Winter is the nomad high season: the tropics are dry, the southern hemisphere is in summer, and the people who can work from anywhere leave the cold to do so. The winter destinations page ranks every destination in our database on December-to-February climate fit (WMO normals), community, internet and dated cost; this piece reads the results.
The tropics in their dry season
Chiang Mai is the winner on every axis but one: 29°C days, cool nights, almost no rain, the deepest nomad community in the world and $450 rents; the one is the burning season that starts in late February. Bangkok, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur share the dry season and the fibre. Hanoi is grey and 15°C: a different winter, cheaper and quieter.
The Americas' highlands
Mexico City and Oaxaca are dry and 22 to 25°C by day in December and January with cold nights; Medellín is in one of its two drier windows at a constant 27°C; Antigua is in its best season. All four run on US time zones, which decides the matter for anyone with American clients.
The southern summer
Cape Town at its peak (and its peak prices; book by October), Buenos Aires hot and emptying in January, Rio building to Carnival. Europe's time zone for the first, the Americas' for the others.
Europe's winter that is not cold
Las Palmas at 21°C with the Atlantic to swim in and the EU's legal certainty; Funchal at 19°C with levadas instead of beaches; Lisbon at 15°C and sunny more days than not, cheaper and quieter than in summer. For Europeans who want to stay inside Schengen, these three are the answer.
The ones to skip
Bali's wet season (heavy rain, humidity, rubbish on the west-coast beaches from December to February), the Caribbean coast of Colombia is fine but Playa del Carmen and Cartagena are at peak price, and most of Europe north of Lisbon is dark, cold and empty of other nomads.
Costs in winter
Expect seasonal premiums in Cape Town, Playa del Carmen and the Thai islands; Chiang Mai's rents barely move; the Canaries and Madeira hold steady. Our monthly estimates on each page are annual figures; add 20 to 30 percent in the obvious hotspots for the January month and book earlier than you think.
Build the full year around it with the circuit builder, which will pair a tropical winter with a European or Caucasus summer and keep the Schengen count legal.
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