March is the month the world remembers it has a second half. The northern hemisphere stirs. Snow retreats from the lower altitudes. The light changes angle and everything it touches looks slightly more possible than it did in February. In the southern hemisphere, the summer crowds thin while the warmth remains. In the tropics, the dry season holds its final weeks before the rains arrive to reclaim the landscape.
March rewards the traveller who moves between seasons rather than waiting for them. The destinations that peak in March are not the obvious ones — they are the ones that the summer crowd hasn’t found yet, the ones that the winter crowd has just left, and the ones that exist at their finest precisely because most people are still watching from home.
Twelve destinations. Twelve arguments for booking before the month disappears.
Choose your March:
- Blossom + culture: Japan, Portugal, Morocco
- Warmth + adventure: Ecuador, Nepal, Bhutan
- Ancient + wild: India, Turkey, South Africa
- Colour + energy: Colombia, Vietnam, Mexico
Japan: Cherry Blossoms and the Art of Anticipation
Best for: cherry blossom season, spring culture, temple gardens, food Go to: Tokyo · Kyoto · Hiroshima Why March: sakura season begins in late March in southern Japan — the most anticipated natural event in the country’s calendar
Japan in March operates under the particular pressure of a nation collectively holding its breath. The sakura forecast — Japan’s cherry blossom prediction, issued by the Japan Meteorological Corporation with the seriousness of a financial report — begins appearing in newspapers and phone screens from early February. By March the anticipation has become its own cultural event, the blossoms not yet open but their arrival already reshaping how the country organises its weekends, its picnics, its photography.
Late March sees the first cherry blossoms open in Kyushu and western Honshu — Fukuoka and Hiroshima typically before Tokyo, Kyoto usually in the final days of the month. The hanami tradition — flower viewing, which in practice means sitting beneath blossoming trees with food, drink, and company — is not a tourist activity. It is a national ritual that the Japanese have practised for over a thousand years, and participating in it in a local park rather than a famous tourist spot is the version that most accurately conveys what it is actually about.
Tokyo’s Shinjuku Gyoen and Yoyogi Park in late March, the blossoms at 30–40% capacity, the crowds not yet at full cherry blossom peak, offer the rarest combination Japan provides: extraordinary beauty and room to stand still within it.
Temperatures: 8–16°C in Tokyo · 7–15°C in Kyoto
Read the full Japan Travel Guide →
Portugal: Europe Wakes Up Early Here
Best for: Atlantic coastline, Lisbon and Porto city culture, wine, hiking Go to: Lisbon · Douro Valley · Alentejo Why March: shoulder season prices, spring light arrives early, almond blossoms in the Algarve, crowds weeks away
Portugal in March is the best-kept secret in European travel — the country’s position on the Atlantic’s western edge gives it a climate that runs approximately six weeks ahead of the rest of the continent. While Paris is still grey and Rome is still unpredictable, Lisbon in March sits at 15–18°C, the city’s seven hills catching spring light that the summer crowds won’t arrive to share for another two months.
Lisbon in March belongs to the city rather than to tourism. The miradouros — the viewpoints scattered across the hilltops — are occupied by locals rather than tour groups. The tram 28, which the rest of the year operates as an involuntary sardine experience, runs at a pace that allows the Alfama neighbourhood’s tilework and laundry lines to be observed rather than endured. The pastéis de nata at Pastéis de Belém, consumed at the counter rather than queued for on the pavement, taste exactly as they should.
The Douro Valley in March carries the almond blossoms that the Algarve’s more famous blossoms echo — the terraced vineyards above the river still bare from winter but the almond trees in full white flower, the valley floor visible through the skeletal vines in a way that July’s full growth conceals. The wine quintas are open, unhurried, and in most cases genuinely delighted to see visitors who arrived before the season officially began.
Temperatures: 11–18°C in Lisbon · Cooler inland
Read the full Portugal Travel Guide →
Morocco: The Last Month of Perfect Desert Weather
Best for: Sahara, imperial cities, Atlas Mountains, medina culture Go to: Merzouga · Marrakech · Fes Why March: final comfortable desert month before spring heat, wildflowers in the Atlas, low season crowds
Morocco in March stands at the precise intersection of the winter travel window and the shoulder season — the desert still cool enough at night for the stars to perform, the cities warm enough during the day for the outdoor culture that defines Moroccan public life to operate at full capacity, and the tourist infrastructure not yet at the density that April and May begin to deliver.
The Draa Valley south of Ouarzazate in March carries wildflowers between the kasbahs and palmeries — a March phenomenon that the summer and winter visitors never encounter. The road south from Marrakech through the Tizi n’Tichka pass, with the High Atlas still carrying snow above and the valley floor blooming below, offers the specific Moroccan geography that makes the country feel like several countries occupying the same map.
Fes el-Bali in March operates at the temperature where the medieval city’s full complexity becomes accessible — the tanneries, the souks, the 9th-century Qarawiyyin university mosque, the evening call to prayer echoing between the minarets of a city that has been continuously inhabited for twelve centuries. March delivers all of this at 14–20°C, the labyrinthine streets navigable across a full day without the retreat to air conditioning that July requires. The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music in June is still months away. March is for those who prefer the city to the event.
Temperatures: 12–20°C in Marrakech · 10–18°C in Fes
Read the full Morocco Travel Guide →
Vietnam: The Central Coast Before the Crowds Arrive
Best for: ancient towns, street food, coastal scenery, mountain passes Go to: Hoi An · Da Nang · Hue Why March: central Vietnam’s finest weather window, Hai Van Pass at its most dramatic, beaches opening for the season
Vietnam in March delivers the central coast at its annual best — the short dry window between the winter rains that the region receives from the northeast monsoon and the heat that builds from April through August. Da Nang, Hoi An, and Hue sit in temperatures between 22 and 28°C with the skies clearing and the South China Sea settling into the calm that the beach season requires.
Hoi An in March operates at the intersection of good weather and pre-peak crowds. The ancient trading town — a UNESCO World Heritage site where the architecture of Chinese merchant houses, Japanese covered bridges, and French colonial buildings occupies the same riverside streets — is genuinely walkable in March in a way that the July-August peak season doesn’t reliably allow. The tailors are open. The cooking schools have availability. The lantern-lit evenings on the Thu Bon River are navigated by a manageable number of boats.
The Hai Van Pass — the mountain road separating Da Nang from Hue, used by armies, emperors, and the Top Gear presenters who called it one of the world’s great drives — is in March at its most dramatic, the South China Sea visible below on one side and the Da Nang bay on the other, the road curving through cloud forest that the summer heat turns hazy. Riding or driving it at dawn in March, the light arriving at a low angle across the water, is one of the finest single-road experiences in Southeast Asia.
Temperatures: 22–28°C on the central coast
Read the full Vietnam Travel Guide →
Colombia: Coffee, Carnival Aftermath, and Eternal Spring
Best for: coffee region, colonial cities, Medellín urban culture, Caribbean coast Go to: Cartagena · Salento · Medellín Why March: Caribbean dry season continues, Coffee Region in full harvest, Medellín’s Eternal Spring at its most literal
Colombia in March carries the energy of a country that has just celebrated itself — the Barranquilla Carnival, South America’s second-largest carnival after Rio, typically falls in February, and March inherits its aftermath: the colour still present in the streets, the music still audible from the Caribbean coast, the country’s self-confidence at an annual high. Cartagena in March sits in the dry season that the Caribbean coast holds from December through April, the walled city at 28–32°C with the specific Caribbean light that makes the colonial architecture look like a set designer’s idealised version of itself.
Salento in the Coffee Region in March sits at the peak of the main coffee harvest — the surrounding hills producing the beans at the altitude and latitude that Colombian coffee’s international reputation was built on. The Valle de Cocora, Salento’s neighbouring valley, contains the wax palms that grow to 60 metres and are found nowhere else on earth in this density — a morning hike through cloud forest that opens into a valley of improbable palms is the visual that Colombia uses as its screensaver and that visitors confirm, somewhat surprised, is accurate.
Medellín in March operates at its perennial 22–26°C — the Eternal Spring designation not a marketing claim but a meteorological fact of a city at 1,495 metres in the Andes. The transformation of the city’s eastern comunas, accessible by the cable car system that connected hillside neighbourhoods to the city centre, is the urban planning story that architecture and design communities reference when making arguments about what infrastructure investment can accomplish in the most challenging conditions.
Temperatures: 22–32°C in Cartagena · 18–26°C in Medellín · 14–20°C in Salento
Read the full Colombia Travel Guide →
Ecuador: The Galápagos in Its Finest Season
Best for: Galápagos wildlife, Quito colonial centre, Andean markets, Amazon Go to: Galápagos Islands · Quito · Otavalo Why March: warm season in the Galápagos brings calmer seas and sea turtle nesting, Andean highlands clear and green
Ecuador in March sits in the warm season that the Galápagos Islands experience from December through May — warmer water, calmer seas between the islands, and the sea turtle nesting season on the beaches of Santa Cruz and Isabela. The Galápagos in March is not the dramatic cold-water upwelling season that July brings — the penguin and sea lion activity is slightly lower. What replaces it is gentler, warmer, and for many visitors more accessible: snorkelling with sea turtles in water warm enough to enter without a wetsuit, the blue-footed boobies beginning their courtship displays, the iguanas on the volcanic rocks operating with the specific indifference to human presence that the islands are known for.
The Andean highlands around Quito in March carry the green of the wet season — the hills surrounding the city at their most saturated, the Cotopaxi volcano visible on clear mornings with fresh snow on the summit. Quito’s UNESCO colonial centre, built on the ruins of an Inca city by the Spanish in the 16th century and containing the best-preserved colonial architecture in Latin America, receives March light in a way that the harsh midday sun of the dry season doesn’t produce — softer, more variable, the gilded interiors of the baroque churches catching it differently hour by hour.
Otavalo’s Saturday market in March operates in the green Andean landscape at its most lush — the textile stalls and handicraft sellers operating a tradition of indigenous commerce that predates the Spanish arrival and continues on the same square.
Temperatures: 22–30°C in the Galápagos · 12–22°C in Quito
Read the full Ecuador Travel Guide →
Nepal: The Himalayan Spring Opens
Best for: Annapurna and Everest trekking, Kathmandu temples, Himalayan views Go to: Pokhara · Kathmandu · Annapurna Circuit Why March: rhododendron forests in bloom, clear pre-monsoon skies, spring trekking season opens — the finest Himalayan trekking window of the year
Nepal in March opens the spring trekking season that many experienced Himalayan walkers consider superior to the more famous autumn window. The rhododendron forests — Nepal’s national flower, growing here to tree height in forests that cover entire hillsides — begin blooming from the lower elevations in March, the colour moving upward week by week as the season advances. The Annapurna Circuit in March passes through these forests at the precise moment when the rhododendron red, pink, and white against the white of the peaks above creates a visual that the autumn season, for all its clarity, simply doesn’t offer.
Everest Base Camp in March sits in the pre-monsoon clarity window — the jet stream still active above the summit but the lower elevations clear and stable enough for the 13-day Lukla-to-Base Camp route to operate in conditions that experienced trekking operators describe as some of the finest of the year. The tea houses along the route are open, the crowds lower than October, and Khumbu’s Sherpa communities in the rhythms of the season between the two trekking peaks.
Kathmandu in March carries the Holi festival — the Hindu festival of colours, celebrated with particular energy in the Basantapur Durbar Square, the medieval palace complex that the 2015 earthquake damaged and the Nepali people are in the process of rebuilding. Participating in Holi in Kathmandu is one of the most photographically and experientially charged travel experiences in Asia, and March is the month it falls.
Temperatures: 10–22°C in Kathmandu · Significantly colder at altitude
Read the full Nepal Travel Guide →
Bhutan: The Kingdom That Charges You to Protect Itself
Best for: Tiger’s Nest Monastery, festival season begins, Himalayan views, sustainable travel Go to: Paro · Thimphu · Punakha Why March: Paro Tsechu festival falls in March or April — the most important festival in the Bhutanese calendar, clear Himalayan skies before the monsoon
Bhutan in March sits at the intersection of the country’s two most compelling propositions: the spring festival season and the clarity of the pre-monsoon Himalayan sky. The Paro Tsechu — a five-day festival of masked dances performed in the courtyard of Paro Dzong, the fortress-monastery that defines the Paro valley’s visual identity — falls in late March or early April depending on the lunar calendar, drawing Bhutanese from across the country in traditional dress. The festival is not performed for tourists. It is a religious event that tourists are permitted to observe, and that distinction is visible in every aspect of it.
The Sustainable Development Fee — currently $100 per night, reduced 50% until August 2027 — is the entry cost that Bhutan uses to fund its carbon-negative policy, its free healthcare and education, and its deliberate management of the tourism volume that its fragile Himalayan ecosystem can absorb. It is worth understanding what you are paying for before arriving: not an exclusivity premium but a conservation mechanism that has made Bhutan the most sustainably managed tourist destination on earth.
Tiger’s Nest Monastery — Paro Taktsang, clinging to a cliff face at 3,120 metres above the valley floor — is accessible in March via a two-hour hike through pine forest. The monastery was built in 1692 around the cave where Guru Rinpoche is said to have meditated for three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours. Whether or not the history is precisely as described, the location is exactly as extraordinary as every photograph suggests and more so in the flesh.
Temperatures: 5–18°C in Paro · Colder at altitude
Read the full Bhutan Travel Guide →
India: The Final Window Before the Heat Closes
Best for: Rajasthan, Holi festival, wildlife safaris, Kerala Go to: Rajasthan · Varanasi · Ranthambore Why March: Holi festival transforms the entire country, final comfortable weeks in Rajasthan, tiger visibility peaks before the monsoon
India in March carries an urgency that February doesn’t — the cool season is ending and the heat that will define April through June is already announced in the midday temperatures of Rajasthan’s desert towns. March is the final full month where India’s vast north is fully accessible across the day rather than in the thermal brackets that summer imposes, and experienced India travellers treat it accordingly: as a closing window rather than an optional timing choice.
Holi — the festival of colours, falling in early to mid-March — is the event that most transforms the India that travellers encounter into the India that exists on its own terms. The streets of Mathura and Vrindavan, where Holi originated and where the celebrations run for a week rather than a day, turn into a chromatic experience that the camera can document but not replicate. Varanasi on Holi morning, the ghats running with colour, the Ganges maintaining its ancient indifference to the celebration happening on its banks — this is the India that no travel itinerary can fully prepare for and no traveller fully forgets.
Ranthambore National Park in March peaks for tiger sightings — the vegetation at its lowest before the monsoon’s growth, the water sources reduced, and the tigers moving through open terrain with a visibility that the lush months conceal. The park’s tigers are among the best studied and most reliably observed in India’s national park system.
Temperatures: 15–32°C in Rajasthan — warming significantly toward month end
Read the full India Travel Guide →
Mexico: Before the Spring Breakers Arrive
Best for: Yucatán ruins, colonial cities, Pacific coastline, food culture Go to: Mexico City · Oaxaca · Yucatán Why March: dry season across most of the country, Yucatán cenotes at their clearest, spring equinox at Chichen Itza
Mexico in March delivers the dry season that covers most of the country from November through April, with one specific March addition: the spring equinox at Chichen Itza, when the angle of the late afternoon sun creates the shadow of a serpent descending the northern staircase of the El Castillo pyramid — a deliberate astronomical feature built by the Maya in the 10th century that the entire country marks each March 21st. The crowds at the equinox are significant. Arriving two days before or after delivers the same pyramid, the same shadow phenomenon on adjacent days, and a fraction of the attendance.
Mexico City in March operates before the spring break crowds that American proximity makes inevitable in late March — the city’s museums, markets, and neighbourhoods accessible at the pace that the capital’s 22 million residents navigate daily rather than the pace that mass tourism imposes. The Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Diego Rivera murals in the Palacio Nacional — all of them better experienced in early March than in the school holiday window that follows.
Oaxaca in March sits in the dry season at 22–28°C, the city’s extraordinary food culture — tlayudas, mole negro, mezcal from the palenques of the surrounding valleys — operating at full capacity. The markets of Tlacolula and Zaachila on their weekly days, the ruins of Monte Albán above the city, the textile villages of the surrounding valleys — Oaxaca in March is the version of Mexico that the food and design communities have been writing about for a decade and that the mainstream travel crowd has only recently found.
Temperatures: 14–26°C in Mexico City · 18–28°C in Oaxaca · 24–32°C in the Yucatán
Read the full Mexico Travel Guide →
South Africa: Safari Season and the Cape at Its Finest
Best for: Cape Town and Winelands, Garden Route, Kruger safari, whale coast Go to: Cape Town · Kruger National Park · Garden Route Why March: Cape Town’s finest month, Kruger game viewing excellent before the rains, Garden Route fully open
South Africa in March delivers two entirely different countries in the same passport stamp. Cape Town sits at the end of its southern hemisphere summer — the Mountain, the coastline, the Winelands at their most generous, the last weeks of long days before autumn turns the fynbos rust and gold. Kruger in the north sits in the late dry season, the game viewing at its annual peak as the summer rains haven’t yet arrived to disperse the wildlife from the waterholes.
Cape Town in March operates at 18–26°C with the specific quality of late-summer southern hemisphere light that makes the city’s geography — Table Mountain, the Twelve Apostles range, the Cape Peninsula, the meeting of two oceans — look exactly as extraordinary as it is. The V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay, the Constantia wine estates, the Boulders Beach penguin colony, the Cape of Good Hope — the Cape Peninsula in March is the argument that South Africa’s most visited city makes at full volume and without qualification.
Kruger National Park in March sits in the transition between wet and dry seasons — the vegetation still relatively full from the summer rains but the waterholes beginning to concentrate game as the dry season establishes itself. The Big Five are all present year-round, but March’s specific combination of green landscape and concentrated wildlife produces game viewing that the deep dry season’s bare vegetation makes stark by comparison. March is Kruger before the crowds of the June-August peak, with conditions that experienced safari guides consider among the most photogenic of the year.
Temperatures: 18–26°C in Cape Town · 22–32°C in Kruger
Read the full South Africa Travel Guide →
Turkey: The Country That Wakes Up Before Everyone Else
Best for: Istanbul, Cappadocia, Aegean coast, ancient ruins Go to: Istanbul · Cappadocia · Ephesus Why March: tulip season begins in Istanbul, Cappadocia in snow or spring depending on the year, Aegean coast before the summer density
Turkey in March offers the most culturally layered destination in the Mediterranean at its shoulder-season best — the summer crowds that pack the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and the Cappadocian balloon launch sites are still months away, and the country is in the specific mood of a place preparing itself for a season it knows will be busy. Istanbul in March carries the tulip season that the city inherited from the Ottoman Empire — the tulip, contrary to popular assumption, originated in Central Asia and arrived in Europe via Istanbul before the Netherlands claimed it as their own. The parks and gardens of the city fill with tulips in late March, a tradition that the municipality maintains with the seriousness of a civic obligation.
Cappadocia in March occupies a meteorological uncertainty that is itself an attraction — the hot air balloon flights that have made the region famous operate on clear mornings, and March delivers a variable of either late winter snow on the fairy chimneys or early spring green on the valley floors, both of them extraordinary in different ways. The cave hotels — boutique properties built into the volcanic tufa that the entire region is carved from — are at their lowest prices of the year and at their most available.
Ephesus on the Aegean coast in March receives the spring light that the ancient Roman city — the best-preserved classical metropolis in the eastern Mediterranean — was built to operate in. The Library of Celsus, the theatre that held 25,000 people, the marble streets that Paul walked and that the tourist industry fills to capacity in July — all of them navigable in March at the pace that respects what they are.
Temperatures: 7–14°C in Istanbul · 5–16°C in Cappadocia · 10–18°C on the Aegean coast
Read the full Turkey Travel Guide →
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