Best time to visit the South?

mercedes10

Sorry, this has probably been asked a million times before but I always get confused with India's varying monsoon climate. What would be the best time to visit Southern India? (flying to trivandrum, visiting Kerala, working my way up and ending up in Goa). Just a time to avoid the rains would be good! Thank you! :-)

mutu

High + dry season is middle of November to April.

mercedes10

Thank you!!

livin-in-india

i don't think you really want to know the dry season. dry doesn't equal good traveling. comfortable equals good traveling. and i would never send someone to west coast of the south in april- it is hot and muggy. starting in february it begins to heat up. and that coast you are talking about can be pretter bad, as it gets so humid.

i'd much rather hit this area in the monsoon than in the heat. an umbrella can keep the rain away, but when it is hot you are f---ked, you can't escape.

so, i'd say november thru early-feb is ideal. and if that doesn't work for you, choose the rains of july-oct over the heat of march-may.

monsoon is only an exotic word for season rain. it doesn't imply heavy rains, just consistent rains. i love the monsoons. keeps things cool. the earth becomes vibrant. the waterfalls plenty. the fruits become more varied and cheap. and, many traditional ayurvedic treatments are done in the monsoon season (so it must be good for something, eh?)

Hamanda

I believe there has been quite a lot of rain in South this week and that, in some places, it knocked out the electricity. Is this a common problem with the rains?

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Hamanda

Motorcycl_Adventurer

Living in an electricity-free world is a pleasure...everything becomes silent and lot of peace prevails [mind u i m an Electrical Engineer..!]

Most of the important systems like hospitals, telecom, big hotels, corporate houses have back-up facility so u wont lose on vital elements. Mostly power will be shutdown by the electricity board as a preventive effort to cut down on accidents due to short circuits in the lines and other reasons.

So, losing electricity is nothing to worry about...take it all in ur stride...and experience the more silent India..!

Hope u enjoy ur stay here and love the monsoons and the smell of wet earth. A light cotton dress, water-proof jacket and slippers is all what u need when travelling by bus/train/plave even during the wettest of days. I ride on bikes and hence need better protection and study rain patterns for a ride.

beat the south indian sun during Feb to early June...any other time is all fun down here in South.....

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Hamanda

Thanks Motorcycl Adventurer, I'm not too fussed about lack of electricity - it's just something I didn't think about until told that Salem had none the other day due to rains.

I actually like the rain - which helps when living in U.K!.

Nick-H

Not just with the rains! Power cuts are a very regular event, and can be worse in the hot weather: much of the cableing was designed to support houses haveing a few light bulbs and a ceiling fan. When people start turning on their 3KW air-con units the cable in the street burns out...

My lap-top battery and small UPS keep me connected to IM through most of the cuts, which are usually only a few minutes

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

Hamanda

Nick
How much would a lap top cost in India - less than U.K?.

Just that the people I am going to stay with in Salem (and with whom I do business with) are unable to contact me when power is off. They have very large and cumbersome computer which obviously doesn't have benefit of battery. We can't really communicate via phone as they have problems understanding my accent.

If power failure is common, may be worth my while buying them laptop as would be legitimate business expense.

bijapuri

as to the original question, the best time to visit the South is from November to March, except in Tamil Nadu, which has rain until the end of Dec.

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Nick-H

Errr, sorry? Can you say that again, s l o w l y please?

Others better to advise on Laptop costs; expensive I think, but ordinary PCs have become cheap there recently.

If you spent the cost of a laptop on a UPS for their big thing it would probably survive most power cuts, and not be dependent on the fact that their laptop hadn't been run down the night before by their kids watching DVDs... ...

rangss

$1200 will get you a good laptop in India...

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Nick-H

Ah, Rangss; I hoped you'd be along

There's still a certain amount of discipline needed to keeping a laptop battery healthy and ready. A sure way to kill them used to be to never discharge them, using them, always on mains. Day comes when you want the battery and it gives about 30 seconds and that's it. I could never convince my Japanese colleagues that this was the way to maim their expensive toys. ...I think battery technology has improved, but...

And the answer to the OP's question: December to January. Which is why the air fairs hit the roof then.