This island of Sri Lanka has a double monsoon system, so picking the best time to visit Sri Lanka can be complex and entirely depends on which parts of the island you are visiting. Luckily, it means that there is always somewhere on the island with good weather at any time of year.
What’s the best time to visit Sri Lanka? That’s a little complicated! Read more and find out. This is Kandy, The Temple of The Sacred Tooth Relic, in February. February is a great time to visit, it’s cooler and drier.
Temperatures remain fairly steady year-round in Sri Lanka, but you will see a big difference between coastal resorts (high-20s to mid-30s Celsius) and the high hill country (up to 20 degrees Celsius.) The temperature in Kandy, in the hills, is normally around 20 to 26 degrees C. The average year-round temperature in Kandy is 23C, 74F.
Compare this with Galle on the southwest coast, where average temperatures are between 28 and 30C, 75 to 81F. The driest months in Galle are January and February. There is a full graph of Galle’s monthly weather here. Galle has a tropical rainforest climate.
Sri Lanka is only 7 to 10 degrees north of the equator. This explains the fairly steady temperature year-round. It’s in the northern hemisphere, so Sri Lanka has rains in northern hemisphere spring and summer on the south coast, with more rains in winter on the east coast.
The “best” time to visit the island as a whole is January, February and March. We’ve visited over Christmas and New Year often, on the south and southwest coast, the weather has been great with a few thunderstorms.
In general, the southwest coast and hill country receive the heaviest rain from April to June.
The east coast is wettest in November and December.
In between these two monsoons, the inter-monsoon rains bring thunderstorms anywhere in October and November.
This means the driest times are December to March for the east coast, south coast and hill country. It is driest from April to September for the east coast.
I did warn you that it was complex! In our experience rain is extremely unpredictable, we’ve had great weather and bad weather at the same times of different years. A tropical downpour is often fun to experience so I wouldn’t worry too much about choosing a “best” time to visit unless you had specific activities in mind, like snorkelling or surfing. The seas can get very rough.
Sri Lanka is a very popular winter sun destination for Europeans and can be very busy over Christmas and New Year and the Christmas school holidays.
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About the author
Alyson Long
Alyson Long is a British medical scientist who jumped ship to chase dreams. A former Chief Biomedical Scientist at London's West Middlesex Hospital she started in website creation and travel writing in 2011.
Alyson is a full-time blogger and travel writer, a published author, and owns several websites. World Travel Family is the biggest.
A lifetime of wanderlust and over 6 years of full-time travel, plus a separate 12 month gap year, has given Alyson and the family some travel expert smarts to share with you on this world travel site.
Today Alyson still travels extensively to update this site and continue her mission to visit every country, but she's often at home on her farm in Australia.
