Where is hot in April, while the Mediterranean is still waking up

April is the month when southern Europe starts to wake up. The almond blossom is over, the orange blossom is out, and the café tables go back onto the pavements. But it is spring, not summer. Afternoons on the Mediterranean are mild, evenings are cool, and the sea is far too cold for most people to swim in comfortably. If you want real heat, you have to go further.

The trick in April is to choose places that are hot without being punishing. A month later, several of them will be too hot for anything except lying by a pool.

Oman, before the summer

Oman is one of the most rewarding countries in Arabia, and one of the least spoiled. Its capital, Muscat, is low, white and orderly between the mountains and the sea. The country beyond has rugged mountains, wadis with clear green pools, the red dunes of the Wahiba Sands and a long coastline facing the Arabian Sea. The best months are from October to April. By May, the heat on the coast and in the desert is extreme.

April is at the end of that window, so the days are hot and the nights in the desert are warm. It is a good month for the mountains. On the Jebel Akhdar, the "green mountain", the terraced villages are much cooler than the coast, and the high-altitude damask roses, grown for rosewater, are in flower in spring.

Explore Worldwide's Mountains, Deserts and Coast of Oman, eight nights, covers all of it. It starts in Muscat and runs along the coast past the Bimmah Sinkhole and Fins Beach to the wadis of Arbeieen, Tiwi and Bani Khalid, the old dhow-building port of Sur and its neighbour, Al Ayjah, across the lagoon. Then it heads into the Wahiba Sands, Sinaw and Birkat al Mouz, and up onto the Jebel Akhdar.

Muscat itself deserves a day. The old port of Mutrah has a long seafront corniche and a covered souq where frankincense, grown in the far south of the country, is still sold by the bag. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, completed in 2001, is one of the most elegant modern buildings in the Gulf, and its prayer hall holds one of the largest hand-woven carpets in the world. Building rules have kept the city low and largely white, strung along the coast between bare brown mountains and the sea, and it feels quite unlike the glass towers of its neighbours.

Egypt at Easter

Egypt in April is warm in Cairo and hot in the south, with the temples of Luxor and Aswan best seen early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Spring can bring the khamsin, a hot, dusty wind from the desert, but April remains a good month, and it coincides with the Easter holidays.

Explore Worldwide's Family Egyptian Sphinx, Pyramids and Nile River, nine nights, is designed for families. It covers the pyramids at Giza and Cairo, then Aswan, Kom Ombo and Luxor in the south, and ends with time on the Red Sea coast at Hurghada, where the sea is already warm enough to swim.

The Yucatán and the Maldives

On the other side of the Atlantic, Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula is at the end of its dry season in April. It is hot, sunny and reliably dry, and the heat builds through the month. Explore Worldwide's Best of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, seven nights, runs in April. It takes in the Maya cities of Cobá, Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, the colonial towns of Valladolid, Izamal and Mérida, the cenote of Ik Kil and the flamingo estuary at Celestún. The ruins are best visited early, before the stone heats up.

The Maldives, meanwhile, are at the end of their dry north-east monsoon season. April is usually still sunny and calm, with warm water and good visibility for snorkelling. Explore Worldwide's Maldive Dhoni Cruise, seven nights, sails from Malé through the South Malé, Vaavu and Meemu atolls by traditional dhoni. It calls at local islands such as Fulidhoo and Felidhoo, and reefs such as Acho Kacho. It runs in April as well as through most of the year.

None of these will feel like a mild spring. That is the point. If you want sunshine in April, these places provide it, and the Mediterranean will still be there in June, when it has warmed up.