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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 India, in One Sentence The first time I planned India, I picked May because the flights were cheap. A seasoned traveler at my hostel in Delhi heard the plan, put down her chai, and said simply: “You’re going to melt.” She was right. Forty-three degrees in the shade of a Jaipur fort, the marble too hot to touch, every sane local indoors by noon. I’d accidentally booked the worst possible month — and learned the single most important rule about this enormous, glorious 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 Italy, in One Sentence The Amalfi hotel wanted 320 euros a night for the second week of August, and my friend just slid his phone across the table so I could see it. “Or,” he said, scrolling, “the same room, last week of September, is 190.” We nearly booked August anyway, because everyone tells you the Italian coast in late September is “rolling the dice.” It isn’t. We swam in a sea warmer than it had been all summer, ate at a Positano terrace we’d have queued an hour for in August, and I’ll tell you below the exact dates mistake we almost made. ...

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 Jordan, in One Sentence I’d been told the Treasury at Petra was overwhelming, but nobody warned me about the cold. It was a clear morning in late November, and I’d walked the Siq at dawn with frost still on the sand in the shadows, my breath visible, a single Bedouin tea-seller setting up as the rose-red facade caught the first sun. By noon I was in shirtsleeves. By the time I reached Wadi Rum that evening, I was grateful for every blanket the camp owner piled on. Jordan, I learned, is a country of extremes, and timing it right changes everything. ...

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 Mexico, in One Sentence I almost let the calendar talk me out of the trip that ended up being my favorite. We were eyeing late October for Mexico City, and three different friends warned me it was still “rainy season, basically a coin flip.” I booked anyway, mostly because the fares were a steal. Then we walked into the Zocalo two days before Day of the Dead, marigolds spilling off every altar, the whole city smelling of copal smoke and pan de muerto, and the afternoon sky stayed a flat, perfect blue. The rain that everyone warned me about never showed. I’ll tell you why that gamble paid off lower 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 Morocco, in One Sentence The first thing that hit me in Marrakech wasn’t the heat. It was the smell of orange blossom drifting over the Jemaa el-Fnaa as the call to prayer rolled across the rooftops and the snake charmers packed up for the night. I’d booked late March almost by accident, trying to dodge both the summer furnace and the Christmas crowds, and it turned out to be the smartest thing I did. The days were warm enough for the souks and cool enough to climb to the Atlas foothills without melting. ...

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 Peru, in One Sentence The guide at our hostel in Cusco frowned when I showed him our dates. “October? You know that’s the edge of the rains.” I did know, and I’d booked it on purpose, because the June and July fares had made my eyes water. So we gambled on the shoulder. And on the morning we finally reached the Sun Gate above Machu Picchu, the clouds tore open right on cue, the ruins floated below us in hard golden light, and there were maybe a third of the crowds the high-season photos always show. I’ll come back to why that gamble worked 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 South Korea, in One Sentence The first time I saw it, I was standing on a bridge over the Cheonggyecheon stream in central Seoul on a cold-bright October morning, coffee going lukewarm in my hand, watching the gingko trees along the water turn the kind of gold you usually only see in films. A month earlier I’d nearly booked April instead, chasing the cherry blossoms everyone photographs. I’m glad I didn’t, and I’ll tell you why 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 Spain, in One Sentence We had the August week half-booked when my brother, who lives in Seville, sent a one-line voice note: “You’ll cook. Come in May or wait for October.” We almost ignored him, because August is when everyone has time off. Then I checked the forecast for the days we’d picked and saw a string of 41 C afternoons, and the same flights priced a third cheaper six weeks later. We moved the trip, walked the Alhambra in shirtsleeves under a soft 26 C sky, and further down I’ll tell you the small mistake we still made with our dates. ...

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 Turkey, in One Sentence It was a Tuesday in late September, and I had the rooftop terrace in Istanbul’s Galata district almost entirely to myself. The call to prayer rolled across the Golden Horn, ferries cut white lines through the water below, and the tea the owner kept refilling was still warm enough to wrap my hands around. Three weeks earlier, the same terrace would have had a queue. I’d come in the shoulder, almost by accident, and it turned out to be the smartest travel decision I made all year. ...

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 Vietnam, in One Sentence We were three days into Hoi An when the sky simply fell out of itself. Lanterns still glowing over the old town, and the street outside our guesthouse turned into a calf-deep brown river while a man paddled past on a plastic stool, grinning. It was late October, and I had booked the whole trip around the south being dry without once checking what the central coast does that month. The lesson cost us a soggy afternoon and a lifelong habit: in Vietnam you do not plan one season, you plan three. ...