Easter is the trickiest sun booking of the year for one structural reason: it moves. The holiday wanders across five weeks — 22 March at its earliest, 25 April at its latest — and spring moves fast in exactly that window. A destination that's perfect for a late-April Easter can be a coin-flip in March; the March and April guides read like different seasons because they are. So the Easter list below has one admission rule: it must deliver whichever week the calendar serves.

The second structural fact: Easter week prices like July, wherever it lands. School holidays across Europe converge on it, and the week either side is routinely 30–40% cheaper for identical weather. If your dates float, float them.

The bankers — warm in March, warmer in April

The Red Sea is Easter's most reliable answer, full stop. Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh run 26–30°C across the entire Easter window with a 23–24°C sea — the April guide calls it the Red Sea's single best month, and a March Easter just catches the same spring at a degree less. Warm swimming guaranteed at either end of the range; five-hour flight; the one calendar note is that Egypt's own peak demand follows Western and Orthodox Easter both.

The Canaries do what they always do: 22–23°C in March, 23–24°C in April, sea 19–20°C, indifferent to which week you picked. The steadiness is the product. Carnival is over, summer crowds haven't started — Easter is one of the islands' best-balanced moments, at Easter prices.

Marrakech sits in its prime window whichever week Easter lands: 24–27°C, orange blossom in March, roses by late April, the Atlas still snow-capped behind the medina. No beach; no contest as a city escape.

Agadir adds the Moroccan beach version — 23–25°C, Atlantic at 18°C (brisk but functional), and inland excursions at their greenest.

The Mediterranean — honest small print

The eastern Med wakes up across the Easter window, and the honesty matters most here:

Paphos and Larnaca lead it — Cyprus runs 22–26°C with the season's earliest proper warmth; the Akamas wildflowers peak in exactly this window. Valletta does 20–23°C of perfect sightseeing weather. Antalya hits 26–28°C by late April with the ruins-radius at ideal walking temperature.

The small print, said plainly: the sea is not ready. The eastern Mediterranean sits at 16–18°C through the whole Easter range — a gasp and a photo, not an afternoon's swimming. Honest swimming starts mid-May; if warm water is non-negotiable at Easter, that's what the Red Sea tier above is for. (The full warming curve is in when the Mediterranean gets warm.)

One cultural bonus on this flank: Orthodox Easter usually falls a week or more after the Western date, and Greek Easter is the country's biggest festival — midnight candles, fireworks, lamb on spits everywhere. A late-April trip to Rhodes or Crete that catches it gets a second Easter for free.

Long-haul, closing windows

A late Easter is the last call for two winter-season favourites: Phuket and Krabi (April is the hottest, final month before the monsoon — and mid-April adds Songkran, the national water fight) and Cancún (the dry season's tail, before sargassum season builds). Both work brilliantly at Easter and would be the wrong booking six weeks later — the difference between a calendar and a guess.