Spring

Spring travel looks different in every country. In one place people are already swimming, in another the snow is still on the ground and the mountain roads are closed. You have already picked a destination and want to know whether March, April or May suits it. This section is built around exactly that question.

The core of the section is the "When to Travel" guides with a month-by-month breakdown. They cover countries and cities, including Italy, Portugal, Egypt, Armenia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vienna, Budapest, Milan, Brussels, Tallinn, Stockholm and New York. In each one we compare weather, crowd levels and price levels by season. These guides make it easy to see spring next to the other months of the year.

The second group deals with specific spring months and events. These are Greece, Egypt and Dubai in April, Croatia in May, Sicily and Georgia in spring, and April in the Austrian mountains with its snow and avalanche risk. Separate pieces cover Easter in European cities, the Easter markets in Prague, the Feria de Abril in Seville, the season at Keukenhof, Ramadan in Egypt and the public holidays in China. There is also a piece on how to arrange your vacation days around the bridge days in Germany.

The third group: routes that work well at this time of year. Through Tuscany and the Luberon by car, across Southern England from Dover to Cornwall, by bike through the Netherlands, on foot through Saxon Switzerland and across the volcanoes of La Palma. Pieces on water temperatures in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands belong here too. They help you judge soberly whether swimming will be comfortable.

Every piece opens with a short answer: whether to go in this period and what for. Then come practical sections on weather, the sea, lines, prices and what you need to buy in advance. Every figure has its source stated, and every piece carries the date it was checked. We are direct about the downsides: cold water, rain, sites that stay closed until the season starts, high prices in holiday weeks.

The section suits those who are planning a trip for specific dates and want to know the conditions ahead of time. It is also useful if you are choosing between two neighboring months. If you have not settled on a country yet, some of the pieces will seem too detailed. If you need a forecast for the next few days, the weather services are the better place to look: we describe climate and seasonal patterns, not tomorrow's weather.

Start with the "month by month" guide to your country or city. It gives you an overall picture of the year and shows where spring sits in it. Then open the piece on the month or event you need, if there is one. After that, move on to the route: that way you will know which stretches are already open and where to expect crowds.

The section is part of "When to Travel". Next to it are "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter", and the month-by-month overviews often belong to several of them at once. If your dates fall on the border between seasons, take a look at the neighboring section. Events with a fixed calendar are also collected in "Festivals & Celebrations".

Holiday dates, season schedules and ticket sales rules change from year to year. We update the pieces and check them against the official websites of organizers, museums and weather services, and the year in the headline shows which season the information was verified for. On top of that, no two springs are the same: the snow in the mountains may melt later, and the sea may warm up more slowly than usual. Before you buy tickets, check the dates with the original source and keep a backup option in your plan in case of rain or a closed road.