Best Time To Visit Koh Phangan

May and June are the wettest of the good months, though they still take under a third of November's rain. Showers are short and the sea stays workable.

May is the hottest month of the year, so early starts and late swims beat anything scheduled around midday.

July and August are drier than May and June, and August is among the driest months of the year here.

They are also the European peak. Haad Rin fills and the northern bays get busy, so book ahead if you want a particular beach.

September is the last month before the rain turns, and it is quieter and cheaper than August on much the same weather.

It is the best value month of the year. Use it, because October is a different island altogether.

November is the wettest month of the year by a very wide margin, with October second. This is the northeast monsoon, and it lands on the Gulf coast rather than the Andaman one.

For fixed dates in this window, change coast rather than dates. Phi Phi Islands is drying out through November, and Hua Hin is close to rainless in the same weeks.

December is still wet, though well off the November peak, and it is the busiest month for the party crowd.

Rain falls away sharply through January. Late January is a fair compromise, sitting just ahead of the February low at lower rates than the peak dry weeks.

The Full Moon Party at Haad Rin happens on or beside every full moon, all twelve months of the year. It is not seasonal, so it should never decide which month you travel in.

It should decide which week. Attendance runs from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and the date shifts if a major religious holiday falls on that night, so check the lunar calendar before booking Haad Rin.