Where late December and early January are warm, dry and bright enough to lie out. 36 seaside holiday towns and cities in South Asia were scored at Christmas, and 7 rate Good or better. The five below lead, spread across the region.
Where to go
- 181 · IdealVishākhapatnamIndia
Rated 81 (Ideal) for sunbathing at Christmas: midday feels like 29°C, with mostly clear skies. Good weather here runs from mid November to mid February, so there is room either side. See late December on the map.
- 278 · GoodMumbaiIndia
Midday at Christmas feels like 30°C under mostly clear skies, which rates 78, Good, for sunbathing. The good spell lasts about four months, from mid November to early March. Rain is rare at this time of year. Open it on the map at late December.
- 374 · GoodCox’s BāzārBangladesh
Midday at Christmas feels like 26°C under mostly clear skies, which rates 74, Good, for sunbathing. Rain is rare at this time of year. See late December on the map.
- 473 · GoodChennaiIndia
A typical midday at Christmas feels like 31°C, and the Sunbathing rating averages 73 over the stretch. The good spell lasts about two and a half months, from mid December to mid February. Wet spells are common at this time of year. Open it on the map at late December.
- 558 · GoodTrincomaleeSri Lanka
Midday at Christmas feels like 32°C under often cloudy skies, which rates 58, Good, for sunbathing. 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.