Runs the scoring program behind every ranking on the site, and writes the world, month, solo and budget lists that come out of it.
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November is two lists in one. The first three cities, all in the south, have daytime highs of 60°F to 64°F (15.5°C to 17.6°C) and weather scores between 7.3 and 9.2. Then the score drops by almost a full point. From fourth place on, highs are 46°F to 52°F (8°C to 11.1°C), sunshine runs to about four and a half hours a day, and the cities that hold on are the ones whose one-night trip is strong anyway, most of them with a Christmas market opening during the month.
Florence leads by two hundredths of a point. Barcelona has far better weather, 9.2 against 7.3, but Florence's Snack Score is 8.6 against 7.3, and the month score weighs the Snack Score at 60%. Rome, the wettest city on the list, is third. November is also the start of the cheap season: on our January Friday, rooms in Florence, Prague and York cost under half their June price.
At a glance
Best overall
Florence, 8.08, two hundredths ahead of Barcelona
Best weather
Barcelona, 9.2: highs of 64°F (17.6°C) and 7.6 rainy days
First market to open
York, November 12, 2026, on Parliament Street
Cheapest
Kraków, one night for $50 (£37)
By train from London
Bath 73 minutes, York 105 minutes, Paris 136 minutes
Shortest days
York, 4.2 hours of sunshine a day
The ranking
Score = 40% this month’s weather + 60% the Snack Score, plus a market bonus in November and December for cities with a Christmas market. No more than 3 cities from one region. How we score
Florence is first for a third month, but only just: 8.08 against Barcelona's 8.06. November cools it to 60°F (15.5°C) and brings 12.8 rainy days, a weather score of 7.3; the Snack Score of 8.6 holds it up. Winter is the cheap season here. A room inside the old walls was $76 (£57) on our January Friday, under half the June price. If it rains, the Uffizi and the cathedral museum fill the afternoon and Piazzale Michelangelo can wait. Order ribollita, the bread and vegetable soup our page lists as the winter dish.
Barcelona has the best November weather on the list by a distance, 9.2: highs of 64°F (17.6°C), 7.6 rainy days and 7.8 hours of sunshine a day. Its Snack Score, 7.3, carries a hedge from our page, because the Gaudí interiors need timed tickets: book the Sagrada Família, $29 (£22; €26), for the second morning. The evening scores 8.5, with cava and tapas at El Xampanyet on Carrer de Montcada and late bars on Plaça Reial. La Boqueria is closed on Sundays, so arrive Monday to Saturday.
Rome is third on 8.02 and the wettest city on the list, with 13.3 rainy days, but still mild at 63°F (17.3°C). The case is the plan: the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona fit a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) walk, with dinner across Ponte Sisto in Trastevere. Since July 1, 2026, the Pantheon costs $7.90 (£5.90; €7), and the Trevi Fountain basin charges $2.20 (£1.70; €2) from 9 a.m., which is why the plan visits at 8 a.m. on Saturday. The fixed taxi fare inside the Aurelian Walls is $62 (£46; €55).
London opens the second half of the list on 7.08, nearly a point behind Rome. Its November weather score is 5.2, with highs of 52°F (11°C) and 4.6 hours of sunshine, and Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, from November 19, 2026, earns it the market bonus; entry is timed and ticketed. The indoor stops carry a gray day: Westminster Abbey at $43 (£32), Tate Modern and St Paul's. The pay-as-you-go cap for zones 1 and 2 is $11.90 (£8.90) a day. On our January Friday a Westminster room cost $115 (£86).
Kraków's November weather score is 4.4, with highs of 47°F (8.2°C), and it still ranks fifth on a Snack Score of 8.5 plus the market bonus. Two caveats. The City of Kraków had not published 2026 dates for the Main Square market when we checked; in 2025 it opened on November 28. And Wawel is closed on November 1 and mostly closed on November 11. The upside is Free November, Wawel's program of free passes for selected exhibitions, from the castle ticket offices or online a week ahead.
Vienna is sixth on 6.86. Its November is cold, 48°F (9°C), but drier than the other market cities on the list, with 8.8 rainy days. The Viennese Christmas Market on Rathausplatz opens on November 13, 2026, daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the Christmas Village at Maria-Theresien-Platz sits outside the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the plan's morning stop. After November 2, Schönbrunn closes earlier than its 5:30 p.m. autumn time, so our page moves it to first thing. Figlmüller's schnitzel and the State Opera fill the evening.
Prague ties Paris on 6.76 and ranks ahead on its higher Snack Score; without the market bonus it would trail. Its weather score, 4.4, reflects highs of 46°F (8°C), the coldest on the list, and 4.3 hours of sunshine. The Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square markets open on November 28, 2026. From November 1 the castle buildings close at 4 p.m., so start there at 9 a.m. The one-night cost, $58 (£43), is the second lowest of the ten, and a Prague 1 room was $62 (£46) on our January Friday.
Our Paris page names no Christmas market, so Paris gets no bonus and ties Prague on 6.76. Its weather score, 5.2, matches London's, with highs of 52°F (11.1°C) and 12.2 rainy days. The reason to go is still the food, scored 10, and the Louvre, whose compulsory reservations end on November 1, 2026; book a Friday slot anyway for the late opening. Lunch is falafel at L'As du Fallafel on Rue des Rosiers. Notre-Dame is free, with doors open from 7:45 a.m. on weekdays, and the tower sparkles until midnight in winter.
Bath is ninth on 6.60. November gives it highs of 51°F (10.4°C) and 12.3 rainy days, and the market bonus comes from the Bath Christmas Market, November 26 to December 13, 2026, in the streets around the Abbey. The Roman Baths are cheaper in this window: $31 (£24) for a weekday advance ticket from November 1 to December 18, 2026. The rooftop pool at Thermae Bath Spa is warm on a cold evening and closes at 9 p.m. GWR takes 73 minutes from Paddington. Americans need a UK ETA first, $27 (£20).
York closes the list on 6.44, with 13.1 rainy days and 4.2 hours of sunshine, the fewest here. Its market runs far longer than Bath's: November 12 to December 21, 2026, on Parliament Street, 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed on Tuesdays. LNER takes 105 minutes from King's Cross, and everything is inside the walls on a 1.9-mile (3.1 km) route. Book a Jorvik timeslot, $23 (£17.50), and keep the evening for the ghost walk from the King's Arms at 8 p.m., $13.30 (£10). A room inside the walls was $62 (£46) in January.
The November score is 40% the city's November weather, taken from our Open-Meteo dataset for 2016 to 2025, and 60% its Snack Score. In November and December one more rule applies: a city whose page names a real Christmas market gets a bonus on its weather score, 0.5 points in November and 1.0 in December, capped at 10. Six of the ten get it this month: London, Kraków, Vienna, Prague, Bath and York. It moves the bottom half. Without it, Paris would rank sixth instead of eighth, York would drop out, and Dublin would tie Bath for the last place.
The three-per-region cap matters at the top. Lisbon ties Rome on 8.02 but ranks behind it on the Snack Score, so it is the fourth southern city and is left out; so are Madrid, Porto and Venice. Budapest, on 6.72, misses behind Kraków, Vienna and Prague. Every rule is in how we score cities.
Christmas markets opening in November 2026
From the city and organizer dates on our city pages, in opening order:
City
Market
Opens
York
York Christmas Market, Parliament Street (closed Tuesdays)
November 12
Vienna
Viennese Christmas Market, Rathausplatz
November 13
Budapest
Advent Bazilika, Szent István tér
November 13
Copenhagen
Christmas in Tivoli (paid entry)
November 13
London
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland (timed tickets)
November 19
Bruges
Two markets in the center
November 20
Berlin
WeihnachtsZauber, Gendarmenmarkt
November 23
Bath
Bath Christmas Market, around the Abbey
November 26
Prague
Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square
November 28
Kraków
Main Square market
Not published as of October 21, 2026
So the second half of November is the window when most of them are open; a trip before November 12 finds none of these running. Barcelona City Council had not published its 2026 Christmas program when we checked and says it will do so in November. Our Christmas market city breaks list ranks the market cities on their own.
Closures and short hours this month
November 1: Prague Castle's buildings switch to closing at 4 p.m. until March 31, Wawel in Kraków is closed for the day, and the Louvre's period of compulsory reservations ends.
From November 2: Schönbrunn in Vienna closes earlier than its autumn 5:30 p.m.
November 11: Wawel is mostly closed.
All month: the Colosseum's last entry is 3:30 p.m., and York's market is closed on Tuesdays.
Short days are the general rule. Every city from fourth place down gets less than five hours of sunshine a day on our numbers, so put the paid sights in the morning and leave the market or the lit streets for after dark.
Prices and getting there
We checked hotels for January 15 and June 11, 2027, not November, but the January Friday is the better winter benchmark, and it is low. Prague 1 was $62 (£46), York inside the walls $62 (£46), Vienna $71 (£53), Florence $76 (£57) and Bath $78 (£58). The one-night cost on each card, half the average of both rooms plus the airport ride both ways and a day ticket, runs from $50 (£37) in Kraków to $129 (£97) in London. Market weekends are not in our prices, so book those early.
From London, three of the ten need no flight: Bath by GWR in 73 minutes, York by LNER in 105 and Paris by Eurostar in 136. From the US, Rome, Barcelona, Paris and London have nonstops from all ten hubs we track; Florence, Bath and York have none. The EU's Entry/Exit System has been live since April 10, 2026, ETIAS has no start date and will cost $22 (£16.80; €20), and US citizens need a UK ETA, $27 (£20), for London, Bath and York.
Booking through these links supports this site at no cost to you. Prices move by date, so we do not print them here; the official prices we checked are in the page above.
Frequently asked questions
Where is warm in Europe in November?
Of our ten, Barcelona, with highs of 64°F (17.6°C), Rome at 63°F (17.3°C) and Florence at 60°F (15.5°C). Barcelona is also the driest and sunniest, with 7.6 rainy days and 7.8 hours of sunshine a day.
When do the Christmas markets open in November 2026?
York opens first, on November 12. Vienna, Budapest and Copenhagen's Tivoli follow on November 13, London's Winter Wonderland on November 19, Bruges on November 20, Berlin on November 23, Bath on November 26 and Prague on November 28.
Is November a good time for a city break in Europe?
In the south, yes: Florence, Barcelona and Rome all score 8 or more for November. Further north it is cold and dark early, but rooms are at their cheapest and the markets open from mid-month.
What is the cheapest city break in Europe in November?
Kraków: its one-night cost, $50 (£37), covers half a central room, the airport train both ways and a 24-hour ticket. Prague is next at $58 (£43).
When does the Kraków Christmas market open in 2026?
The City of Kraków had not published 2026 dates when we checked on October 21, 2026. In 2025 the market on the Main Square ran from November 28 to January 1.
Further reading
Official sources
Open-Meteo historical weather archive– Source of our 2016-2025 monthly highs, lows, rainy days and sunshine hours used in the November score; dataset built October 2026
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