PART IV, ASIA & OCEANIA. When to travel where? A country’s best travel seasons guide

Recommended: June-September are the most recommended travel months for city trips to St. Petersburg or Moskau as well as for the Black Sea’s coast and Siberia. Winter months are suitable for skiing holidays in the area of Caucasus. Avoid: Winter months shall be avoided, especially for travelling Siberia with temperatures falling below -50°C.

The climate in China varies due to the country’s size and dimension. Therefore it is almost impossible to give a best travel season recommendation for the whole country. Recommended: May-June and September-October are the best travel months for a countrywide tour with comfortable temperatures, few rain and less tourists (especially in autumn). Avoid: November-March and July-August should be avoided to travel Northern or Central parts of China.

Recommended: June and September are the best travel months for Mongolia with temperatures between 20°C and 30°C. Avoid: July and August should be avoided due to heavy rain falls and consequently lots of mosquitoes.

Recommended: May-September are the most recommended travel months for Kazakhstan. July-September are especially recommended for trekking and hiking travelers. Avoid: October-April should be avoided due to an extremely cold winter season.

Recommended for city trips: July -November are recommended travel months for city trips e.g. to Samarkand, Buchara or Taschkent. Recommended for hiking trips: July-August are the best months for hiking, climbing and trekking travels. Avoid: December-June are characterized by unpredictable weather conditions.

Recommended: April-May and September-October are the most recommended travel months for Turkmenistan with comfortable temperatures. Avoid: Summer and winter months are extremely hot and cold, which make these seasons rather unattractive for tourists.

Recommended: April-May and October-November are the best travel months for Afghanistan. Avoid: Summer and winter months are extremely hot and cold, which make these seasons rather unattractive for tourists.

Recommended: March-May and August-October are the best travel months for Pakistan with comfortable temperatures. Avoid: July-August are extremely hot and dry and winter months are characterized by extremely cold temperatures and heavy snow falls.

Recommended: April-June and September-November are the most recommended travel months for Iran.

Recommended: March-April and October-November are the best travel months for Iraq. Avoid: July-September shall be avoided due to extremely hot temperatures and high air moisture in the South of the country. December-February are the cold winter months with snow falls complicating transportation to certain areas of the country.

Recommended: April-May and September-October are the best travel months for Syria. Spring is characterized by moderate temperatures, few rain and colorful flowerings whereas the likelihood of rain increases in autumn.

Recommended: November-February are the best travel months for Saudi Arabia, when the summer heat has passed and average temperatures reach from 23°C to 27°C.

Recommended: April-May and September-October are the best travel months for Yemen. Avoid: During the summer months it can get unbearably hot, whereas in winter time especially the nights can be extremely cold.

Recommended: November-March are the most recommended travel months for Oman, with temperatures reaching around 25°C and few rainy days. Avoid: Summer months shall be avoided due to extremely hot and muggy weather conditions.

Recommended: October-March are the best travel months for India with few rain falls and comfortable temperatures despite some chilly nights. For traveling the Himalaya May-September are the most recommended months. Avoid: June-September should better be avoided due to the rainy season as well as April-Mai because of partly unbearable hot temperatures.

Recommended: best travel months for the East of Sri Lanka are April-September, whereas the South and West of the country are best to be visited from December-April and the North is recommended at almost any time of the year, except from November-December.

Recommended: October-November and February-April are the most recommended travel months for Nepal when you want to go trekking. Avoid: Summer months shall be avoided due to heavy rainfalls, which disturb trekking and hiking routes. Winter months shall be avoided as well as temperatures at night fall below 0°C.

Recommended: March-May during flourishing season as well as September-November with clear mountain sights are the most recommended travel months for Bhutan. If you want to travel the warmer parts in the South, you best do so between January and March. Avoid: winter months shall be avoided as streets may be closed and destinations not accessible due to snowfalls. Same applies for the monsoon season from June until August.

Recommended: November-February are meant to be the best travel months for Bangladesh, when the monsoon is over and temperatures rather comfortable. Avoid: the rest of the year is characterized by either unbearable moist and hot conditions as well as massive obstructions due to the monsoon or tropical storms.

Recommended: October-February are the best travel months for Myanmar with comfortable temperatures and few rainfalls throughout the whole country. Avoid: May-October are characterized by the rainy season, which leaves streets partly inaccessible.

Recommended: November-March are recommended for traveling large parts of Thailand. Temperatures reach between 25 – 30°C with sunny and dry conditions. Therefore you will find a lot of tourists during that period with raising prices being a resulting draw back. Avoid: June-October are characterized by heavier rainfalls.

Recommended: October-March are the best travel months for Laos with temperatures reaching between 25-28°C. Especially November is supposed to be beautifully green shortly after the raining season. If you want to travel the mountains you are still good to go from April-June. High season for tourists is between December and January. Avoid: Raining season between May-October.

Recommended: November-March are especially recommended for traveling Cambodia with temperatures at about 30°C and only few rainfalls. Avoid: April-May can reach unbearable temperatures up to 40°C. Raining season from June-October is characterized by heavy rainfalls, which hinder transportation within the country and leads to extremely moist conditions.

Recommended: there is not a single best travel season for Vietnam as this depends a lot on the different raining seasons, which shall be avoided due to heavy rainfalls and high moisture. Best travel months in the North are October-April, in the North-West it is March-May, in Central Vietnam February-April are most recommended and for the South it is December-February.

Recommended: the Western part of Malaysia can be traveled all around the year, although you need to expect rainy days at any time of the year. June-August are the best travel months for the East of Malaysia, as the rest of the year is dominated by the monsoon.

Recommended: Singapore can be traveled more or less at any time of the year. There are always tropical conditions. However, March-September are mostly preferred by tourists due to less rainfalls. Avoid: Christmas, Chinese New Year and Eastern tend to be very crowded travel periods with raising prices for flights and accommodation and hotels being booked up.

Recommended: Mai-October are the most recommended travel months for Indonesia with few rainfalls and comfortable temperatures. Avoid: Raining season from November-April can hinder transportation within the country, still the rice fields have an even more mystic and calming atmosphere during monsoon. Please also note the raise of prices during European and Australian school holidays due to the increasing amount of visitors.

Recommended: December-February are the most recommended travel months for the Philippines with few rainfalls, low typhoon risk and comfortable temperatures.

Recommended: March-May and September-November are the most recommended travel months for Taiwan. Autumn is characterized by warm and dry conditions, whereas you should expect some rainfalls during spring. Avoid: Summer months should be avoided due to heavy rainfalls, high moisture and risk of tornados.

Recommended: September-November are the most recommended travel months for South Korea with sunny and clear conditions as well as comfortable temperatures. April-May are also very popular travel months, especially for Japanese tourists, which makes the place quite crowded and pricy at that time of the year. November-April are pretty cold months with good snow conditions for winter tourists. Avoid: Summer months from May-August shall be avoided to the extremely hot and moist conditions as well as the risk of typhoons.

Recommended: May-June and September-October are the most recommended travel months for North Korea. Avoid: July-August shall be avoided due to the monsoon, extremely warm and moist conditions as well as the risk of typhoons.

Recommended: April-May as well as September-November are the most recommended travel months for the Southern and Central islands of Japan. May is an especially popular travel months due to the 2weeks colourful cherry blossom season. For traveling the Northern island Hokkaido you should do so from May-September. And if you are traveling for winter sports you best do so from December-March.

Recommended: June-September are the most recommended travel months due to sunny and dry weather conditions with temperatures around 27°C. Avoid: December-April shall be avoided due to the risk of tornados and heavy rainfalls, which hinder transportation routes.

Recommended: due to the extensive size of Australia there is not a single best travel period for Australia to be recommended. If you want to travel the whole country within one visit you have to make compromises. If you want to visit the large cities in the South, go hiking and explore the country’s nature you should travel from September-October as well as March-April. In case you want to do winter sports or visit the North or Central part of Australia you best do so from June-August. Best travel season for Tasmania are from October-March.

Recommended: the best travel period for New Zealand depends on the activities you plan to do. The most popular travel season is from December-February, which allow most of the great outdoor activities, like swimming, rafting, sailing, diving, surfing or hiking. In contrast, best time for winter sport junkies is from June-August.