Best Holiday Destinations in January: 12 Picks for Sun and Snow

Most of these trips start with a transfer, a hire car or a hotel check-in. Installing a HelloRoam eSIM before you leave means you can message the driver, follow the map or show the booking from the arrivals hall, wherever on this list you land.

Each pick earns its place for one January reason: warmth, dry skies, summer south of the equator, or long Arctic nights for the northern lights. Every weather figure comes from each country's official weather service, as published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The table puts them side by side, with London for comparison.

How each pick's January weather measures up to London's

Highs and lows are daily averages for January. Rain days are the average number of January days with measurable rain.

The averages cover different periods, from 1961 to 1990 (Funchal, Sal, Colombo, Cape Town and Tromsø) to 1991 to 2020 (Agadir and Banjul). The services for Phuket and Antigua do not state a period. Services also count a rain day from different thresholds, from 0.01 mm in Egypt to 1 mm in London, so read small gaps in rain days loosely.

Mild winter sun on the Atlantic: Tenerife, Madeira and Agadir

Tenerife and Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Spain's weather agency, AEMET, gives Santa Cruz de Tenerife a 21.0°C high and a 15.4°C low in January, with 31.5 mm of rain over 8 days. Gran Canaria is drier. Las Palmas averages 25.1 mm over 5.6 days, with a 20.8°C high. Nights average 15°C or more on both islands, so a light layer covers the evenings. Sunshine hours, sea temperatures and the south coast's averages are in our month-by-month Tenerife weather guide.

Madeira, Portugal

Funchal averages 19.1°C by day and 13.1°C at night in January. It is wetter than the Canaries, with 102.7 mm of rain over 12 days on the 1961 to 1990 averages from Portugal's Instituto de Meteorologia. Choose Madeira for mild days and walking, and pack a waterproof.

Agadir, Morocco

Agadir, on Morocco's Atlantic coast, is warmer than Marrakech in January. Morocco's Direction de la Météorologie Nationale puts Agadir's January high at 21.1°C, with 31.6 mm of rain over 4 days (1991 to 2020). Nights average 8.4°C. Marrakech reaches 19.1°C by day but drops to 5.9°C at night, so pack warm layers if you head inland.

Almost no January rain: the Red Sea, Cape Verde and The Gambia

Hurghada and Luxor, Egypt

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority's 1981 to 2010 averages give Hurghada just 0.6 mm of rain in January, with a 21.7°C high and an 11.2°C low. Luxor, on the Nile, is warmer by day at 23.0°C but colder at night, at 5.9°C. Pair the two for Red Sea beach days and sightseeing along the Nile.

Sal, Cape Verde

Sal averages a 24.0°C high in January, with 5.3 mm of rain on 1 rain day, according to Cape Verde's Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia e Geofísica (1961 to 1990). The service does not publish a January low for Sal. Highs barely move through the winter: 24.1°C in February and 24.8°C in March.

Banjul, The Gambia

Banjul is the hottest of the African picks this month, with a 32.4°C high and a 17.9°C low. The Gambia's Department of Water Resources records 0.7 mm of rain and 0.0 rain days for January in its 1991 to 2020 averages. The rains come in summer instead, with 287.1 mm in August.

Tropical beaches in their dry season: Phuket, Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Phuket, Thailand

On Thai Meteorological Department figures, January is one of Phuket's two driest months, with 23.3 mm over 4.2 days and a 32.4°C high. September, by contrast, averages 386.5 mm. Thailand's visa-free stay rules for British visitors have changed, so check the entry table below.

Sri Lanka's south-west coast

In January, Sri Lanka's west and south coasts are drier than the east. Colombo averages 58.2 mm of rain over 5 days, the lowest monthly total of its year, with a 30.9°C high. Galle, on the south coast, averages 85.1 mm over 8 days. Trincomalee, on the east coast, gets 115.6 mm, and its driest month is June. All three figures come from Sri Lanka's National Meteorological Centre (1961 to 1990).

The Maldives

Malé has the warmest nights on this list, averaging 25.7°C, with 30.3°C days. The Maldives Meteorological Service names January to March as the dry northeast monsoon season. Its 1981 to 2000 averages still show 114.2 mm of January rain, but it falls on only 6 days. If your dates can move, February is drier, at 38.1 mm over 3 days.

Antigua has the warmest January of five Caribbean beach stations

On official January averages, Antigua has the warmest days of the five stations below, at 28.2°C, with 56.9 mm of rain. Nassau in the Bahamas has the least rain, at 47.2 mm, but it is the coolest, with 17.1°C nights. Cancún, on Mexico's Caribbean coast, is the wettest at 136.4 mm.

Antigua also has the warmest nights of the five, at 22.3°C. These averages cover different periods, from 1951 to 1980 at Montego Bay to 1971 to 2000 at Cancún and Nassau, and Antigua's service does not state one, so read gaps of under 1°C as close. Barbados has no station in the WMO's World Weather Information Service, so it is not compared here.

Cape Town has summer weather in January

Cape Town's January days average 26.1°C and its nights 15.7°C, on the South African Weather Service's 1961 to 1990 figures. It is one of the city's driest months, with 15 mm of rain over 5.5 days. Winter is the wet season: June averages 93 mm.

Tromsø's polar night ends in mid-January

Tromsø is the pick if you want proper winter rather than an escape from it. Norway's Meteorological Institute gives a January high of -2.2°C and a low of -6.5°C, with 19 rain days in the official count. Visit Tromsø's winter guide says the polar night lasts from about 27 November to 15 January. The light returns from mid-January, but the mountains usually hide the sun from central Tromsø until later in the month.

That darkness is the draw. Visit Tromsø gives the northern lights season as late August to early April, and you need clear skies and darkness to see them. Its winter page also describes colourful skies and snow. Finnish Lapland also has snow and northern lights, and our Lapland trip guide covers direct flights from the UK and costs.

Flight times from Heathrow for four long-haul picks

Virgin Atlantic's route pages publish these flight times and winter schedules from Heathrow. Times vary by flight, so check your own booking.

FCDO advice for Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives also warns that escalation in the Middle East has caused airspace closures and delayed or cancelled flights, even for trips outside the region.

Entry rules for a British passport, pick by pick

These rules apply to a full British citizen passport on a holiday, taken from each country's GOV.UK foreign travel advice as of October 2026. Rules change, so read your destination's page before you book and again before you fly.

If your passport is near any of these limits, check current UK passport renewal times before you choose your dates.

The FCDO advises against all or all but essential travel to some areas of Egypt. In Thailand, it advises against all but essential travel to parts of the south near the Malaysian border and to areas within 20km of the land border with Cambodia. Its country pages list the areas. The Egypt page also notes strikes and retaliatory attacks across the region since 8 July 2026. Dubai is missing from our 12 picks on purpose: the FCDO's current advice for the UAE names Iran as the source of those attacks and tells British nationals in the Middle East what to do if they are advised to take shelter.

The EU expects ETIAS, a new online travel authorisation for visa-free visitors, to start in the last quarter of 2026. It will cover Spain, Portugal and Norway, so check the official ETIAS website before a January trip to any of them.

Regional plans cover several of these picks with one eSIM

HelloRoam sells an eSIM for every destination on this list. Regional plans go further and cover several picks with one eSIM, which helps when one trip takes in more than one of these countries:

• Tenerife, Madeira and Tromsø: a single Europe data plan covers Spain, Portugal and Norway.
• Agadir, Hurghada and Cape Town: the Africa regional plan covers Morocco, Egypt and South Africa.
• Phuket and Colombo: an Asia data plan covers Thailand and Sri Lanka.
• Antigua: the Caribbean plan also works in Barbados, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
• Sal, Banjul and Malé: Cape Verde, The Gambia and the Maldives each have their own country plan, such as mobile data for the Maldives.

Before buying, find your model among the phones that take an eSIM. Then install the eSIM at home on Wi-Fi before you fly, using our setup steps for iPhone and Android.