Europe out of season: November to March

What you gain

Price first, on the flight and on lodging. A central hotel that goes for a premium in July becomes affordable in February, and you choose among what is available rather than taking whatever has not gone.

Then the queues. Major museums, monuments and historic quarters can be visited without booking three weeks ahead and without an hour standing in the sun. That is a considerable difference in cities like Rome, Barcelona or Amsterdam.

Finally, the city becomes itself again. Out of season, cafes and restaurants in the centre mostly serve people who live there, which changes the feel of a neighbourhood entirely.

What you give up

Daylight, first of all. In December, in Paris or Berlin, darkness falls around 4:30pm. That shortens sightseeing days and has to be built into the plan.

Some things close. On coasts and islands, a share of hotels, restaurants and ferries stop running from October to April. Mediterranean beach towns are particularly affected, and a Greek island out of season can be genuinely dead.

The weather, obviously. Northern Europe is grey and damp, and it rains a great deal in London, Dublin and Amsterdam. It is not colder than home, but it is wet in a way that wears on you.

Where it works best

European destinations do not all respond to winter the same way.

• The big museum cities : Paris, London, Vienna, Berlin, Madrid. The programme is indoors anyway, and you get the full benefit of short queues.
• Southern Iberia and the Atlantic islands : Seville, Lisbon, Malaga, the Canaries. Genuinely mild in midwinter, with days where you eat outside at lunch. Madeira adds walking: around 19°C by day in January, and most of the levada trails can be walked all winter.
• Christmas markets : Vienna, Prague, Strasbourg, Krakow in December. The season is the trip, but book early: those weeks are the only expensive ones in winter.
• The far north, for the northern lights : Tromsø in Norway and Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland have their high season in winter: northern lights, dog sledding, snowmobiling. Further north, Longyearbyen in Svalbard sits in polar night from mid-November to late January, and the aurora can show up in the middle of the afternoon. It is their most expensive season, so the low-season price argument does not apply here.
• What to avoid out of season : Greek and Croatian islands, and small Italian coastal towns. You save a lot and find half the businesses shut.

February and March, the best compromise

If you have to pick one window, late February and March are often the best balance. Prices stay low, days lengthen noticeably, and southern Europe starts warming without having recovered its crowds.

Avoid Quebec school break week, when fares from here jump sharply, and the holiday period, which is the most expensive of the year across the Atlantic.

Vol Spot destination pages show the date window of the fare we spotted, so you can see immediately whether the deal falls in low season or in a peak.