Monsoon in Asia: which countries it actually ruins

Because those two things share a name, people either cancel a good trip or book a compromised one. Here is our working rating across the nine countries we cover.

The rating we use

• Cosmetic. Rain arrives in bursts and the day works around it. Rates fall and crowds thin. Often good value.
• Reroutes. The country is fine but the map changes. One coast is out, another is in. As good or better if rebuilt rather than forced.
• Degrades. Doable and noticeably worse. Cancellations, mud, lost days.
• Ruins. The reason you are going is not there. We will tell you to move your dates or change the country.

The nine countries, rated

Country by country, with the detail that matters

Nepal, the clearest case of a monsoon that ruins the trip

We will say this plainly, because it is the most expensive mistake in our whole library. From roughly mid-June to mid-September the Himalaya is behind cloud for days at a time. Trails are wet, leeches are on the lower forest paths, flights to mountain airstrips cancel repeatedly, landslides close roads, and travellers who came to see the highest mountains on earth do not see them.

This is not accepting some rain in exchange for lower prices. In Nepal the mountain view is the product, and the monsoon removes it. If your only free weeks are July and August, we will suggest a different country and mean it.

Two genuine exceptions. Upper Mustang and Dolpo sit in the rain shadow behind the main range and are at their best in summer, an under-used answer for fixed summer dates. And the Kathmandu valley in the monsoon is green, cheap and atmospheric if the mountains are not the point.

The right months are October and November, the clearest air of the year, and March and April. See our Nepal guide and the classic twelve-day route.

The Philippines, where the rating depends on where you stand

Roughly twenty tropical cyclones enter Philippine waters each year and around eight or nine make landfall, concentrated between July and October and peaking in September. They are not spread evenly. The eastern seaboard takes the brunt: Bicol, Samar, Leyte, eastern Luzon and northern Mindanao. Palawan, on the western edge, is hit far less often.

That geography is the whole answer. A September trip to Palawan is defensible, a September trip to Bicol is not. For dates fixed to August through October we build west and south, with more slack, and our Manila office watches the forecast tracks.

Vietnam, where the good months in one region are the bad months in another

Vietnam runs more than a thousand miles and has three climates. October and November, the best weeks in the north, are the worst in the centre. The central coast takes its year’s rain in one concentrated block from September to December, typhoons make landfall between September and November, and Hoi An’s Ancient Town goes under water most years. Not metaphorically: the shops move stock upstairs and carry on.

The south is the easy part. May to October there is a heavy downpour in the late afternoon and then it clears, rates are lower and the delta is at its greenest. A textbook cosmetic monsoon. Our default recommendation is March or April, and for October and November trips we build the central days so they can move, often by putting Hoi An early so a flood has somewhere to go.

India, where the monsoon closes some things and opens others

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 retreating through September and October. Rain is rarely all-day drizzle: it is heavy, dramatic and often confined to part of the day.

What it closes: 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. What it opens: Ladakh, which sits in the rain shadow and has its best walking weather in exactly these months, and Kerala’s ayurvedic season, when the treatment calendar begins and rates fall. A reroute, not a cancellation.

Sri Lanka, two monsoons, one small island

The southwest monsoon soaks the west and south from roughly May to September, the northeast monsoon the east and north from roughly late October to February. There is no month when the whole island is dry, and the flip is almost always the answer: fixed July dates rule out Galle and Mirissa and open Trincomalee, Arugam Bay and Jaffna, in better weather and at lower prices.

What people underestimate is the sea rather than the rain. A wet afternoon is an inconvenience. A red-flagged beach with dangerous rip currents for ten days is the holiday, gone. Month-by-month detail in which month to visit Sri Lanka.

Thailand, the country with a spare coast

The Andaman coast in the west is reliable from November to March. The Gulf coast in the east is driest and calmest from February to September and takes its rain in November and December, exactly when the west is at its best. Koh Chang and Koh Kood in the eastern Gulf follow a third pattern again, best November to April.

This is the fact that saves a summer holiday. If your only free fortnight is in July you are not choosing between Thailand and somewhere else, you are choosing the Gulf.

Two honest notes. Andaman rain in the deep monsoon comes with real sea conditions: red flags for weeks, ferries suspended, and the Similan and Surin islands closed for roughly half the year. And the north has a separate problem that is not rain: a burning season from late February to mid-April when smoke fills the valleys and Chiang Mai’s air is among the worst of any city in the world.

Cambodia, mostly cosmetic until September

Rain here is usually an intense afternoon downpour rather than a whole grey day. June through August often gives clear mornings, empty temples and green countryside, and photographers frequently prefer it to the dust of the dry season. The Tonle Sap is at its maximum extent, so the water villages are genuinely on water. September and October are the wettest weeks, and that is where the rating slips: rural roads in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and the Cardamoms turn to mud, and coastal boats cancel more often.

South Korea and Japan, the two mildest cases on this list

In Korea the jangma runs through much of July, and August brings high eighties Fahrenheit with humidity to match. Walking a palace complex at two in the afternoon in August is not a good use of a holiday. But nothing closes: the mountains run ten to fifteen degrees cooler, and summer is when Koreans themselves head for the hills. Locked to July or August, we move the trip inland and cut the city time.

Japan is similar. June is the rainy season across most of the country and Hokkaido escapes it entirely, and the hot, humid city summer is the right weather for the Alps and the festivals. Typhoon season runs roughly August to October in the south and west, and a typhoon in Japan moves days rather than ending trips: our Tokyo office reworks them rather than handing you a helpline number.

What we do with fixed summer dates

Most people asking have school holidays and no flexibility, so the useful version of this article is not “go in November”. It is which trip to take in July.

• Japan, moved north and up: Hokkaido, the Alps, the festivals.
• Sri Lanka’s east coast and north, at its annual best, and Thailand’s Gulf coast, the same.
• Vietnam’s far north, where the rice terraces are green in June and gold in late September.
• Ladakh, which only exists as a destination in these months.
• Cambodia in June to August, for green temples and low rates.
• Nepal only for Upper Mustang or the valley, and we will say which you are getting.

Plan this trip

Tell us your dates before you settle on a country. Half our job is saying which of the nine works best in the fortnight you actually have. Free first proposal, no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Nepal, planned around altitude rather than around a wish list
• Nepal: the complete guide to planning your trip
• The Annapurna teahouse trek, 15 days
• Thailand has two coasts, and they have opposite seasons
• Which month to visit Sri Lanka, and why it depends on the coast
• How far ahead to book Asia, country by country

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