The late-winter escape: where February is reliably warm and bright. 132 seaside holiday towns and cities in South-East Asia were scored in February, and 23 rate Good or better. The six below lead, spread across the region.
Where to go
- 173 · GoodViganPhilippines
A typical midday in February feels like 31°C, and the Sunbathing rating averages 73 over the stretch. Good weather here runs from late December to March, so there is room either side. See mid February on the map.
- 272 · GoodPhú QuốcVietnam
Rated 72 (Good) for sunbathing in February: midday feels like 32°C, with partly cloudy skies. The good spell lasts about three and a half months, from December to mid March. Open it on the map at mid February.
- 364 · GoodPuerto PrincesaPhilippines
Midday in February feels like 32°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 64, Good, for sunbathing. Good weather here runs from January to early March, so there is room either side. Wet spells are common at this time of year. See mid February on the map.
- 463 · GoodManilaPhilippines
A typical midday in February feels like 32°C, and the Sunbathing rating averages 63 over the stretch. The good spell lasts about two months, from January to February. Open it on the map at mid February.
- 557 · GoodKota BharuMalaysia
Midday in February feels like 32°C under often cloudy skies, which rates 57, Good, for sunbathing. See mid February on the map.
- 655 · GoodHội AnVietnam
A typical midday in February feels like 28°C, and the Sunbathing rating averages 55 over the stretch. It is a short window: the rating stays Good for only about ten days. Open it on the map at mid February.
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 February; 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.