The World’s Finest Sunsets, and the Three That Are Not Sunsets at All
A sunset is missed for three reasons: you arrive too late, you leave too early, and you stand on the wrong side. The third is the most common, and it often comes from articles recommending a sunset in a place where it is actually the sunrise that is spectacular.
So let us start with those three, because they are the mistakes that cost a trip.
Three famous places where it is the sunrise, not the sunset
Angkor Wat. The temple faces west, which puts the setting sun behind anyone standing at the reflecting pools. The documented alignment is the sunrise: at the equinoxes, around 21 March and 22 to 23 September, the sun rises directly above the central lotus tower as seen from the western entrance. You need to be there at 5:30 in the morning, not at five in the afternoon. The north-west pool along the main causeway gives the best reflection, and it is also the most crowded.
Mesa Arch, in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The arch sits on the eastern rim of the plateau: it is the first light of morning that sets the underside glowing orange, with the canyon four hundred and sixty metres below. At sunset almost nothing happens. Its span is about twenty-seven metres, not the ninety centimetres you sometimes read, a confusion between feet and centimetres.
Tulum, on the east coast of the Yucatán. The sun rises over the Caribbean and sets inland, over the jungle. No sunset over water is possible from the beach, despite hundreds of articles claiming otherwise. The sunrise from the Maya ruins, on the other hand, is extraordinary, and for sunset you move inland to the lagoons, Kaan Luum and Nopalitos.
The eight that deliver
| Place | Exactly where to stand | When | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oia, Santorini | The Venetian castle tower, or the steps down toward the windmills | The latest sunset falls between 21 and 28 June, around 8:40 p.m. It then retreats: 8:25 in late July, 7:48 in late August | Arrive forty-five to sixty minutes early. These are whitewashed houses on a volcanic caldera, not limestone cliffs |
| Sossusvlei, Namibia | The top of Big Daddy, 325 m, which overlooks Dead Vlei | Year-round, though the light from May to September is sharpest | The oldest desert in the world. The dead acacias of Dead Vlei have stood for six to nine hundred years. Dune 45 is 45 km from the park gate and does not overlook the salt pan |
| Uluru, Australia | The Sunset Viewing Area, built for it | April to September, for the temperature | 348 metres high, 9.4 km around. Climbing has been prohibited since 26 October 2019 at the request of the Anangu. The base walk is 10.6 km, three to four hours |
| Lofoten Islands, Norway | Reine, or the harbour at Henningsvær | Late August to October, when the sun still sets and the light rakes | The midnight sun from May to July removes the sunset entirely. Stay in a rorbu, the old fisherman’s cabin |
| Serengeti, Tanzania | From a kopje, one of those rock outcrops rising from the plain | Year-round. The great migration moves by month | Sunset is watched from the vehicle or the camp: parks close to traffic at dusk |
| Haleakalā, Maui | The summit, at 3,055 metres, above the cloud layer | Year-round. Dress for it: it is near freezing up there | Sunrise requires a reservation and is capped. Sunset is easier to access and almost as beautiful |
| Jemaa el-Fna, Marrakech | A first-floor café terrace on the west side of the square | Year-round. Winter gives the clearest light | This is not a landscape, it is a city switching on. The square changes completely at nightfall |
| Sun Gate, Machu Picchu | The Intipunku, at about 2,740 metres, above the citadel | The dry season, May to September | The citadel itself is at 2,430 metres, below the 3,000 mark. Strikes and protests regularly disrupt rail access: build slack into the itinerary |
Why some skies burn redder
The colour of a sunset depends on what is in the air. When light crosses the atmosphere at a low angle, it travels through far more of it than at noon, and suspended particles scatter the blue while letting red and orange through.
Hence three families of favoured places. Coastlines, where suspended salt multiplies the scattering points. Deserts, for mineral dust. And altitude, where drier, cleaner air produces sharper transitions.
The most spectacular factor, though, remains accidental: after the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, aerosols injected into the stratosphere gave the entire planet two years of extraordinary sunsets, in 1992 and 1993.
Golden hour, blue hour, and the two-evening rule
Golden hour is the one before sunset: warm light, long shadows, soft contrast. Blue hour begins as the sun drops below the horizon and lasts twenty to thirty minutes at mid latitudes. That is when the sky takes on the depth no daylight photograph can reproduce.
Hence the only rule that really counts: stay afterwards. The vast majority of people stand up and leave at the exact moment the sky starts working. The twelve to fifteen minutes after the sun disappears are often the finest of the evening.
And never go to see a sunset only once. Plan two nights on site. The first falls behind cloud one time in three, and you will have found the right spot for the second.
Quebec, before crossing an ocean
The Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve was the first in the world to receive that designation, in 2007. Parc national du Bic and Kamouraska look out over the estuary with sunsets many people cross the Atlantic to find elsewhere. Percé and the Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé national park, Tadoussac and the Fjord-du-Saguenay national park complete the list, and the Sépaq annual network card makes it economical.
This is not a consolation prize. It is practice: if you cannot yet wait twenty minutes after the sun has gone, you may as well learn two hours from home.
What to check before booking
Three checks save a trip built around light.
The actual sunset time on the exact dates of your stay, which varies by more than an hour within a single summer month. The National Research Council of Canada publishes those times for any locality.
The polar night, if you are heading north. In Tromsø, the sun neither rises nor sets from 27 November to 15 January: booking a sunset for that period means booking a sky that never tips. Our article on the northern lights in Iceland explains what you go to see instead.
And the travel advisories, which sometimes contain exactly the information you need. Peru’s notes that strikes, protests and derailments regularly disrupt rail access to Machu Picchu. Cambodia’s recommends avoiding all travel within fifty kilometres of the Thai border, which does not affect Siem Reap and Angkor, but does concern anyone planning to cross between the two countries by road.
To go further: our Morocco guide from Quebec covers Marrakech and the coast, and our article on African safaris details the Serengeti.
Talk to an advisor
A trip built around light needs two things booking engines do not provide: the right date and the right side. Our advisors build those itineraries. Call 1-866-628-6241 or write to us.
