur lead on temperature at 31.6°C, but the figure to look at in November is rainfall rather than heat. Phuket records 16.1 rain days and Kuala Lumpur 18 — the tail of the monsoon — while Dubai records 0.3, drier than anywhere else here.
That makes November the one month where Dubai is both hot and dry: 30.5°C against 24.0°C in January, with effectively no rain, from £599pp.
The two things these numbers show that surprise people
Dubai is not hot in January. It is the coolest destination on this entire list — 24.0°C by day and 13.7°C at night, cooler than Jamaica and Antigua. That is pleasant winter weather for sightseeing and it is not a sunbathing climate. Dubai’s heat is a November and March proposition; in midwinter it is a city break that happens to be warm.
Heat and sunshine are not the same thing. The Seychelles in January is 30.0°C with 20 rain days. Bangkok is 32.0°C with one. If what you want is reliable sun rather than a high number, rain days are the column to read, and it is the column most guides leave out.
In the Seychelles the two measures of rain split as well: February has the fewest rain days in Victoria, 13, yet one of its highest rainfall totals, 249.2mm, while June, its cheapest month, has 17 rain days but only 115.6mm. The Seychelles guide sets every month’s price against its rain.
What about March?
March is warmer again almost everywhere — Phuket reaches 33.8°C, Bangkok 33.7°C and the Maldives 31.4°C, the highest figures any of them record in the period covered here.
Four of our sixteen winter sun packages have a published March price; the others are priced for March when you ask. Tell us your dates and we will price what is actually available.
Where these figures come from
Every temperature and rain-day figure quoted is a published climatological normal from the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather Information Service, which carries official data supplied by each country’s national meteorological service. Nothing here is estimated, modelled by us, or taken from another travel site.
Two honest caveats.
The averaging periods differ by station, from 1951–1980 for Montego Bay to 1981–2010 for Victoria, and two stations do not publish a period at all. They are comparable as a guide to what a month is normally like; they are not a like-for-like dataset.
Two of our destinations are missing. Barbados has no station in this service, and the St Lucia record carries no climate data, so neither appears in the tables above. We have not filled those gaps from another source and we have not guessed.
| Destination | WMO station | Averaging period |
|---|---|---|
| Antigua | St. John’s Antigua | not stated |
| Bangkok | Bangkok | 1961–1990 |
| Dubai | Dubai | 1974–1991 |
| Jamaica | Montego Bay | 1951–1980 |
| Kuala Lumpur | Kuala Lumpur | 1971–2000 |
| Langkawi | Langkawi | 1987–2000 |
| Maldives | Male’ | 1981–2000 |
| Mauritius | Plaisance | 1971–2000 |
| Phuket | Phuket | not stated |
| Seychelles | Victoria | 1981–2010 |
| Zanzibar | Zanzibar | 1971–2000 |
Averages also describe a normal month rather than your week in it. Use them to choose between destinations, not to predict a forecast.
Frequently asked questions
Where is hot in January?
Of the eleven winter-sun destinations compared, Langkawi is hottest at an average high of 33.0°C, followed by Phuket at 32.4°C and Kuala Lumpur and Zanzibar at 32.1°C. Bali is as hot, at 33.0°C, but January is its wettest month, with 27 rain days. The Caribbean sits lower, around 28°C, and Dubai lowest of all at 24.0°C. Figures are WMO climatological normals.
Where is hot in February?
Phuket at 33.3°C, then Langkawi at 33.2°C, Kuala Lumpur at 32.9°C and Zanzibar at 32.8°C. Bali is hotter still, at 33.4°C, but February falls in its rainy season, with 22 rain days. February is warmer than January at ten of the eleven destinations, and in the Maldives, the Seychelles and Zanzibar it is also drier; Mauritius is the exception on both counts.
Where is hot and dry in February?
Zanzibar has the least rain, 4.75mm across the month at 32.8°C. Phuket is the hottest, at 33.3°C with 25.8mm over three rain days, and Bangkok has the fewest rain days, two, at 32.7°C. The Maldives records three rain days and 38.1mm, its driest month of the year. Avoid Mauritius and the Seychelles if dryness matters: they are the wettest in February on both measures, with 16 and 13 rain days and 267mm and 249.2mm of rain.
Is Dubai hot in January?
Less than people expect. Dubai averages 24.0°C by day and 13.7°C at night in January, which makes it the coolest of the eleven destinations in January — below Jamaica and Antigua. It is excellent sightseeing weather and it is not a sunbathing climate. In November it reaches 30.5°C with almost no rain.
Where is hot in November?
Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur at 31.6°C, then Langkawi and Phuket at 31.3°C. But rainfall matters more than heat in November: Phuket records 16.1 rain days and Kuala Lumpur 18, while Dubai records 0.3 at 30.5°C — the driest of the eleven.
Where is the cheapest winter sun?
Dubai, in every winter month — from £579pp in January, £599pp in November and February and £649pp in December, with return flights from London. The next cheapest is the Thailand multi-centre from £999pp in January.
Where is hot in March?
March is warmer again — Phuket 33.8°C, Bangkok 33.7°C, the Maldives 31.4°C. Four of our sixteen winter sun packages have a published March price; the others are priced for March when you ask.
Is the Caribbean hot in winter?
Warm rather than hot. Antigua averages 28.2°C in January and 28.3°C in February; Jamaica 27.9°C and 28.2°C. That is four to five degrees below South East Asia, and both are dearer with us in those months than in November.
How reliable are these temperature figures?
They are official climatological normals published by the World Meteorological Organization and supplied by each country’s national meteorological service, so they are as authoritative as this data gets. Two caveats: the averaging periods differ by station, from 1951–1980 to 1981–2010, and an average describes a normal month rather than your particular week.
Why are Barbados and St Lucia not in the tables?
Barbados has no station in the World Weather Information Service, and the St Lucia record carries no climate data. We sell both, but we have not filled the gap from a source we cannot stand behind. Ask us and we will tell you what we know about the season rather than quote a number we cannot support.
Ready to pick a month?
Tell us when you can travel and what matters most — heat, dryness, flight length or price. We will match it to what is actually available and send it through in writing.