Cold enough for snow to hold and wet enough for it to fall, over late December and early January. Of 1,033 towns and cities that draw visitors in Europe, 19 rate Good or better at Christmas. These eight are the best of them, spread across the region.
The list
- 162 · GoodRovaniemiFinland
A typical midday at Christmas feels like −15°C; the Snow rating puts it at 62. The snowy spell here lasts about five and a half months, from late October to early April. Open it on the map at late December.
- 262 · GoodÖstersundSweden
Midday at Christmas feels like −11°C, and the Snow rating averages 62, Good. The snowy spell here lasts about three and a half months, from late November to early March. See late December on the map.
- 361 · GoodTromsøNorway
A typical midday at Christmas feels like −9°C; the Snow rating puts it at 61. The snowy spell here lasts about four and a half months, from late November to early April. Open it on the map at late December.
- 458 · GoodBorşaRomania
Midday at Christmas feels like −7°C, and the Snow rating averages 58, Good. The snowy spell here lasts about six weeks, from late December to January. See late December on the map.
- 557 · GoodOsloNorway
A typical midday at Christmas feels like −7°C; the Snow rating puts it at 57. The snowy spell here lasts about two months, from mid December to early February. Open it on the map at late December.
- 656 · GoodBrig-GlisSwitzerland
Midday at Christmas feels like −11°C, and the Snow rating averages 56, Good. The snowy spell here lasts about two months, from December to January. See late December on the map.
- 756 · GoodKeflavíkIceland
A typical midday at Christmas feels like −7°C; the Snow rating puts it at 56. The snowy spell here lasts about six weeks, from late December to early February. Open it on the map at late December.
- 856 · GoodAkureyriIceland
Midday at Christmas feels like −9°C, and the Snow rating averages 56, Good. See late December 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 from late December to early January; a city missing a reading for any part of that stretch is left out rather than scored on part of it.
The rating
Snow: Cold enough to hold snow with snowfall likely — a proxy, not measured depth. Least reliable in the mountains, where valley-floor stations under-read (see the note). A place is also left out when its typical readings contradict its own rating, for example a high score alongside frequent rain. Snow is a proxy: cold enough for snow to hold, with precipitation likely. It is not measured snow depth, and it is least reliable in mountains, where the weather stations sit on valley floors.
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.