We made one page for each month. Across our 35 European countries and 47 Japanese prefectures, January was the quietest month of 2025 in the most places (35) and August the busiest in the most (63). Each page lists every place's share of its year, with weather and public holidays.
Pick a month
For each month: the European countries where it carried the smallest share of 2025's tourist nights, and how many of our 82 places had it as their quietest or busiest month.12
| Month | Lowest share of the year in Europe | Quietest month in | Busiest month in |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Croatia (0.7%), Greece (1.1%) and Montenegro (1.4%) | 35 | 0 |
| February | Croatia (0.7%), Greece (1.1%) and Montenegro (1.7%) | 22 | 0 |
| March | Croatia (1.1%), Greece (1.8%) and Montenegro (2.5%) | 2 | 1 |
| April | Croatia (3.5%), Bulgaria (3.7%) and Greece (4.4%) | 6 | 0 |
| May | Bulgaria (5.3%), Austria (5.7%) and Croatia (6.2%) | 0 | 2 |
| June | Austria (8.8%), Liechtenstein (8.9%), Malta (9.1%), Serbia (9.1%) and Slovakia (9.1%) | 8 | 0 |
| July | Malta (10.6%), Serbia (11.0%) and Austria (11.6%) | 0 | 11 |
| August | Finland (10.1%), Malta (11.3%) and Lithuania (11.6%) | 0 | 63 |
| September | Ireland (7.5%), Sweden (7.5%), Estonia (7.8%), Finland (7.8%) and Luxembourg (7.8%) | 0 | 0 |
| October | Croatia (3.7%), Bulgaria (4.1%) and Albania (5.9%) | 0 | 2 |
| November | Croatia (1.0%), Greece (1.5%) and Montenegro (2.2%) | 7 | 2 |
| December | Croatia (1.0%), Greece (1.4%) and Montenegro (1.5%) | 2 | 1 |
“Quietest month in” counts countries and prefectures whose quietest month of 2025 it was; “Busiest month in” the same for the busiest. A share is of each place's own year, not a crowd count.
What these figures cannot tell you
- A share of each place's own year, not a crowd count. A low share means that month was quiet for that place. It does not mean the place had fewer visitors than somewhere else, and a small country's busy month can still be far quieter than a big country's quiet one.
- Nights, not queues. A national or prefecture total cannot show crowding at one sight, beach or old town. Day trips do not count at all, because nobody stays the night.
- One year. These are 2025 figures. Another year can differ, for example when Easter moves between March and April.
- We have not been to these places and make no judgement about which is better to visit.
Key takeaways
- January was the quietest month of 2025 in 35 of our places.
- August was the busiest in 63.
- What we would skip: choosing a month from this table alone. Open the month, then the place, and check its weather and holidays.
Sources
The tourism figures come from Eurostat and the Japan Tourism Agency, copied from our country and prefecture pages. See how we research.
- Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
- Source: 「宿泊旅行統計調査」（観光庁） (Overnight Travel Statistics Survey, Japan Tourism Agency), 2025 annual figures (final), tables 2 and 8 and reference table 1, published 6 July 2026. Survey page · workbook. Accessed 17 September 2026. Licensed under the Public Data License 1.0 (PDL1.0).
Modified data. The monthly shares, orderings and comparisons are our own calculations from Eurostat's counts and the Japan Tourism Agency's figures (「宿泊旅行統計調査」（観光庁）を加工して作成). Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Neither body is responsible for these calculations or for how the figures are presented here.