Season guide

Where to kitesurf in January

Plan a January kite trip. 40 kitesurfing destinations across 25 countries, including Aruba, Australia, Barbados, Brazil. Compare riding areas, seasons and nearby stays where available.

Compare January destinations by region

The January shortlist spans 6 regions. Africa: 7 destinations in 5 countries; Asia: 8 destinations in 6 countries; Europe: 2 destinations in 2 countries; North America: 10 destinations in 7 countries; Oceania: 6 destinations in 2 countries; South America: 7 destinations in 3 countries. Compare the complete recorded seasons below if your dates are flexible.

Africa

7 destinations · Cape Verde, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania

  • All Africa destinations
  • Sal Island, Cape Verde

    A low, sun-bleached Atlantic island where the trade winds run all winter and the swell that made Ponta Preta famous arrives with them. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, October, November, December.

  • Diani Coast, Kenya

    Kenya's south coast: white sand behind a barrier reef, two monsoons a year, and the safari plains a short flight inland. Recorded best months: January, February, March, June, July, August, September, December.

  • Watamu & Kilifi Coast, Kenya

    Kenya's quieter coast north of Mombasa, where the Kaskazi blows side-onshore over a reef lagoon from December to March. Recorded best months: January, February, March, May, June, July, August, September, October, December.

  • Pemba & Murrebue, Mozambique

    Thirty kilometres of turquoise lagoon in northern Mozambique, where you will often be the only person on the water. Recorded best months: January, February, March, May, June, July, August, November, December.

  • Cape Town & Blouberg, South Africa

    Table Mountain behind you and the South Atlantic in front, on the wind the locals call the Cape Doctor. Recorded best months: January, February, March, October, November, December.

  • Langebaan, South Africa

    A shallow turquoise lagoon an hour and a half up the coast from Cape Town, and one of the best places anywhere to learn. Recorded best months: January, February, March, October, November, December.

  • Zanzibar East Coast, Tanzania

    A reef-held lagoon on the Indian Ocean side of Zanzibar, where the tide empties the flats twice a day and two monsoons divide the year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, June, July, August, September, December.

Asia

8 destinations · India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam

  • All Asia destinations
  • Rameswaram, India

    A pilgrimage island in the Gulf of Mannar with two wind seasons and over three hundred rideable days a year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, June, July, August, September, December.

  • Banda Aceh, Indonesia

    Jungle and mountains behind a warm Sumatran coast, with two wind windows and almost no other kiters. Recorded best months: January, February, March, May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Boracay, Philippines

    A slender Philippine island with a famous west-facing beach and, fifteen minutes across it, the bay the Amihan blows over all winter. Recorded best months: January, February, March, October, November, December.

  • Coron & Calamianes Islands, Philippines

    Limestone islands and wreck-diving water in northern Palawan, with an Amihan season from November to March. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, November, December.

  • Kalpitiya Peninsula, Sri Lanka

    A peninsula on Sri Lanka's north-west coast where wind accelerates through the Palk Strait and blows for nine months a year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, May, June, July, August, September, December.

  • Koh Phangan, Thailand

    A Gulf of Thailand island with three separate wind seasons, where the kiting is quiet, warm and unhurried. Recorded best months: January, February, March, June, July, August, September, December.

  • Mui Ne, Vietnam

    Red sand dunes above a long Vietnamese beach, with wind that the desert behind it makes stronger than the forecast. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, November, December.

  • Phan Rang, Vietnam

    A shallow lagoon inside a reef with waves outside it, and some of the strongest reliable wind in South East Asia. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, November, December.

Europe

2 destinations · Netherlands, Spain

  • All Europe destinations
  • Dutch Delta Coast, Netherlands

    Dams, sea inlets and shallow lakes in the Dutch south-west, with wind most of the year and rules worth reading first. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, September, October, November, December.

  • El Médano, Tenerife, Spain

    A low-key wind town under a volcanic cone on Tenerife's southern tip, where the trades blow on roughly two days in three, all year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

North America

10 destinations · Aruba, Barbados, Caribbean Netherlands, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Turks and Caicos Islands

  • All North America destinations
  • Aruba

    A desert island in the southern Caribbean where the trade winds blow almost year-round and the leeward beaches stay flat. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August.

  • Barbados South Coast, Barbados

    The windiest corner of the eastern Caribbean, with reef-sheltered flats on the south coast and swell outside them. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, December.

  • Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

    A flat, dry Dutch Caribbean island best known for its diving, with steady trades and a shallow west-coast kite beach. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, December.

  • Curaçao

    A mangrove-fringed lagoon on the wild north-east coast, on an island whose other side is all colonial harbour and reef diving. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August.

  • Cabarete, Dominican Republic

    The Caribbean's original kite town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, with 250 to 300 rideable days a year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, December.

  • Isla Blanca & Cancún, Mexico

    A sandbar north of Cancún with a shallow lagoon on one side and the Caribbean on the other, half an hour from the airport. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, November, December.

  • La Ventana & El Sargento, Mexico

    A desert bay on the Sea of Cortez where the winter El Norte funnels down the coast and the whale sharks arrive with it. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, October, November, December.

  • Los Barriles, Mexico

    A wide, empty sand beach on Baja's east cape, with side-shore wind, no current and miles of room. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, October, November, December.

  • Northern Yucatán Coast, Mexico

    A quiet fishing village and a long shallow coast on the Gulf side of Yucatán, with some of Mexico's most dependable wind. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, October, November, December.

  • Turks & Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands

    Miles of waist-deep water off Providenciales, with an onshore trade wind that blows on nine days in ten for ten months of the year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, November, December.

Oceania

6 destinations · Australia, New Zealand

  • All Oceania destinations
  • Gold Coast, Australia

    Flat water behind sandbars in the Broadwater, and a demanding lagoon spot at Currumbin — with the tide deciding both. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, October, November, December.

  • Safety Bay, Australia

    The Fremantle Doctor arriving at two in the afternoon, over flat water south of Perth that trains professionals. Recorded best months: January, February, March, October, November, December.

  • Auckland, New Zealand

    A city built between two harbours, with flat sheltered water inside the Waitematā and open coast on either side. Recorded best months: January, February, March, October, November, December.

  • Christchurch, New Zealand

    A long Pacific beach and shallow tidal flats on the edge of a South Island city, with strong sea breezes in summer. Recorded best months: January, February, March, October, November, December.

  • Karikari Peninsula, New Zealand

    White silica sand and turquoise water in New Zealand's Far North, with sandbars that stay mirror-flat in 25 knots. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, November, December.

  • Wānaka, New Zealand

    Alpine freshwater under the Southern Alps, where the wind is less reliable than the scenery is extraordinary. Recorded best months: January, February, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

South America

7 destinations · Brazil, Colombia, Peru

  • All South America destinations
  • Atins & Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil

    A village at the edge of a desert of white dunes and rainwater lagoons, reached by boat or 4x4 and by very few people. Recorded best months: January, July, August, September, October, November, December.

  • Cumbuco, Brazil

    A fishing village on the Ceará coast that the trade winds turned into a kitesurfing town, with glassy lagoons a buggy ride down the sand. Recorded best months: January, July, August, September, October, November, December.

  • Jericoacoara & Preá, Brazil

    A fishing village in a national park where the streets are sand, and fourteen kilometres of beach downwind that made it a kitesurfing pilgrimage. Recorded best months: January, February, July, August, September, October, November, December.

  • Cartagena Coast, Colombia

    A walled colonial city on the Caribbean, where the trade winds blow from December to April and the beaches start fifteen minutes from the old town. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, December.

  • La Guajira, Colombia

    The desert peninsula at Colombia's northern tip, where the Wayuu live and the wind blows for ten months of the year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, December.

  • Santa Verónica, Colombia

    A sheltered flat-water bay and a wave beach beside it, an hour from Cartagena on Colombia's Atlántico coast. Recorded best months: January, February, March, June, July, August, December.

  • Paracas, Peru

    A desert bay on the Peruvian coast beside a national reserve, with wind on around three hundred days a year. Recorded best months: January, February, March, April, November, December.

Start with your travel dates

The months shown are the best months recorded for the published kite areas within each destination. They are a planning shortlist, not a wind forecast or a promise of daily riding. An unmarked month means it is not listed in the guide, not that kitesurfing is impossible.

Choose the right kite area

A destination can contain different lagoons, beaches and wave spots. Open its guide to compare the individual areas and their seasons, water conditions and rider levels before deciding where to ride.

Connect the riding to the stay

Once you have a shortlist, compare the nearby stays where available. Check the distance to your chosen kite area, access arrangements and what the trip offers everyone travelling with you. Confirm current conditions and services locally before booking.

Flexible on dates?

Compare the months either side of January, or return to the full year.