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Quick Answer

February is the month the winter-sun map gets smaller. Only four places in Europe average above 20 °C, all of them Canary Islands: Lanzarote (21.3 °C), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (21.2 °C), Gran Canaria (21.2 °C) and Fuerteventura (21.0 °C) by AEMET’s normals. Funchal in Madeira drops to 19.9 °C and falls off the list it made in January. The islands gain 0.2 to 0.6 °C over January while the calendar takes away every cheap week: school holidays run unbroken from 1 February to 8 March 2027.

Where to go in February 2027, and why it costs more than January

Most month guides treat February as January with better weather. The met services and the school calendars both say otherwise.

The weather barely moves. The prices move a lot, and in the wrong direction. If your dates are fixed to half term, skip to the temperature table and pick the driest island. Everyone else has a real decision to make, and it is mostly about which week.

The February table, from the met services

VoyageHacks pulled every figure below from the national meteorological service that publishes it, on 21 August 2026. Each row states its own normal period, because the agencies do not share one: AEMET’s public station pages carry 1981-2010, IPMA publishes 1991-2020, MGM publishes a series running from 1930.

DestinationMean daily max, FebruaryChange vs JanuaryMean tempFebruary rainfallSource and period
Lanzarote airport21.3 °C+0.617.9 °C18 mmAEMET, 1981-2010
Santa Cruz de Tenerife21.2 °C+0.218.3 °C35 mmAEMET, 1981-2010
Gran Canaria airport21.2 °C+0.418.2 °C24 mmAEMET, 1981-2010
Fuerteventura airport21.0 °C+0.417.9 °C16 mmAEMET, 1981-2010
Funchal, Madeira19.9 °C-0.116.8 °Csee noteIPMA, 1991-2020
Málaga airport17.7 °C+0.912.9 °C60 mmAEMET, 1981-2010
Almería airport17.6 °C+0.713.3 °C25 mmAEMET, 1981-2010
Faro, Algarve17.0 °C+0.712.9 °Csee noteIPMA, 1991-2020
Antalya15.6 °C+0.610.7 °C148.1 mmMGM, 1930-2025

Three things in that table are worth stopping on.

Funchal goes backwards. IPMA’s 1991-2020 normal records a February mean daily maximum of 19.9 °C against January’s 20.0 °C. It is a tenth of a degree and it is well inside the noise, but it means the honest count of European places above 20 °C in February is four, not five. Anyone selling you February as the warmer month is not reading the normals.

Lanzarote overtakes Tenerife. In January the order was Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura. In February it is Lanzarote first at 21.3 °C. The four are separated by 0.3 °C, which is another way of saying the ranking is meaningless and you should choose on something else.

Antalya improves and still is not warm. Rainfall falls from 225.5 mm to 148.1 mm, a real improvement, and February is no longer the wettest month of its year. The mean daily maximum is 15.6 °C. It is a drier winter, not a spring.

What February actually buys you over January

Half a degree, and one extra warm day in Madeira.

That last one is real but small. IPMA records 0.3 days above 25 °C at Funchal in February against 0.0 in January, the first such day of the year. Faro is still at 0.0. Nowhere in the table is beach weather in the July sense.

The rain picture shifts more usefully than the temperature does. Fuerteventura at 16 mm and Lanzarote at 18 mm stay the driest of the islands, while Santa Cruz de Tenerife rises to 35 mm, its wettest reading in this table. On the mainland, Almería at 25 mm is drier than Málaga at 60 mm by a factor of more than two, on temperatures within 0.1 °C of each other. If a February mainland trip has to happen, that is the choice worth making.

The 36 days with no cheap week in them

January’s price story was simple: the Christmas holidays end and everything drops. February has no such window, and the official calendars show exactly why.

  • 1 to 6 February. Berlin’s Winterferien, fixed in the Berlin Ferienordnung.
  • 4 February. Weiberfastnacht. Cologne’s street carnival opens, per the City of Cologne.
  • 6 to 22 February. France Zone C, under the 2026-2027 arrêté.
  • 8 to 10 February. Rosenmontag, Veilchendienstag, Ash Wednesday. Carnival peaks across Europe on these three days.
  • 13 to 21 February. Netherlands, regio zuid. These are advisory dates from the education ministry, not fixed ones, so individual schools vary.
  • 13 February to 1 March. France Zone A.
  • 15 to 19 February. England half term in much of the country. Councils set their own week: the Royal Borough of Greenwich publishes these dates, and a minority of authorities take the week of 8 February instead.
  • 20 to 28 February. Netherlands, regio noord and midden, again advisory.
  • 20 February to 8 March. France Zone B.

Lay those end to end and there is no gap. From 1 February to 8 March 2027, a stretch of 36 days, some major European source market is always on holiday. That is why February prices behave the way they do, and it is not something a weather forecast will ever explain to you.

The practical read: if you are travelling without school-age children, February is the month to skip, and the third week of January or the first half of March will buy you a near-identical climate for less.

Carnival, the one thing February has that January does not

Carnival is fixed by Easter, which falls late in 2027, so the whole season lands in the second week of February.

The City of Cologne publishes the session dates: Weiberfastnacht on Thursday 4 February, Rosenmontag on Monday 8 February, Veilchendienstag on Tuesday 9 February and Ash Wednesday on Wednesday 10 February 2027. Every carnival city in Europe peaks on that same Shrove Tuesday, because they are all counting back from the same Easter.

This is the honest case for travelling in February anyway. You are paying holiday prices for half a degree of extra warmth, but you are also getting the one week of the year when a dozen European cities put on their biggest street event. Book that deliberately, not by accident.

The trade-off is worth stating plainly: carnival week is the most expensive week of an already expensive month, and the cities running it are cold. Cologne in early February is a winter city. Go for the parade, not for the climate.

Where February goes wrong

You assumed it was warmer than January

By the normals it is warmer by 0.2 to 0.9 °C depending on the station, and cooler at Funchal. Nobody can feel that. What you can feel is the price.

You booked half term without checking which half term

Five different official calendars overlap across February 2027, and they are staggered on purpose. If your own country’s holiday is the week of 15 February, the week of 1 February may still be quieter and cheaper at the destination, even though Berlin is out.

You picked the island on temperature again

0.3 °C separates the four. Rainfall does not: Fuerteventura’s 16 mm against Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s 35 mm is a real difference in what a week looks like.

You expected the Mediterranean to have turned the corner

Antalya at 148.1 mm and 15.6 °C is drier than January and no warmer than a mild northern spring. The mainland Mediterranean does not become a beach destination until well after February.

Sources

VoyageHacks checked every figure on this page against the organisation that publishes it, on 21 August 2026. None of these numbers are forecasts, and the school dates are the official published calendars, which schools in some countries may vary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is it warm in Europe in February?

Four places, all in the Canary Islands. AEMET’s normals give Lanzarote airport a 21.3 °C mean daily maximum in February, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 21.2 °C, Gran Canaria airport 21.2 °C and Fuerteventura airport 21.0 °C. Funchal in Madeira, which clears 20 °C in January, sits at 19.9 °C in February by IPMA’s 1991-2020 normal, so the list is one shorter than January’s, not longer.

Is February warmer than January in the Canary Islands?

Barely. AEMET’s normals show a gain of 0.2 °C at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 0.4 °C at Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura and 0.6 °C at Lanzarote. The order changes more than the temperature does: Lanzarote is the warmest station in February at 21.3 °C, having been third in January at 20.7 °C.

When is the February half term in 2027?

It runs across five weeks because no two countries agree. Berlin’s Winterferien are 1 to 6 February 2027 by the Berlin Ferienordnung. France staggers three zones under its 2026-2027 arrêté: Zone C from 6 to 22 February, Zone A from 13 February to 1 March, Zone B from 20 February to 8 March. The Dutch advisory dates are 13 to 21 February for the south and 20 to 28 February for the north and middle. In England the week varies by council: the Royal Borough of Greenwich sets 15 to 19 February 2027.

Is February a cheap month to travel?

Not in 2027, and that is the difference from January. Counting the official calendars together, some major European market is on school holiday from 1 February straight through to 8 March 2027, a 36-day block with no gap in it. January’s cheap middle three weeks have no equivalent in February.

When is carnival in 2027?

Carnival peaks in the second week of February. The City of Cologne sets Weiberfastnacht on Thursday 4 February 2027, Rosenmontag on Monday 8 February, Veilchendienstag on Tuesday 9 February and Ash Wednesday on Wednesday 10 February. Because the date is set by Easter, every carnival city in Europe peaks on that same Shrove Tuesday.

Has the Mediterranean dried out by February?

It improves without becoming dry. The Turkish State Meteorological Service records 148.1 mm of rain at Antalya in February against 225.5 mm in January, a drop of about a third, with the mean daily maximum still only 15.6 °C. Málaga goes from 69 mm to 60 mm by AEMET’s normals. February is a drier Mediterranean than January, not a warm one.

Ready to price a February trip?

Decide first whether you are buying weather or carnival, because February only sells one of them at a fair price.

If it is weather, the four islands are within 0.3 °C of each other and you should be choosing on rainfall and flight cost. If it is carnival, pick the city and accept that the climate is beside the point.

Next in the calendar: where to go in January for the cheap month this one replaces, then September , October , November and December . If the kind of trip matters more than the month, the travel styles cover beach, city, ski and the rest, and the hotels hub has the stay-side guides.