Winter sun from the UK, compared

Average daytime highs, November to March

Five destinations with real UK flight data, ranked here by their coldest winter month (February) so the comparison is about the WORST day you might get, not the best one.

Multi-year historical averages, not a standard 30-year climate normal or a forecast — they tell you what a typical month looks like, not what the weather will do on your dates.

The five, one at a time

• Tenerife

  The clear outlier on warmth — low-to-mid 20s every month from November to March, well ahead of everywhere else on this page — but also the longest flight and the site's own trip-length note asks for at least five days to cover both coasts and Teide, not a long weekend.

  4h 30m flight time · 5+ nights recommended · base in Costa Adeje or Playa de las Américas, near Tenerife South Airport

  Recent nonstop fares from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester

• Larnaca

  Cyprus is mild rather than hot in December and February — high teens, not 20s — but November stays close to 23°C and this site holds nonstop UK evidence from all four of its own tracked airports, the broadest access of any pick here.

  4h 35m flight time · 5+ nights to justify the flight · base on the Foinikoudes promenade beside the town beach

  Recent nonstop fares from Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted

• Faro

  The Algarve is the coolest of the five on paper, but it's also by far the shortest flight — under three hours — and February here (17.8°C) actually edges out January and December, unlike everywhere else on this page where December is the mildest month.

  2h 50m flight time · 2–3 nights · base in the old town, Cidade Velha, by the Ria Formosa lagoon

  Recent nonstop fares from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester

• St Julian’s

  A resort town rather than a beach island in winter — restaurants and coastal walks around Spinola Bay stay open when the peak-season crowds do not — with a shorter flight than Cyprus or the Canaries and similar daytime highs to Madeira.

  3h 15m flight time · 4–7 nights (shorter works for a coastal-walk trip) · base at Spinola Bay for restaurants, or Paceville for later evenings

  Recent nonstop fares from Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester

• Funchal

  Madeira's own seasonal note is explicit about the trade: close to 14–17°C is "the reason many choose Funchal for winter sun while northern Europe is much colder", but December to February is also one of the wetter stretches of its year — the highest winter rainfall of the five destinations here.

  3h 50m flight time · 4+ nights (2–3 covers the old town alone) · base in Zona Velha, or the Lido seafront for a quieter, poolside stay

  Recent nonstop fares from Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester

The honest tradeoffs

• Want the warmest air temperature you can get without a long-haul flight? Tenerife, by a clear margin — at the cost of the longest flight and a trip-length note that assumes a week, not a weekend.
• Want the shortest flight? The Algarve, under three hours, though it is also the coolest destination here and one of the wetter ones in March specifically.
• Want the broadest UK airport choice? Cyprus — this site holds nonstop evidence to Larnaca from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester alike.
• Want a genuinely off-season, quieter trip rather than a beach holiday? Malta or Madeira both read that way in winter — resort towns with fewer crowds, not swimming weather.

How long to go for

As a rule on this site, the longer the flight, the longer the trip needs to be to be worth it: Tenerife’s own editorial note asks for five nights or more given a four-and-a-half-hour flight each way, and Cyprus and Madeira sit in a similar multi-night bracket. The Algarve (under three hours) and Malta (just over three) are the two genuinely viable for a long weekend, though Malta’s own trip-length note still suggests four nights or more to make full use of its bus and ferry links.

December versus February

December is the mildest of the three deep-winter months at four of the five destinations here — Tenerife, Larnaca, St Julian’s and Funchal all read warmer in December than in January or February. The Algarve is the one exception: February (17.8°C) is slightly milder there than December (17.6°C), because December is also its rainiest month of the five shown (74.7mm, more than double January’s or February’s). Rainfall, not just temperature, is worth checking before picking a date — Madeira’s December and January both run wetter than its own November and March.

If you’re tied to half-term — or your dates run into spring

Everything above holds across the whole November-to-March window this guide covers. If your dates are fixed to February half-term specifically — and half-term itself is not one national week — February half-term 2027 checks the actual dates and narrows this same choice to what has real flight evidence for that fortnight. If your dates are March–April instead, several of these destinations — Cyprus especially — genuinely change character by April: spring sun 2027 covers that shift, plus what the Easter school holidays do to prices and crowds.

Next steps

• Every winter-sun destination from the UK
• Search flights for these dates

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• February half-term 2027 from the UK — Which February half-term dates actually apply where, and how to choose between sun, a city break and a short winter break — with real flight times.
• Spring sun 2027: March-April breaks from the UK — Which UK spring-sun destinations are worth it in March versus April, and what Easter 2027 changes about when to go.