The best time to travel

• Estimate how much time you will need — How many days will be needed for transportation and all the major planned experiences in each country.
• Leave time for serendipity — Build in as much flex time as possible to take advantage of opportunities and to manage delays.
• Find the time in your busy life for travel — There might be “Insurmountable Obstacles” preventing you from traveling. We humbly suggest that, with a little time and an open mind, they are surmountable.
• Choose the best time to go — Adjust your travel calendar to season of  the year and  the dates of popular events you want to attend (or avoid).

Cross that bridge. Leaving on a trip, especially an extended journey, will cut you off from your life at home. Yes, there’s video calls, email and other ways to stay partly connected, but the day-to-day, face-to-face will be gone. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

When you cross the bridge, you deliberately remove yourself. And that’s a challenge for most people.

If you have a busy life, you may not see how to slice a big chunk of time away from your “commitments” to go on a trip. This is no doubt true for people at the pinnacle of large organizations or the owners of small businesses. But where there’s a will, there’s a way.

For some travelers, the opportunity to travel opens up easily — young travelers on a gap year trip are the most obvious example. But most of us struggle with commitments and obstacles that push the trip way out into the future. Sometimes, the future never arrives.

Determining the best time to travel needs the answers to three related questions:

• How much time to travel do you need? — You need to know approximately how many days your trip will take.
• How much time can you get away from home? — If you’re lucky, this number is equal to or more than the time your trip will take. If not, you’ll have to find more time or reduce your trip.
• What travel dates are best? — Make sure your proposed trip will have you at your destinations during good weather. Also, make sure that you don’t arrive the the crowded and costly high season (unless one of your priority experiences requires it).

Even if you can’t go soon, try to set target dates in the not-too-distant future. Then figure out how to create the space in your calendar. Cross that bridge and commit yourself. 

How much time to travel do you need?

You should try to estimate you long your trip will take. But there are two things to keep in mind as you work it out.

Don’t try to do too much

There’s a risk you will plan to go to more destinations and do more activities than you should in the travel time available. Don’t try to jam in too many places and activities unless you (and your traveling companion) have a big budget, endless energy and thrive on stress. Traveling fast can quickly get exhausting, especially with the inevitable delays and detours. Next thing you know, there’s not enough time left to visit that last stop, even if it’s the most important one on your list.

Don’t over-plan

You may feel compelled to plan every detail of your travel time. It’s true that the shorter your trip, the more you need to plan your transport and activities. Unless you’re one of the fortunate few with no time or budget limitations, you will need a timetable, but an approximate one only. You don’t need a detailed itinerary now.

Estimate the travel time you will need

You don’t need any trip planning app — even a printed calendar is useful only if you have fixed dates already. All you need is a pencil and some sheets of paper, although rejigging the numbers would be easier on a spreadsheet. Either way, we’ll call them “sheets” below.

For simplicity, there are only two types of travel time block: time spent in transit and time for experiences at your destinations. You will assign durations in days or half-days. Slicing time any finer is too labor-intensive and inaccurate.

• Label destination sheets — Label one sheet for each country or destination within a country where you plan major experiences. Example: You could have a single sheet for a week in Italy, but if you’re spending longer and have major activities in Rome, Tuscany, Venice and the Amalfi coast, you might have a sheet for each.
• Starting and return flights — Most big trips begin and end with a long flight. Each of these has its own sheet.
• Sort — Below the original flight, sort your destination sheets in the order you want to visit each one. Your starting flight will be on top and your return flight on the bottom.
• Inbound transport — Under each destination, at the top of the page, note the mode of transport to get there and how long it will take, in days. The time varies, depending on where you’re coming from. If you change the order of your destinations, you may have to adjust the travel time from the new point of origin. Example: You arrive in Italy from France, with a travel time of half a day. But if you change your itinerary and fly directly from home to Rome, that’s your original flight, so travel time for inbound transport would be zero because your starting flight has its own sheet.
• Experiences — Below that, list the major experiences you want to have, in order of priority, and estimate the number of days or half-days for each.
  • Don’t spend time listing minor activities. If there are a bunch of them, just gather them up. Instead of “visit Parthenon, 2 hours,” then “visit Forum, 2 hours,” and so on, just say, “Visit historical sites, 2 days.” 
  • Be generous with time. If possible, allow flex time upon arrival, padded around your experiences and before departure. This may allow for fun new opportunities that pop up, delays that throw you off or even a bit of extra rest.
• Tally time for each destination — At the bottom of each destination sheet, add inbound travel time + activities + flex time to equal the total time allocation for that destination.
• Trip total — On a fresh sheet, list the destinations and the tallied time for each, then add them to come up with your total trip time estimate.

If you don’t have enough time

If you appear to have ample time available, great! You will have the luxury of doing more if you choose. But, what if your total estimated time is more than the time you have available?

The tactics here are easier done with your estimates on a spreadsheet.

• Delete or shorten activities — Go back to your destinations and delete lower priority experiences until the total days are within your limit. Remember: don’t jam too much in your available time.
• Delete a destination — Cut one or more destinations entirely. This may affect travel time between remaining destinations.
• Make more time — You might have to delay your trip to earn more vacation days or cobble together more time by other means.
• Use faster transport — Fly between cities instead of taking a long train or bus. Take taxis instead of buses to your experiences.
• Tighten your plan — We’re reluctant to offer this option, but it may be possible to shave flex time down to shorten your time in one or more destinations. Just don’t end up with an impossible itinerary that will make you stressed and exhausted.
• Spend (a bit) more — Greasing your trip with a higher spend on such things as more central lodges and laundry service will reduce time spent on logistics, leaving more time for experiences. 

What’s the best time to go?

Every popular destination has a “high season,” when the weather is most pleasant or when a major event is scheduled to occur. Find out about the seasons and major events in your destinations. You can then choose whether to go in high season or not. (This choice assumes that your travel time window is not fixed by your commitments at home.)

Climate and seasons

Climate is a huge consideration when planning your itinerary and dates. Some otherwise wonderful destinations can be very unpleasant at the wrong time of year. It can be too hot, too cold, too rainy or too windy to enjoy yourself out of doors, even if the crowds are gone and the prices are lower.

Keep in mind that large countries have multiple climate zones and it’s possible to time your travel to coincide with better conditions in different parts of the country.

Climate can be highly localized. Mountains cause radical changes, notably cooling with increased elevation. They also force humid air to condense as rain or snow. The lee side of mountains can be dry and often cooler. Coastal areas tend to have less temperature variation and more precipitation than inland, although there are many exceptions to that.

A common travel strategy is to move through a sequence of warm or hot climate zones, although you may want to avoid blazing hot or endless rain in the tropics. Don’t write-off the wet season — in some locations it’s just a little extra humidity and a torrential downpour in the afternoon.

Fine weather usually means it’s the high season for travel, too, so crowds and prices tend to be up. Transitions between seasons may risk some bad weather, but crowds and prices may be reduced. In destinations popular with short-term travelers and vacationers, high season coincides with the Christmas break, school breaks and summer holidays. Winter getaways from northern rich countries will fill up warm destinations, especially those closest to vacationers’ homes. There is plenty of good weather at other times, so you could avoid these vacation periods in popular spots unless you have an event you want to attend.

The warm climate strategy offers the considerable benefit of keeping your clothing to a minimum, allowing for small and light luggage.  

Find out about climate and seasons at your destinations Expand

• Climates to Travel (Website) — The most detailed climate map and description of any country. Larger countries show climate sub-regions. The quality of information is far better than other sites that just throw up a graph. Climates to Travel also suggests best seasons to visit and what clothing you should consider. Temperatures and precipitation are in metric.
• World Weather and Climate Information (Website) — Graphs of monthly temperatures, precipitation, hours of sunlight and humidity. Not all graphs are available for all locations. Measures can be toggled between metric and US.

Major events

Look up the major holidays, festivals and events for your proposed destinations

• National holidays — As well statutory holidays, there may also be school holidays, when local people flock to popular attractions. National tourist boards and guide books can advise on the major national events, but do not reliably report on regional and local events.
• Religious celebrations — Days of religious significance may not be on the national holiday calendar, but adherents may take the time off for celebrations. While religious sites may be crowded, it’s a wonderful opportunity to observe local culture. If you want to do this, be sure that non-adherents are welcome to observe.
• Local holidays — Some holidays are very local. Do an internet search for “[month] holiday [name of location]” or “[month] events [name of location]” to see whether there’s something going on.

If you want to be there for the event, be sure to book your transport and lodging well in advance or you’ll either end up paying a small fortune or staying in a dump on the edge of town. Even if you book in advance, prices for lodging will tend to move up for the core days.

No one goes there nowadays. It’s too crowded.

— Yogi Berra

High, low and shoulder seasons

Most destinations have high, low and shoulder seasons — there may be more than one of each, depending upon climate and major events. There’s usually a shoulder season on either side of a high season — two per year if there’s one high season, or four per year if there are two high seasons.

 

High season

Pros

• Good weather — High season is usually the time of year with the most pleasant weather.
• Major events — Events such as festivals, sports fixtures or religious gatherings, draw huge crowds. But they draw crowds for a reason and you may want to be part of the action, too.

Cons

• Prices — Prices respond to supply and demand, so any vendor that can raise prices will usually do so. Taxis, lodges, cultural entertainment, recreational activities, day tours and even restaurants may jack prices up. If they don’t, expect them to be fully booked or unavailable early.
• Transport — Flights, trains and buses may be booked solid, so it could be difficult to get to your destination and then leave when you wish. You may have to settle for a slower or lower class of transport than your first choice.
• Accommodation — Lodging, too, can be booked solid and room prices may rise very high during peak demand. You may end up staying farther from the center of the action or in a different class of accommodation than you would like.

Prepare to book transportation, lodging and perhaps some activities as far in advance as you can. Advance booking is mandatory if you plan to attend a major event.

Low season

Pros

• The weather is not all bad — The weather may be uncomfortably cold, hot, humid, dry, rainy, dusty and/or windy on many days, but maybe not all day, every day. In many destinations between the two tropics, rainy season downpours are  limited to a couple of hours, while the rest of the day can be fine, if humid.
• No crowds — You will find popular attractions much less populated, sometimes deserted (but sometimes so deserted that they close for the season).
• Discounts — Discounts often apply to room rates and activity costs.
• Good for urban trips — If your activities are mostly indoors anyway, low season can be wonderful, especially in the Great Cities of the world, where crowds and prices get ridiculous in the high season.

Cons

• Activities closed — Popular attractions may be closed or on reduced hours. Many outdoor recreational activities, dependent upon good weather, may be closed for days at a time or for the entire season. Beach or mountain resorts may also close for the season.
• Reduced transportation options — Transportation services may be reduced or canceled entirely. Flights may be less frequent, but fares are often reduced.
• Bad for outdoor activities — While the old Scandinavian maxim, “There’s no bad weather, only bad gear,” may apply, watching your umbrella invert, snorkeling in cloudy water, slipping on muddy tracks and salting the leeches off your ankles isn’t much fun.

Low season has opportunities as well as risks. Know what to expect and whether you can do enough to meet your goals. Do that urban trip, but think twice about outdoor adventures. And, when you’re inevitably caught in the rain or the wind or the snow, protect your valuables and pause for a moment to contemplate your adventure.

 

Shoulder season

Pros

• Two shoulders — There are usually two shoulder seasons per year, wedged between high season and low season. The two shoulders are not the same, so you should find out how they differ and where your activities fit in.   
• Four shoulders! — If there are two high seasons, spring and fall, for example, there will be four shoulders.
• Modest risk of bad weather — The weather should be okay most days, although you have to be prepared for when it is not.
• Less crowding — Crowds in popular destinations are much reduced from high season numbers.
• Lower prices — High season prices, especially for lodging, should be reduced.

Cons

• The weather can turn bad — It’s the shoulder season for a reason and there’s always a risk that the weather can turn and stay bad for days or weeks.
• Crowds may linger — The benefits of shoulder season pricing are not lost on travelers, so popular attractions may still be thronged. Vendors, especially lodge owners, figure this out pretty quickly and retain high season rates for longer.

Shoulder season can be the best season for travelers who have the liberty to chose their travel dates, but picking the right time in the shoulder season is a bit of an art. If you go too near the high season changeover, there will still be lots of people. If you go too long before or after the high season, the weather could ruin your stay.

The pattern of major seasonal changeovers may be broken, with location or event-specific mini-high seasons.

Micro-climate “high season”

Just because the hot season is blazing or the wet season is sodden, there may still be places you can visit in comfort.

When most of India is sweating in pre-monsoon temperatures of 40℃ (104℉) and more, “hill stations” in the mountains can be quite pleasant. If you find yourself in India during May and June, you too can get some relief at elevation — along with thousands of others. Lodging will be heavily booked and prices will be high.

For travelers on a rigid timetable, such as school teachers or college instructors who have to work the academic year, micro-climate locations can provide pleasant travel opportunities when the rest of the country is experiencing the low season.

Popular events

Some of the major events mentioned above may take place in the low season. The most obvious is Christmas in the northern hemisphere or Golden Week in China. Cold and snow (in northern latitudes at least) don’t deter travelers from jamming airlines and hotels. Lo and behold, flights and hotels are more expensive around these events.

Other countries and cultures have their own special events — find out whether your destination will be having one around the time you expect to be there. The special event might be a good reason in itself to visit, but be prepared to book early and pay a premium.

Make time to travel in your busy life

When can you fit that dream trip into your life? DIY travel is a way to travel and is not limited by duration. You can indeed do independent travel during an annual vacation from work or during a school break. But most dream trips are longer than that and making the time can be a challenge. 

For a fortunate few, it’s easy: 

• Banked vacation time — You’ve been able to bank vacation leave over a few years and have a longer period you can take off work in one lump. 
• Student gap year — You’ve finished being a student (at least for now) and want to take a gap year. 
• Between jobs or contracts — You’re between jobs or contracts and can take a break before the next one. 
• Retired — You’re retired, your time is your own and you can do what you want.

Yet, many would-be travelers are so committed to their lives at home that they feel that they can’t make the time. Family, education and work all dominate the calendar. If this sounds like you, you have “compelling reasons” why you can’t travel, at least not now or in the near future. 

Finding the time to travel is therefore finding a solution to your compelling reasons. Some of those reasons are truly related to finding some space on the calendar, but others are non-time-related excuses. What from this list is holding you back?

You’re essential to a small business?

Some types of small business offer more opportunities for time off than others.

If your business is project-based and you don’t have employees, you can finish current projects, then take a break for travel before accepting any new projects. If you have partners who can take your workload while you’re gone, you can probably negotiate a good chunk of time off. (You owe them!)

But if you are the key person in a businesses that is in continuous operation or has employees, it could be impossible to close shop — even for a short time — without damaging the business and negatively affecting your employees. There are a lot of small business operators who don’t even take short vacations, let alone a longer time to travel. If this is you, there are a few strategies that may help liberate some time:

• Low season — Do you have a low-season or down time in the year? If so, can you stretch a conventional vacation into something longer without the business suffering? For example, could you take the Christmas – New Year’s break and start it earlier in December or stretch it later into January?
• Trusted employee — Is there a trusted employee you can leave in charge while you’re gone?
• Online work — Can you monitor the business online and even do enough work remotely to sustain the business during your absence? Is there a risk that this could morph into doing full-time work while traveling? If so, then maintaining your business commitments while traveling is not really an option.

The worst case scenario is that you just can’t go yet, but you could start to groom that trusted employee, look to enter into a partnership or, since your hard work is building the value of the business, sell it sooner rather than later.

You can’t get enough time off your job?

This has to be the most common reason that people don’t travel more. If you’re employed or on a restrictive contract, you get your annual vacation leave and that’s it — or is it? 

• Take a break — Travel between jobs or contracts.
• Request extended leave — Ask your employer to extend your annual vacation without pay. Ensure that you can maintain employment benefits (such as a medical plan). You may have to pay into benefit plans to continue them during your travel.
• Offer to telecommute — This option is limited to those who work on computers. Furthermore, you don’t want to be doing most of a full-time job while sitting under a palm tree on the other side of the planet. This would be for critical functions only, so you would have to be clear with your employer about the time you can commit to work.
• Quit! — Quitting is an under-appreciated strategy that deserves more consideration. 

You can’t or won’t take time off work?

You have a chance to take the time to travel, but choose not to take it. Why? There are two scenarios, one where you already have a job and another where you’re seeking employment.

• Climbing the ladder — Suppose you already have a position and want to rise in the organization. You feel that a big chunk of time off would compromise your advance compared to your peers. This worn excuse deserves a cliché response: you should work to live, not live to work. If your workplace is any good, you’ll get back on track soon enough — you’ll be in the same situation as female employees returning from maternity leave. (If your employer holds back new mothers, they’re a lousy employer!) 
• Workplace politics — You may also fear that office politics will turn against you while you’re away. If the work environment is that poisonous, are you sure you still want to work there? If you’re serious about travel, force yourself to step off the hamster wheel, catch your breath (by traveling), then consider whether you want to get back on.
• The “hole” in your resumé — If you’ll be seeking employment after some extended travel, you might be worried that the lack of continuous employment will count against you with a prospective employer. Some travelers spin a story that prospective employers will view your extended travel as a huge plus on your resumé. In our view, this is nonsense — travel is usually seen as an indulgence. And it is. So what? Still, most employers don’t care if you indulge yourself, as long as your employment history, skill set and personal attributes are strong. There’s nothing wrong with marketing your travel for the informal training and experience it provided. While it probably won’t wash with many employers, the more forward thinking ones (the ones who’ve traveled themselves) should value the attributes that independent travel helps to build: confidence, self-reliance, communications skills, research skills, problem-solving abilities, calm demeanor and cultural sensitivity.

You have a child or children?

If you don’t have a child yet, but are thinking about having one, travel now! If you already have children, take them with you. That may sound difficult if your kids are very young, but with proper planning it’s still possible to gift your child or children with one of the most enriching experiences possible.