TravelCharika: When to Go

Where should you go, and when? TravelCharika answers with measured weather, not guesses. Choose where you set off from, a month (or any time) and, if you have one in mind, a place. You get over 900 places in 125 countries, the most popular first, each with its weather that month in plain words, and how far it is from your city. Or search the way you would say it: "skiing in January", "beaches in December", "Lisbon in May". THE YEAR AT A GLANCE Every place has its twelve months scored on ten years of daily temperature, rainfall and humidity, and on the public holidays that crowd it. The sweet spots are marked, the months to avoid are said plainly, and every month has its own page. FILTER LIKE A SHOP Narrow the list by region, country or kind of place (beaches, islands, cities, mountains, deserts, wildlife, heritage), by what you want to do (hiking, the sea, skiing, the northern lights), by the weather, by mostly dry or quiet months, and by how far you want to go. Save places with the heart and keep them under Trips. BEFORE YOU GO For each place: how busy it gets month by month, how much warmer it is than in the 1980s, the cities you can reach it from, the cost of living, the money, the plugs, which side of the road people drive on, official travel and health advice, and the visa rule for your passport where an official list gives one. HIKING, THE SEA, SKIING AND THE NORTHERN LIGHTS The months each is good, place by place, from measured figures: dry walking days, the sea's warmth and waves, snow on the ground while the lifts run, and nights dark enough under the auroral oval. FESTIVALS AND BIG EVENTS Carnivals, film festivals, marathons and Christmas markets, month by month, with the dates from each event's own site where it has published them, and how far each is from your city. WHAT TO SEE Each place's sights, the most read about first, with a picture of each. LIKE A LOCAL How to pay, whether to tip, how to ride and pay on local transport, the train from the airport, and the apps people use, from Wikivoyage, Wikipedia, Wikidata and OpenStreetMap, credited. BOOK WHERE PEOPLE IN YOUR COUNTRY BOOK Flights, stays, things to do, car hire, travel insurance and eSIMs: the sites travellers in your own country use, each opening its own search. Some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you; they are marked Ad, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. No place in mind yet? Book anywhere is in Explore. HOLIDAYS AND LONG WEEKENDS Christmas and New Year, Easter, Diwali and the long weekends ahead, with the places at their best then. A WEEKLY NOTE, IF YOU WANT ONE By email on Sunday mornings: two trips for next month, one in your country and one abroad, each with three sights to see. Or a shorter note as a notification on Thursday evenings. Off until you turn it on. WHERE THE ADVICE COMES FROM TravelCharika is independent and does not represent any government. Travel and health advice is each government's own, quoted with a link to its page: the US State Department (travel.state.gov), the UK Foreign Office (gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice) and Global Affairs Canada (travel.gc.ca). A visa rule is shown only where a government publishes it in an official list, with that list named. Light or dark, as your phone is set. No account needed. The same guide is on the web at travelcharika.com.