August is the main holiday month in much of Europe. Beaches and coastal towns are at their busiest, while some big cities empty out. In Paris and Rome, especially around the Italian Ferragosto holiday on 15 August, some family-run restaurants and shops close for a summer break.
Edinburgh is the exception: its August festivals fill the city. Further afield, August is a strong month for East Africa's dry season and the Canadian and Scandinavian summer, and a hot, humid one in Japan and much of the American South.
Top picks for August
What August is good for
Edinburgh's festival month
The Festival Fringe and the International Festival take over the city. Book months ahead.
Cooler northern cities
Pleasant temperatures and the last of the long summer days.
Dry season in East Africa
Wildlife viewing season in Kenya and beach weather on Zanzibar.
☀️ Warm-weather picks
Cities with a tropical or desert climate that are in season in August.
- 🇮🇩 UbudTropical monsoon
- 🇧🇷 BrasíliaTropical savanna
- 🇮🇩 JakartaTropical monsoon
- 🇹🇿 ZanzibarTropical
- 🇦🇺 CairnsTropical
- 🇳🇦 WindhoekHot semi-arid
💰 Good value in August
In season and easy on the budget. Estimate the cost of a trip with the budget estimator.
- 🇵🇹 Porto€€ Moderate
- 🇮🇩 Ubud€€ Moderate
- 🇷🇼 Kigali€€ Moderate
- 🇺🇦 Kyiv€€ Moderate
- 🇷🇺 Moscow€€ Moderate
- 🇮🇩 Jakarta€€ Moderate
- 🇰🇪 Nairobi€€ Moderate
- 🇵🇱 Gdansk€€ Moderate
🌗 Quieter shoulder-season options
August is just outside these cities' best months: expect fewer visitors and lower prices, with less predictable weather.
- 🇮🇹 RomeBest: March–May, September–November
- 🇺🇸 New YorkBest: April–June, September–November
- 🇯🇵 TokyoBest: March–May, September–November
- 🇪🇸 BarcelonaBest: May–June, September
- 🇹🇷 IstanbulBest: April–June, September–October
- 🇨🇿 PragueBest: April–June, September–October
- 🇮🇹 VeniceBest: April–June, September–October
- 🇮🇹 FlorenceBest: April–June, September–October
All 77 cities in season in August
🏰 Europe 52
- Amsterdam
- Antwerp
- Belgrade
- Bergen
- Berlin
- Bilbao
- Bordeaux
- Bratislava
- Bruges
- Brussels
- Cologne
- Copenhagen
- Dresden
- Dublin
- Edinburgh
- Frankfurt
- Gdansk
- Geneva
- Glasgow
- Gothenburg
- Hamburg
- Helsinki
- Innsbruck
- Kyiv
- Ljubljana
- London
- Lucerne
- Lyon
- Manchester
- Marseille
- Moscow
- Munich
- Oslo
- Paris
- Porto
- Reykjavik
- Riga
- Rotterdam
- Salzburg
- San Sebastián
- Sofia
- St. Petersburg
- Stockholm
- Strasbourg
- Tallinn
- The Hague
- Vienna
- Vilnius
- Warsaw
- York
- Zagreb
- Zurich
🏯 Asia 4
🗽 Americas 15
- Boston
- Brasília
- Calgary
- Chicago
- Cusco
- La Paz
- Montreal
- Ottawa
- Quebec City
- Quito
- Rio de Janeiro
- São Paulo
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Vancouver
🦁 Africa 4
🌊 Oceania 2
How we choose these cities
Every city guide on GuesTheCity lists the months when we think the city is at its best, balancing weather, crowds and prices. A city appears on this page when August is one of those months. Warm-weather picks are filtered by climate, value picks by our budget rating for each city, and shoulder-season options are cities where August falls just before or after their best months.
Weather varies from year to year and festival dates move, so check the forecast and event calendar before you book. To see the full year for any city, use the best time to visit calendar, explore cities by region on the world map, or compare two options with City vs City.