Best Time to Visit
Best Time to Visit — Month-by-Month Guides to 24 Destinations
Every guide gives the same three answers first — best overall, cheapest, avoid — then the season-by-season detail, the events that move prices, and how to book flights, hotels and a chauffeur for that city on the engine.
Best Time to Visit Japan
Japan has two famous seasons and two underrated ones. Which you pick decides your price, your crowds and whether you see blossom, maples or snow monkeys.
Best Time to Visit Hawaii
Hawaii is warm every month of the year; what changes is the rain, the surf, the whales and the price of a Waikiki room. The shoulder months win on all four.
Best Time to Visit Iceland
Iceland is really two destinations: a 24-hour-daylight road-trip country from June to August, and a dark, cheap, aurora country from October to March. Pick the one you actually want.
Best Time to Visit Costa Rica
Costa Rica's 'best time' depends on which coast you are standing on: the Pacific dries out in December while the Caribbean is at its sunniest in September. Here is how to line it up.
Best Time to Visit Cancún
Cancún is a year-round beach, but the calendar decides whether you get blue water or brown seaweed, sun or storms, honeymooners or spring-breakers.
Best Time to Visit Italy
Italy in August is 36°C, half-closed and full of everyone else. Italy in late September is warm seas, harvest menus and a table at the restaurant you actually wanted.
Best Time to Visit Greece
The Greek islands have a short, intense season: ferries and hotels wake up at Easter, peak in August and go quiet by late October. The edges of that season are where the good trips are.
Best Time to Visit Thailand
Thailand has a dry season, a hot season and two different rainy seasons — one for each coast. Read the coast, not the country, and there is always a beach in the sun.
Best Time to Visit Bali
Bali's wet and dry seasons matter less than people think — it rains in short bursts, not for weeks. What matters is the crowd calendar and, if you surf, which coast is working.
Best Time to Visit Aruba
Aruba sits south of the hurricane belt with 300-plus days of sun and a constant trade wind. The question is not when the weather is good — it is when the price is.
Best Time to Visit New York
New York works in every season, but it charges very differently for each. Autumn gives you the best weather; deep winter gives you the best rates; December gives you the lights and the bill.
Best Time to Visit the Maldives
The Maldives is not one season: the dry north-east monsoon gives you glassy lagoons; the wet south-west monsoon gives you mantas, surf and a third off the villa. Decide which you are paying for.
Best Time to Visit Vietnam
Vietnam stretches 1,600 kilometres from the cool, foggy north to the tropical south, and the three regions have different rainy seasons. The trick is to run the itinerary against the calendar, not with it.
Best Time to Visit Australia
Australia is a continent, so 'best time' means 'best time for which part'. The south wants summer; the tropical north wants winter; the Red Centre wants neither.
Best Time to Visit Peru
Peru's highlands, coast and jungle each keep their own weather. For most visitors the Andes decide the trip — and the Andes are at their best from May to September.
Best Time to Visit Egypt
Egypt's temples are in a desert; Egypt's beaches are on a warm sea. The cool season is the time for the first, and almost any month works for the second.
Best Time to Visit Paris
Paris in April is a cliché because it is true. Paris in late September is the same city with the tourists thinning and Parisians back from the beach — arguably the better month.
Best Time to Visit London
London's weather is famously changeable in every month, so the calendar is really about daylight, prices and events. May, June and September come out ahead on all three.
Best Time to Visit Punta Cana
Punta Cana sells sunshine twelve months a year, and mostly delivers. The variables are seaweed, storms and how many other people had the same idea.
Best Time to Visit Morocco
Morocco has a coast that is always mild, cities that bake in summer, mountains with snow and a desert that freezes at night in January. Spring and autumn are when they all line up.
Best Time to Visit Dubai
Dubai in January is 24°C and perfect. Dubai in August is 45°C and half price. Everything else is a matter of what you plan to do outdoors.
Best Time to Visit Jamaica
Jamaica is warm in every month; the calendar changes the price, the crowd and the odds of a storm. December to April is the safe answer, May and November are the smart ones.
Best Time to Visit Santorini
Santorini's caldera view is the same in May and in August. The difference is 3,000 cruise passengers in the Oia lanes, a doubled hotel rate and a wind that whips the terraces. Go in the shoulders.
Best Time to Visit Toronto
Toronto is a summer city with a serious winter. June to early October is when the lake, the islands and the patios earn the trip; the rest of the year has its own — and much cheaper — logic.
More series
- Things to Do (16)
- Best Places to Travel by Month (12)
- Resorts, Beaches & Islands (10)
- Flights (10)
- Hotels (7)
- Car Rental (6)
- Chauffeur & Car Service (6)
- Trends & Planning (9)
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