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Seasons

When to go

Two hemispheres, two monsoons, and an Atlantic hurricane belt. Nothing here is a year-round destination in the way brochures use the phrase — but there is always somewhere in the catalog at its best.

The year at a glance

How many catalog expeditions sit inside their published window in each month, drawn from the season on each trip page.

Jan

46

77% of the catalog

Feb

46

77% of the catalog

Mar

47

78% of the catalog

Apr

44

73% of the catalog

May

28

47% of the catalog

Jun

25

42% of the catalog

Jul

24

40% of the catalog

Aug

27

45% of the catalog

Sep

26

43% of the catalog

Oct

27

45% of the catalog

Nov

33

55% of the catalog

Dec

44

73% of the catalog

Month by month

Jan

Patagonia peak, Uyuni turning to mirror

Southern summer at full strength: Torres del Paine and El Chaltén are warm, busy, and windy. On the Bolivian altiplano the rains have arrived and the salar begins to flood, which starts the mirror window and closes parts of the flat. Northern hemisphere dry season across Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.

Feb

The mirror month — and the Inca Trail is shut

February is statistically the best month for the Uyuni mirror and the worst for driving the salar. The Classic Inca Trail closes for the entire month for maintenance, so Salkantay, Lares, and train-based Machu Picchu itineraries carry the load. Bocas del Toro hits one of its two drier windows.

Mar

The best month in Patagonia

Statistically calmer wind than November and December, warmer than April, and thinner trails — the strongest single month for Torres del Paine and Fitz Roy. Whale shark aggregations begin off Belize's Gladden Spit around the full moon. Sargassum starts appearing on the Mexican Caribbean coast.

Apr

Shoulder everywhere, and a good one

The altiplano dries out and Uyuni transitions to hard crust with residual reflection in patches. Chapada Diamantina's window opens. Atacama astronomy sharpens. Mesoamerica's dry season is ending and the Caribbean sargassum season is beginning on the open coast.

May

The Andes open

The Cordillera Blanca, Huayhuash, and Cordillera Real enter their dry season and stay there until September. Manu's dry season starts. Amazon high water peaks around now, which is the flooded-forest canoe window. Belize's whale shark season is at its best.

Jun

High-altitude prime, Pantanal jaguars begin

The strongest month for Andean trekking and glacier climbing. Northern Pantanal floodwaters drop and jaguar viewing along the Porto Jofre rivers becomes reliable. Cotopaxi enters its settled window. Uyuni is at its coldest and clearest — nights to −20 °C, and the darkest skies of the year.

Jul

Peak season, plan far ahead

Inca Trail permits for July sell out roughly six months out. Andean and Bolivian mountaineering at its most settled. Pantanal jaguar odds are excellent. A second short dry window opens in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Peak Caribbean sargassum on the Mexican open coast.

Aug

Fernando de Noronha clears

Visibility in the Noronha inner sea peaks at 30 to 50 metres and holds through October. Andes and Pantanal still prime. Galápagos enters the cool garúa season — choppier crossings, nutrient-rich water, and the best big-animal activity of the year.

Sep

The turn

The last reliable Andean trekking weeks. Bocas del Toro reaches its second drier window. Heavy rain sets into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Atlantic hurricane season is at its statistical peak, which is why our Caribbean reef and island windows sit outside it.

Oct

Closures, and the best Baja paddling

The month with the most annual closures: Teyuna (Ciudad Perdida) shuts for indigenous ceremonies, and Corcovado's Sirena sector closes for maintenance. Meanwhile the Sea of Cortez gives its warmest water and calmest mornings, and Patagonia's season opens.

Nov

Patagonia opens, windiest month

The O Circuit in Torres del Paine opens around 1 November. Expect the strongest average wind of the season and exceptional light. Uyuni's dry season closes out. Mesoamerican and Caribbean dry seasons begin, and the Mexican Caribbean coast clears of sargassum.

Dec

Two hemispheres at once

Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, and the Caribbean islands enter their best months. Cotopaxi opens a second climbing window. Patagonia warms and fills. Iguazú runs at maximum volume. The Bolivian altiplano begins to wet again.

Closures and hard constraints

Dates that are not available at any price. Worth checking before you book flights.

February
Classic Inca Trail closed for the whole month for maintenance.
October
Teyuna (Ciudad Perdida) closed for indigenous ceremonies and trail recovery; Corcovado's Sirena sector closed for maintenance. Recent years have shifted the Teyuna month between September and October.
June – November
Atlantic hurricane season, peaking August to October. Our Caribbean reef, island, and Yucatán windows are drawn to sit outside the peak.
Any month
Volcanic alerts can close Cotopaxi and Guadeloupe's La Soufrière; extreme wind closes the Base Torres approach in Patagonia; heavy rain closes Belize's cave rivers and Dominica's Boiling Lake trail.

Two seasons, two different trips

A handful of places change so completely between seasons that treating them as one product is dishonest. The Salar de Uyuni is the clearest case: May to October gives a hard hexagonal crust, full access, Isla Incahuasi open, and some of the darkest skies on earth, while January to March floods the surface into the mirror everyone has seen — and closes large sections of the flat. We sell them as separate departures.

The Amazon works the same way. High water, roughly May to July, lets you paddle a canoe through the crowns of flooded forest; low water, September to November, drops the river by up to ten metres, opens beaches, and makes terra-firme walking possible. Neither is better. Tell us which you want.

The Galápagos splits into a warm, calm, wetter season from December to May and a cool garúa season from June to November with rougher crossings and far richer water. And on the Belize and Mexican Caribbean coasts, the real calendar is not rainfall at all — it is the hurricane belt from June to November and, on the open Mexican coast, the sargassum influx from April to October.

Genuinely flexible

10 expeditions run in any month

Operable year-round — which is not the same as identical year-round. Each of these pages explains the trade you are making by month, whether that is river level, water clarity, or crossing comfort.

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