Best Places to Surf by Month: A Year-Round Guide

Surfing has a season for everything. Somewhere in the world, at every moment of the year, one of the best places to surf is turning on. The trick is knowing where — and, just as importantly, where not — to book. This is our month-by-month guide, built from years of running Ocean Fever trips, and designed to help you match your holiday dates to the best waves you can realistically catch.

January — Hawaii's North Shore. Peak season on the seven-mile miracle. Pipeline, Sunset and Waimea are all firing on North Pacific groundswell. Even if you're not paddling out at Pipe, Oahu's south side stays gentle and there's world-class watching every day. Warm-water alternative: Barbados's north-east coast picks up North Atlantic swell and the Soup Bowl is one of the best right-handers in the Caribbean.

February — Puerto Escondido, Mexico. The end of the northern-hemisphere winter still delivers heavy Pacific swell to Zicatela, but the crowds are thinner than in the summer south-swell peak. A great time for advanced surfers to score barrels without the July madness.

March — Sri Lanka's south coast. The tail end of the November-to-April season still delivers clean waves at Weligama, Midigama and Hiriketiya, with 28°C water and thinning crowds. One of the best learn-to-surf and intermediate windows anywhere in Asia.

April — The Mentawai Islands, Indonesia. The season kicks off. Charter boats start running out of Padang and Siberut, and the reefs — Macaronis, Lance's Right, Kandui — begin their six-month peak. Book early, because the best charters sell out a year ahead.

May — The Maldives. Trade winds swing offshore, Indian Ocean swell begins arriving from the Roaring Forties, and the atolls light up for the season that runs through October. Sultans, Cokes and Honkys in the north; the Central Atolls for a quieter charter option.

June — Fiji. The heart of the season at Cloudbreak, Restaurants and Wilkes Pass. Consistent south swell, offshore trade winds and warm water — everything a surf trip is meant to be. Namotu and Tavarua sell out a year in advance for a reason.

July — Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. The WSL Championship Tour arrives at Supertubes for a reason: July is when the Southern Ocean sends its most reliable groundswell up the Eastern Cape. Cold water, big rides, and a coastline that goes on for kilometres.

August — Namibia's Skeleton Bay. The southern-hemisphere winter peak. Long, mechanical left-hand sand-bottom barrels, cold water, cold desert. A pilgrimage wave for confident surfers — everyone else, hit Uluwatu instead. The Bukit is at its best right now.

September — Mallorca and mainland Portugal. Novelty-wave season kicks off in the western Mediterranean, and the Atlantic coast of Portugal shakes off the summer flat spell. Ericeira, Peniche and Nazaré all start showing signs of the coming autumn peak. Ocean Fever's Ben Gravy Mallorca trip runs in mid-September for a reason.

October — Hossegor, France & Ericeira, Portugal. The undisputed peak of European surfing. Deep offshore canyons focus North Atlantic groundswell onto both coasts, and if you can only take one European surf trip a year, this is the month to take it. Book flights and accommodation well ahead.

November — Taghazout, Morocco. Winter opens on the Atlantic coast of Africa. Anchor Point, Killer Point and Boilers start their five-month season, water is a manageable 19°C, and the country is on the shoulder of its tourist peak — cheap flights, warm evenings, world-class rights.

December — Hawaii again, but this time the whole archipelago. The North Shore is going into peak, Maui's Honolua Bay lights up, and Kauai's Hanalei Bay produces some of the most photogenic point-break rides on Earth. Warm-water alternative: the Dominican Republic, where north-swell winter waves at Playa Encuentro are one of the Caribbean's best-kept secrets.

How to plan around this calendar — most of the best places to surf have a window three to four months long, not a single perfect week. If you can, book on the shoulders of the peak season: prices drop, crowds thin, and the waves are often 90% as good. Also plan for the wind, not just the swell. A perfect groundswell blown out by onshores is worse than a moderate swell in glassy offshores — always check the prevailing wind direction for your dates before you commit.

And if you'd rather someone else handled all of that, that's what Ocean Fever exists for. Every trip on the site is timed to fall inside a destination's real peak window, with local guides who know which reef to head for on which tide. Pick a month, pick a wave, and we'll build the rest of the trip around it.