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Thailand Frontier

Best time to visit

Thailand in April

The hottest month of the year in every place we measure, and the month the Andaman turns. Phuket goes from 93mm in March to 152mm and twenty rain days. The Gulf has not turned yet, and Songkran is the reason to be here at all.

Measured, not repeated

Where it rains in April, and how much

Driest first. Chiang Mai takes 37mm this month and Krabi takes 185mm, which is 5 times as much. The strip on the right is that place's whole year, with April outlined, so you can see whether this is a good month for it or merely a bad one everywhere.

  1. Chiang Mai 37mm 5 rain days
  2. Bangkok 78mm 12 rain days
  3. Koh Samui 99mm 13 rain days
  4. Thailand's islands 135mm 20 rain days
  5. Phuket 152mm 20 rain days
  6. Krabi 185mm 24 rain days

ERA5 reanalysis, 1995 to 2024, averaged per calendar month at each place's own coordinates. A rain day is a day with a millimetre or more.

The turn is sharp and it is worth seeing in the numbers. Phuket: 93mm in March, 152mm in April, 269mm in May. Krabi: 112, 185, 255. The islands: 73, 135, 243. April is not the wet season, but it is the ramp into it, and by the end of the month the afternoons are reliably wet.

The Gulf runs three months behind. Koh Samui is at 99mm in April, still its dry season, and stays that way through the northern summer. If you are booking a beach in April and you can choose the coast, this is already the month where the choice starts to matter.

Songkran, 13 to 15 April, is the Thai new year and the largest public event in the country. Its dates are fixed, unlike most of the calendar here. Transport sells out weeks ahead, prices rise, much of Bangkok empties as people travel home, and for three days a considerable part of the country is a water fight. It is either exactly what you came for or something to plan around, and there is no middle position.

Where to go in April

The three driest places on this site this month, in order.

  1. Chiang Mai 37mm 5 rain days in April Dry season October to June
  2. Bangkok 78mm 12 rain days in April Dry season November to June
  3. Koh Samui 99mm 13 rain days in April Dry season January to September

What is on in April

  • Songkran

    13 to 15 April

    Fixed dates. Chiang Mai's is the largest and runs longest; Bangkok's is concentrated on a few streets. Book transport well ahead.

How the Thai seasons work, and the year as a whole