Best Time To Visit Hua Hin

January and February are almost as dry as December and the most comfortable months for being outdoors all day.

They are also the busiest. Hua Hin is a weekend town for Bangkok as well as a holiday destination, so Friday and Saturday nights cost noticeably more than midweek.

March and April stay dry, with less rain than any month between May and October. The catch is the heat, which climbs steadily through both.

Songkran falls in mid-April and fills the town. For the dry weather without the crowds or the water fights, come in March.

May is the hottest month of the year and the point where the rain starts in earnest. June is slightly cooler and slightly drier.

Both months still work. Showers come in short bursts, and Hua Hin stays sunnier through the wet season than anywhere in southern Thailand.

July and August are wet without being difficult. Rain tends to arrive in the afternoon and clear, so the beach mornings usually hold.

Prices are at their lowest and the town is quiet outside the Thai school holidays. This is the value window if you can live with an afternoon shower.

October is the wettest month of the year by a wide margin, close to twice the next wettest. September is second, so this pair is the weak spot in Hua Hin's year.

For fixed dates in this window, Zanzibar has one of its driest and coolest months in September, and Thimphu has its clearest, driest weeks of the whole year in October.

Hua Hin takes roughly half the annual rain of Krabi or Koh Samui, because it sits in a rain shadow on the western shore of the Gulf.

The gap is widest exactly when people book the islands. In November and December, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui are at their annual worst while Hua Hin is close to rainless. Come January, Phi Phi Islands on the Andaman side is the drier choice again.