We’re sharing the best U.S., international, and national park destinations that are perfect for April travel.

National Park: Pinnacles National Park 

• What is Pinnacles National Park? The newest national park in California that protects a mountainous area in Central California where there are eroded leftovers of an extinct volcano. 

• Why visit?
  • Great weather – too hot in summer, in winter it can flood, close the caves down
  • Lush greenery in spring 
  • Opportunities to see California condors in the wild (previously extinct in the wild) 
  • The main/lower section of Bear Gulch Cave is usually open (closed for pupping season mid may- mid july) – of the 23 bat species that live in California- 14 of them live in Pinnacles 

• How long to stay
  • 1-2 days 
  • 2 sections of the park that don’t touch by car and take 2 hours to drive from one side to the other 
  • West side: balcony cave 
  • East side: bear gulch cave 
  • High peaks trail can be reached by both sides 
  • Great hiking either side

Domestic: State of Florida 

• Where to go in Florida:
  • Classic Miami 
  • Key West 
  • Gulf side- St. Petersburg, Venice Beach, Tampa 
  • Amusement parks 
  • 3 National Parks 

• Why visit Florida
  • Good to visit at start of shoulder season
  • Great weather- sunny, warm, but not scorching hot and too humid 65-80 degrees 
  • Great beaches 
  • Outside of hurricane season (June – November) 

• How long to stay
  • Depending on where you are going or what you are doing you can stay for a long weekend or up to 1 week

International: Spain 

• Where:
  • Barcelona, Madrid, and Toledo 

• Why
  • Shoulder season
  • Great weather- especially for Madrid & Toledo which are inland and can get really hot in summer, start of beach season in Barcelona 
  • Food & wine is fairly priced
    • Eat tapas, drink wine & sangria 
  • Metro and trains are easy to navigate 

• How long to stay
  • 1 week 

Future destination we want to visit: Guatemala 

• Where
  • Antigua – spanish colonial architecture 
  • Lake Atitlan – massive volcanic crater lake 
  • Acatenango (ah-caught-ten-ango) Volcano Hike
    • Watch a continuously erupting volcano + spend the night 

• Why
  • Dry season 
  • Great weather 
  • Money goes far 

• How long to stay
  • 1 week 

Places to Visit in April – Episode Transcript

0:02

Welcome to the Travel Squad podcast where adventure meets inspiration.

Travel Squad Podcast is back with Just the Tip, a new Friday mini episode series where we give you quick travel stories, hacks and recommendations to set you off into the weekend, right?

0:53

Today we’re sharing with you guys the best places to visit in April.

It’s so hard to just pick one place.

So we’ve broken it down into different categories for you guys, best National Park, domestic location, international, as well as a future destination that is on our radar.

1:11

Yeah.

So we’re going to dive right in.

We’re going to start with the National Park and we have picked Pinnacles National Park, which is California’s newest National Park.

This park is pretty cool.

It protects a mountainous area in central California where there are eroded leftovers of an extinct volcano and California condors.

1:31

So why should you visit in April #1?

Weather is great, too hot in the summer.

In the winter it can flood and it can close down the caves.

But in April and in spring there’s just beautiful, lush greenery.

1:47

So much scenic beauty.

And of course you’re going to have the opportunity to see the California condors soar above you in the wild.

They were previously extinct, and now they’re back.

Well, they were extinct in the wild and they had a breeding program to release them and Pinnacles National Park is one of those locations.

2:05

Very few locations within the United States where they have released them and they are back in the wild.

But another reason why we say April for you guys is one of the more popular sections of the park is called Bear Gulch Cave and it’s usually open.

2:21

However it closes in mid-May to July for popping season.

Of the 23 bat species that live in California, 14 of them are located in pinnacles and utilize this cave and area and so to protect the bats they close it.

2:37

So one of the main highlights you won’t even be able to see should you come later on in the season?

So there’s actually two different parts of Pinnacles National Park.

There’s a West side and an east side.

So if you were thinking about how long you should stay, you should stay one to two days.

That’s if you’re going to hit both sections.

2:54

If you’re just going to hit one section, it’ll take you a day.

Those two sections and they do not touch each other by car.

The only way to reach them is to go around the park or to hike between the two.

They are connected by foot.

So on the West side one of the highlights is the balcony cave and then on the east side there’s The Cave that Jamal just talked about, the Bear Gulch cave.

3:14

But if you take the High Peaks trail you can reach the in between between both sides of the park and there’s great hiking on both sides.

Lots of amazing trails.

Can’t go wrong on the hiking here.

The domestic destination that you should visit in April is the whole state of Florida.

3:34

Why Kim?

Well, you know how much I love Florida and there are really are great options all over the state.

You’ve got your classic Miami, you’ve got Key West.

You can go over to the Gulf side and hit up Saint Petersburg, Venice Beach, Tampa.

3:50

You of course, have Orlando and all those amazing amusement parks, and there are not one, not two, but three national parks in Florida.

Why you should go in April?

It’s the start of shoulder season, so a really great time to go on top of that great weather.

4:05

It’s sunny and warm, but it’s not too far into the summer or late spring that it becomes to be that it becomes really unbearable humidity wise, temperature wise, so we’re hovering around 65 to 80° during this time of year.

4:21

It’s perfect.

It’s a perfect time to go to the beaches.

Kim loves hitting up all of the beaches.

She’s been to so many beaches in Miami and and in the Keys as well.

You got the nude beaches.

Oh, and in April, you’re also missing hurricane season.

4:38

Hurricane season is June through November.

So you missed that as well, which is why it makes April a really great time to visit Florida.

And I want to throw in one more thing.

Brittany and I have been to Florida.

In May, we discovered that it was Love Bug season.

4:53

You do not want to go to Florida during Love bug season.

That could be a whole mini episode in and about itself.

Just Google it April, you’ll beat it.

Don’t go during Love Bug season.

Oh, let’s do a mini episode on bugs that we’ve discovered while traveling.

Well, love bugs.

It could be one of them, just like I said.

5:11

And if you’re thinking about how long you should stay in Florida, I mean, it really depends on where you’re going and what you’re doing.

You can easily stay there for a long weekend trip, or you can stay there and explore the the state for a week or more.

After going to Orlando recently, I seriously would stay like a week and go to all of the amusement parks.

5:28

I love Orlando.

Kim, I didn’t know you were ready to get back on the amusement park train.

I know roller coasters kind of freak you out a little bit.

We had to warm you up when we went to Shanghai Disney to ride Tron.

You did it.

I was impressed.

Now Disney you could handle.

But the other amusement parks, they start to get real wild out there.

5:46

Can you hang with that?

I don’t know.

You’re probably right.

I went to Disney Animal Kingdom.

I did Everest.

Oh, excellent.

I did, but then the group went out of the second time and I vetoed that.

I vetoed it.

Hard veto.

6:03

Anywhere you go in Florida is going to be amazing and April is a great time to go.

So internationally, thinking about where you should go in April, is Spain.

We actually visited in April of last year.

We went to Barcelona, Madrid and Toledo.

6:20

It’s a great time to visit those cities because it is shoulder season.

The weather’s great, especially for Madrid and Toledo.

Those are inland so it can get really hot, especially in the summer, and April is the start of beach season in Barcelona.

Barcelona and Ibiza.

6:38

I love that little Spanish accent you threw in there, Kim, as you said Ibiza, But on top of the great weather.

And I feel like that’s a great tip for a lot of places.

And of course you can see the theme here of what we’re mentioning.

Going during great weather to a specific location, shoulder season, really great travel advice all around.

6:56

But why you should go to Spain in general is the food and wine is fairly priced for a country.

Being in Western Europe on the Euro, you can eat your way through tapas, drinking wine, table wine, sangria.

It’s just an amazing experience.

7:11

Plus with the history culture sites, amazing time altogether.

Spain’s a really easy country to navigate with metros and trains, Easy to get around within the cities and between cities, and then from there to go to other parts of Europe too, in case you are going to travel outside of Spain while you’re there.

7:32

One of my favorite things about Spain, and I just want to mention this too, that I really liked about it, is there are a lot of sights to see, but not necessarily.

Those sites involve a lot of your time.

It’s a very walkable place to just go see it from the outside.

If you go on the inside, you don’t really need a lot of time.

7:50

So Spain is a great place to go if you’re looking for an exciting yet also leisurely vacation at the same time where you could just enjoy the culinary scene, relax and not feel too stressed with an itinerary of I need to see it all.

If you’re going to Spain and we’d recommend staying for at least a week, go to a few different cities and you can always go back and see more or extend your trip for a little bit longer.

8:12

But I wouldn’t go for less than a week.

As far as a future destination goes, I know that we’ve been talking about Guatemala, and I’ve been seeing a lot more other people talk about it too.

Some really gorgeous places out there.

You know, I love places with beautiful nature and volcanoes, and Guatemala is exactly that.

8:33

Not only does it have the nature aspect, you know, it has the town of Antigua with the Spanish colonial architecture.

It has a beautiful lake, Lake Atislan, and there is a massive volcanic crater.

The lake is the massive volcanic crater.

8:49

So this episode of course is actually airing here in April for you guys to to listen to this too.

So it may be too late for you to get on this Guatemala trip, but as this is airing.

No, it’s not.

We’ve got some last minute bookers that are here.

They might book today.

9:05

That’s true, I said.

Maybe a little bit too late.

Maybe a little bit too late though.

As you guys are listening to this, we are actually in Costa Rica right now enjoying a squad trip.

But I’ll tell you what, Guatemala right here was an April contender for us to be on in this very moment.

9:23

For whatever reason outside of our control, Costa Rica edged it out for us to do.

And one of the main reasons why it was a contender is I’m gonna butcher the name of this.

I believe it’s called Acatenango.

It’s a volcano hike that you can actually do and it has to be guided.

9:40

You can’t do it by yourself, but you end at the summit of a mountain and it will overlook an always pretty much erupting active volcano that pretty much erupts on queue like Old Faithful does in Yellowstone National Park.

You spend the night up there and just imagine at dusk and twilight hour as the sun is setting or rising, that haze color in the sky and just seeing that bright red magma erupting from the volcano in the middle of the jungle here in Guatemala.

10:09

I think it would be an amazing time.

This might be an April 2025 trip for us, and April’s a great time to go.

It’s the dry season there, so you won’t have to worry about downpours on you just about every day.

Weather’s going to be great and your money will go far in Guatemala.

10:28

It’s a very affordable country to visit and on top of that, all that beauty and nature.

And with the three highlights that we mentioned with Antigua, the Volcano hike and Lake Atitlan, you could probably spend about a week there.

Of course you can always spend longer, but to do that I kind of already built out in a future itinerary would take us about a week.

10:47

Oh, you have, Brittany.

Well, I mean, like I said, we were supposed to technically be there now and we’re in Costa Rica, which is a OK, no doubt about that.

But like you said, Kim, you’re alluding to it and I agree with you.

Guatemala, April 2025.

Well, I can’t wait for that, so stay tuned squatties.

11:04

And thanks so much for tuning in to just the tip this.

Week.

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And have fun traveling this weekend.

Bye squadies!