When to visit - The Philippines

The best time to travel to the Philippines is in the dry season between January and April. This period enjoys hot yet pleasant temperatures and avoids the humidity of the summer months. Perhaps the main reason to visit during this period is that it is the dry weather: the Philippines can endure a huge amount of rain over the summer months, so it is certainly best to visit at the beginning of the year to enjoy the best of the Philippines. However, that said, it is still a tropical climate and you may encounter heavy showers from time to time. Rains at this time tend to be an afternoon shower which cools the land down and washes dust away. Within the dry season the months of January and February tend to offer coolest temperature; January is the coolest month of the year when temperatures are around 25C, rising to an average of around 28C in February.

The months of May, November and December sit either side of the best season and are still good times to visit the Philippines. These months may see slightly higher rainfall, but are still outside the main monsoon season. May is also a particularly good time to travel to the Philippines if you enjoy warm weather, with the temperatures peaking in the high 30s. November and December are past the end of the monsoon season, and have pleasantly warm weather, so are in theory also very good times to visit. However, at this time there is still a chance of heavy tropical storms or typhoons passing across the archipelago.

After the high humidity and heat of the months of May and June the dry season tends to break, usually in July, and from then until October the monsoon brings in heavy rains. Each year during the monsoon season the Philippines also attracts typhoons (generally during the months of July - October) which batter the Pacific eastern coastline of Luzon, Samar, Leyte and to a lesser extent Mindanao. These typhoons tend to come in from the Western Pacific in a north-westerly direction and can be quite destructive. Note that the inner the Visayas region is sheltered from the worst of the weather, so these islands are still a good place to visit during the rainy season in the Philippines.