Where to Go by Month
Most travel sites answer the question the wrong way round. You know when your leave is; you do not know where it should take you. Pick a month here and this tool ranks Peru, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, the Bay Islands of Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Hawaii and the US national parks for that month, and tells you why each one sits where it does. Optionally say what you actually want — a beach, trails, wildlife, diving, a lower bill, fewer people — and the order changes with the reasoning on show. Every position comes with the specific hazard for that month, from the February Inca Trail closure to the 10 September peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Where a month is mediocre everywhere, it says so.
Pick a month
Ranked on conditions plus whatever you tick below. Nothing is hidden: each card shows every point it gained or lost.
The ranking
What else is happening that month
How it works, how to use it, and what it does not cover
The tool holds one small table per destination: twelve rows, one per month, each carrying a characterisation of the season drawn from published rainfall and temperature normals, a cost level, a crowd level, a fit score for each of four activities, and the hazards that attach to that month. When you choose a month it scores all seven destinations and prints the arithmetic. Conditions contribute nought to five points. Each preference you tick contributes between minus two and plus two. Named blockers — facts hard enough to override a good month, like the Inca Trail being shut — subtract separately and are labelled on the card. Nothing is fetched from the internet, so the page works offline and cannot silently show you a stale number.
Why there is no score in a big font
A single number would be the most shareable part of this page and the least honest. The underlying judgements are not equally solid: Hawaii's crowd levels come from the state's own average daily visitor census, Costa Rica's seasons come from a direct statement by the tourism board, and the cost levels for Peru, Honduras and the Dominican Republic are our estimates from verified season windows because no official monthly series exists. Printing those together as one figure would launder the weak inputs through the strong ones. So the card shows each part, names it, and says where it came from. If you disagree with one line — if you think the Dominican Republic in September is a bargain worth the risk, which is a perfectly reasonable position — you can see exactly which line to discount.
The assumptions
- It is climatology, not forecast. Every rainfall figure is a long-run monthly normal. A single trip can land far outside it in either direction.
- One figure per country hides real variation. Costa Rica's Caribbean coast is driest in September, the Pacific side's wettest month. The Dominican north coast is driest in June and July, when the east coast is wet. Hawaii's rainfall varies enormously over a few miles. Where that split matters, the card says so rather than averaging it away.
- Hurricane season is a probability. NOAA runs the Atlantic season from 1 June to 30 November, peaking 10 September, and an average 1991–2020 season produced 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes across the whole basin. That is not a forecast for your week in Punta Cana.
- Park seasons are set year by year. The 2026 dates here are real and verified, and they are also the best available guide to a future year rather than a promise about it. Going-to-the-Sun Road has opened over Logan Pass as early as 16 May and as late as 13 July.
- Preferences a destination cannot serve cost it points. This is a feature. Ask for diving and the US national parks drop, with a line saying why.
What it does not cover
It has no flight prices and no hotel prices: those are route-specific and change weekly, and the cost levels here are relative within a destination's own year, not between destinations. It does not know your tolerance for rain, which is the single biggest variable in whether a green-season trip works. It does not model school holidays outside the US calendar, festival dates that move year to year such as Dominican Carnival or Semana Santa, or the exact dates of the Samaná whale season, which the Ministry of Environment sets annually. It has no water-temperature table for the Caribbean destinations and no wildfire-smoke model for the western parks, both of which can matter more than rainfall. And it cannot tell you whether sargassum will be on your particular Punta Cana beach in the week you arrive — nobody can, which is why the card points you at the University of South Florida bulletin instead of inventing a figure.
Data last verified 2026-10-23. Prices, hours and rules change; confirm with the official source before you go.
Sources
- NOAA National Hurricane Center — Atlantic season dates and climatology
- NOAA Central Pacific Hurricane Center
- NWS Honolulu — Climate of Hawai‘i
- NWS Honolulu — seasonal weather FAQ (surf, trades, flash flooding)
- NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary
- Hawaii DBEDT — monthly visitor statistics
- NPS Glacier — Going-to-the-Sun Road general info
- NPS Glacier — Logan Pass opening and closing dates since 1933
- NPS Yellowstone — park roads and 2026 opening and closing dates
- NPS — 2026 summer access and reservation decisions
- Instituto Costarricense de Turismo — official FAQ on high and green season
- Andina (Peru state news agency) — SERNANP February Inca Trail closure
- Go Dominican Republic — whale watching in Samaná Bay
- IWC Whale Watching Handbook — Dominican Republic
- University of South Florida — Sargassum Watch System monthly outlook
- US State Department travel advisories (Peru, Honduras, Dominican Republic)
- UK FCDO — Honduras safety and security
- USDA Forest Service — El Yunque conditions and trail status
- Climates to Travel — monthly rainfall and temperature normals (Peru, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Dominican Republic)
Related guides
- Best time to visit Peru: dry season, rain and crowds
- Best time to visit Costa Rica: dry, green and shoulder season
- Best time to visit Hawaii: season, prices and surf
- Best time to visit the Dominican Republic: season by coast
- National park timed entry: which parks and how to book
- Which Hawaiian island should you visit?
Frequently asked questions
Which month is the best all-round month across these seven destinations?
February and March are the strongest, and it is not close. Both sit outside the Atlantic hurricane season, both land in the dry season for Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican south coast, February is the least rainy month on the Dominican north coast and in Samana, and the Samana humpbacks are in the bay. The cost is that Peru is in its Andean wet season and the Inca Trail is shut for the whole of February, and the US alpine parks are closed to cars. If you want everything open at once, you want July, and you will pay for it.
Is September really as bad as everyone says?
For the Caribbean, yes on paper: 10 September is the statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, and most activity falls between mid-August and mid-October. But "bad" is a probability, not a forecast. Most September trips to Punta Cana or Puerto Rico happen without a storm, and prices and crowds collapse. September is also genuinely excellent elsewhere: it is the quietest and cheapest month in Hawaii with the warmest sea of the year, Peru is still in its dry season with the July crowds gone, and the US alpine roads are open. The honest rule is that September rewards flexible dates and real named-storm insurance, and punishes a trip that cannot move.
Why does the tool sometimes rank a destination below one that does not even do the activity I picked?
Because a preference you select that a destination cannot serve counts against it, by two points, the same as a bad month would. The Bay Islands are not a hiking destination and the US national parks are not a beach destination, so asking for hiking or beaches pushes them down and says why on the card. That is deliberate: the ranking is meant to answer "where should I go in this month for this", not to flatter every destination in turn.
Where do the cost and crowd levels come from?
Hawaii is the only destination here with real published monthly demand data, and its levels come from the state DBEDT average daily visitor census and the DBEDT/STR hotel reports. Costa Rica has an official seasonal statement from the tourism board, which names December to March as the high-demand season and May to November as the green or low season with better rates. For the other five, the cost and crowd levels are our own labelled estimates, derived from verified season windows such as Yellowstone road dates and the Cusco dry season. No tool on the internet, including this one, has official monthly price data for Peru, Honduras or the Dominican Republic.
Does this replace checking a forecast?
No. Everything here is climatology, meaning the long-run average pattern for a month, plus dated official facts such as road and trail seasons. Climatology tells you what to plan for six months out; it tells you nothing about the week you actually travel. Two Kona low systems hit Hawaii in March 2026 and caused statewide flooding in a month our data calls middling. Use this to pick a month, then check the forecast a week out and the official park, trail or sargassum pages before you commit.