When to Go

The highlands have distinct rainy (May–October) and dry (November–April) seasons, the latter of which offers the best weather conditions for outdoor-market shopping, lake boating, and volcano hiking. Travel during the rainy season is rarely a hardship; it usually rains just for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Evenings get chilly enough for a jacket, and can get downright cold the farther west you travel. In December and January, temperatures drop to near freezing at higher elevations. That said, the highlands have no weather-based high and low seasons per se. The region does see a greater number of visitors in July and August, and during Christmas and Holy Week.