When to travel
118 destinations where May is the season worth going — with what each one costs a day, how safe it rates, and flights from your airport.
May is the month experienced travellers protect: summer weather, spring prices, and the last few weeks before Europe fills up. Central Asia is at its one genuinely comfortable moment of the year.
The ones we would book this month, and why this month.
Samarkand and Bukhara before the Silk Road turns into an oven. From late June the desert cities pass 40°C daily.
The Atlantic is warming, the Algarve is not yet full, and Lisbon in May is the version of Lisbon everyone thinks they are booking in August.
Monasteries, mountains and the greenest month of the Caucasian year, at around €35 a day.
Every destination in season this month, cheapest first. Daily cost is bed, food and getting around — not flights.
Seasons here are the destination’s own, not the calendar’s: for Argentina or New Zealand, “summer” means December to February. Daily costs are typical mid-range budgets, last reviewed in August 2026.