India is not one climate. This is the honest version — which regions are worth your dates, and which to save for another year.
Where we would send you in each month, and where we would not. If your dates are fixed, start here and work backwards to the destination.
Rajasthan and Gujarat are at their most comfortable. Kerala and the Andamans are dry and clear. Kaziranga is open and cool. Odisha is perfect — and the Konark and Puri beaches are empty on weekdays. Book six months ahead: this is the busiest month of the year.
Everything below the Himalaya is comfortable. Tiger parks start to thin out and sightings improve. Chilika is still full of migratory birds. If you can only travel once, travel now.
The best month for tigers — the parks dry out and animals come to water. Holi falls in March or early April. Rajasthan is still fine early in the month; by the end it is getting hot.
The plains become punishing. This is when the hill stations, Sikkim and the lower Himalaya come into their own. Spiti begins to open. Kerala is humid but the Ayurveda season is beginning.
Ladakh opens up: Leh is reachable, and the Manali and Srinagar roads clear through the month. Everything else in the north is best avoided unless you like 42°C.
Nubra and Pangong are fully open and the high passes are clear. The monsoon breaks over Kerala in the first week and works north. Meghalaya starts getting spectacular.
Ladakh and Spiti are at their peak. Meghalaya is at its wettest and most extraordinary. Kerala is the traditional season for Ayurvedic treatment. Valley of Flowers opens in Uttarakhand.
The Western Ghats are in flood and the waterfalls are enormous. Ladakh still open. Avoid coastal Odisha and the tiger parks, most of which close.
Monsoon retreats. The Himalaya has its clearest skies of the year in late September. Kaziranga reopens in October, so time it carefully. Odisha is green and quiet.
Post-monsoon clarity everywhere. Durga Puja transforms Odisha and Bengal. Wildlife parks reopen. Bhutan is at its best. Arguably the single best month for the Northeast.
The classic month for Rajasthan and the Golden Triangle. Pushkar Camel Fair falls now. Konark Dance Festival is in early December but rehearsals start now. Book well ahead.
Perfect weather almost everywhere below the Himalaya. Christmas and New Year fill the good properties in Goa, Kerala and Rajasthan — nine to twelve months ahead is not unreasonable.
Send the weeks you can travel and we will tell you honestly what they are good for.
