Where to Go in April: Best Watersports Bases
by Yannick SchrothAug 5, 20267 min read
Photo: Nick Wehrli via Pexels (free license).
This is a summary; the guides hold the verified figures.
What April gives you on the water
April is a transition, so a place that was excellent in March may already be closing, and the list reflects that rather than smoothing it over. April is the month the map flips. South-east Asia's dry season begins in Indonesia while the Andaman side winds down, and Europe becomes usable again for the first time since autumn. Every base here is included because its own guide names April as part of its working window, not because the weather is generally nice, and where a place is marginal we say so rather than padding the list to a round number.
Uluwatu, Bali
The dry season, roughly April to October, is the surf machine: southeast trades groom the reef breaks from dawn.
Dry season startsRead the guide → 8°20′S 115°41′E · DivingAmed, Bali
Diveable year-round, but the drier season roughly April to November brings calmer water and better visibility.
Calmer, clearerRead the guide → 8°21′S 116°03′E · DivingGili Islands
The drier season runs roughly April to October, generally the best for diving visibility and island living.
Best visibilityRead the guide → 8°29′S 119°53′E · DivingLabuan Bajo (Komodo)
April to November is the sweet spot: calmer seas, best visibility and access to the full range of Komodo sites.
Sweet spot opensRead the guide → 5°54′N 102°43′E · DivingPerhentian Islands
Diving runs roughly April to October here, with warm water and mostly gentle sites.
In seasonRead the guide → 23°43′N 15°57′W · KitesurfingDakhla
The strongest, most reliable wind season is generally April to September.
Strongest windRead the guide → 37°06′N 8°40′W · Surf & coasteeringLagos, Algarve
The sweet spot for a nomad stay is roughly April to October, before the July and August crush.
Season opensRead the guide → 4°27′S 81°17′W · SurfLobitos
Peak season is April to October, when southwest groundswells wrap into the points as long, barrelling lefts.
Peak swellRead the guide →Also good in April
- Nusa Penida and Canggu, both entering the April to October dry season.
- Marsa Alam, still inside its October to May dive window.
- Puerto Escondido, as the April to October south-swell season begins.
April as a shoulder month, and the sea temperatures behind it
April is a shoulder month almost everywhere on this list, and the numbers say why. The western North Pacific normal for April is 0.6 tropical storms or stronger, still low, but already double February's 0.3, and on the way to 1.7 in June and 3.7 in July. April is the last month of the cheap, empty, reliable half of the tropical year.
Underneath the seasonal pattern sits a slower one that shows up in exactly the places this list sends you. Copernicus puts the average sea surface temperature of the extrapolar ocean, from 60 °S to 60 °N, at about 0.9 °C above the late nineteenth century, with about 0.6 °C of that added since 1980 and the latest five-year average sitting around 0.3 °C above the 1991–2020 reference period. The chief driver of the year-to-year wobble is ENSO: El Niño lifts the global average, La Niña lowers it.
That is not a reason to skip April in Indonesia. It is the reason a reef you dived five years ago may not look the same, and the reason a shoulder-season booking is worth making on this year's conditions rather than a decade-old memory of them.
FAQ: Watersports Destinations in April
Is April a good time for Bali?
Yes. Bali's dry season runs roughly April to October and it changes everything: offshore mornings and clean surf at Uluwatu and Canggu, calmer water and better visibility for diving at Amed, the Gilis and Nusa Penida. It is also the busier, pricier half of the year.
Where is the wind best in April?
Dakhla, where the strongest and most reliable season generally runs April to September on a huge flat lagoon. El Gouna's strong wind window also opens around March and runs to November.
Sources
- April in the typhoon basin. RSMC Tokyo – Typhoon Center, Japan Meteorological Agency, monthly tropical cyclone numbers since 1951. Normals 1991–2020: April 0.6, against 0.3 in February, 1.7 in June and 3.7 in July. jma.go.jp. Read 12 September 2026.
- What the sea surface has done. Copernicus Climate Change Service, climate indicator for sea surface temperature: between 1880–1900 and 2019–2023 the average SST over the extrapolar ocean (60°S–60°N) “has increased by about 0.9°C”; “The increase from 1980 to 2023 has been around 0.6°C”; the latest five-year average is “around 0.3°C above the average for the 1991-2020 reference period”, with ENSO named as “The chief driver of year-to-year variability”. climate.copernicus.eu. Read 12 September 2026.
- Each entry links to our full guide for that place, and those guides carry the external sources and read dates behind the claims summarised here. They are where the readings are recorded, not the evidence for them: Uluwatu, Bali, Amed, Bali, Gili Islands, Labuan Bajo (Komodo), Perhentian Islands, Dakhla, Lagos, the Algarve, Lobitos.