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Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page, at no extra cost to you. How we earn This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. About & Affiliate Disclosure ✅ Quick Answer The best time to visit New Zealand is summer (December to February) for warmth and hiking, or the March-April and October-November shoulders for mild weather, smaller crowds and lower prices. New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed: summer is December to February and winter is June to August. Summer brings 20 to 28 C across most of the country and opens the Great Walks, but airfares, campervans and lakeside rooms in Queenstown and Abel Tasman peak from Christmas through January. Autumn stays a mild 16 to 22 C in March and April, when Central Otago around Arrowtown and Wanaka turns gold. June is genuinely cold, with many alpine tracks snowbound or closed, though the ski season runs from mid-June to early October and August is typically the snowiest month. The cheapest window is May, June and early September, when airfares are often 25 to 40 percent below the summer-holiday peak. The Best Time to Visit New Zealand, in One Sentence The most common New Zealand planning mistake is booking a late-June trip around beaches and the Great Walks on the assumption that June means summer. It does not. In June many alpine tracks are snowbound or closed, and the trip that works is built around hot pools and ski fields instead. A little planning around the flipped seasons avoids that surprise entirely. ...

Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page, at no extra cost to you. How we earn This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. About & Affiliate Disclosure ✅ Quick Answer The best time to visit Peru is the dry season from May to September, when the Andes and Machu Picchu get clear skies, sunny days and the best trekking conditions. Cusco and the Sacred Valley see crisp days around 18 to 21 C, but nights plunge near freezing from June to August. June, July and August are the busiest and priciest months. April and October are the value sweet spots, with largely dry weather at lower rates. The rainy season from November to March is the cheapest, with flights and tours often 20 to 40 percent below the June-to-August peak, and a Cusco hotel that runs 90 US dollars a night in July can drop to 50 to 65. The catch is muddy trails, possible landslides affecting the Machu Picchu train and the classic Inca Trail closing every February for maintenance. Lima and the Pacific coast flip the pattern, with sunny weather from December to April and grey garua mist from May to November. The Best Time to Visit Peru, in One Sentence October sits right on the edge of the rains, which scares plenty of travelers off a window that often pays off: June and July fares run high, while a shoulder-month bet on October can reward visitors at the Sun Gate above Machu Picchu with hard golden light breaking through the clouds and a fraction of the high-season crowds. Why that shoulder-season gamble tends to work is covered further down. ...

Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page, at no extra cost to you. How we earn This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. About & Affiliate Disclosure ✅ Quick Answer The best time to visit South Africa is May to September for safari and November to March for Cape Town’s beaches, because the country’s seasons are flipped from Europe’s and its two climates run opposite. In Kruger the dry winter brings days around 22 to 26 C, bare bush and animals crowding the waterholes, which makes it the best wildlife viewing of the year. Cape Town and the Garden Route peak in the warm, dry summer, with days of 25 to 30 C and long evenings. The Cape’s winter is cool and wet, with highs around 17 to 18 C, but it brings southern right whales to Hermanus from roughly June to November, best August to October. May and September are the best all-rounders, with mild weather, thinner crowds and softer prices. The cheapest months are usually May, June and early September. Avoid mid-December to early January, the local summer-holiday peak, and the European summer break, when prices climb highest. The Best Time to Visit South Africa, in One Sentence On a cold, clear July morning in Kruger, a waterhole is the place to be: the grass is low, the animals are thirsty, and there is nowhere for anything to hide, which is exactly why safari guides call winter the season to come. ...

Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page, at no extra cost to you. How we earn This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. About & Affiliate Disclosure ✅ Quick Answer The best time to visit Sri Lanka depends on the coast: December to April for the south and west (Colombo, Galle, Mirissa) and May to September for the east (Arugam Bay, Trincomalee). Sri Lanka has two opposing monsoons, so one coast is usually dry while the other is wet. The Yala (southwest) monsoon soaks the south and west from about May to September, and the Maha (northeast) monsoon brings rain to the east and north from roughly October to January. Coastal highs barely move, hovering around 30 to 32 C in Colombo, while the hill country around Kandy, Ella and Nuwara Eliya stays a cooler 15 to 22 C. The cheapest months are May, June, September and October, with October often the single cheapest thanks to inter-monsoon showers. Avoid the south coast over Christmas and New Year for price, since flights and beach guesthouses hit their annual peak. Mid-August brings the Esala Perahera procession to Kandy. The Best Time to Visit Sri Lanka, in One Sentence A photo of Galle Fort under sheets of grey rain in July looks like proof that a trip is ruined. It isn’t, if the itinerary heads to Arugam Bay on the east coast instead, where July is bone-dry, the surf is glassy, and the sun barely quits. That single quirk of geography is the most important thing to understand about this island. ...

Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page, at no extra cost to you. How we earn This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. About & Affiliate Disclosure ✅ Quick Answer The best time to visit Switzerland is June to September for hiking, lakes and mountain trains, or December to March for skiing, since the country has two high seasons. In summer the valleys reach 20 to 28 C, the meadows bloom and the railways to the Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat all operate, while June and September bring open trails at lower prices than July and August. Ski season peaks from January to March, when resorts like Zermatt, Verbier and St. Moritz have the most reliable snow, and high-altitude glacier areas can ski into April. The cheapest, quietest windows are late April to May and late October to early December, between the ski and hiking peaks. The catch is that many lifts and high mountain trains close then, and the high trails stay under snow in spring. Avoid Christmas, New Year and the February school holidays in the resorts, plus peak July and August. Budget travellers should still plan for 90 to 150 US dollars a day. The Best Time to Visit Switzerland, in One Sentence A July morning above Grindelwald, the cog railway opening onto a meadow so green it looks retouched, cowbells somewhere below, the Eiger’s north face looming grey and enormous across the valley, paragliders drifting past at eye level, is the postcard version of Switzerland in summer. It is also, once the lift tickets and the hotel are tallied, eye-wateringly expensive. That bill is the first lesson in timing a Switzerland trip, because the season you choose changes everything here. ...