Where to go in January? Quieter places in Europe and Japan

How we picked the quieter places

For each country and prefecture, we took its 2025 nights at tourist accommodation and worked out what share fell in January. If a place's visitors were spread evenly, each month would carry 8.3% of its year. A share below that means January was quieter than that place's average month; above it, busier.¹²

This compares each place with itself, not places with each other: a low share is a quiet month for that place. For how each year looks in full, open the country or prefecture page.

Europe in January: all 35 countries, quietest share first

In 34 of the 35 countries, January carried less than an average month's share (8.3%) of 2025's tourist nights.¹

Where was January the quietest month of the year?

In 2025, January was the quietest month in 19 European countries and 16 Japanese prefectures.¹²

• Croatia (Europe): 0.7% of the year's nights
• Greece (Europe): 1.1% of the year's nights
• Montenegro (Europe): 1.4% of the year's nights
• Sweden (Europe): 4.8% of the year's nights
• Denmark (Europe): 3.7% of the year's nights
• Norway (Europe): 4.9% of the year's nights
• Luxembourg (Europe): 4.1% of the year's nights
• Cyprus (Europe): 1.6% of the year's nights
• Ireland (Europe): 3.3% of the year's nights
• Hungary (Europe): 5.0% of the year's nights
• Spain (Europe): 4.5% of the year's nights
• Czechia (Europe): 5.6% of the year's nights
• Poland (Europe): 5.8% of the year's nights
• Belgium (Europe): 4.4% of the year's nights
• Estonia (Europe): 5.5% of the year's nights
• Portugal (Europe): 4.4% of the year's nights
• Lithuania (Europe): 6.5% of the year's nights
• Germany (Europe): 4.8% of the year's nights
• Malta (Europe): 4.8% of the year's nights
• Toyama (Japan): 5.5% of the year's nights
• Fukui (Japan): 5.8% of the year's nights
• Aomori (Japan): 6.2% of the year's nights
• Kochi (Japan): 6.1% of the year's nights
• Okinawa (Japan): 6.6% of the year's nights
• Fukushima (Japan): 6.9% of the year's nights
• Nagasaki (Japan): 6.4% of the year's nights
• Ishikawa (Japan): 6.3% of the year's nights
• Nara (Japan): 5.7% of the year's nights
• Miyagi (Japan): 6.8% of the year's nights
• Okayama (Japan): 6.6% of the year's nights
• Tokushima (Japan): 6.4% of the year's nights
• Hiroshima (Japan): 5.9% of the year's nights
• Ibaraki (Japan): 7.0% of the year's nights
• Yamaguchi (Japan): 6.9% of the year's nights
• Fukuoka (Japan): 7.7% of the year's nights

Where was January the busiest month?

In 2025, January was not the busiest month in any of our 35 European countries or 47 Japanese prefectures.¹²

Japan in January: every prefecture

Japan's figures come from a sample survey, and the gaps between prefectures are often smaller than its sampling error, so we list the prefectures alphabetically rather than ranking them.³

What is the weather like in January?

Of the 28 European capitals we have weather for, Nicosia has the highest average high in January (15.8 °C) and Tallinn the lowest (−0.7 °C), averaged over 1991–2020.⁴ We do not yet publish weather for Albania, Greece, Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland, Lithuania and Malta.

Thirty-year averages from one weather station per country or prefecture: the same station its page uses. They describe a typical year at that station, not a forecast, and weather varies within every country. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain.

How warm is the sea in January?

Average sea surface temperature in January, 1991–2020, at the open-sea point nearest each weather station, where there is one within 30 km: 8 European capitals and 29 Japanese prefectures. It is open sea, not a beach reading.⁹ Every month, and how we chose the points.

Which public holidays fall in January 2026 and 2027?

These are the national holiday lists we publish for 33 European countries and Japan, copied from each country's page. Regional holidays, such as those of Germany's states or Spain's regions, are on the country pages. Spain's 2027 list and some 2027 dates elsewhere are not published yet. What each list covers differs; see the notes for each country.⁵⁶

January 2026

January 2027

See every month in the holiday calendar, with school holidays too.

Blossom, autumn leaves and typhoons in Japan in January

Cherry trees usually start to bloom in January at the JMA stations for one prefecture: Okinawa (around 16 January).⁷

Over 1991–2020, no typhoon came within 300 km of a JMA weather station in Japan in January.⁸ Typhoons by region and month.

These are the Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991–2020 averages at one station per prefecture; each year's dates differ. See cherry blossom dates and autumn leaf dates for every prefecture.

What these figures cannot tell you

• A share of each place's own year, not a crowd count. A low share means that month was quiet for that place. It does not mean the place had fewer visitors than somewhere else, and a small country's busy month can still be far quieter than a big country's quiet one.
• Nights, not queues. A national or prefecture total cannot show crowding at one sight, beach or old town. Day trips do not count at all, because nobody stays the night.
• One year. These are 2025 figures. Another year can differ, for example when Easter moves between March and April.
• Japan's figures are a sample survey. The gaps between neighbouring prefectures are often smaller than the survey's sampling error, so we do not rank prefectures against each other.
• No causes. Weather and holidays sit next to the tourism figures here, but the figures do not show that either makes a month busier or quieter, so we do not say they do.
• We have not been to these places and make no judgement about which is better to visit.

Other months: February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December. Or open January in Explore.