Coolcation

Where it's cool in May

A coolcation, on this site, is anywhere with a mean daily high at or below 18°C. May gives you 51 of the 295 curated destinations with a ten-year record this month (of 497 curated in total). The ranking below is by low day-to-day swing, not by which is coldest.

May coolcation options on the ten-year record: 51 of 295 curated destinations with ten-year daily records sit at or below 18°C mean daily high (of 497 curated in total; the remainder do not yet have a full ten-year series for May). The list below ranks them by day-to-day steadiness, not raw temperature.

The coldest reading in the dataset for May is Svalbard at -2°. The warmest still inside the cool band is Buenos Aires at 18°. Pack layers, not a coat.

Coolcation is defined here as mean daily high at or below 18°C. That threshold is a firm number, chosen for room-temperature comfort with a light layer. Nothing on this page describes forecasts. The averages are climate.

Curated by Hugo · Updated July 2026
Reed boats on the high blue water of Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca, Peru
Deb Dowd / Unsplash License
Limestone stacks along the Great Ocean Road at dusk
Twelve Apostles, Australia
Victor / Unsplash License
Blue icebergs drifting toward the Atlantic in Iceland
Jokulsarlon, Iceland
rolf gelpke / Unsplash License
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Displaying historical averages for the month of May.

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Top 10 destinations in May

  1. 1.Lake Titicaca, Peru

    17°

    Averages 17° in May with swings barely 2° either side of 17° and 4 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  2. 2.Colca Canyon, Peru

    13°

    Averages 13° in May with swings barely 2° either side of 13° and 9 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  3. 3.Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

    14°

    Averages 14° in May with swings barely 2° either side of 14° and 0 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  4. 4.La Paz, Bolivia

    15°

    Averages 15° in May with swings barely 2° either side of 15° and 4 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  5. 5.Twelve Apostles, Australia

    15°

    Averages 15° in May with a 6° day-to-day spread around 15° and 11 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  6. 6.Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, Iceland

    9°

    Averages 9° in May with a 6° day-to-day spread around 9° and 14 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  7. 7.Puerto Varas, Chile

    13°

    Averages 13° in May with a 6° day-to-day spread around 13° and 14 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  8. 8.Hobart, Australia

    15°

    Averages 15° in May with a 7° day-to-day spread around 15° and 6 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  9. 9.Dublin, Ireland

    16°

    Averages 16° in May with a 7° day-to-day spread around 16° and 7 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

  10. 10.Anchorage, United States

    14°

    Averages 14° in May with an 8° day-to-day spread around 14° and 4 rain days on the ten-year record. Cool without being wintry. Layers, not a coat.

Average temperatures by destination

Showing 57 of 80 destinations

DestinationCountryAvg high
SvalbardSvalbard and Jan Mayen-2°
IqaluitCanada-1°
LongyearbyenNorway0°
IlulissatGreenland3°
ChurchillCanada4°
NuukGreenland4°
Abisko National ParkSweden7°
High TatrasSlovakia7°
UshuaiaArgentina7°
Valley of Geysers, KamchatkaRussia7°
Bran CastleRomania9°
Jökulsárlón Glacier LagoonIceland9°
QaqortoqGreenland9°
TromsøNorway9°
San Carlos de BarilocheArgentina10°
Kanas LakeChina11°
Lake BaikalRussia11°
Yellowstone National ParkUnited States11°
QueenstownNew Zealand12°
TadoussacCanada12°
Colca CanyonPeru13°
Puerto VarasChile13°
AnchorageUnited States14°
BamiyanAfghanistan14°
KetchikanUnited States14°
Kizhi IslandRussia14°
LehIndia14°
Salar de UyuniBolivia14°
BergenNorway15°
HobartAustralia15°
La PazBolivia15°
Lake DistrictUnited Kingdom15°
Mount Everest North Base CampChina15°
Twelve ApostlesAustralia15°
AalborgDenmark16°
DublinIreland16°
FairbanksUnited States16°
Lake Issyk-KulKyrgyzstan16°
Mount ElbrusRussia16°
Mount PaektuNorth Korea16°
Neuschwanstein CastleGermany16°
StockholmSweden16°
ŚwinoujściePoland16°
Curonian SpitRussia17°
GoesNetherlands17°
JasperCanada17°
Jiuzhaigou ValleyChina17°
Lake TiticacaPeru17°
MelbourneAustralia17°
Quebec CityCanada17°
WhistlerCanada17°
Buenos AiresArgentina18°
MendozaArgentina18°
Mont Saint-MichelFrance18°
MoscowRussia18°
Punta del EsteUruguay18°
VilniusLithuania18°

Readings come from the last ten years of daily weather data, so they reflect the climate as it is now, not as it was decades ago. Data: Visual Crossing global historical archive. How we compute this

Frequently asked

Where is reliably cool in May?
In the 12-18°C cool-comfort band, the driest and steadiest May averages on the ten-year record are: Lake Titicaca (17°C, about 4 rain days, a 4° spread). Also dry, but with a wider day-to-day spread: Salar de Uyuni (14°C, about 0 rain days, a 5° spread); Mendoza (18°C, about 2 rain days, an 11° spread); La Paz (15°C, about 4 rain days, a 5° spread).
What counts as a coolcation in May?
On this site, a coolcation is anywhere with a mean daily high at or below 18°C. In May that filters 51 of 295 curated destinations with a ten-year record. The warmest in-band pick is Buenos Aires at 18°; the steadiest day-to-day is Lake Titicaca with a 4° spread.
Is May the right month for a coolcation?
It depends on where you go. In May the ten-year record puts 51 curated destinations at or below 18°C mean daily high. If that count is small, the northern hemisphere is warming and southern-hemisphere hill stations or high-latitude coasts do most of the work. If it is large, the reverse.

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