Best Time to Visit Mexico

This is when most visitors come, and for good reason. Rain almost stops across the country, the Caribbean and Pacific coasts sit at 26-30°C by day with warm 26-27°C seas, and the highland cities are bright and dry. In Mexico City, at 2,240 m (7,350 ft), highs are 21-26°C but nights drop to 5-8°C from December to February, and San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas can touch freezing on clear January nights. Pack a warm layer even for a beach trip if you are going inland.

The catch is demand. The two weeks from about 20 December to 6 January are the most expensive of the year at Cancún, Tulum, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, with resort rates often double those of late November. Spring break fills Cancún, Cabo, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta with American students through most of March, and Semana Santa (Holy Week) sends half of Mexico to the beach, so buses and domestic flights sell out and beaches near big cities are packed.

April and May are the hot tail of the dry season. Inland Yucatán is at its fiercest, with Mérida regularly at 38°C and humid; ruins such as Chichén Itzá and Uxmal are best at the 8:00 opening. Mexico City’s jacaranda trees bloom purple in March, but April and May bring its worst air quality, before the rains wash the sky clean.

The wet season is not a write-off. In most of the country it means a sunny morning, a build-up of cloud and a heavy one- or two-hour storm in the late afternoon, then a clear evening. Mexico City, Oaxaca and San Cristóbal get most of their rain between June and September, so plan museums and markets for the afternoon and outdoor sights early. The upside is real: green hills, full waterfalls such as Hierve el Agua’s springs and the rivers of Chiapas, fewer foreign tourists and lower room rates.

July and August are busy anyway, because Mexican and European summer holidays fill the beaches, and Oaxaca hosts the Guelaguetza in late July. September is the wettest and quietest month and the cheapest time to travel, but it is also peak hurricane season. October is a turning point: the rain fades through the month on the Pacific side and in the highlands, and by Day of the Dead at the start of November the country is dry again.

The Yucatán Peninsula is hot and humid all summer (32-34°C, humidity above 75%), with short downpours. Cenotes are at their most inviting, the sea is warmest, and the whale-shark season off Holbox and Isla Mujeres runs through it.

Mexico has two hurricane seasons. The Atlantic season, which affects the Caribbean coast (Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Cozumel) and the Gulf (Veracruz, Campeche), runs from 1 June to 30 November. The Eastern Pacific season, which hits Acapulco, Puerto Escondido, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán and Los Cabos, runs from 15 May to 30 November. On both coasts the dangerous window is mid-August to mid-October; June and July storms tend to be weaker. Hurricane Otis, which devastated Acapulco in October 2023, and Beryl, which crossed the Yucatán in July 2024, show that a direct hit can happen in any year.

In practice the odds that a hurricane lands on your particular week are low, and forecasters give three to five days’ warning. If you travel between August and October, buy travel insurance before a storm is named, book refundable rooms, and keep a day of slack before your flight home. Follow the Mexican weather service and your hotel’s instructions, and save the numbers on our Mexico emergency page. Inland destinations such as Mexico City, Oaxaca and San Miguel de Allende get rain from the remnants of storms but almost never damaging winds.

Sargassum is a floating brown seaweed that has reached the Mexican Caribbean in large quantities every year since 2014, with 2025 one of the worst years on record. It is harmless to touch at sea but piles up on the sand, turns the water near the shore brown and smells of rotten eggs as it decomposes. It usually starts arriving in April, peaks from May to August and fades by October. Volumes vary hugely from week to week and from beach to beach.

The east-facing beaches catch most of it: Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Akumal, Puerto Morelos and Mahahual are hit hardest. Beaches that face north or west are much better protected, including Cancún’s Bahía de Mujeres side (Playa Langosta, Playa Tortugas), Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, the west coast of Cozumel and Holbox’s Gulf-facing shore. Freshwater Bacalar lagoon and the cenotes are never affected. Quintana Roo’s official sargassum monitoring network publishes a daily colour-coded map of each stretch of coast; check it the week before you go, and if you are booking a summer stay, choose a north- or west-facing beach.

Mexico City is the main gateway, and its high-altitude climate is typical of the central highlands: Oaxaca, Puebla, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende follow a similar pattern, a few degrees warmer or cooler. The coasts are 8-12°C warmer all year. Click a month for the detailed outlook.

• Yucatán and the Caribbean coast: Best from November to April, with 28-30°C highs and the calmest seas. May is very hot inland. June to October is humid with afternoon storms, hurricane risk and sargassum on the east-facing beaches. Valladolid, Mérida and the ruins are best visited before 11:00 at any time of year.
• Mexico City and the central highlands: Dry and sunny from November to April, coldest in December and January at night, warmest in April and May. Rain falls most afternoons from June to September. October and November are the best months, with clear skies after the rains.
• Oaxaca and Chiapas: Oaxaca City has the most stable climate in the country, 25-30°C by day all year, with rain from June to September. San Cristóbal sits at 2,200 m and is cool all year, cold at night from November to February. Palenque in the lowland jungle is hot and wet most of the year, driest from February to April.
• Pacific coast: Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita, Mazatlán and Zihuatanejo are dry from November to May and hot and wet from June to October. Puerto Escondido has surfable swell all year, with the biggest waves at Zicatela from May to September.
• Baja California: Los Cabos and La Paz are best from November to May. Summer is very hot on the Sea of Cortez side (35-40°C) and the hurricane risk peaks in September. Northern Baja and the Valle de Guadalupe wine country around Ensenada have a Mediterranean climate with a dry, hot summer and a harvest festival in August.
• Northern deserts and the Copper Canyon: Best in March-April and October-November. The rim around Creel can see snow in January, and the canyon bottoms pass 40°C in June.

• Beaches: November to April on every coast. Late November and the first half of December offer dry weather at shoulder prices. For the Caribbean in summer, choose north-facing beaches to dodge sargassum.
• Ruins and colonial cities: November to March, when Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Teotihuacan and Monte Albán are bearable at midday. The equinox (around 20 March and 22 September) draws huge crowds to Chichén Itzá for the serpent shadow on El Castillo.
• Grey whales: January to early April, peaking in February and March, in the Baja lagoons of Ojo de Liebre near Guerrero Negro, San Ignacio and Magdalena Bay, where mothers and calves often approach the small boats.
• Humpback whales: December to March in Banderas Bay off Puerto Vallarta and off Los Cabos.
• Whale sharks: Roughly June to mid-September off Holbox, Isla Mujeres and Cancún, best in July and August; check the official season dates before booking. In the Bay of La Paz the season runs from about October to April.
• Monarch butterflies: Mid-November to March in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, best from late December to February. El Rosario and Sierra Chincua near Angangueo are the main sanctuaries, at around 3,000 m, so dress warmly. Sunny afternoons are when the butterflies fly.
• Diving: Cozumel and the cenotes are good all year. Sea of Cortez visibility is best from August to November, and the hammerhead and manta season around the Revillagigedo Islands runs from November to May.
• Surfing: Puerto Escondido’s Zicatela is biggest from May to September; Sayulita and the Nayarit coast are friendlier in winter.
• Copper Canyon: October-November and March-April for the Chepe train and hiking.

Mexican holidays move crowds and prices more than the weather does. Fixed and announced dates for the next two years:

Dates for the Guelaguetza and the Mexico City Day of the Dead parade (usually on a weekend shortly before 2 November) are confirmed by the organisers each year, so check before you go. Our Mexican culture guide explains what happens at Day of the Dead and how to behave at cemeteries and altars.

• Peak (20 Dec-6 Jan, Semana Santa, March spring break): Beach hotels at their highest, often double the low-season rate. Book flights and rooms three to four months ahead, ADO buses a few days ahead.
• High (mid-Jan to April): Dry, warm and busy, but prices are steady and availability is good outside spring break.
• Shoulder (November, May, late June): The best value for dry or nearly dry weather. Late November is ideal for combining Day of the Dead with the beach.
• Low (September and October): Rooms 30-50% cheaper at many resorts, fewer foreigners, quiet ruins, but the highest storm risk.

For the dry season, pack light summer clothes for the coasts plus a fleece or light down jacket for highland evenings in Mexico City, Oaxaca and especially San Cristóbal, where January nights are near freezing. Monarch sanctuaries and the Copper Canyon rim need a warm hat and gloves in winter. In the rainy season add a compact umbrella or rain jacket and quick-drying shoes, since streets in Mexico City and Oaxaca flood briefly after storms.

All year, bring a wide-brimmed hat and high-factor sunscreen: the sun is intense at altitude and on the coast. Use biodegradable, mineral sunscreen for the Caribbean reefs and wash it off before entering cenotes, where most sunscreen is banned. Insect repellent with DEET or picaridin matters from June to October, when dengue cases rise in the south and on the coasts. Modest clothing (covered shoulders and knees) is useful for churches and indigenous villages in Chiapas.