Where December is cheap, from measured prices
December is the off-season across most of Mediterranean and Western Europe, and the gap is not small. As of Oct 2026, 47 of the 68 cities we price are cheaper in December than that city’s own twelve-month average — Nice by 44%.
The cities that fall furthest below their own average
Each figure compares that city’s December median against its own annual average, not against other cities — a cheap month in an expensive city is still an expensive city.
Cityvs its own average
- Nice$123122 hotels44% below
- Busan$8690 hotels37% below
- Milan$212138 hotels34% below
- Venice$229122 hotels30% below
- Amsterdam$204139 hotels30% below
- Barcelona$216138 hotels28% below
- Jakarta$61112 hotels28% below
- Athens$150138 hotels27% below
Median nightly rate for a refundable room for two, measured across the whole month. Every city we price in December.
Where it does not hold
December is not cheap everywhere, and a guide that only listed the wins would be the kind of thing this site exists not to be. 20 of the cities we price are dearer in December than their own average — December is high season across much of Southeast Asia and the Gulf, and Christmas markets lift Central Europe.
What this does and does not tell you
It tells you which month to stay, at today’s prices. We price the same rooms for a check-in date in each of the next twelve months, and take the median of what we are quoted.
Holding the room and the party the same is what makes a change in the answer mean something; how far ahead each date sits is the one thing we vary on purpose, because that is the question this page answers — which month to go, not how early to book.
Which carries one honest limit worth knowing, built into any forward curve: a nearer month is necessarily quoted at a shorter horizon. December is priced about three months out from here, next August about eleven. So part of any gap between two months is that difference rather than the season, and what the figures above are exactly is what these rooms cost today, for each month.
It does not tell you when to buy. We do not hold the horizon fixed and vary the purchase date, so we have no measurement of whether booking earlier or later gets a better price, and we would rather say so than guess. When to book sets out the same distinction.
Every number here is our own: rates we recorded ourselves, on the same room type, for the same party, refreshed as the measurements move. Nothing is typed into this page by hand.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is measured rather than estimated — 12,971 properties in 107 cities, priced every week. Pick a month and we'll email you when it moves. Email only, no account, no password.