It’s time to rejoice, guys – for those of us living in the northern hemisphere, spring has well and truly (finally) sprung, bringing with it lovely balmy temperatures and long evenings.
However, the proper heat of summer is still a couple of months away, so it’s a pretty good time to bank some early vitamin D – and thanks to a new study by holiday rental platform Holidu, we now know the best places.
It analysed data from World Weather Online to find the European cities that bask in the most sun, and topping the list is Cartagena, a Spanish port city in the country’s southeastern region.
Recommended: These are Europe’s greatest places, according to TIME.
According to the study, the city has an average of 283 hours of sun per month, which is almost 12 whole days, and an average monthly temperature of 19.1C /66.38F, peaking at around 29C/84.2F in July and August.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Spain claims every spot in the top five, and 11 overall spots in the top 20, with Alicante and Malaga rounding out the top three. The former gets around 279.6 hours of sun per month, the latter closely behind with 279.3.
Destinations across Italy, Greece and France also made the list, so check out the full roundup of the top 20 below. Oh, and check out the best beaches in Europe here.
These are Europe’s 20 sunniest cities
- Cartagena, Spain, 283 hours of sun
- Alicante, Spain, 279.6
- Malaga, Spain, 279.3
- Murcia, Spain, 277
- Granada, Spain, 274.4
- Catania, Italy, 273.7
- Sevilla, Spain, 273.4
- Cordoba, Spain, 268.2
- Marseille, France, 266.1
- Madrid, Spain, 265.4
- Saragossa, Spain, 264.5
- Athens, Greece, 261.6
- Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 259
- Nice, France, 252.5
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, 251.1
- Bari, Italy, 248.9
- Rome, Italy, 247.5
- Palermo, Italy, 247.4
- Montpellier, France, 247.1
- Naples, Italy, 242.9
Wondering where’s best to soak up those rays? Check out the cities around the world with the most green space here.
Did you see that these are Europe’s greatest places, according to TIME?
Plus: The eight European cities with the best public transport, according to Time Out.
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