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5 calendars

When to come

Nearly every best-time-to-visit answer written about Thailand is quietly an answer about Phuket, handed to people flying somewhere that runs on a different year.

Thailand does not have one rainy season. It runs on 5 separate weather calendars, so the same month is a good trip to one coast and a bad one to another. The Andaman coast is driest December to March and wettest roughly May to October, while the Southern Gulf runs close to inverted, driest January to April and wettest roughly October to December. Almost every camp trains under a roof, so what the calendar decides is heat, air quality and how full the room is rather than whether you train at all. The sharpest case is inland, where 3 regions carry a burning season that lands in the months the weather is otherwise at its best, which is how advice built on rain alone sends people north in exactly the wrong weeks.

Read this first

Rain is the wrong thing to plan around

Almost every camp in Thailand trains under a roof, so rain cancels your run and your beach day rather than your session. What the calendar below actually decides is heat, humidity, air quality and how full the camp is, which is why the wettest stretch is often the cheapest and emptiest one to train in.

The reason this page exists in its own right is that the two halves of the south are close to inverted. Phuket and Krabi face the Andaman Sea and take the southwest monsoon from roughly May. Koh Samui and Koh Phangan sit on the other side of the peninsula and take the northeast monsoon from roughly October, which is the stretch the Andaman side is drying out in. A November booking is a good month on one coast and the wettest month of the year on the other, and the ferry is what tells you which.

The inland regions are a third calendar again. They rain on the Andaman schedule, roughly May to October, but the thing that decides a trip there is not rain at all: it is the burning season from roughly February to April, when the fields go up and the air quality collapses in exactly the weeks the weather would otherwise be at its best.

12 months

Start from the month you can get away

Most people do not pick a month. The month is picked for them by work, by school holidays or by a visa, and the only question left is where that month is any good. These twelve read the same ten records the other way round and answer that instead.
  • January

    10 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • February

    10 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • March

    5 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • April

    2 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • May

    0 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • June

    0 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • July

    0 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • August

    0 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • September

    0 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • October

    0 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • November

    5 of 10 regions inside their dry window

  • December

    8 of 10 regions inside their dry window

2 regions

Andaman coast

The southwest monsoon, arriving around May. This is the calendar most people picture when they picture Thailand, because it is Phuket.

The band under each region is its year, January on the left. Solid is the driest stretch, the dot screen is the wettest, paper is neither and the strip beneath marks the burning season where a region has one.

Phuketภูเก็ต

Driest

December to March

Wettest

roughly May to October

The dry stretch is also the busy stretch. December through February fills the camps, the accommodation and the island, and it is the hardest time to walk in without booking.

Krabiกระบี่

Driest

December to March

Wettest

roughly May to October

The boats matter more here than the rain does. Railay and the islands are boat access only, and the sea gets rough enough in the wet months to cancel crossings.

2 regions

Southern Gulf

The other side of the peninsula and very nearly the opposite calendar. These islands are at their wettest in the weeks the Andaman coast is drying out.
Koh Samuiเกาะสมุย

Driest

January to April

Wettest

roughly October to December

This is the inversion worth knowing. Samui is at its wettest in the weeks when Phuket is at its driest, so a November trip and a November trip are not the same trip.

Koh Phanganเกาะพะงัน

Driest

January to April

Wettest

roughly October to December

The ferries are the constraint. There is no airport, the crossing from Samui is open water, and rough weather in the wet months cancels sailings and strands people on the wrong island.

1 region

Upper Gulf

Far enough up the coast to sit in a rain shadow, which makes this the driest beach stretch of the lot and the reason the town exists.
Hua Hinหัวหิน

Driest

December to March

Wettest

roughly September to November

The driest beach stretch of the lot. Hua Hin sits in enough of a rain shadow to stay usable in months that are washed out on both coasts proper, which is most of why Thai families have holidayed here for a century.

2 regions

Central and eastern

Mainland weather rather than island weather. Wet through the middle of the year, and the thing that actually bites is April heat rather than any of the rain.
Bangkokกรุงเทพฯ

Driest

November to February

Wettest

roughly May to October, heaviest around September

Heat and air rather than rain. April is brutal in a city that holds it, and dry-season particulates get bad enough through January and February to be felt in a hard session.

Pattayaพัทยา

Driest

November to February

Wettest

roughly May to October, heaviest around September

It runs on the Bangkok calendar rather than the southern islands, which catches people who booked it as a beach trip and planned around Phuket dates.

3 regions

Inland north and northeast

Rains on roughly the Andaman schedule, but rain is not what decides a trip here. The burning season is.
Chiang Maiเชียงใหม่

Driest

November to February

Wettest

roughly May to October

The burning season from roughly February to April is the whole decision. Air quality collapses exactly when the weather would otherwise be good, and it is genuinely hard to train twice a day through it.

Paiปาย

Driest

November to February

Wettest

roughly May to October

The same burning season as Chiang Mai, roughly February to April, and harder to sit through. Mae Hong Son province posts some of the worst air readings in the country, and Pai is a valley town, so the smoke arrives and then stays rather than blowing through. The cool dry window either side of it is genuinely good.

Isaan (Northeast)อีสาน

Driest

November to February

Wettest

roughly May to October

Both ends are harsher inland than on the coast. The cool months get properly cold at night by Thai standards, April gets hotter than anywhere on the water, and the region burns its fields through roughly February to April.

Next

Dates decided, region still open

The calendar narrows the list and rarely settles it. What the region costs you, who it suits and which camps are actually in it are the rest of the question.
All regions