Are you planning a trip to Europe and wondering when is the best time to go? Let’s see what it really means to travel off season to Europe.
It is a well known fact that Europeans take long vacations in Summer. This is particularly true for French people, but not just them. It seems that everybody flocks to the French Riviera or other seaside areas and leave behind empty cities like Paris, which, for a short time, are left to foreign tourists.
Logically, for Europe, summer is considered peak travel season and off-season is usually defined as the period form end of November through March.
Despite this consensus, in my opinion, talking about off-season travels nowadays, doesn’t really make sense anymore. This is with European destinations in mind. Off-season for whom? For what? It is more complicated that that.
Of course there are travel peaks for Christmas, and in the Northern hemisphere summer, but there isn’t a European travel peak for Thanksgiving. That’s a US thing. There is a travel peak for Chinese New Year, but pretty much only in China.
Traveling off-season is therefore a notion which is tad hard to apply broadly, especially when it comes to a whole continent or even just a whole country. Maybe it should be about “adventuring to places when no one is going”. Hum, not catchy enough! Got to work on that!!
For now, I’ll still call the concept ‘traveling off-season’, for I lack a better option.
So, what does it mean to travel off-season to Europe? What are the benefits and downsides, if any? Let’s see…
Benefits of traveling off-season
The most commonly cited benefits of traveling off-season are cheaper prices and less people around. But is it really the case when traveling to Europe?
Cheaper transport & accommodations
When traveling off-season, the main expenses, you’ll generally save on, are airfare and accommodations.
Transport and accommodations expenses are obviously be a huge part of travel spending so this can be a big one. But it’s not simple anymore.
I’m no expert, but it seems logical to say that airfares don’t just depends on where you are going. They also depend on where you are coming from. In which case, it is worth wondering: is it more important that it is off-season where you live or where you are going? A bit of both, most likely. Generally to get great discount on airfares, you can’t be picky about the day of departure, the time of departure and the destination. If you want to go to Paris, you might want to flight to Madrid first, for example.
With regards to accommodations, it’s not as simple as it may seems either. In big cities, prices don’t really fluctuate that much. If you find an incredible deal in London or Paris, there’s just most likely something wrong with the place!
It is true that in ‘resort style’ areas (sea side, mountains…), they usually have 3 time periods going from peak to off peak and 3 different base prices.
Don’t believe me? Think about it then. In most hotels, the rooms’ base prices will be indicated on a board on the door of your room, next to the emergency exit instructions. In Paris or London or other big cities, these prices are be fixed.
With accommodations, you can get discounts, but there are prices below which hotels and others alike, can’t operate. This is true no matter how many stars the accommodation has.
There are less people around!
The other main benefit often cited about off season travel is that there are less people around. Isn’t that nice! Less people, everywhere! Less people in restaurants, in queues for museums and other attractions.
But have you ever seen Paris or London empty? Not really.
When locals are not on vacation, there are times of the day when you may not feel there are less people around. Try taking the tube before 9AM in London and you’ll understand!
It is true that Paris in August is different. Parisiens have left their place to tourists and the atmosphere isn’t the same.
Most of the time, when you read that when traveling off season, there will be less people around, it means less tourists like you. Not less locals! And locals usually represent a lot of people!
Now it still is nice to have less tourists around. It means less queue in museums, exhibitions and other attractions. That’s still something to celebrate!
Downsides of traveling off season
So you guessed from the above that I don’t really think there are clearly defined off seasons to travel to Europe and these are no applicable to all. It all depends where you are going in Europe and what you want to do.
If you are traveling to big cities, you won’t see much difference. When it is freezing cold or pouring rain, there will be less people in the streets, like everywhere else. On the other end, when the weather is nice and sunny, people will be heading to parks and cafés with terraces to enjoy their best life.
If you are traveling outside of big cities, things are on a different scale but pretty much the same.
There are however a couple things that are worth pointing out if you are planning a trip to Europe, in winter.
Tourist sights can be closed or opening times can be limited
Some places do take advantages of lower tourists affluence to close down, completely or partially, for works and maintenance. Sometimes, they just have shorter opening hours or limited tours. This means, traveling off-season takes a bit more planning. Just to be sure the places you want to see are accessible.
Days are shorter
Days are significantly shorter in winter. You have to plan accordingly.
It’s always a fantastic idea to head to a museum, a castle or a cathedral to cool off in the middle of the afternoon, in summer. It’s a pity to do that in winter and come back out to see that you missed all the light.
You’d better get up early and make the most of it!
Weather is uncertain
It’s not unusually to have a whole week or even weeks of grey, dull, damp weather in winter. And it’s not that great to be a tourist when it’s raining all day, every day. If you’re planning to visit a lot of museums, then you may not be too affected but otherwise, it will be a bit depressing.
If you are planning to discover a city by foot, you are better off choosing a destination closer to the sea or ocean. Weather changes faster. Think Lisbon, Barcelona, maybe Amsterdam… rather than London, Paris, or Milan.
The good vibes may be missing
You will often hear that locals are more relaxed, once tourist are gone. If you’re only going to experience the locals through the receptionist at your hotel, the sale persons at tourist sights or the waiters in restaurants, then yes, it’s probably true that, these people are usually more relaxed, once most of the tourists are gone.
But the vibe of the place is not linked solely to tourist numbers. In fact, that’s probably way down on the list of factors that influence the local moods.
In big cities, the energy varies with the time of the year because of something called life! You know: works, bills to pay, family to visit, obligations, kids schedule…
September is all rush for back to school, than comes the Christmas vibe and a bit of craziness! There is a bit of a down vibe in January. all the winter lights are gone and people are in recovery mode from shopping spree. A bit of skying, some Easter planning… Things pick up when nicer days are coming and long bank holiday week-ends are planned. May and June are fantastic months, as, like flowers, people are blooming back to life just in time to rush out of their city, as long as they can, for the summer.
When traveling off-season, you may miss on the good vibes of a place. There are reasons why some places are popular at certain period. It’s sometimes a shame to miss that.
Sometimes, traveling off-season is a bit like arriving at a party when everyone else is leaving. You missed all the fun!
In conclusion?
So when is it best to travel to a place and in particular to Europe? Hard to tell from all of that.
Maybe it is when people who live there are in a good mood? Think Christmas markets or summer music festivals for examples. Maybe?
Maybe it is when tourists are gone? Yeah, but the weather can be awful?
Or maybe it is whenever YOU are available and are ready to go?!
What do you think?
Ressources for your next trip to Europe
I’ve recently create a cool little guide which explains French tourist road signs. It should be very useful, if you are heading to France! Check it out.
And I have a couple mini guides that will most likely also be very useful to you, if visiting castles or cathedrals. Check them out too!
My Roman mini guide is a must have and my latest masterpiece!
