Here is important information for everyone who wants a holiday in the sun with a guarantee that days are full of sunshine. Most travelers already knew that south Europe is the warm and sunny zone of Europe, and this ranking confirms it. Spain and Italy have most cities in the top 30, followed by France and Portugal.
Here are the top 30 sunniest cities in Europe according to Holidu.
- Cartagena, Spain 283 hours of sunshine in a month on average
- Alicante, Spain 279
- Malaga, Spain 279
- Murcia, Spain 277
- Granada, Spain 274
- Catania, Italy 273
- Sevilla, Spain 273
- Cordoba, Spain 268
- Marseille, France 266
- Madrid, Spain 265
- Zaragoza, Spain 264
- Athens, Greece 261
- Palma de Mallorca, Spain 259
- Nice, France 252
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain 251
- Bari, Italy 248
- Rome, Italy 247
- Palermo, Italy 247
- Montpellier, France 247
- Naples, Italy 242
- Messina, Italy 241
- Torino, Italy 241
- Lisbon, Portugal 237
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain 233
- Valladolid, Spain 232
- Bologna, Italy 222
- Milan, Italy 220
- Porto, Portugal 219
- Padua, Italy 219
- Genoa, Italy 215
Why can’t I find any destinations in Croatia, islands of Greece, or Portugal’s south coast Algarve in the ranking? Holidu, the company that produced the top 30 list, included only European cities with more than 200 000 inhabitants. The sun surely shines in many other southern Europe regions just as often as in the listed cities, but they are missing large cities. World Weather Online data from 2009 to 2025 was used in the ranking.
Sunshine is often linked to warm weather, and that is certainly so in south Europe. There are, however, cities in the ranking where summer months can be too warm for some travelers. Madrid is one of these cities. The average annual temperature for the city is 15.6 C. I have visited Madrid also in January. The nights were so cold that wet streets were on ice in the morning, but afternoons were nice, around 10-15 C on a sunny day. Summer is something else. In Madrid, it means average daytime temperatures of 32 C (up to 40 C is possible), and on average 19 C in the night. My point is that the average annual temperature doesn’t give travelers any clue what it is like in a destination in reality. Instead, look for day and night temperatures for the month you are going to travel.
