If you want rays on tap in November, you’ll need to put in some air miles. That might be to Europe’s outermost corners — specifically the Canary Islands, which basically cheat by floating closer to Africa — or to the now bearably balmy Palm Springs in California. It might involve touring Egypt’s pyramids amid thinner crowds, river-cruising past paddy fields in Laos, lying on empty Gambian beaches or shopping in Moroccan markets. If wildlife-spotting is high on your agenda, this is the perfect time to dive with whale sharks in Mauritius or witness an epic wildebeest migration arrive on Tanzanian savannahs. Prefer something more cultural? Rio will be showing off its tropical chops ahead of full-on summer, as Mexico welcomes its dead back to life with a burst of colour and festivities. These are the top destinations to head for some sunshine and warmth in November.
Become a subscriber and, along with unlimited digital access to The Times and The Sunday Times, you can enjoy a collection of travel offers and competitions curated by our trusted travel partners, especially for Times+ members
This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue
Day of the Dead celebrations in Oaxaca
ALAMY
Average temperature 24C
Day of the Dead celebrations — a world-famous festival that has featured in James Bond and Pixar movies — take place in Mexico on November 1 and 2; it’s a celebratory time when the deceased are said to return to life to be with their family and friends. While every major Mexican centre hosts a parade, authenticity-seekers are best off heading to the country’s less-explored south; Dia de Muertos was not observed in the north until the 1900s. On Exodus’s small-group tour, expect to see elaborate altars, painted sugar skulls, spooky costumed processions and graveside gatherings. There’s also time on the beach in Cancun as the sun pours down.
• Best hotels in Mexico
• Best all-inclusive hotels in Mexico
A southern elephant seal pup on Sea Lion Island in the Falkland Islands
ALAMY
Average temperature 12C
“Average temperature 12C? That’s not hot!”, you might be grumbling. But don’t worry: November can actuallyhit 25C in this south Atlantic archipelago when the winds take a siesta. This still-controversial British Overseas Territory, 300 miles east of Argentina, also welcomes longer days, migratory birds and the enticing prospect of wildlife rearing their young. Expect to see king, gentoo, magellanic and rockhopper penguin chicks if you visit late in the month, before or after watching tiddly elephant seal pups learning to swim. There’s beauty to be found all around too, as grassy hills give way to talc-coloured shores, while the capital Port Stanley resembles a twee English seafront town: pitched roofed cottages, Anglican church, red phone boxes. To tick off Antarctica too, sign up for Exodus’s 20-day cruise from Ushuaia in Argentina.
Average temperature 20C
While all of Spain’s Canary Islands — closer to Morocco than Iberia — are trusty warm-weather bets this month, Tenerife typically ranks among the hottest and yields six daily hours of sunshine. Supplementing that, it also possesses a much wider tourist offering than is sometimes projected. The all-inclusive beach resorts of southwesterly Costa Adeje and Playa de las Americas have been joined by cooler boutique hotels further up the west coast or inland. That interior additionally contains the barren Teide National Park, named after the world’s third-largest volcano — up which go cable cars, weather permitting — and pretty pine forests ripe for picnics. November is also when humpback, fin and sometimes blue whales pass the island. Look for them from Costa Adeje’s Gran Tacande hotel, which offers thermal spa circuits should further warmth be needed.
• Best beaches in Tenerife
• Best hotels in Tenerife
• Best things to do in Tenerife
Selaron’s Stairs in Rio de Janeiro
GETTY IMAGES
Average temperature 24C
November is a “shoulder” month in Rio. Though summer proper doesn’t start for another month, it won’t rain much and temperatures start to soar. That’s ideal for sunny days spent on famous beaches such as Ipanema, watching (or joining) locals play volleyball, or for cooler morning walks through Tijuca National Park’s rainforest. The likely absence of showers increases your chance of a clear city view from the colossal Christ the Redeemer statue, which looms atop Corcovado mountain and can be accessed by tram. The Cidade Maravilhosa’s famed samba and baile-funk nights continue to run in earnest, as do exhibitions at the park-flanked Museum of Modern Art and stadium tours of Tijuca’s Maracana. Then there’s the legendary Copacabana beach, overlooking whose sand and volleyball games is one of Grand Mercure’s snazzy hotels.
• Best things to do in Rio de Janeiro
Arid Palm Springs
GETTY IMAGES
Average temperature 18C
With summer’s truly scorching days now departed, California’s chicest corner settles down into a more tolerable climate for us sun-starved Brits. It can still reach 25C, mind, but it’s also cool enough (especially in mornings) for clambers around the adjacent Joshua Tree National Park’s ragged rock formations and cactus-silhouetted desertscapes, or horse-rides in adjacent Coachella Valley. An ultra-laid-back desert oasis, Palm Springs itself has golf courses, design boutiques and spas using the hot springs, plus a vintage flea market on the first Sunday of the month from November to May. The hub is Palm Canyon Drive, a restaurant-lined mecca for socialites; just off this is a spree of swanky hotels such as the cool Kimpton Rowan with its rooftop pool. As Hollywood is just two hours’ drive west, a two-centre combination trip with Los Angeles is easily doable.
• Best things to do in California
• Best things to do in the USA
Maruti temple, Panjim, Goa
GETTY IMAGES
Average temperature 28C
Although boundaries are inevitably blurring, South India’s slender sunshine state of Goa has three distinct sections. The affordable north coast hosts all-night raves, its hoard of caramel-sand beaches backing onto shack bars and dense palm forests. Also here, in Anjuna and (at night) Arpora, are epic flea markets featuring Kashmiri jewellery, live music and the odd fortune-telling bull. A dreamier version of that same boho hippiedom awaits on the similarly sandy south coast, where sunset-worshipping yoga retreats border exclusive, leafy hotel estates promising spas and Goan cookery classes. Inland, there are frequent remnants of the old Portuguese empire: whitewashed bell towers, perhaps, or tiled colonial villas. With the monsoon season over, November promises a newly lush landscape and an average nine hours of rays each day for beachgoers. On The Go’s short, self-guided trip gives you three full days to explore.
• Best hotels in Goa
• Best beaches in India
Serekunda beach in the Gambia
GETTY IMAGES
Average temperature 27C
There’s much to like about this slender, snake-shaped country in west Africa, and November is arguably the ideal time to be charmed. The Gambia is one of the world’s best-value winter-sun destinations. Its long, fudge-shade beaches are uncrowded — despite hotels backing right onto some — and its seas warm. Sun-worshippers might meet birdwatchers on the plane over: ranging from pelicans to paradise flycatchers, hundreds of avian species dwell here. As the early dry season, with fresh conditions and plenty of sunshine, November is breeding season for many, meaning fabulous colours and fluting songs. During cruises through the River Gambia National Park you should see crocodiles and hippos as well. No company can rival The Gambia Experience for expertise.
gambia.co.uk
• Best places to go on holiday in November
• Best value winter sun destinations
Temple ruins in Kom Ombo, Egypt
ALAMY
Average temperature 19C
November marks the onset of Egypt’s winter — which is roughly equivalent to our own summer (when we have one, that is): even the early evenings can be a balmy 18C and there’s next to no chance of rain. Those are the best conditions for visiting the Pyramids of Giza and pharaohs’ temples or tombs at Aswan and Luxor, all of them ringed by sparsely covered desert. If it does get too hot, the air-conditioned Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo will provide respite, showcasing thousands of items from the Tutankhamun collection, once it is fully open. Nile cruisers will encounter greener riversides from their traditional steamboat or felucca, and any Red Sea swimmer can expect water temperatures of 26C. The snorkelling and diving there is mind-boggling whenever you explore underwater. Intrepid Travel has an extensive array of small-group Egyptian tours, from premium options to highlight-hopping budget alternatives, departing in November.
• Best things to do in Egypt
• Best hotels in Egypt
Tarangire National Park in Tanzania
GETTY IMAGES
Average temperature 26C
Head to Tanzania in late November and you’ll be in good company. For this is when the Great Migration — an annual, never-ceasing movement of an estimated 1.5 million wildebeest and their cute calves, as well as preceding zebra herds and subsequent gazelles — enters the south of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. The animals do this in tune with the latter country’s “green season”, when short bursts of rain generate fresh, nutritious grasses. Despite these showers — which mostly occur overnight — it is wonderfully warm, and the safari experience is thrilling as lions and leopards roam around the herds, elephants roam happily and migratory birds arrive from Europe. Also visiting the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, Indus Travel’s Essential Tanzania group tour has two November departures per year.
• Best safari camps and lodges in Tanzania
Pha That Luang temple, Vientiane, Laos
ALAMY
Average temperature 25C
There are three reasons why November is the optimum time to investigate this unsung southeast Asian country. Firstly, its seasonal rains have subsided, leaving full rivers and a vivid green landscape — ideal conditions, in other words, for slow cruises along the Mekong past pre-Angkorian temples and river dolphins in elegant rice barges. After months of the wet stuff, the Bolaven Plateau’s impressive waterfalls will also be in full flow; well worth exploring, this little-visited region in southern Laos also promises fascinating tribal villages and coffee farms. Finally, the hot, dry days — cooler in those highlands — are perfect for shopping at night markets or trying some of the country’s best activities: walking past rice paddies, cycling around islands, narrowboating into cave complexes. All feature on Wild Frontiers’ extensive Laos Unlocked group tour, departing late in October
Le Morne beach, Mauritius
GETTY IMAGES
Average temperature 24C
After several cooler months but still before the rainy season proper, November sees the mercury start to climb on this large, volcanic Indian Ocean island. Some scattered showers are a small price to pay for the absence of crowds, frequent sunshine and water temperatures hovering around a pleasant 25C. That makes it a plum time to snorkel alongside angelfish or rainbow wrasse in Blue Bay Marine Park, or to dive beside turtles off Long Beach. Dolphins are frequently encountered, too, and there are plenty of wrecks and coral reefs to rummage around. Beyond a bevy of white-sand beaches, inland options in Mauritius range from temple-touring to monkey-spotting in jungle gorges. Beside one such west-coast beach, the low-key Sunrise Attitude resort makes for an excellent, close-to-everything base.
• Best hotels in Mauritius
• Best beaches in Mauritius
Place Moulay Abdallah in Fez
ALAMY
Average temperature 17C
While Moroccan summers can be scorching, autumn’s gentler but still-warm days are a north African dream — and less than four hours’ flight from London. Start in Marrakesh, with days spent haggling for intricate leather pouffes or hand-carved incense holders in the hurly-burly, higgledy-piggledy shopping souks, and evenings involving snake charmers, belly dancers and bargain-priced lamb tagine on Djemaa el-Fna, the central square. From there you could head to Fez, whose rabbit-warren medina is Morocco’s most amazing old town, or venture south into the Sahara Desert’s yellow dunes, riding camels and camping beside Bedouin tribesmen. Another option is Essaouira (“essa-weera”), a ramparted, blue-hued fishing town on the west coast whose permanently chilled mentality once wooed Jimi Hendrix. The specialist tour operator Naturally Morocco tailor-makes affordable multi-centre itineraries.
naturallymorocco.co.uk
• Best villas in Morocco
• Best things to do in Marrakesh
Bathsheba beach on Barbados
ALAMY
Average temperature 27C
Something of an “insider” time to visit Barbados, November offers a chance to catch the Caribbean island at its most affordable and authentic, minus the usual hordes. Although hurricane season is technically still underway, only light rains are likely in the month’s second half, interspersed with more sun than the majority of the region can yet command. Spend time lounging on pearlescent beaches — some days will have high humidity, meaning staying still is best — or in spas, and try to attend cricket matches in the capital city Bridgetown, stroll botanical gardens or tour former sugar plantations when possible. Falling on November 30, Barbados Independence Day’s parade and beach parties complement the weekly, calypso-soundtracked Friday night fish fry at seaside village Oistins — very near which is the unhurried, pink-pastel Southern Palms Beach Club & Resort.
• Best things to do in Barbados
• Best hotels in Barbados
Dune bashing in the Dubai desert
ALAMY
Average temperature 25C
Dubai is always a good bet if you want to maximise long, sunny days. Even in November, when the heat has already cooled off, there can be days where highs hit 31C, in which case you may want to do little more than laze on the fine sandy beaches, or head to its many indoor attractions, from the expansive Mall of the Emirates to the Dubai Aquarium. The evenings tend to be cooler, making it ideal for watching the display at the Dubai Fountain after dark, or strolling along the promenade of Dubai Marina. For the more adventurous, it’s well worth heading out of the city for some dune bashing, where specially configured 4x4s careen up and down shifting sand. Don’t miss old Dubai, where you’ll find traditional coral stone buildings, heritage attractions, and those heavily fragranced souks. Across Dubai Creek from there is the foodie Al Bandar Rotana Creek hotel, which operates free beach-bound shuttles.
• Best things to do in Dubai
• Best things to do in Dubai with kids
• Best beach holiday destinations in November
Additional reporting by Qin Xie
Sign up to the Times Travel newsletter for weekly inspiration, advice and deals here
