When to travel Where (Southeast Asia)
The answer that you will continue to see everywhere is simple: there are two season in Southeast Asia, the rainy northeast monsoon season, November-ish to March-ish; and then the not-so-rainy rest of the year.
However, we would like to argue that there is much more to consider than the rain. For Chickenfeet Travels, we are looking at everything:
Which months are the hottest?
How does the southwest monsoon affect the weather?
When are the local public holidays, including school holidays?
What are our guides’ personal preferences?
And the most important thing is when the tourist season is.
Once all of these factors are considered, it does not really matter where you are traveling; around the world, the shoulder seasons are the best time to travel.
In Southeast Asia, our forever preference will be:
mid-March to mid June, avoiding any localised public holidays
mid-September to late-November, avoiding any localised public holidays
For those of you who want the details, here it goes:
Northeast Monsoon Season
We are lucky that in Southeast Asia, we have tropical weather all year long, but that doesn’t mean we do not have seasons. Our seasons are dictated by rain, so we have the wet and dry seasons. Depending on where you are in Southeast Asia, you will only experience one wet and one dry season, but Singapore, being almost in the centre, gets affected by the two different monsoon seasons: Northeast monsoon and Southwest monsoon, the latter being less intense in Singapore.
Winds blowing from the northeast bring monsoons and heavy rain from November to March, while the heaviest rains generally occur in December and January.
The two things in Southeast Asia we need to worry about are rain and heat. To be honest, travelling while it is rainy is not always that bad; but some places are inaccessible and/or dangerous because of rainfall and flash floods. In addition, the heat here gets a bit too hot in certain destinations, which makes exploring less enjoyable. And that’s what my advice is based on.
Heat and Humidity
Travellers who are not used to the tropical heat and humidity here tend to underestimate how it can ruin your day and an entire holiday, especially if you forget to drink enough water.
If you are out on adventures in the city or the jungle, the last thing you want to be is overheating and wanting to end your day of exploration early. This is important to keep in mind when you are looking at when you are planning to come to Southeast Asia, but there are also ways around the heat when you plan your day properly.
The “other” Wet Season
Originating in the “The south west monsoon winds blow towards the north from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal during the months of May to September” heaviest rains generally in June and July. Vietnam rains travel North to South from April to August. April 2020 had deadly flash floods in the Far North; Phong Nha caves flood during early October.
Think about this: Tonle Sap, the lake in the middle of Cambodia, is 4x or even sometimes 5x it’s original size during the rainy season. When this happens, the Tonle Sap river changes its directional flow twice a year!
Picture a map or globe now where is the equator? Anything that is above the equator is going to be slightly affected by the Southeast Monsoon, which runs June-August, depending on where you are, mostly affecting India and Sri Lanka. Anything south of the equator will be affected by the Northeast Monsoon, which runs from November to February and mostly affects Indonesia.
You want to travel to either side of the equator, when the monsoons are NOT affected it. However, I do like a good thunderstorm and with the right gear, there is no such thing as bad weather.
Public Holidays
Every country will have its localised government holidays, but the two major ones to consider are:
Lunar New Year or Tet in Vietnam which makes things a little bit more difficult to travel during because all the major cities are emptied out as everyone goes home for their annual holidays
Puasa, Hari Raya Puasa, and Lebaran which makes it really hard to travel in Indonesia and Malaysia as a lot a majority of their population are fasting for a month followed by 2 weeks of their annual holidays.
It is also advised to avoid any public holidays, including school holidays, if you want to avoid paying more for hotels and having a “worse” experience in any popular tourist attraction because there are just so many tourists.
Locals Know Best
The guides we work with have been working and guiding in their area, some for more than 20 years. They know which seasons the fruit are fruiting for the best variety. This is so specific to each of our destinations that it makes it pretty hard to summarise, but I would lean towards the our forever preferences, as I learned all the tricks of the trade from the guides we work with.
High Season = High prices
Enough said! For those inbound from Europe and the Americas, as tempting as it is to use the public holidays to get a longer holiday, it is best to avoid the Christmas/NY/CNY season (Dec - February) and July and August. Flights are more expensive, and most hotel operators also raise their rates.
You will be paying more for a less authentic holiday.
The best way to avoid high prices for flights is to book early, but for accommodation, there is no way around it. However, book early if you want sustainable accommodation and an experience.
Month to Month overview
January - peak season; explore north of the Equator; avoid Nusa Tenggara Timor for rains
February - explore north of the Equator; avoid Vietnam during Tet/CNY
March - great time to travel everywhere
April - explore south of the Equator; avoid North Vietnam
May - great time to travel everywhere
June - good time to travel everywhere; explore south of the Equator
July - peak season; explore south of the Equator; avoid North Vietnam and Cambodia for rains
August - peak season; explore south of the Equator; avoid North Vietnam and Cambodia for rains
September - great time to travel most places; explore south of the Equator; avoid North Vietnam for rains
October - explore north of the Equator; avoid Central Vietnam for rains; avoid Sumatra for burning season
November - explore north of the Equator; avoid Central Vietnam for rains; avoid Sumatra for burning season
December - explore north of the Equator; peak season, avoid Nusa Tengara Timor for rains
