Where to Go in September: 14 Trips Compared, from Upper Egypt to Patagonia

SEPTEMBER · WHERE TO GO · 14 TRIPS COMPARED

Pick September and you are choosing between two trips that share nothing but a page of the calendar. Fly to Luxor and you land in 101.6°F afternoons on a month that records 0.00 inches of rain. Fly to El Calafate instead and you pack for 41.6°F days and 32.4°F nights at the bottom of Argentina. Sixty degrees separate the two ends of the same fortnight off work, and both are sane ways to spend it.

The equinox flattens the day almost everywhere in mid-month: on September 15 you get 12h20 of daylight at Luxor, 12h26 on Crete, 12h24 in San Diego and 11h55 in Sydney, so a northern trip and a southern one run on the same clock. The Atlantic hurricane season is still wide open across the Caribbean rim and the Southeast, and our hurricane season guide follows how that risk moves. Below the equator nothing has warmed up yet: Sydney’s spring opens at 66.9°F.

Where is it driest in September? Upper Egypt, Marrakech, San Diego and Crete

Four of these trips run on almost no rain, and they are not variations on one climate. Upper Egypt records 0.0 days at or above a tenth of an inch, San Diego 0.2, Marrakech 1.2, Crete 1.9.

What separates them is the night and the water. Marrakech falls to 61.5°F after dark while the Yucatán never drops below 78.2°F, and only two of the four put a swimmable sea at the end of the street: 70.6°F off San Diego, 78.9°F off Crete.

Upper Egypt

101.6°F days, 72.0°F nights · 0.0 rain days · 12h20 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

A Luxor trip buys the only rainless line here: 0.0 wet days, 0.00 inches across thirty days. You pay for it at 101.6°F in the afternoon, with nights that stop falling at 72.0°F. Book the Valley of the Kings and Karnak for the first hours after sunrise, then hand the middle of the day to a shaded terrace or the boat deck.

Give it five nights (est.), most of them sailing between Luxor and Aswan, and reach it on two flights through Cairo (est.). The number moving fastest is the daylight: 12h20 on September 15 and shortening, which squeezes the dawn balloon slot and the first coach of temple visitors closer together as the month runs on.

Marrakech

87.8°F days, 61.5°F nights · 1.2 rain days · 12h24 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

Marrakech hands you a 26.3-degree swing between the 87.8°F afternoon and the 61.5°F night, and that gap is your packing list: linen for the souks, a real sweater for the rooftop at dinner. Rain turns up on 1.2 days, 0.46 inches in total. Four nights (est.) covers the medina, the Majorelle garden and one day into the Atlas valleys, on roughly a seven-hour nonstop from the East Coast (est.).

San Diego

77.2°F days, 66.2°F nights · 0.2 rain days · 70.6°F sea · 12h24 of daylight on Sep 15 · $

San Diego is the domestic version of a rainless September: 0.2 wet days, 0.12 inches for the month, 77.2°F afternoons that never turn heavy because the night only eases to 66.2°F. The Pacific reads 70.6°F, which is the difference between a beach day and a beach photograph. Four nights (est.) gives you La Jolla, Balboa Park and a day pushing inland toward the desert.

Crete

83.7°F days, 68.4°F nights · 1.9 rain days · 78.9°F sea · 12h26 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

Crete puts a 78.9°F sea under air that has stepped back to 83.7°F, with 1.9 wet days and 0.79 inches for the whole month. Nights at 68.4°F mean dinner outdoors without a jacket, and 12h26 of daylight on September 15 is enough for a Samaria gorge walk and a swim on the same day. It takes two flights from the US (est.), usually through Athens, so seven nights (est.) is the sensible minimum.

Where does it rain most in September? Costa Rica, the Yucatán and Kyoto

Three of the fourteen run wet, and the spread between them is wide: Costa Rica logs 24.4 wet days and 13.97 inches, the Yucatán 18.8 days and 7.79 inches, Kyoto 10.2 days and 7.57 inches.

Wet is not the same as canceled. All three stay warm, the Yucatán sea reads 87.4°F and Costa Rica’s 86.9°F, and tropical rain tends to arrive as an afternoon block rather than a grey day. What you are buying is the risk of losing one or two planned days out of seven, plus, along the Caribbean rim, the risk of a storm rerouting the trip entirely.

Costa Rica

84.5°F days, 72.5°F nights · 24.4 rain days · 86.9°F sea · 12h13 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

Guanacaste in September puts you under rain on 24.4 days out of thirty, four days in five, with 13.97 inches falling on a coast where the air holds 84.5°F and the water 86.9°F.

Set that against the driest trip here and the month stops behaving like one month: 24.4 wet days against Upper Egypt’s 0.0, and 13.97 inches against Crete’s 0.79, close to eighteen times the water over the same two weeks of your year.

It still works if the trip is built around the forest rather than the beach chair. Green season means full rivers, loud waterfalls and 72.5°F nights that need no air conditioning. Give it eight nights (est.), fly about three hours from Miami (est.), and stack the guided walks and boat rides into the mornings, leaving the afternoon to the weather.

The Yucatán

85.1°F days, 78.2°F nights · 18.8 rain days · 87.4°F sea · 12h17 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

Cancún and the Riviera Maya sit at 85.1°F by day and 78.2°F at night, with 18.8 wet days and a sea at 87.4°F, which is bath temperature. September also sits at the height of the Atlantic hurricane season, and that is a booking question before it is a weather one: refundable rooms, insurance bought with the flight, and a look at the hurricane season guide before you pay for the four-hour hop from New York (est.).

Kyoto

80.3°F days, 67.0°F nights · 10.2 rain days · 12h27 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$$

Kyoto reads mild on paper at 80.3°F and 67.0°F, then you notice the 7.57 inches arrive across only 10.2 wet days, about three quarters of an inch each time it rains. That is typhoon-season arithmetic: summer heat holding into the month, then an afternoon when the temple gardens are yours and your shoes are finished. Ten nights (est.) suits a trip built around Kyoto and Osaka, at roughly thirteen hours in the air from the West Coast.

Is September a good time for Portugal? Lisbon and the Algarve

Portugal in September is the least fussy European beach-and-city week here: Lisbon logs 2.8 wet days and the Algarve 1.7, both holding afternoons in the mid seventies. The regional split is in Portugal in September, and the twelve-month picture in our best-time guide.

Lisbon

76.3°F days, 63.9°F nights · 2.8 rain days · 12h29 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

Lisbon runs 76.3°F by day and 63.9°F at night, with 1.14 inches over 2.8 days, which is weather you can build a walking itinerary on: the Alfama stairs stop punishing you and a full day out ends without a change of shirt. Daylight still holds 12h29 on September 15, so a sunset from a miradouro lands at a civilised hour. Four nights (est.), about seven hours nonstop from the East Coast (est.), and the month in detail.

The Algarve

76.2°F days, 66.5°F nights · 1.7 rain days · 65.4°F sea · 12h27 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

The Algarve is the beach half of the same trip: 76.2°F days, 66.5°F nights, 1.7 wet days, and an Atlantic at 65.4°F that is bracing rather than balmy, thirteen degrees cooler than Crete’s. Lifeguarded bathing does not run all year on these beaches, and its end date is the thing to check before you plan a swim-heavy week, which the Algarve in September covers. Seven nights (est.) split between Lagos and Tavira buys both the cliffs and the lagoons.

Warm places in the US in September: Savannah, Zion and Sedona

The domestic map splits between a humid Southeast and a desert that is finally cooling: Savannah keeps 86.4°F and 6.5 wet days, Charleston 85.4°F and 6.8, while Zion logs 1.7 wet days and Sedona 2.4.

Savannah

86.4°F days, 69.0°F nights · 6.5 rain days · 81.6°F sea · 12h24 of daylight on Sep 15 · $

Savannah gives you 86.4°F afternoons, 69.0°F nights and an ocean at 81.6°F off Tybee, warmer than the dawn air on the squares. Rain lands on 6.5 days and totals 4.35 inches, and this coast sits in the busiest stretch of hurricane season, so a three-night (est.) weekend booked flexibly beats a fortnight locked in. Florida’s version of the same timing question is in our Florida guide.

Zion

78.1°F days, 53.4°F nights · 1.7 rain days · 12h27 of daylight on Sep 15 · $

Zion’s September numbers read like a hiking brochure: 78.1°F highs, 53.4°F starts that make an early queue at the Angels Landing chains bearable, and 1.7 wet days. The 0.81 inches that do fall come in bursts, which matters in a canyon, so check the forecast the morning of any narrow slot. Four nights (est.) out of Las Vegas, with a drive of about two and a half hours each way (est.).

Sedona

83.7°F days, 59.8°F nights · 2.4 rain days · 12h25 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$

Sedona runs 5.6 degrees warmer than Zion by day at 83.7°F and 6.4 degrees warmer at night at 59.8°F, with 2.4 wet days and 0.91 inches. That gap is the difference between a fleece at the trailhead and a T-shirt, and the two pair easily on one loop out of Phoenix, roughly a two-hour drive north (est.). Two nights (est.) here covers Cathedral Rock at first light and Oak Creek in the afternoon.

Where is spring starting in September? Sydney, Patagonia and Cape Town

Spring starts below the equator this month, and it starts cool: Sydney at 66.9°F, Cape Town at 64.2°F with 5.0 wet days and a 58.6°F sea, Patagonia at 41.6°F. None of the three is a swimming trip, and all three are long flights for the nights they need.

Sydney

66.9°F days, 52.6°F nights · 3.7 rain days · 65.7°F sea · 11h55 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$$

Sydney opens its spring at 66.9°F by day and 52.6°F at night, with 3.7 wet days, 1.60 inches and a sea still holding winter at 65.7°F. That is coastal-path weather rather than Bondi weather: the walk to Coogee, the ferry to Manly, the harbor without summer’s glare. Daylight sits at 11h55 on September 15 and grows all month. It is about fifteen hours in the air from Los Angeles (est.), so ten nights (est.) is the shortest trip that repays the seat.

Patagonia

41.6°F days, 32.4°F nights · 5.0 rain days · 11h48 of daylight on Sep 15 · $$$

El Calafate in September is late winter wearing spring’s clothes: 41.6°F highs, 32.4°F lows, 5.0 wet days and 1.71 inches, some of it as snow on the higher trails. What the month gives back is length of day, 11h48 on September 15 and climbing, enough for the Perito Moreno boardwalks and the drive home in the light. You get there through Buenos Aires, which runs 63.4°F and makes a workable two-night stopover (est.).

Where to go in September: Upper Egypt, Marrakech or San Diego

Start with the number you cannot negotiate. If the week is fixed and unmovable, take a destination under two wet days: Upper Egypt at 0.0, San Diego at 0.2, Marrakech at 1.2, the Algarve and Zion at 1.7, Crete at 1.9. Everything else here asks you to write off an afternoon or two.

Then check the sea, because September’s water and September’s air disagree. The Yucatán reads 87.4°F and Costa Rica 86.9°F under the month’s heaviest rain, while the dry Algarve sits at 65.4°F and Cape Town colder still at 58.6°F. A beach week that has to include swimming points at Crete, 78.9°F, or Savannah, 81.6°F.

Last, weigh the flight against the nights you have. Sydney takes about fifteen hours from Los Angeles (est.) and repays ten nights (est.), Crete takes two flights and seven (est.), and San Diego, Zion, Sedona and Savannah are domestic enough to run as long weekends. The dollar signs beside each destination are relative September signals, not quoted prices.

Best places to travel in September: Crete, Costa Rica or The Yucatán

Temperatures are 1991-2020 September normals for one reference point per destination. A rain day is any day with at least 0.10 inch. Sea figures average daily maxima over 2015-2024, and the $ to $$$ marks in the sections above are relative September signals, not quoted prices.

A monthly average hides the shape of the rain. Costa Rica’s 13.97 inches spread across 24.4 days works out at 0.57 inch each time, a reliable afternoon soaking you can schedule around. Kyoto’s 7.57 inches over 10.2 days is 0.74 inch per wet day and Savannah’s 4.35 over 6.5 days is 0.67, which describes something else: fewer wet days, heavier when they land. No average says anything about the single storm week that can take the Yucatán or the Georgia coast out of service altogether.

The last word

With one week and no appetite for weather roulette, book Crete: 1.9 wet days, a 78.9°F sea and 12h26 of daylight to spend in it. With two, fly to Luxor and take the boat south. And the destination that did not make the fourteen deserves its own line: Reykjavík runs 50.8°F, 13.7 wet days and 13h05 of daylight on September 15, which buys long evenings on the ring road at a temperature that still wants a proper coat.

Sources & data for this guide

• Climate normals 1991-2020 computed from Open-Meteo / ECMWF ERA5 grid cells for Upper Egypt, Marrakech, Crete, Lisbon, the Algarve, Kyoto, Costa Rica, the Yucatán, Zion, Sedona, Cape Town, Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Sydney and Iceland · ERA5 is a model reanalysis, not a station record · checked Sep 14, 2026
• San Diego, Savannah and Charleston: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, stations USW00023188, USW00003822 and USW00013880 · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Sea surface temperatures: Open-Meteo Marine API, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Daylight on September 15: sunrise-sunset.org sunrise and sunset calculations, one per destination · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Atlantic hurricane season context: our hurricane season guide · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Flight times and night counts carry because we hold no schedule or fare data set for September. We also hold no lodging or airfare figures, so no room or flight price appears anywhere on this page · checked Sep 14, 2026
• Algarve lifeguarded bathing dates are set locally and shift year to year, so we point to the Algarve guide rather than print one · checked Sep 14, 2026
• We carry no visitor-number statistics for any destination here, so nothing on this page ranks crowds · checked Sep 14, 2026