India Month by Month, Region by Region

The most expensive planning mistake in India is treating it as one climate. It has at least four, they are not in step, and two of them run in the opposite direction to the one everybody knows about.

So the question is never “is March a good time to visit India”. It is “is March good where I want to be”. Read the table below by column.

The table

Month	Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra	Varanasi and the plains	Kerala and the south	Tiger parks	Ladakh and the high Himalaya
January	Excellent, cold nights, poor air in Delhi, fog	Cold, atmospheric, fog delays	Excellent	Open, good, chilly dawns	Closed by road
February	Excellent	Very good	Excellent	Very good	Closed by road
March	Excellent and under-used	Good, warming	Very good	Very good, improving weekly	Closed by road
April	Good to mid-month, then hot	Hot	Hot, humid, pre-monsoon storms	Good, hot, better odds	Passes begin to open
May	We do not build here	Very hot	Hot, monsoon nears	Best odds, punishing heat	Opening, excellent
June	We do not build here	Very hot, then rain	Monsoon arrives	Closing through the month	Excellent
July	Monsoon, hot and wet	Monsoon	Heavy monsoon	Core zones closed	Excellent, peak trekking
August	Monsoon	Monsoon	Heavy monsoon	Core zones closed	Excellent
September	Monsoon retreating	Wet, easing	Easing late	Reopening late in the month	Very good, trekking ends late
October	Very good from mid-month	Good	Second monsoon, showers	Reopening, green, low odds	Passes close by late in the month
November	Excellent, air quality poor in Delhi	Good, fog begins	Showers easing	Good	Closed by road
December	Excellent, cold nights, fog	Cold, heavy fog	Excellent	Good	Closed by road

October to March, the main season

This is when we send most people, and for a first visit it is close to the whole answer. Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the tiger parks are all comfortable at once.

Two things visitors get wrong about the northern winter. It is genuinely cold at night: Delhi in January sits near 68°F (20°C) by day and around 45°F (7°C) after dark, and the desert is colder. Nobody packs enough. And Delhi’s air quality is poor from roughly November into January, badly so in some weeks, from crop burning, still winter air and traffic. If you are asthmatic or travelling with a small child we shorten Delhi in those months and tell you rather than hoping you do not notice.

The other winter fact is fog. Dense fog on the northern plains in late December and January delays trains and flights by hours, routinely. We do not build tight same-day connections then, and if your trip runs through that window your itinerary will have slack in it that looks inefficient and is in fact what protects the rest of the days.

March, the month we would take ourselves

Warm, clear, thin crowds and lower rates. The tiger parks improve week by week as the waterholes shrink and the forest thins. Rajasthan is still comfortable. Kerala is still dry. If your dates are flexible and you do not need Christmas, this is the best value fortnight in the Indian year, and it is the one our own people take.

May and June in the north, the months we refuse

Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra in May and June regularly sit between 104 and 113°F (40 and 45°C). This is not a question of being warm. Sightseeing is unpleasant and, in the worst weeks, unsafe, and a fort in Jodhpur at two in the afternoon in June is a health decision rather than a sightseeing one.

We do not build Rajasthan itineraries in those months. We would rather lose the booking than sell you one, and we say so early in the conversation rather than after a deposit.

Two exceptions. The Himalaya is at its best in exactly these weeks. And these are the peak months for tiger sightings, because the animals come to the water, if you accept the heat as the price and confine the trip to the parks rather than touring the cities.

July to September, the monsoon

The southwest monsoon reaches Kerala around the start of June and moves north over the following weeks, covering most of the country by early July, then retreats through September and October.

Indian rain is rarely all-day drizzle. It is heavy, dramatic, often confined to part of the day, and the country turns green in a way the dry season never shows. What the monsoon does close is the tiger reserves, whose core zones shut for roughly July to the end of September with dates set park by park, and most Himalayan road passes outside the rain shadow.

What it opens is more interesting than people expect. Ladakh, which sits behind the mountains and gets its best walking weather in exactly these months. Kerala’s ayurvedic season, when the traditional treatment calendar begins and rates fall. And the whole of Rajasthan photographed green, which almost no visitor sees.

The two calendars that do not match

Ladakh runs backwards. The passes from Srinagar and Manali open around May and June and close with the snow by late October. Outside that window Leh is reachable only by air, and trekking runs from late June to late September. A Ladakh trip is a separate holiday rather than an add-on, and Ladakh and the Himalaya in 15 days is how we build it.

Kerala has two monsoons. The heavy southwest one from June to September, and a gentler northeast monsoon bringing afternoon rain through October into November. So the honest answer for Kerala is December to March, and a mid-October Kerala trip sold as dry season is being sold optimistically. Kerala and the south in 14 days is built for the December to March window.

Festivals worth planning around

Diwali, October or November, on the lunar calendar. Beautiful, and the country travels. Domestic flights and trains are full and expensive, and some businesses close for several days.
Holi, February or March. Extraordinary to witness and physically boisterous. We will tell you where we would and would not put you on the day.
Pushkar camel fair, usually November. A genuine event that has also become a spectacle. Worth it if your dates land on it and not worth reshaping a trip for.
The Republic Day period in Delhi, late January, when central Delhi has road closures and heavy security.

We check your dates against the current year’s calendars, because most of these move.

What we would do with different dates

Fixed December or January dates. North India, and build in fog slack. Accept the Delhi air and shorten the city end.
Fixed February or March dates. Anything. This is the free hand window.
Fixed April dates. North until mid-month, or the south, or start looking at the Himalaya for the end of the month.
Fixed May or June dates. Ladakh, or a dedicated tiger trip, or a different country this year. We will say that plainly.
Fixed July or August dates. Ladakh. Kerala for ayurveda if the point is treatment rather than sightseeing.
Fixed September dates. The second half only, and weighted to the south and the reopening parks.

Plan this trip

Give us your dates and we will tell you which India they point at, then build the route around it. Free, non-generic, and with no obligation.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the single best month to visit India?

February for most of the country, with March a close second and better value. There is no month that suits every region, and any answer that gives you one is simplifying.

Can we visit the Taj Mahal in the monsoon?

Yes, and it is often beautiful in the rain with far fewer people. The Taj is closed to visitors on Fridays in any season, which catches people out more often than the weather does.

Are the tiger parks really closed in the monsoon?

The core zones are, for roughly July to the end of September, with dates set park by park and buffer zones sometimes open. We check the published dates for your year rather than assuming last year’s. See which tiger park.

Is the heat really that bad in May?

Yes. Regularly above 104°F (40°C) in Rajasthan, with nights that barely drop. We do not build Rajasthan then.

When should we book?

Four to six months ahead for most dates, six to nine for Christmas and New Year in the heritage hotels, when the good rooms go first. How far ahead to book Asia has the country by country version. —

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India month by month, region by region