Fat Passport

Bob's Worldwide Weather Guide

Bad weather can ruin a trip, so when planning a trip, it's critical to understand when is the right time to go to your destinations. As a random example, that's me in the fog at the Great Wall some years ago...and I can assure you that the Great Wall is more appealing if the sun is shining!.

Below is a simple guide that I developed to give me a general idea of what the weather tends to be like for general sight-seeing in various exotic locales. I find this chart to be very useful for identifying possible destinations for various time windows, and for planning round-the-world trips.

Getting a handle on "when to go" can be difficult, as it depends on the activities you're going for, exactly where you are going (the ** denotes countries with substantial variance by area and/or activity), and your personal preferences. So, use this as a general indicator, then check worldclimate and Lonely Planet for more detailed guidance on climate and other considerations, and check weather.com to get a near-term (e.g. 10-day) forecast when/if needed.