Europe's climate is as variable as everything else about
the Continent. In northwestern Europe - Benelux, Denmark,
southwestern Norway, most of France and parts of Germany, as well
as the British Isles - the climate is basically a cool temperate
one, with the chance of rain all year round and no great extremes
of either cold or hot weather. There is no bad time to travel in
most of this part of the Continent, although the winter months
between November and March can be damp and miserable - especially
in the upland regions - and obviously the summer period between May
and September sees the most reliable and driest weather.
In eastern Europe , on the other hand, basically to the
right of a north-south line drawn roughly through the heart of
Germany and extending down as far as the western edge of Bulgaria
(taking in eastern Germany, Poland, central Russia, the Baltic
states, southern Sweden, the Czech and Slovak republics, Austria,
Switzerland, Hungary and Romania), the climatic conditions are more
extreme, with freezing winters and sometimes sweltering summers.
Here the transitional spring and autumn seasons are the most
pleasant time to travel; deep midwinter, especially, can be very
unpleasant, although it doesn't have the dampness you associate
with the northwestern European climate.
Southern Europe , principally the countries that border
the Mediterranean and associated seas - southern France, Italy,
Spain, Portugal, Greece and western Turkey - has the most
hospitable climate in Europe, with a general pattern of warm, dry
summers and mild winters. Travel is possible at any time of year
here, although the peak summer months can be very hot and very busy
and the deep winter ones can see some rain.
There are, too, marked regional variations within these three
broad groupings. As they're such large countries, inland Spain and
France can, for example, see a continental type of weather
as extreme as any in central Europe, and the Alpine areas of Italy,
Austria and Switzerland - and other mountain areas like the
Pyrenees, Apennines and parts of the Balkans - have a climate
mainly influenced by altitude, which means extremes of cold, short
summers, and long winters that always see snow. There are also, of
course, the northern regions of Russia and Scandinavia, which have
an Arctic climate - again, bitterly cold, though with some
surprisingly warm temperatures during the short summer when much of
the region is warmed by the Gulf Stream. Winter sees the sun barely
rise at all in these areas, while high summer can mean almost
perpetual daylight.
There are obviously other considerations when deciding when
to go . If you're planning to visit fairly touristed areas,
especially beach resorts in the Mediterranean, avoid July and
August, when the weather can be too hot and the crowds at their
most congested. Bear in mind, also, that in a number of countries
in Europe everyone takes their vacation at the same time
(this is certainly true in France, Spain and Italy where everyone
goes away in August). Find out the holiday month beforehand for the
countries where you intend to travel, since you can expect the
crush to be especially bad in the resorts; in the cities the only
other people around will be fellow tourists, which can be
miserable. In northern Scandinavia the climatic extremes are such
that you'll find opening times severely restricted, even road and
rail lines closed, outside the May-September period, making travel
futile and sometimes impossible outside these months. In
mountainous areas things stay open for the winter sports season,
which lasts from December through to April, though outside the main
resorts you'll again find many things closed. Mid-April to mid-June
can be a quiet period in many mountain resorts, and you may have
much of the mountains to yourselves.