The 10 best destinations for May sun
May is always an alluring time to reach for the passport – especially if you are desperate to throw off the cloaks and capes of winter, and feel a more benevolent sun on your bare arms. Europe and the United States are waking from hibernation, the Caribbean is still in a happy storm-free mood, and the rain is staying away from other, selected tropical zones.
Better still, if the burble of children at play is not your idea of the sweetest melody, May is a shoulder month between the youthful giggles of Easter and the sheer juvenile roar of the summer holidays – leaving shoreline resorts snoozing in placid, grown-up tranquility.
But where to go? Whether you like your days at rest to be the subject of warm, hot or utterly scorching temperatures, one of the destinations below will meet your expectations.
19°C-24°C
New York
Oh to take a bite of the Big Apple in May – a moment when the great city has shaken off its ferocious winter, but is not yet the sweatbox it becomes in July. Instead, this halcyon month finds America's most feted metropolis aglow in the low Twenties Celsius. Central Park and Battery Park are leafily resurgent; Governors Island – its summer playground, fixed a short ferry ride off the southern tip of Manhattan, is scheduled to reopen to the public on May 1.
Kirker Holidays offers three-night stays at The Parker, on fashionable West 57th Street, close to Fifth Avenue, Central Park, MOMA and Broadway, from ￡1,098pp, including flights.
See our guide to New York’s best hotels.
Sicily
The Mediterranean's largest island is a desirable destination at any juncture. But May wraps it in the embrace of the low Twenties – leaving Taormina, on the east coast, as some sort of heaven. Indeed, this fabled town – on the lip of the Ionian Sea yet, due to its clifftop location, 250 metres above it, and home to one of the finest examples of an ancient theatre in a country full of ancient itheatres – scarcely needs clement conditions to be a sliver of Italian elegance.
EasyJet and British Airways fly non-stop to Catania. See our guide to the Taormina’s best hotels.
Formentera
Those who want to sample the woozy charms of the Balearics, but don't want to throw themselves into the party ambience of Ibiza, may be tempted by the “White Island’s” tiny sibling. Formentera lies just four miles south of Spain's capital of club culture, but revels in a rather different vibe: cyclists rolling along the 19 “Green Routes” laced across its flat landscape; holidaymakers dozing on the sumptuous five-mile south-coast curve of Platja de Migjorn.
Tui pins its colours to this particular beach in the four-star Insotel Hotel Formentera Playa. One-week holidays in May cost from ￡487pp, including flights.
See our guide to Formentera’s best hotels.
25°C-29°C
Rio de Janeiro
South America's most eulogised city is, by its sweltering standards, a little cool in May – dropping to around 26°C (it pants in the low Thirties at the turn of the year). For UK travellers who want their holiday to be hot – but not too hot – this may be perfect.
Britons can also now take advantage of the first low-cost flights from the UK to Rio, courtesy of Norwegian. The airline has departures from Gatwick four days a week, with May one-way fares from ￡170. For a package, try British Airways.
See our guide to the best hotels in Rio.
Jordan
There can be a tendency, in these turbulent times, to view the entire Middle East as a no-go zone. But Jordan has remained largely immune to the problems which have wracked the region – and is an enormously fascinating country, awash with historic sites.
Cox & Kings proffers a “Splendours of Jordan” tour which takes seven nights to tick off the capital Amman, Mount Nebo, Petra, the desert contours of Wadi Rum (via a four-wheel-drive excursion) and the shore of the Dead Sea – from ￡1,545 per person, including flights. Better still, make this journey in May and you will be accompanied by temperatures clinging gladly to the upper Twenties.
Rhodes
There are few warmer corners of Europe in May than Rhodes, in the eastern Mediterranean. Expect a delightful heat of 25°C, well short of the blazing conditions of the Grecian August, with sunlight dancing on the medieval fortifications of Rhodes Town and the prime shoreline strips of Kallithea Beach and Tsambika Beach.
James Villas offers properties across the largest Dodecanese island – including, unusually, the circular Villa Panacea, built around a pool in the capital. It is available in May from ￡3,498 a week.
Zanzibar
The coming weeks can be opportune for a trip Tanzania’s Indian Ocean archipelago. The rainy season that starts in March tails off in May. Admittedly, this means the threat of a wet afternoon or two, but the reward for those who head to east Africa anyway is warmth that hovers in the upper Twenties whatever the sky does, lower prices and a sense of calm – some (but not all) hotels on the main island (Unguja) shut in this window.
Expert Africa sells a year-round “Ginger Beach Holiday” that mixes five nights on the east coast at the Breezes Beach Club (half board) with two at the Dhow Palace Hotel in Stone Town (b&b). Prices start at ￡753 a head, not including flights.
30°C and up
Bali
Indonesia's most holiday-focused island could never be described as “chilly”, but Bali is at its best between April and September, when the dry season bring cooler – though still sizzling – temperatures, and the day is free of the stickiness and downpours which come with the wet months (October-March). All the more reason to visit Seminyak, the resort area in the south of the island which spreads out as a haven of restaurants, bars, boutiques and beaches – such as Petitenget Beach and Legian Beach.
Scott Dunn turns its gaze to the latter in the shape of the five-star Samaya Seminyak resort. A seven-night stay starts at ￡3,100 a head (two sharing) – including flights.
See our guide to the best hotels in Bali.
Nevis
May is an ideal month to visit the Caribbean. The hurricane window of June-November is still in the future; the high season and peak demand of December-April, when Europe is ashiver, has ended. The fifth month of the year brings, instead, quiet weather and softer prices which cast, for example, Nevis in a seductive light. St Kitts's smaller partner keeps things simple. It is, in effect, a volcano fringed by powdery sands (though it is accessible by BA flights, via Antigua).
Elegant Resorts offers Montpelier Plantation – a former sugar estate where Horatio Nelson married Frances Nisbet in 1787. One-week stays from ￡794 a head – not including flights.
Tampa
Come May, Florida is firmly into its summer groove, with its west coast, on the Gulf of Mexico – untamed by Atlantic gusts – climbing into the low Thirties Celsius. This brings Tampa into play. Neither as chic as Miami nor as soaked in theme-park mania as Orlando, it is nonetheless an intriguing city – where the Museum of Art provides high culture in a sleek metallic building which opened in 2010, the Channelside district delivers a vibrant restaurant scene and relaxation awaits on the beach at Picnic Island Park.
British Airways serves the city from Gatwick – with a seven-night stay at the four-star Sheraton Sand Key Resort starting at ￡880pp, including flights.