The dry and rainy seasons, the difference between the coasts, and why the weather on Phuket and Samui does not match.

Thailand has three rough seasons, and the month you choose changes the whole experience.

Three seasons

  • November–February is the high, dry season: warm, not stuffy, with minimal rain. It is the best time (and the most expensive).
  • March–May is hot, with scorching heat by April; on the other hand, the sea is warm, and in mid-April there is the Songkran water festival.
  • June–October is the rainy season: downpours are usually short, and it is green and cheap.

Two coasts

An important nuance: the weather differs between the coasts. The Andaman coast (Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi) is best from November to April. The Gulf of Thailand (Samui, Phangan) is drier from February to September, and its heaviest rains come in November. Choose your island to match your dates.

Festivals worth traveling for

  • Songkran (April 13–15) is the Thai New Year and the world’s largest water fight: the streets turn into a total water-pistol shootout.
  • Loy Krathong and Yi Peng (November) is a festival of lights: floats with candles, “krathongs”, are set on the rivers, and in Chiang Mai thousands of paper lanterns rise into the sky at once.

What few people write about: the “haze season”

In the north (Chiang Mai, Pai), farmers burn their fields from late February to April, and for a long time the air is clouded with smog and a high AQI. If you want mountains and clear skies, go north in another season.