Discover the World's Best Destinations

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Albania, in One Sentence We almost didn’t stop. The road over the Llogara Pass spat us out above the Ionian coast in late September, and the first beach we saw, Dhermi, was so empty it looked closed. Then a man waved us into a beach bar, poured two coffees, and told us we’d have paid triple and queued for a sunbed if we’d come six weeks earlier. The water was still 25 C. We swam until dark with maybe ten other people on a kilometre of sand, and I kept thinking the same thing: how is this still a secret? ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Argentina, in One Sentence It was a Thursday in early November, and Buenos Aires had turned purple. The jacaranda trees along Avenida 9 de Julio were in full bloom, dropping petals onto the pavement cafes where porteños lingered over espresso and medialunas in shirtsleeves. Warm but not yet sweltering, the city felt like it was showing off. And the hotel I’d booked in Palermo had cost me noticeably less than a friend paid the previous January. I’ll explain that gap later, because it’s the key to timing this enormous, dramatic country. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Australia, in One Sentence The first time I tried to book Australia, I did it backwards. Literally. I assumed a December trip meant packing fleeces and rain jackets, the way it would back home, and almost booked a wardrobe for the wrong hemisphere. Then a friend who’d lived in Sydney laughed down the phone and said, “Mate, you’ll be on Bondi in boardshorts on Christmas Day.” That single sentence rearranged my whole plan, and it’ll probably rearrange yours. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Brazil, in One Sentence It was a Tuesday in late September when I finally understood Rio. We’d climbed up to the Mirante Dona Marta at sunset, the air warm but no longer sticky, and below us Copacabana curved off into a gold haze while the Christ statue caught the last light behind us. No crushing crowds, no Carnival surcharge, just a perfect spring evening — and a hotel bill that would have made a February visitor weep. I’ll come back to that bill later, because it changed how I think about timing this country entirely. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Cambodia, in One Sentence The alarm went at 4:30 and I almost ignored it. But we dragged ourselves out of the guesthouse in Siem Reap, climbed into a tuk-tuk in the dark, and joined a few hundred quiet strangers on the edge of a reflecting pool. Then the sky behind Angkor Wat’s five towers turned from charcoal to rose to fire, doubled perfectly in the water, and nobody said a word. It was late December, the air dry and almost cool, and I understood in that moment why everyone bangs on about the timing here. Come in the wrong month and that same sunrise is a sweaty, hazy scrum. Come in the right one and it is the best morning of the trip. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Colombia, in One Sentence A friend who’d been three times told me flatly: “Don’t go in October, the whole country drowns.” So naturally I went in October, because the flights into Cartagena were almost half what they’d cost over Christmas. And here’s the thing nobody warned me about: the rain came, sure, but it came as a single furious twenty-minute downpour each afternoon, the kind you watch from a balcony with a cold limonada de coco, and then the old walled city steamed dry under a gold late-day sun. We had the ramparts almost to ourselves at sunset. I’ll explain why that “drowning” month was secretly the smart move further down. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Costa Rica, in One Sentence I booked Costa Rica in October because it was all I could afford, and a well-meaning relative warned me I’d spend the whole week trapped under a rain cloud. Instead, I got sunlit mornings hiking around Arenal with the volcano sharp against a blue sky, then warm, theatrical afternoon downpours I learned to plan around with a coffee and a book on the porch. The rainforest was almost violently green, the lodges were half-price, and I had the hanging bridges nearly to myself. That so-called bad season turned out to be the best-value trip I’ve ever taken. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Dubai, in One Sentence The first time I landed in Dubai it was August, and the heat hit me on the airbridge like opening an oven door. I spent that trip ricocheting between air-conditioned malls and the hotel pool, and honestly, it was fine, even fun, but I didn’t see the city. The second time I came in January, and it was a different planet: 25 C and dry, dinner outdoors by the fountains, a dawn desert safari with a chill in the air, beach mornings that didn’t melt me. Same city, completely different trip. Timing is everything here. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Egypt, in One Sentence I’ll never forget standing on the Giza plateau just after the gates opened in late November, the sandstone glowing gold, the morning air still cool enough for a jacket, and almost nobody around. By midday the tour buses had arrived and the sun had real bite, but that first hour, with the Great Pyramid looming silent above me, was worth getting up at dawn for. I’d deliberately skipped the Christmas crowds and the summer furnace, and Egypt rewarded me for it. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit France, in One Sentence We had the first week of August circled for Paris and Provence, mostly because that was when work shut down. Then a French friend laughed at me over coffee: “Half of Paris will be closed, and you’ll be stuck in Provence traffic behind every family in the country.” She wasn’t wrong. I checked, and the same trip in late June came back cheaper and, by every account, far calmer. We moved it, watched the lavender start to color the plateau near Sault with the roads still half-empty, and lower down I’ll admit the one date we still got wrong. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Georgia, in One Sentence There’s a moment I keep coming back to: late September in a Kakheti courtyard, a farmer pressing a glass of cloudy, just-fermenting wine into my hand, the air smelling of crushed grapes and woodsmoke, a long table of strangers turning into friends over a supra that ran past midnight. I’d booked the trip almost on a whim, mostly because the flights were absurdly cheap and the visa rules meant I could stay as long as I liked. I’ll come back to that visa detail, because it changes how you plan here. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Greece, in One Sentence We had the August ferries to Santorini and Naxos half-booked when a friend who’d done the same trip the year before sent a blunt message: “It was 38 degrees, the caldera path was a wall of people, and our room cost a fortune.” We almost ignored her, because August is when the office empties out. Then I priced the identical island-hop in late September and watched it come back a third cheaper, with the sea supposedly at its warmest all year. We moved the trip, swam off a near-empty Naxos beach in bathwater-warm water, and lower down I’ll admit the one ferry date we still got wrong. ...