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Best beach destinations in Europe in December: ranked by beach score

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria tops the list at 64 /100 in December. Ranked from 1991–2020 climate normals across 50 destinations in Europe.

Top three in December: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (64 /100) , La Laguna (50 /100) , Limassol (46 /100) . Between first and 50th place the beach score differs by 55 /100.

# Destination Country Beach score Avg high Avg low Rainfall Wet days Sunshine Sea temp
1 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain 64 /100 20 °C 16 °C 35 mm 6 298 h 21 °C
2 La Laguna Spain 50 /100 17 °C 14 °C 52 mm 8 294 h 21 °C
3 Limassol Cyprus 46 /100 17 °C 11 °C 59 mm 8 262 h 20 °C
4 Almería Spain 42 /100 17 °C 9.0 °C 29 mm 4 267 h 16 °C
5 Nicosia Cyprus 41 /100 17 °C 9.1 °C 53 mm 8 257 h 19 °C
6 Cartagena Spain 39 /100 16 °C 11 °C 25 mm 4 255 h 16 °C
7 Elche Spain 38 /100 16 °C 7.5 °C 23 mm 4 249 h 16 °C
8 Alicante Spain 36 /100 16 °C 9.0 °C 32 mm 5 248 h 16 °C
9 Jerez de la Frontera Spain 34 /100 17 °C 7.9 °C 80 mm 7 241 h 17 °C
10 Valletta Malta 34 /100 16 °C 14 °C 70 mm 10 253 h 18 °C
11 Valencia Spain 33 /100 15 °C 7.8 °C 35 mm 5 237 h 16 °C
12 Palma Spain 32 /100 15 °C 11 °C 38 mm 6 242 h 17 °C
13 Castelló de la Plana Spain 30 /100 15 °C 7.4 °C 35 mm 5 234 h 16 °C
14 Catania Italy 30 /100 15 °C 9.0 °C 66 mm 8 228 h 17 °C
15 Málaga Spain 30 /100 16 °C 11 °C 69 mm 7 243 h 16 °C
16 Athens Greece 27 /100 13 °C 7.0 °C 64 mm 8 210 h 17 °C
17 Gibraltar Gibraltar 27 /100 16 °C 11 °C 116 mm 10 245 h 17 °C
18 Marbella Spain 27 /100 15 °C 10 °C 115 mm 9 241 h 16 °C
19 Vladivostok Russia 25 /100 -4.5 °C -10 °C 17 mm 3 226 h 2.7 °C
20 Sabadell Spain 24 /100 12 °C 4.3 °C 40 mm 5 225 h 15 °C
21 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat Spain 23 /100 13 °C 6.1 °C 40 mm 5 226 h 15 °C
22 Barcelona Spain 23 /100 13 °C 6.1 °C 42 mm 6 227 h 15 °C
23 Palermo Italy 22 /100 15 °C 10 °C 72 mm 11 237 h 17 °C
24 Lisbon Portugal 21 /100 14 °C 10 °C 79 mm 9 224 h 16 °C
25 Toulon France 21 /100 12 °C 7.2 °C 68 mm 7 217 h 15 °C
26 Marseille France 20 /100 12 °C 6.3 °C 54 mm 7 220 h 15 °C
27 Taranto Italy 20 /100 13 °C 7.8 °C 66 mm 8 219 h 16 °C
28 Nice France 19 /100 12 °C 6.2 °C 83 mm 8 216 h 15 °C
29 Monaco Monaco 19 /100 12 °C 6.3 °C 83 mm 8 216 h 15 °C
30 Odesa Ukraine 19 /100 3.9 °C -0.4 °C 30 mm 6 116 h 8.0 °C
31 Thessaloníki Greece 19 /100 10 °C 3.1 °C 70 mm 8 191 h 15 °C
32 Makhachkala Russia 18 /100 6.3 °C 1.9 °C 29 mm 6 170 h 8.5 °C
33 Pátra Greece 17 /100 13 °C 6.8 °C 132 mm 13 214 h 17 °C
34 Naples Italy 17 /100 13 °C 7.0 °C 134 mm 12 204 h 17 °C
35 Constanţa Romania 16 /100 6.3 °C 1.0 °C 43 mm 7 154 h 9.6 °C
36 Bari Italy 16 /100 13 °C 8.6 °C 60 mm 9 209 h 15 °C
37 Genoa Italy 16 /100 10 °C 4.9 °C 126 mm 10 169 h 16 °C
38 Varna Bulgaria 15 /100 7.1 °C 1.7 °C 48 mm 8 161 h 9.9 °C
39 Mariupol Ukraine 15 /100 1.8 °C -1.8 °C 41 mm 8 94 h 4.7 °C
40 Livorno Italy 15 /100 12 °C 6.7 °C 88 mm 11 198 h 16 °C
41 Messina Italy 14 /100 15 °C 10 °C 134 mm 15 229 h 17 °C
42 Durrës Albania 13 /100 13 °C 8.1 °C 154 mm 13 211 h 16 °C
43 Taganrog Russia 13 /100 1.3 °C -2.2 °C 51 mm 9 99 h 4.9 °C
44 Montpellier France 13 /100 11 °C 5.1 °C 77 mm 9 209 h 14 °C
45 Sevastopol Ukraine 12 /100 7.4 °C 3.2 °C 50 mm 9 158 h 11 °C
46 Severodvinsk Russia 11 /100 -4.7 °C -8.8 °C 32 mm 10 6 h 0.3 °C
47 Gdańsk Poland 11 /100 3.0 °C -0.6 °C 41 mm 10 78 h 6.2 °C
48 Stockholm Sweden 10 /100 1.7 °C -1.8 °C 46 mm 10 60 h 4.9 °C
49 Reggio Calabria Italy 10 /100 14 °C 8.6 °C 152 mm 15 229 h 17 °C
50 Odense Denmark 9.9 /100 4.5 °C 1.1 °C 49 mm 10 84 h 4.3 °C

Monthly values for the month named in the ranking; only destinations with a published climate page are ranked. Download this ranking as CSV.

The same ranking one month earlier and later

November: top 5

  1. Limassol 78 /100
  2. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 76 /100
  3. Nicosia 74 /100
  4. La Laguna 61 /100
  5. Valletta 57 /100

Full ranking for November

January: top 5

  1. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 57 /100
  2. La Laguna 46 /100
  3. Almería 34 /100
  4. Limassol 31 /100
  5. Cartagena 30 /100

Full ranking for January

How this ranking is built

What is ranked
Our 0–100 beach score (formula on the methodology page), in December, highest first.
Period
1991–2020 climate normals: the same 30 years for every destination, so the list compares like with like.
Who is included
50 destinations in Europe with a published climate page. Neighbouring places that share a climate series are shown once.
Ties
Equal values are ordered by sea temperature.
Sources
ERA5 / ERA5-Land reanalysis via Open-Meteo; sea temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1. Measured values are reproduced unchanged; only the ordering and the score is ours.

Data sources and method

Normal period
1991–2020
Dataset version
era5-1991-2020-scores1.1
Last processed

Measured values come from ERA5 reanalysis and are reproduced unchanged. Calculated by us: ranking order, beach and comfort scores. Full formulas are on the methodology page.

Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.