Season guide

Where to kitesurf in May

Plan a May kite trip. 42 kitesurfing destinations across 27 countries, including Aruba, Australia, Barbados, Cape Verde. Compare riding areas, seasons and nearby stays where available.

Compare May destinations by region

The May shortlist spans 6 regions. Africa: 11 destinations in 7 countries; Asia: 4 destinations in 3 countries; Europe: 14 destinations in 7 countries; North America: 11 destinations in 8 countries; Oceania: 1 destination in 1 country; South America: 1 destination in 1 country. Compare the complete recorded seasons below if your dates are flexible.

Africa

11 destinations · Cape Verde, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique

  • 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.

  • El Gouna, Egypt

    A resort town of islands and lagoons on the Red Sea, built around the water, with thermal wind that arrives on schedule. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

  • Hamata & Wadi Lahami, Egypt

    A vast shallow lagoon in the Egyptian deep south, two and a half hours from the nearest airport and almost entirely empty. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Soma Bay & Safaga, Egypt

    A shallow Red Sea lagoon that consistently blows harder than its neighbours, with rescue boats a requirement rather than a courtesy. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

  • 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.

  • Antsiranana & Northern Madagascar, Madagascar

    A thirty-square-kilometre emerald lagoon at Madagascar's northern tip, reached past Diego Suarez and almost nobody else. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

  • Nosy Be, Madagascar

    Madagascar's holiday island, with reliable south-east trades from April to November and rainforest, lemurs and diving alongside. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

  • Le Morne, Mauritius

    A UNESCO-listed basalt monolith, a turquoise lagoon held by reef, and Mauritius's finest hotels within minutes of the water. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Dakhla, Morocco

    A forty-five kilometre lagoon between the Sahara and the Atlantic, with wind on around 340 days a year. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September.

  • Essaouira, Morocco

    A walled eighteenth-century port on the Atlantic, famous for wind long before kitesurfing, with three very different beaches within twenty minutes. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September.

  • 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.

Asia

4 destinations · Indonesia, Oman, Sri Lanka

  • All Asia destinations
  • 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.

  • Ekas Bay, Lombok, Indonesia

    A remote bay in southern Lombok with a reef-held lagoon, butter-flat at low tide and breaking over the reef at high. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September.

  • Barr Al Hikman, Oman

    Three shallow turquoise lagoons on Oman's empty east coast, blown by the khareef monsoon through the Gulf summer. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September.

  • 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.

Europe

14 destinations · Croatia, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain

  • All Europe destinations
  • Nin & Zadar Coast, Croatia

    A shallow Adriatic lagoon beside a mediaeval town, with the maestral in summer and the bora in spring. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

  • Naxos, Greece

    A Cycladic island where wind funnels between Naxos and Paros and arrives stronger than the forecast. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September.

  • Paros, Greece

    Two Cycladic beaches on the Meltemi, with a compact eight-week high season in July and August. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September.

  • Rhodes, Greece

    Where the Meltemi meets two seas at the southern tip of Rhodes, and a sandbar divides flat water from waves. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September.

  • Sardinia, Italy

    A Mediterranean island with wind on both ends — a shallow flat-water lagoon in the south-west, and one of Italy's windiest straits in the north. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Tuscany & Maremma Coast, Italy

    Shallow, beginner-friendly bays on the Tyrrhenian coast, backed by the wine country and hill towns of the Maremma. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Western Sicily, Italy

    Over 250 windy days a year on Sicily's south-west coast, on a wave beach well away from the crowds. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • 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.

  • Hel Peninsula, Poland

    A sandspit reaching into the Baltic, with one of Europe's largest beginner lagoons on its sheltered side. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September.

  • Lisbon Coast, Portugal

    A capital city with a lagoon, a twenty-kilometre beach and one of Europe's heaviest wave spots inside an hour's drive. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Northern Portugal Coast, Portugal

    The Minho coast north of Porto, where the Nortada blows all summer over river lagoons and Atlantic beaches. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September.

  • 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.

  • Fuerteventura, Spain

    A long, bare Atlantic island of dunes and lava where the trade winds blow hardest between May and August. Recorded best months: March, April, May, June, July, August.

  • Tarifa, Spain

    A walled Moorish town at the tip of Andalusia, where two seas meet and the wind has drawn riders for thirty years. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

North America

11 destinations · Aruba, Barbados, Caribbean Netherlands, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Cape Hatteras, United States

    A thin barrier island off North Carolina with shallow sound on one side and the best waves on the American east coast on the other. Recorded best months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

  • Maui, United States

    The north shore of Maui, where the trades funnel between two volcanoes and the sport largely learned to fly. Recorded best months: May, June, July, August, September, October.

Oceania

1 destinations · Australia

South America

1 destinations · Colombia

  • All South America destinations
  • 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.

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 May, or return to the full year.