Here is the Best Time to Visit India

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A chaotic mix of colour, beauty, flavour, and culture, India will shock your senses. Thanks to its size, the subcontinent experiences a wide variety of weather across the year, from baking heat across its plateaus to biting winds blowing down across the northern reaches of the country. With three very distinct seasons – monsoon, winter, and summer – it’s important to decide when to travel to this magical country. Overall, the best time to visit is between November and March. Read on to discover why.

THE MONSOON SEASON: JUNE UNTIL OCTOBER

WHERE TO GO

The southern beach resorts are at their cheapest, and the higher altitude locations in the north are best explored while the rest of the country is doused with rain.

At the end of May each year, on the southwestern coast, the monsoon arrives. Regular downpours interspersed with brief stints of blazing sunshine and an intense humidity moves across the country in a northeasterly direction, hanging about in regions for a month and a half at a time. Flooding is common in the northwest jungles, causing mayhem, while in the far northern reaches of India where the Himalayan foothills begin it’s common for there to be landslides.

Clearing up by September, another monsoon season sweeps down from the Bay of Bengal between October and December, but only effects the southeast and southern coasts before dispersing. By December, skies have cleared up and temperatures have cooled down to a reasonable level, meaning that tourism increases across the country.

WINTER: NOVEMBER UNTIL FEBRUARY

WHERE TO GO

The south is best to visit during winter, when the temperatures are hot but reasonable.

December and January are the busiest months in India, thanks to the post-monsoon weather, which is cool and dry. The enormous size of India means that various parts of the country see a lot of different temperatures over the winter break. Despite the Himalayas putting a stop to the worst of the winds blowing down from the Central Asian plateaus, the foothills in the north see a lot of snow and wintry weather from November until around March. Despite being beautiful under the guise of snow, the north is a cold place to be during the winter so it’s best to travel into the south, where it never gets cold and the humidity is at its most bearable.

SUMMER: MARCH UNTIL MAY

WHERE TO GO

Northern India and the Himalayan foothills

March is when it really starts to warm up again in the south of India, making the region almost unbearable until the heat breaks and the monsoon season begins anew. In summer, winter loses its grip on the north and the hiking season begins in the Himalayas. Time is best spent up here during summer, as well as into the monsoon season.

Dictated by the monsoon season, which makes travel through the country very difficult, the best time to travel to India is between November and March, where the whole country is dry and skies are clear.

Here at True Travel, we’re India experts so we’ll help you plan your India adventure at the right time of year, according to the regions you want to visit.