Sunniest places to go from Manchester in December
The sunniest place you can reach from Manchester in December within 15 hours is Luxor, 10.0 h, costing 988 kg CO₂e return. The lowest-carbon option is Peterborough at 13.4 kg — 74× less carbon, for 7.3 hours less sunshine.
The 10 sunniest places within 15 hours of Manchester
Ranked on sunshine in December alone, among well-known places (a Wikivoyage travel guide and at least 40,000 Wikipedia readers a year), one per area and at most three per country. The carbon is shown, not used to choose: the list further down is the other question, how much sunshine each extra kilogram buys.
Aswan, Egypt10.1 h · 18.7 °Cair 9h 18m · 1,027 kg CO₂e return
Luxor, Egypt10.0 h · 18.0 °Cair 9h 6m · 988 kg CO₂e return
Hurghada, Egypt9.8 h · 19.9 °Cair 9h · 970 kg CO₂e return
Maspalomas, Spain9.4 h · 19.7 °Cair 7h 36m · 770 kg CO₂e return- Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain9.3 h · 18.9 °Cair 7h 30m · 756 kg CO₂e return
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain9.3 h · 19.1 °Cair 7h 30m · 760 kg CO₂e return
Ouarzazate, Morocco9.3 h · 10.3 °Cair 6h 54m · 638 kg CO₂e return
Aqaba, Jordan9.2 h · 18.0 °Cair 8h 48m · 939 kg CO₂e return- Ifrane, Morocco9.2 h · 6.9 °Cair 6h 30m · 561 kg CO₂e return
Oujda, Morocco9.1 h · 11.9 °Cair 6h 18m · 526 kg CO₂e return
Without flying
The sunniest places the train reaches within 15 hours. Nice is 7.5 h for 51.4 kg — about 20× less carbon than flying to Aswan.
Nice, France7.5 h · 9.2 °Crail 15h · 51.4 kg CO₂e return
Marseille, France7.5 h · 9.0 °Crail 12h 24m · 50.6 kg CO₂e return
Toulon, France7.4 h · 10.2 °Crail 13h 12m · 51.7 kg CO₂e return
Avignon, France6.8 h · 6.9 °Crail 12h · 48.1 kg CO₂e return- Turin, Italy6.6 h · 3.0 °Crail 15h · 48.2 kg CO₂e return
- Geneva, Switzerland5.0 h · 3.3 °Crail 12h 24m · 43.1 kg CO₂e return
Rail times are modelled; air times include getting to and through the airport.
The low-carbon trade-off
Every destination here is on the efficiency frontier: nowhere else this site covers is both sunnier in December and lower in carbon. Anything a better option beats outright has been left out.
By rail or ferry By air
What the 15-hour limit costs: at this budget Alicante can only be reached by air — 425 kg CO₂e, in 5h 48m. Allow up to 24 hours and the train does the same journey for 64.2 kg in 22h 30m — 7× less carbon for 16h 42m more travelling.
| Destination | How | CO₂e return | Temp | Sun/day | Rain/day | Journey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peterborough, United Kingdom | Rail | 13.4 kg | 7.3 °C | 2.7 h | 2.6 mm | 3h 54m |
| Le Havre, France | Rail | 27.7 kg | 8.2 °C | 3.2 h | 3.6 mm | 11h 6m |
| Angers, France | Rail | 34.3 kg | 7.5 °C | 4.2 h | 1.6 mm | 12h 24m |
| La Rochelle, France | Rail | 38.7 kg | 9.0 °C | 4.8 h | 3.9 mm | 13h 6m |
| Geneva, Switzerland | Rail | 43.1 kg | 3.3 °C | 5.0 h | 4.9 mm | 12h 24m |
| Romans-sur-Isère, France | Rail | 45.1 kg | 4.7 °C | 5.5 h | 3.0 mm | 12h 54m |
| Montélimar, France | Rail | 46.2 kg | 6.4 °C | 6.2 h | 1.6 mm | 13h 36m |
| Avignon, France | Rail | 48.1 kg | 6.9 °C | 6.8 h | 1.0 mm | 12h |
| Marseille, France | Rail | 50.6 kg | 9.0 °C | 7.5 h | 1.1 mm | 12h 24m |
| Tortosa, Spain | Air | 358 kg | 11.0 °C | 7.9 h | 0.4 mm | 5h 24m |
| Alicante, Spain | Air | 425 kg | 13.3 °C | 8.5 h | 0.2 mm | 5h 48m |
| Melilla, Spain | Air | 509 kg | 15.2 °C | 8.9 h | 0.4 mm | 6h 12m |
| Bouarfa, Morocco | Air | 586 kg | 8.7 °C | 9.6 h | 0.0 mm | 6h 36m |
| Luxor, Egypt | Air | 988 kg | 18.0 °C | 10.0 h | 0.0 mm | 9h 6m |
Warm is not the same as pleasant, which is why sunshine and rainfall are shown alongside temperature. All three are ERA5 monthly means for 2023–2024.
Where the curve breaks
The frontier is gentle until it isn't. Going from Bouarfa (586 kg, 9.6 h) to Luxor (988 kg, 10.0 h) buys 0.4 hours more sunshine for an extra 402 kg — 1005 kg of CO₂e per hour. That single step is the most expensive sunshine on the whole curve.
The pick of them
PeterboroughUnited Kingdom13.4 kg CO₂e returncoolMarseilleFrance50.6 kg CO₂e returncold but brightLuxorEgypt988 kg CO₂e returnwarm, bright and dryThe same month, asked differently
December answers differently depending on what you are after, and the lists genuinely diverge: the brightest places are not the hottest, and in summer the useful question stops being where is warm at all.
Where to stay in Luxor
Places to stay in Luxor, Egypt, on a live map. Prices and availability come from Stay22 and its booking partners.
Search places to stay in Luxor →Opens the booking search in a new tab. Same partners as the map below.
Affiliate disclosure. A booking made through this map may earn 0xCarbon a commission, at no extra cost to you. It changes nothing above it: the emissions figures come from UK Government conversion factors and are computed before anyone is paid anything.See the method.
Other months from Manchester
December from elsewhere
- Amsterdam
- Barcelona
- Berlin
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Brussels
- Cardiff
- Copenhagen
- Dublin
- Edinburgh
- Frankfurt
- Glasgow
- Leeds
- Lisbon
- Liverpool
- London
- Madrid
- Manchester
- Milan
- Munich
- Newcastle
- Nottingham
- Oslo
- Paris
- Prague
- Rome
- Sheffield
- Southampton
- Stockholm
- Vienna
- Warsaw
- Zurich
Photo credits
- Peterborough: NotFromUtrecht, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Marseille: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Luxor: Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Aswan: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Hurghada: Marc Ryckaert, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Maspalomas: JUAN RAMON RODRIGUEZ SOSA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Bengt Nyman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ouarzazate: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Aqaba: Sana Janakat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Oujda: Farajiibrahim, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Nice: Moody Dreiza (Moody751 at English Wikipedia), CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
- Toulon: Rafi88, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Avignon: Jean-Marc Rosier (de/from http://www.cjrosier.com + http://www.gordes-immobilier.com), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Questions
Where is the sunniest place to go from Manchester in December?
Luxor, Egypt, at 10.0 h. Reaching it emits 988 kg CO₂e return, travelling 9h 6m each way by air (modelled).
Can I get somewhere sunny from Manchester in December without flying?
Yes. Marseille reaches 7.5 h and is reachable by rail or ferry in 12h 24m (modelled), emitting 50.6 kg CO₂e return — though Luxor is sunnier still, if you fly.
How much carbon does a return trip from Manchester to Luxor produce?
988 kg CO₂e for one person, return, by air. That uses the UK Government's 2026 conversion factors, including radiative forcing for flights.
Carbon uses UK Government (DESNZ/DEFRA) 2026 conversion factors applied to great-circle distance, with radiative forcing included for flights. Rail journey times are modelled estimates, not timetabled services. Full method · download the data.