With our sun-soaked beaches and stunning sky-high bars, Sydney does summer well. In fact, we do summer so well that people travel across the world to get a taste – with the Harbour City just ranking in joint first place as the best winter sun hotspot in the world.
A new report from luggage company Bounce identified the world’s favourite destinations for a dose of winter sunshine, and along with Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory, the Emerald City ranked at number one.
To determine the best destinations around the world for winter sunshine, the team at Bounce analysed a number of factors: average temperature, rainfall and nightly price (that’s likely where we fell down), plus various searches for “winter”. The data was collected based on the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months (January, February and December), so naturally our weather stats were pretty darn lovely. The stats were then integrated to determine an overall total out of ten, with Sydney scoring a “winter sun score” of 6.45 out of ten. With identical total scores, Darwin and Sydney weren't the only two Aussie destinations to make the list, with Broome coming in fourth place with a "winter sun score" of 6.14.
For cost-conscious travellers, we can’t deny that Darwin out-did us, with the average nightly price in Darwin sitting at £81 (around $160 Aussie dollars), compared with £189 in Sydney (that’s an average price of $372 for a stay in the Harbour City). The report also analysed sea temperatures, sunshine hours, and searches for things to do – factors which (unsurprisingly) gave Sydney the edge. According to the data, Sydney experiences 250mm less rainfall than Darwin in December through February, and visitors will enjoy more sun – with an average of nine daily sunshine hours in those key “winter” (Southern Hemisphere summer) months.
The best winter sun destinations in the world are:
1. Darwin
1. Sydney
3. Phuket
4. Broome
5. Tenerife
6. Cancun
7. Hanoi
8. Fuerteventura
9. Malaga
9. Siem Reap
You can view the full report over here.
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