Where late December and early January are warm, dry and bright enough to lie out. 35 seaside holiday towns and cities in Australia and the Pacific were scored at Christmas, and 11 rate Good or better. The five below lead, spread across the region.
The list
- 169 · GoodAvaruaCook Islands
A typical midday at Christmas feels like 30°C, and the Sunbathing rating averages 69 over the stretch. Good weather here runs from November to mid June, so there is room either side. See late December on the map.
- 269 · GoodYeppoonAustralia
Rated 69 (Good) for sunbathing at Christmas: midday feels like 30°C, with often cloudy skies. The good spell lasts about six and a half months, from mid October to April. Open it on the map at late December.
- 369 · GoodTownsvilleAustralia
Rated 69 (Good) for sunbathing at Christmas: midday feels like 31°C, with partly cloudy skies. Good weather here runs from late September to early May, so there is room either side. See late December on the map.
- 467 · GoodHervey BayAustralia
Midday at Christmas feels like 29°C under often cloudy skies, which rates 67, Good, for sunbathing. The good spell lasts about four and a half months, from late November to early April. Open it on the map at late December.
- 567 · GoodYambaAustralia
Midday at Christmas feels like 27°C under often cloudy skies, which rates 67, Good, for sunbathing. Good weather here runs from late November to March, so there is room either side. 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
Sunbathing: Warm feels-like gates the score — best 26–32 °C. Dry air, light wind and clear skies each lift it; none alone rules it out. 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 seaside places
Towns and cities within 12 km of the coast, with beaches and plenty of hotels, resorts and holiday lets within 10 km for their size. That keeps out hot inland towns and busy ports that nobody visits for the beach. Places to stay are counted from Overture Maps Places, an open dataset, so a resort missing there is missing here.
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.