Americas

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 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 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. ...