Best Places To Travel In May

The weather is warming up, the skies are clearing, and the days are getting longer. May is an excellent time to climb out of the warmth of your winter hibernation hidey-hole and venture back into the world.

So, if you’re planning a trip and are looking for some amazing destination suggestions to help you shake off that winter lethargy, we’ve put together a list of some fantastic places to visit this May, both in the U.S and further abroad.

So What Are the Best Places to Travel in May?

We know not everyone wants to spend huge amounts of time traveling abroad (flights in the U.S take long enough), so we’ve split our selections into two sections, the best places to travel in May in the U.S and some places to visit that are overseas.

Best Places to Travel in May - The U.S

You don’t need to travel abroad to find some amazing vacation destinations this May. We’ve put together a selection of some of the best places in the U.S for you to visit.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

If you’re from one of the colder states and you’ve almost forgotten what the sun feels like, Fort Lauderdale is a great place to remind yourself of how great the Florida weather is.

The city, situated just north of Miami, is a perennial spring break favorite because of its consistently warm weather, long stretches of beautiful beach, a great network of canals, and excellent hotels.

There’s, however, more to Fort Lauderdale than just sun, sand, and cervesas. If you’re looking for a little more culture, you can also take a leisurely cruise down the Tarpon River, taking in the elegant waterfront mansions.

If you want a little more excitement, you could take in the Fort Lauderdale Air Show, which is held every May 8th-9th, and so the ariel acrobatics of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels or the Special Operations Command Parachute Team.

If you’d rather just relax and have someone pamper you, the Pelican Grand Beach Resort and the famous Atlantic Hotel and Spa will let you do exactly that.

Yellowstone National Park

If you’re a fan of the great outdoors, stunning views, wild animals, and dormant supervolcanoes, the Yellowstone National Park is an excellent destination for your May getaway.

The park and its fascinating geothermal landscape are so beautiful that the first European to discover it, John Colter, was accused of lying when he described it. Thankfully, he wasn’t, and the park now attracts just over 4 million visitors every year.

Yellowstone is vast and riddled with beautiful trails to hike, excellent geothermal sites to visit, and a multitude of nature-watching opportunities, so you can’t do it all in one visit.

If this is your first time in Yellowstone, we suggest taking a least a few days to visit Yellowstone Lake, the Mammoth Hot Springs, the Lewis River Channel, and, of course, Old Faithful.

Carlsbad, California

If you’re looking for a quieter getaway this May, with all the warmth of Fort Lauderdale but a little less of the hustle and bustle, the Carlsbad is an excellent choice.

Sited just two hours south of Los Angeles, the small city overlooks a long stretch of quiet but beautiful Californian coastline.

The area around Carlsbad is crisscrossed with excellent biking and hiking trails and, in May, the famous Flower Fields are in bloom. These fields are around 50 acres of giant ranunculus blooms, huge rose-like flowers in a dizzying array of colors.

In the evenings, you can relax on the waterfront or around the Batiquitos Lagoon and enjoy some of the best seafood in California and sample the labors of the vast array of independent craft breweries that surround the city.

Louisville, Kentucky

When most people think of Louisville, the first thing that comes to mind is the Kentucky Derby, which is a shame as the city has much more to offer than that.

If you love southern food, then the East Market District of downtown, more commonly known as New Louisville or NuLu, has established itself as one of the premier foodie districts in the U.S.

Restaurants like Royals Hot Chicken and Galaxie are the standouts, but there are plenty of little cafes and street food stops scattered amongst the art galleries and antique shops.

There are plenty of attractions to see in Louisville, including Cherokee Park, the Louisville Zoo, and the Mega Cavern, the world’s only underground zip line!

Suppose you’d like a stiff drink of some of Kentucky’s more famous export to follow up on all that fantastic food. In that case, you can follow the Kentucky Bourbon Trail to famous distilleries such as Makers Mark, Angel’s Envy, Evan Williams, Jack Daniels, and Jim Beam.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

While Jackson Hole might be famous for its skiing, there’s still a considerable amount to do there in the off-season when the warmer weather of spring starts melting the snow.

With Grand Teton National Park on one side and a massive range of National Forest on the other, Jackson Hole is surrounded by wild, untamed, and utterly beautiful wilderness.

If you’d like to get in touch with your inner cowboy, you can spend some time horse riding through this incredible landscape. You could even go as far as renting your own cabin and relying on fish from the nearby rivers and elk or deer from the forests for your dinner.

Each year, Jackson Hole also holds its annual Elk Fest. Less of celebration and more of an auction, Elk Fest is where the local Boy Scout troop sells off the season’s best elk horns to raise money for the nearby National Elk Refuge.

If you want to spend some time getting back to nature and enjoy the best that unspoiled Wyoming has to offer, then Jackson Hole is a great choice.

Best Places to Travel in May - Going Abroad

If you’d like to head further afield this May, there are some fantastic destinations worldwide for you to visit, and we’ve listed some of the best for you.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is a city steeped in history and beer. The city is currently the capital of the Czech Republic. However, it’s also been the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, the favorite residence of several of the Holy Roman Emperors, and was the capital of Czechoslovakia.

As you might expect from a city with that much history, there’s a lot to see in Prague. The city plays host to some fantastic architecture, from the imposingly gothic Prague Castle to the brightly colored Prague Astronomical Clock in the famous Old Town Hall.

If you’re looking for culture, you can also visit one of the ten significant museums or a significant number of theater and art galleries. Highlights include the vast National Museum and the golden-roofed National Theatre.

Once you’ve spent some time navigating the city through its excellent public transport system, you can head to one of the many beer gardens around the city to enjoy Prague’s other great passion, good Czech beer, and grilled meat.

Porto - Portugal

Often overshadowed by its more famous sister-city Lisbon, Porto has been voted Best European Destination three times in a row. This exceptional city is rightly renowned for its beautiful architecture, particularly the Palacio da Bolsa and the Sé Catédral.

Porto also offers some exceptional shopping experiences, with a huge range of markets, stores, bars, and cafes arranged around the famous ViaCatarina.

The city is famous for its walking tours, where an experienced local guide can take you through some of the best parts of the city and provide you with a unique local and historical perspective.

If the idea of a three-hour walking tour is already making your feet sore, don’t worry, you can also take tours from the back of a Segway.

You could climb to the top of the Clérigos tower to get a stunning view out over the city, take a leisurely cruise down the River Douro and its famous six bridges, or travel on the Funicular Dos Guindais railway it winds its way from Batalha to Ribeira.

The city is dotted with instantly memorable sites, such as the Lello bookshop, which famously inspired Harry Potter’s library in Hogwarts, the stunning contemporary architecture of Casa da Musica, or the imposing Romanesque grandeur of the Sé Cathedral Do Porto.

San Sebastian, Spain

San Sebastian, located in Spain’s Basque country, is home to a fantastic range of food and culture.

Set around the outside of a beautiful horseshoe bay, San Sebastian takes full advantage of the bounty offered by the sea and the countryside surrounding it to make some of the best food in Spain.

With San Sebastian as your base, you can set out to explore the unique culture of the Basque region by taking tours of the Gipuzkoa Coast.

As part of those tours, you can visit historical sites like La Antigua Hermitage, the Basilica of Loyola, and the Sanctuary of Aranzazu, or maybe indulging in a touch of paragliding to get an aerial view.

To wind down a little, you could always take one of the many wine tours through the Rioja wine region or explore the area’s equally famous cider-making orchards.

Huacachina, Peru

When most people think of Peru, they don’t think desert oasis, but that’s precisely what Huacachina is. The legend of the place is that the oasis was formed by a mirror dropped by Huacay China, a young Incan woman mourning her dead lover.

Apparently, when the mirror turned into an oasis, Huacay China dived in and turned into a mermaid. The locals hold that you can still occasionally see her sitting on the edge of the oasis.

While that origin story might be a little hard to prove, what is certain is that the town of Huacachina was popular with affluent Peruvians during the early 1900s as both a getaway and because the water was thought to have healing properties.

This sleepy little oasis has now become a kind of hidden holiday gem, where visitors can lounge around the edge of the beautiful oasis or head out into the dune to track, sandboard, or ride around in a little motorized sand buggy.