Understandably the most popular time to visit is during our winter and December to March is the perfect time to enjoy the majority of the island. The weather is ideal if you plan to visit the Cultural Triangle, hill & tea country around Kandy, Hatton and Nuwara Eliya, the plethora of National Parks plus the beaches on the south or west coast. 

The flip side to this is that for those wanting to explore the relatively undeveloped east coast and the associated national parks, the late spring and summer are perfect as the southwest (“yala”) monsoon brings rain to the west and southwest coasts and hill country from May to September. 

Just to further confuse matters there’s an inter-monsoonal period of unsettled weather in October through to mid-November during which heavy rain can be experienced anywhere across the island. In fact this has been the worst time of year to visit in recent years.

Please just use this information as a guide, every year is slightly different and many visitors enjoy a holiday that doesn’t fit exactly within these periods. Different times of the year have strengths and weaknesses. For example April is largely dry throughout the country, is when the Sinhala and Tamil New Year is celebrated and so is a great time to visit if you’d like to enjoy Sri Lanka as its most sociable. Or in June the weather is comfortable and there are fewer visitors. You’ll get some rain but the prices are lower and tourists fewer.

As a general rule when it does rain it tends to be a heavy afternoon storm and rather than follow the weather definitions religiously, the only really important consideration weatherwise is where you decide to enjoy the beach, as this is where you want to best chance of relaxing under blue skies.

Our Month By Month Weather Guide offers more information and holiday suggestion. Alternatively please call as we’d be happy to discuss your holiday plans.