Big cities where April is comfortable for a day on foot between sights. Of 45 places with a guide of their own in Africa south of the Sahara, 12 rate Good or better in April. These eight are the best of them, spread across the region.
The list
- 186 · IdealWindhoekNamibia
Midday in April feels like 23°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 86, Ideal, for easy outdoors. It rates Good or better all year, not just now. Open it on the map at mid April.
- 283 · IdealJohannesburgSouth Africa
Rated 83 (Ideal) for easy outdoors in April: midday feels like 20°C, with partly cloudy skies. Good weather here runs from mid August to May, so there is room either side. See mid April on the map.
- 381 · IdealGaboroneBotswana
A typical midday in April feels like 23°C, and the Easy outdoors rating averages 81 over the stretch. The good spell lasts about three months, from mid March to early June. Open it on the map at mid April.
- 480 · IdealBloemfonteinSouth Africa
Midday in April feels like 19°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 80, Ideal, for easy outdoors. Good weather here runs from late August to May, so there is room either side. See mid April on the map.
- 577 · GoodAntananarivoMadagascar
Rated 77 (Good) for easy outdoors in April: midday feels like 22°C, with often cloudy skies. The good spell lasts about ten and a half months, from late August to June. Open it on the map at mid April.
- 672 · GoodPort ElizabethSouth Africa
A typical midday in April feels like 20°C, and the Easy outdoors rating averages 72 over the stretch. Good weather here runs from October to mid June, so there is room either side. See mid April on the map.
- 771 · GoodCape TownSouth Africa
Midday in April feels like 21°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 71, Good, for easy outdoors. The good spell lasts about eight and a half months, from October to early June. Open it on the map at mid April.
- 864 · GoodArushaTanzania
Rated 64 (Good) for easy outdoors in April: midday feels like 26°C, with usually overcast skies. Good weather here runs from April to mid November, so there is room either side. Wet spells are common at this time of year. See mid April on the map.
How this list is worked out
The data
Every figure comes from a decade of weather-station observations, blended into one typical year and read at midday, local solar time. Scores here are averaged in April; a city missing a reading for any part of that stretch is left out rather than scored on part of it.
The rating
Easy outdoors: A comfortable feels-like gates the score — best 16–26 °C for an easy day out (strolling, sitting out, sightseeing). Dryness matters most; strong wind knocks it back. Sun is a bonus, not required. A place is also left out when its typical readings contradict its own rating, for example a high score alongside frequent rain.
The spread
To keep one warm corner from filling the list, entries are at least 150 km apart, no more than three sit within 1,000 km of each other, and no more than three come from one country unless the list would otherwise run short.
Only places that draw visitors
Towns and cities with plenty of hotels, guest houses and holiday lets nearby for their size, or a great many of them in all, counted from Overture Maps Places, an open dataset. That keeps out places the weather favours but nobody travels to. Where two places share one resort or city, the one a visitor would name is kept.
The dotted links open the map at that place and time of year, on the same layer. The map remembers the time of day you last chose there; set it to midday to see these exact numbers.