SeasonMapWhat's on around the world in February
In February, 2152 seasonal things are on across 1187 destinations: 235 natural spectacles, 1029 seasonal conditions, 291 festivals and cultural dates, 306 mass holidays and 291 hazard seasons. The seasons doing the most work this month: Off-season shutdown, Dry season and Ski season. Every entry links to that place's full February climate breakdown.
Things to travel for
Blossom, foliage, whales, the light itself — the short windows worth booking a month around.
The almond groves in the hills behind the coast flower before anything else opens, which is the one argument for a hire car here in winter.
The groves in the hills north of the city flower before the season starts, and the back roads around Loule and Estoi are the place to see it rather than the coast.
The groves inland towards Barao de Sao Joao flower before anything reopens, and the cliff path to Ponta da Piedade is at its best in the same weeks.
Okinawa's cherry is the deep pink hikanzakura and it opens in January, two months before the mainland.
The groves in the hills behind the town flower in late winter, usually peaking in the first half of February, on the same weeks the orange trees in the streets are still full of fruit.
The plain behind the city goes white and pink for about a month in late winter, usually peaking in the first half of February.
The gardens behind Rashtrapati Bhavan open to the public for a season each spring, free but ticketed online in advance.
Source: presidentofindia.nic.in
The valleys south towards the Atlas flower first, around Tahanaout and on the road to Ourika, and it is the first sign the mountain passes will open again.
The hillside above the lake flowers weeks before Japan does, and the culture village at the top of the ropeway makes an event of it.
Kitano Tenmangu's grove opens before the crowds arrive for cherry season, and the shrine holds an outdoor tea ceremony on 25 February.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A parade down South Kihei Road and a day of ocean programming in mid-February, at the peak of the whale count.
Source: pacificwhale.org
For about two weeks in mid-February the last sun hits Horsetail Fall and the water glows orange for ten minutes.
Source: nps.gov
The grove below Osaka Castle flowers from the middle of February, weeks before the cherry crowds arrive and with a fraction of the people.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The orchards north and south of the city go white for about three weeks in late February, which is the one time of year the valley's farmland is worth a drive for its own sake.
Ume comes out a month before the cherries, at Yushima Tenjin and the Imperial Palace gardens, on the coldest and clearest days of the year.
The plain west of the city goes yellow for a few weeks before the tea hills do anything, and the villages around Chongzhou and Xinjin run buses out to it at weekends.
For a week at the end of February the city counts its blossoms in the billions and publishes the number, largely to annoy the rest of the country.
Source: tourismvictoria.com
The world's largest single flower opens in the forest above the park headquarters for three to five days at a time in the dry months.
The herds drop most of their calves on the short-grass plains at Ndutu, in the conservation area's western corner, and the predators concentrate on them.
Humpbacks calve in the shallow water round the Kerama islands from the new year, and the boats out of Naha and Zamami run daily through the season.
Source: visitokinawajapan.com
Olive ridleys come ashore on the beaches north and south of town through the first months of the year.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Humpbacks pass north of the islands on the way to and from the Silver Bank, and are sometimes seen from the ferries or off the north drop.
When the pan floods properly, flamingos and pelicans arrive in numbers on water that is bare salt the rest of the year.
In a wet winter the seasonal lake west of the dunes fills and flamingos and waders drop in on their way north.
Wild mustard fills the rows between bare vines from mid-January and is usually best in February.
Source: visitnapavalley.com
Humpbacks funnel through the deep passage between the Caicos and Turks banks on their way to and from the Silver Bank.
Thousands of North Atlantic humpbacks calve in Samana Bay, and the environment ministry opens and closes the watching season by decree each year.
Thousands of North Atlantic humpbacks calve and court in the bay and the season is fixed by law from 15 January to 30 March.
Source: visitdominicanrepublic.com
Close to half a million calves drop in a three-week burst on the short-grass plains around Ndutu, and every predator in the ecosystem is there for it.
The nineteenth-century estates were planted for winter, and the camellias at Monserrate and in the Pena park flower from January.
The groves around Santiago del Teide and the mountain villages come out from late January and the almond blossom trail runs into March, which is the island's one genuinely seasonal sight.
Source: webtenerife.co.uk
The earliest blossom of any big American city: plum in January, magnolia through February, weeks before the east coast has thawed.
Resplendent quetzals nest along the Sendero Los Quetzales and the flanks of Baru through these months, when the males hold territory near the cavities and a guide can usually put you on one before breakfast.
The tail of the dive season at Richelieu Rock and Koh Bon, when the plankton is up and the big animals follow it.
The Green River rises through the wet months and the ferry crossing inside the park shuts whenever it does, which puts a long detour on the drive to the north side.
Source: nps.gov
Every few years the Tsauchab runs far enough to put water into Sossusvlei itself and it stands for weeks.
Low elevations along Badwater Road go first in February and March and the higher canyons follow into April, but only after a wet autumn and winter.
The hills are green for exactly one part of the year, and the lupine, poppies and Indian paintbrush follow the winter rain from late February.
The low Colorado desert around Cottonwood flowers first, in late February, and the higher Mojave side follows into April.
…and 195 more in this group. Open any destination's page for its own month-by-month calendar.
The state of the place
Monsoon, dry season, lifts open, sea warm enough — what the weather is actually doing.
The short break between the two rainy seasons.
The grapes for icewine are left on the vine and picked at night once it holds below minus eight, usually in January.
Source: niagarawinefestival.com
The half-hour canal trips run daily from March to mid-November.
Source: visitbruges.be
Long-stay visitors from the Midwest and Canada take the condos by the month and the beaches are otherwise empty.
The state fixes the dates: four weeks of legally regulated discounting from the second Wednesday of January.
Source: economie.gouv.fr
A good share of the summer-house restaurants and galleries shut after New Year and do not reopen until Golden Week.
The Zanskar river freezes hard enough to walk for a few weeks in deep winter, and permits and a registered agency are required.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The Ministry of Culture shuts the whole route for February every year for maintenance of the steps, bridges and campsites.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The classic trek starts at Km 82 down the valley from here, and the whole route shuts for February maintenance every year.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The rain comes as heavy late afternoons rather than all day, and it puts cloud into the Colca in the mornings.
The gulf beaches and the harbour are properly swimmable from January into April, and the water is at its warmest well after the school holidays have emptied them.
The beach huts are boarded and the seafront kiosks and cafés cut their hours or close for the winter.
Source: bcpcouncil.gov.uk
Charred spring onions eaten by hand with romesco, in farm restaurants out towards the Emporda.
The avanto — a hole cut in the ice beside a sauna — is what a Helsinki winter is actually for, and the public places are busiest now.
The overcast lifts and Lima decamps to the beach towns south of the city at weekends.
The park office shuts all six routes up the volcano for the wettest quarter every year, on landslide and lightning grounds, and reopens them in April.
Source: en.tempo.co
The water is only really swimmable in January and February, and it stays that way into early March once the crowds have gone.
Cold nights and dry days on the western slopes give the year's most prized picking, and the factories run it separately.
The romanesco comes into the markets after Christmas and stays until spring; it is the one thing every trattoria in the ghetto and Testaccio is judged on.
The trade-wind months, when the rain comes in short bursts rather than by the day and the lagoon on the west side is at its clearest for snorkelling and diving the Grotto.
Storms build over the altiplano through the southern summer, heaviest in February, and the roads up to El Tatio and the high lagoons are shut for a day or two when they do.
Rain here is a handful of storms rather than a season, but a big one cuts the Sesriem road, runs the canyon and puts grass on the dune streets within a week.
This is among the snowiest and windiest cities in the country, and a single storm shut it entirely for a week in 2020.
Source: weather.gc.ca
January to May is the dry half: the tracks into the rainforest reserve stay passable, the water over Buccoo Reef clears, and the Atlantic side calms down enough to swim.
More than 1,500 clubs from twenty-odd countries take over the Belek resort belt for mid-season camps.
Source: turkiyetoday.com
Long-stay visitors from the northern states and Canada fill the condos and the early-evening restaurant tables from January.
The high road east over the Fluela is gazetted shut from early January, later than most Graubunden passes since it was the main winter link before the Vereina tunnel opened, and the Engadine is reached by the car train through Vereina instead until the road clears in April or May.
Source: de.wikipedia.org
This is the largest sledding district in Greenland and the teams work once the bay ice takes, roughly January to April.
Most restaurants, shops and hotels close for the winter and the ferry timetable thins to a handful of crossings.
Source: steamshipauthority.com
Almost eight kilometres of frozen canal is ploughed into something people commute to work on.
Source: ncc-ccn.gc.ca
The Assiniboine and the Red are ploughed into a skating trail from The Forks, several kilometres long in a good freeze, with warming huts commissioned from architects each year.
Source: theforks.com
Once the Christmas market comes down the coaches stop, half the souvenir shops shutter and the towers and museums drop to winter hours.
Source: visitsanmarino.com
The clearest stretch for the mossy forest trails and the Gunung Brinchang road, when the cloud lifts off the ridge for whole mornings rather than an hour.
The best run of the year for actually seeing the cone: it is usually out at breakfast and gone under cloud by mid-morning.
The Atlantic off Ipanema and Copacabana holds its heat well past the summer crowds; the water is at its best in March, when the beaches have emptied.
The trade winds are steady and the rain is at its lightest, which is when the water around the cays is at its clearest.
From mid-January the sagardotegis in Astigarraga open the barrels: you eat cod omelette and chop standing up and catch cider off the barrel yourself.
The Arctic cod come down to spawn and the whole of Lofoten works around it from January to April.
The ocean pools and the harbour beaches are at their best from mid-January into March, well after the school holiday crowds have gone back.
The early whites come off the vines from late January and the reds run into April.
…and 989 more in this group. Open any destination's page for its own month-by-month calendar.
Festivals & culture
The festivals a place is known for, and the weeks the streets belong to them.
The All India Industrial Exhibition has filled the Nampally grounds every January since the 1930s: two thousand stalls, food from every state, and half the city going at least once.
Source: exhibitionsociety.com
The municipality's winter festival: markets, funfairs and stages spread across parks and beaches through January, aimed squarely at Omani families rather than visitors.
Source: muscatdaily.com
Parades every Sunday from Epiphany, growing until the five days at Mardi Gras.
Source: fr.wikipedia.org
Munich does carnival quietly next to the Rhineland, but the market women dance in costume at the Viktualienmarkt on Shrove Tuesday and the beer halls take it seriously for a fortnight.
Source: muenchen.de
Sunday parades from early January build to five days that stop the town: burlesque weddings on the Monday, red devils on Shrove Tuesday, black and white on Ash Wednesday, and Vaval burned at dusk.
Source: martinique.org
Three weeks of tennis in the middle of the city, and the point at which Melbourne is at its fullest and most expensive.
Source: ausopen.com
Two and a half weeks of folk and roots music across twenty-odd venues in the worst fortnight of the Scottish winter, which is precisely the point.
Source: celticconnections.com
Outdoor electronic music in the Old Port across three or four January weekends, in the coldest weeks of the North American calendar.
Source: igloofest.ca
The women's speed races come to the Olympia delle Tofane most Januaries.
Source: fis-ski.com
Tamil Mauritians walk to the riverside temples carrying wooden cavadee frames after ten days of fasting, cheeks and tongues pierced.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Eight days at the Shiva temple on Durbar Hall Ground: caparisoned elephants lined up for the evening processions, panchari melam and fireworks.
Source: keralatourism.org
A silver chariot is walked from the city to Batu Caves and something over a million people climb the 272 steps behind it.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Carvers work blocks of ice on the frozen lake in front of the Chateau over a long weekend in deep winter, with a skating rink alongside.
Source: banfflakelouise.com
Tamil Mauritians carry wooden cavadee frames to the riverside temples after ten days of fasting, cheeks and tongues pierced.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A month of installations and light works through the oasis and the old town, timed for the coldest and clearest weeks.
Source: experiencealula.com
Three weeks of snow sculpture on Banff Avenue, skijoring down the main street and free events through the deadest, coldest part of the winter.
Source: banfflakelouise.com
The world championship opens here in January, but the stages are on ice in the mountains behind rather than in the principality.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Four weeks of comedy, circus and cabaret in spiegeltents around the city and Northbridge, at the hottest time of the year, which is why so much of it starts after dark.
Source: fringeworld.com.au
The midwinter feasts run through the old month of Thorri: soured ram, fermented shark, and a room of people singing.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Buttermilk hosts the winter X Games over a long weekend in late January, free to spectators and hard on the town's beds.
Source: aspensnowmass.com
Ten days of street performance in the squares and along the river at the end of January, free in the daytime and ticketed at night; the city centre finally feels full.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The weeks before Lent, when the valley villages bring out masked runs with bells and switches and the city holds its own parade on the Tuesday.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A fortnight on the Salt Lake ground that draws crowds a book fair has no business drawing, plus food stalls and evening music.
Source: kolkatabookfair.net
A silver chariot is pulled from Little India up to the Waterfall Temple over three days, with kavadi bearers, coconut smashing and a crowd well into six figures.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Snow-and-ice stages on the forest roads out of town in late January, run since the 1960s and used by the world's rally drivers as winter practice.
Source: arcticrally.fi
A week of concerts around Mozart's birthday on 27 January, in the halls he actually played.
Source: salzburg.info
A barefoot procession of kavadi carriers crosses the city from Serangoon Road to Tank Road, beginning before dawn.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
A fortnight of prix-fixe menus across a couple of hundred restaurants at the bleakest point of the year, which is exactly why the city invented it.
Source: toronto.ca
The fair of miniatures opens at noon on 24 January and runs for weeks: you buy a tiny house, a tiny truck or a tiny degree certificate, have it blessed, and wait a year.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Fifteen thousand runners on a flat late-January course through the palm groves.
Source: marathon-marrakech.com
A week of concerts across the town at the turn of January and February — classical, jazz and whatever else fits — with the lights themselves outside if the sky cooperates.
Source: nordlysfestivalen.no
Four days of writers and public conversations across the walled city at the end of January, in Spanish and English.
Source: hayfestival.com
Around seventy thousand runners on a Sunday in the coolest weeks of the year.
Source: hkmarathon.com
Five days of short classical concerts stacked from morning to midnight in the Cite des Congres, cheap and deliberately unstuffy.
Source: follejournee.fr
Two and a half weeks of masks ending on Shrove Tuesday.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The town's patronal fair around the second of February, with bullring events, vaqueria dances in the square and a fairground on the edge of town.
Source: yucatan.travel
Italy's oldest contemporary art fair, and the week the whole city opens studios and late galleries around it.
Source: artefiera.it
Nine days of chamber music in the churches of Saanen and Rougemont and the chapel above Gstaad, staged in the middle of the ski season rather than around it.
Source: sommets-musicaux.com
The Zoroastrian midwinter fire festival, lit at dusk outside the city at the end of January.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
…and 251 more in this group. Open any destination's page for its own month-by-month calendar.
Holidays that swamp a place
Mass holidays: full trains, closed shops, the year's dearest fortnight.
This is the north's family beach and Santiago arrives for all of January and February: the Avenida del Mar is bumper to bumper and Elqui's small hotels sell out.
Chile, Argentina and Brazil are all on holiday and the village of two thousand takes several times that.
Branches of pink đào are sold off the back of bicycles and motorbikes across the old quarter in the fortnight before the lunar new year, and families carry whole trees home on a scooter.
Restaurants and small shops shut for several days and staff go home to the countryside, while the riverfront fills for the flower street and the fireworks.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Cruise operators run reduced fleets and shore restaurants shut for several days, then the domestic crowd arrives for the temple trips.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Nearly everything shuts for a week as the city travels home, restaurants and shops included.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The citadel stays open but much of the city shuts for several days, and the royal ritual programme around the Imperial City is the one time the old ceremonies are performed in public.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Small restaurants shut for several days while the beachfront hotels fill with Vietnamese families.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The island fills with Vietnamese families and the flights from Hanoi and Saigon go at holiday prices, while the small kitchens in Duong Dong shut for several days.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The regions take their two weeks in rotation from mid-January to the end of February, so six weeks of school holidays land here back to back.
Source: discoverzakopane.com
Chinatown closes Yaowarat Road for two nights of lion dances, shrine queues and food stalls, and half the city's Thai-Chinese families are in it.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Three days when small businesses and the fish market close and the country travels home.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore drive up for the cool air and the single mountain road cannot take it.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Three public holidays, a night parade in Tsim Sha Tsui and fireworks over the harbour on the second day.
Source: gov.hk
Malaysian and Singaporean visitors come in on the Langkawi ferry for the long break and the small island fills.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Half the city drives home to Ipoh and Penang, shophouse kitchens close for days, and the malls run lion dances on loop.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore families take the long weekend here, on top of an already full dry season.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The dragon parade weaves from Oxford Road through the city to Chinatown on the nearest Sunday, with a weekend of food stalls, lanterns and performances around it.
Source: visitmanchester.com
The oldest Chinatown in the world does dragon dances down Ongpin and closes the streets to traffic for the day.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Port Louis has the oldest Chinatown in the Indian Ocean and marks it properly: firecrackers down Royal Street, wax cakes sold out of the shophouses, and a lion dance through the market.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The lunar new year closes shops and restaurants for three days and puts the country on the road at once.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Two public days when hawker stalls and family businesses shut, and a fortnight when Chinatown is impassable in the evening.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Regional flights and hotels fill for a fortnight, and Phuket Town's Chinese shrines run processions.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The whole of western Taiwan drives up for the holiday week.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Nine days in 2026, the longest run yet.
Source: china-briefing.com
Eleven street markets across the districts sell peach branches, kumquats and narcissus in the last days before the new year, trading until the small hours of new year's eve.
Source: eguangzhou.gov.cn
Half the city goes home to the provinces and the other half shuts for a week.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Family businesses in the old town shut for several days and the country travels.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Cold, often snowy, and busy with domestic visitors who come for exactly that.
Source: china-briefing.com
Taiwan drives south for the holiday week and the single road through the strip stops moving.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Cold, bright and full of domestic visitors.
Source: china-briefing.com
The sea is grey, the beaches are empty and the city goes quiet for a week while everything family-run closes.
Source: china-briefing.com
A city of migrants, so this is the week it empties instead of filling.
Source: china-briefing.com
Taipei empties as families go south and the city is briefly walkable.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The city wall is hung with lanterns and the Tang paradise park runs its big show, which makes this the one Chinese city worth the holiday crush.
Source: china-briefing.com
West Street is packed with domestic visitors and priced accordingly, while a good share of the guesthouses out in the villages simply close for the family week.
Source: china-briefing.com
The one week the winter quiet breaks.
Source: china-briefing.com
…and 266 more in this group. Open any destination's page for its own month-by-month calendar.
Hazard seasons to know about
Not forecasts — the seasons in which the risk exists. Most weeks pass quietly.
Once or twice a winter freezing rain shuts the interstates, the airport and the schools for a day or two.
Source: weather.gov
River-plate humidity on top of the heat, and the porteños who can afford to have gone to the coast.
Source: argentina.gob.ar
The peak of the wet season is also when the canals back up and whole districts go under for a day or two.
Six degrees of latitude off the equator and still frost on the tea in the small hours.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Wadi Musa sits high enough to take snow in some winters, most recently in February 2024, which can shut the site for a day or two while the Siq and the Monastery steps are icy.
Source: jordan-spirit.com
A few inches closes the federal government, the schools and half the museums, and freezing rain does worse to the bridges.
Source: weather.gov
The Urubamba runs high through the wet months and a huaico takes out a stretch of track most years, usually towards Hidroelectrica.
Source: infobae.com
One or two decaying tropical systems reach the upper North Island most summers.
Source: metservice.com
The Bavarian avalanche service rates these mountains daily through the winter, and the danger on steep ground climbs again as the temperature comes up from February into April.
Source: lawinenwarndienst-bayern.de
Phase 2 and the bowls above it shut for days after heavy snow, and a local advisory goes up most mornings through the winter.
Source: gulmargac.in
Saharan dust blows across from Africa a few times each winter and spring, dropping visibility to a few hundred metres and occasionally grounding flights.
Source: aemet.es
Saharan dust crosses on an easterly a few times each winter and spring, hazing the volcanoes out and occasionally closing the airport.
Source: aemet.es
Saharan dust rides in on an easterly several times a year, most often in late winter, dropping visibility and pushing the temperature up sharply for a day or two.
Source: aemet.es
Agricultural fires north and west of the city put a lid of smoke over Bangkok through the late dry season.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Field and forest fires fill the valley with smoke that the surrounding hills hold in place, and the city regularly tops the world's live pollution rankings in March.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Late winter rain on frozen ground puts the river over its banks most years, and the low riverfront roads and Sawyer Point paths go under first.
Source: weather.gov
The grass hillsides above Kagman and out towards Marpi burn most dry seasons, largely from deliberate fires, and the smoke hangs under the trade wind on still mornings.
Source: weather.gov
A fringe of green weed, locally lumot, grows along the shallows in the hot months and is raked off each morning.
Saharan dust blows north over Andalusia most often in spring, turning the sky orange and leaving the pistes pink.
Source: aemet.es
Field and forest fires across northern Laos fill the valley with smoke and the far bank of the Mekong disappears for weeks.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Blooms of Karenia brevis drift onto this coast most often between autumn and late winter.
Source: myfwc.com
The whole town sits inside the national park, so a bad fire week means smoke, closed tracks and, on the worst days, a closed highway.
Source: rfs.nsw.gov.au
Autumn and winter lows cancel the inter-island ferries, the helicopter and the flights into Vagar, sometimes for two days together.
Source: visittorshavn.fo
The city sits in a bowl with the Alps on three sides, and winter inversions trap particulates for days.
Source: regione.piemonte.it
The exposed coast takes named Atlantic lows from mid-autumn, and the first thing they cancel is the ferry and the fjord sailings rather than the flights.
Source: met.no
Rain over the mountains behind town runs off bare rock and crosses the roads out to Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea.
Source: en.wikivoyage.org
Rare and violent: a storm over the mountains sends water down the wadis and across the coast road, cutting the runs to Nuweiba and St Catherine for a day.
Source: ema.gov.eg
Storms build over the reef most summer afternoons: hail, lightning and intersections under water for an hour.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Storms come off the Magaliesberg most summer afternoons: hail, lightning and half an hour of water the stormwater drains cannot take.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Atlantic lows shut the mountain passes on the E10 and cancel the small-plane flights into Svolvaer for a day at a time.
Source: met.no
Stubble burning upwind, firecrackers and a cold air trap put the plains under a brown haze from Diwali onward.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The Australian season runs November to April and the Whitsundays sit in the middle of it.
Source: bom.gov.au
The South Pacific season runs November to April, with the risk highest between December and February.
Source: safetravel.govt.nz
November to April is the South Pacific storm season, with the peak between December and February.
Source: safetravel.govt.nz
Household coal and wood, old cars and a windless inversion over the confluence put Belgrade near the top of the world air-quality tables on the worst January mornings.
Source: iqair.com
The South Pacific storm season.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Queensland's storm season runs November to April.
Source: getready.qld.gov.au
November to April is the cyclone half of the year.
Source: bom.gov.au
…and 251 more in this group. Open any destination's page for its own month-by-month calendar.
Windows are the usual ones and move a little each year — lunar feasts and blossom most of all. Hazard seasons are the months in which the risk exists, not a forecast. Check a live source before booking.