Destinations · Roundup

Where to Go in December: Best Watersports Bases

by Yannick SchrothAug 5, 20267 min read

Experience the exhilaration of kayaking through Ireland's ra

Photo: Aleksei Mzhachev via Pexels (free licence).

December splits the world neatly: Patagonia and the southern rivers open, while the northern tropics settle into their calmest, clearest, driest weeks of the year. Every pick below is a base we have a full guide for, and the reason it works in December comes from that guide's own season notes. Seasons shift year to year, so treat these as planning windows and confirm conditions before you book.
Each guide linked below carries the verified figures and where they came from.

How we chose

December is reliable and expensive in equal measure, and the list separates the two halves of the month because they price very differently. December is dry-season starts and holiday pricing. The Caribbean, the Red Sea and Sri Lanka's south are all reliable, but late December is the single most expensive fortnight of the year. Every base here is included because its own guide names December 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.

43°11′S 71°52′W · Whitewater

Futaleufú

The rafting and kayaking season runs roughly December to March, the Patagonian summer, with the highest flows early.

Season opensRead the guide → 0°14′S 130°31′E · Diving

Raja Ampat

December to February is the calmest window and gives the highest odds of mantas at the cleaning stations.

Calmest, mantasRead the guide → 8°38′N 98°15′E · Diving

Khao Lak (Similan)

Inside the mid-October to mid-May park season, December to April brings the best conditions.

Best conditionsRead the guide → 3°54′N 73°21′E · Diving

Maldives local islands

The dry northeast monsoon, roughly December to April, brings the calmest seas and clearest visibility.

Dry monsoon peakRead the guide → 9°59′N 85°39′W · Surf

Nosara

The dry season, roughly December to April, brings offshore mornings and clean, beginner-friendly waves.

Dry seasonRead the guide → 18°20′N 67°15′W · Surf

Rincón

North Atlantic swell fires into the points from roughly December through April.

Swell seasonRead the guide → 12°13′N 72°10′W · Kitesurfing

Cabo de la Vela

The strongest, steadiest trade winds run December to March.

Strongest tradesRead the guide → 6°16′S 39°32′E · Kitesurfing

Paje, Zanzibar

The Kaskazi (northeast) wind season runs roughly December to February.

Kaskazi startsRead the guide →

Also good in December

Boracay, at the start of its December to February peak.
El Nido, as the December to May dry season begins.
The Zambezi, in the last weeks of its August to December low-water season.

FAQ

Where is the diving best in December?

Raja Ampat enters its calmest window with the year's best manta odds, the Maldives start the dry northeast monsoon with the clearest visibility, and the Similans off Khao Lak are inside the December to April sweet spot.

Where can I go for southern-hemisphere summer?

Futaleufu in Chilean Patagonia opens its December to March rafting season, Queenstown is inside its October to April adventure-water window, and Cape Town's November to March summer is the prime stretch for its tidal pools and cold-water surf.

Sources

Every entry above is drawn from our own destination guide for that place, and the claims here are the ones those guides already verify: Futaleufu, Raja Ampat, Khao Lak (Similan), Maldives local islands, Nosara, Rincon, Cabo de la Vela, Zanzibar (Paje).

← Back to the journal