It’s Time to Rethink “The Best Time to Visit”

Years ago, I decided on a whim to move to Venice, Italy to work in a hostel for a few months.

I arrived in the City of Canals at the start of March when it was cold, the streets were flooded and for the most part there were very few tourists.

In the months I spent there, I witnessed firsthand how tourism changed with the seasons.

As summer approached, the streets became busier and when the first cruise ships started arriving, they then became crowded.

It was almost as though someone had flipped a switch that turned tourism back on.

In those years, travel to Europe was considered a summer activity.

The best time to go was commonly quoted as being between June and early September.

But in the 15 years since, things have shifted pretty drastically.

Climate change is having an impact on how predictable our seasons are, affecting ecosystems as well as the daily life and livelihoods of people and communities around the world, and it's having a trickle down effect on how we plan our trips.

Today I'm chatting with Tarong Mahanot.

She is a freelance writer and journalist whose work has appeared in BBC Travel, Matador Network and more.

Her most recent BBC article argues that the best time to visit no longer applies.

And so today we're going to unpack why this is Curious Tourism the podcast focused on making travel better for people and the planet.

I'm Erin Hines, travel writer and content creator, and I'm joined by my producer Katie Lohr.

If you enjoy this show, Erin and I would love you to support it.

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You can also get in touch with us directly on social media or by email.

All our contact info is in the show notes.

I'm really excited to chat with you because your article actually I will tell you I've read many of your articles and I really appreciate your perspective on things.

Like I think there's a lot of alignment in how you and I think about and approach travel.

So I'm really happy to have you on.

But this article in particular stuff stood out to me because seasonality is something that I think in the responsible tourism space is like talked about quite a lot in the context of like traveling places purposefully off season.

So to get into it, you open your BBC article with your experience trekking in Nepal during what is often described as the best time to visit.

Quote unquote and you share how, in actuality, the conditions weren't the best.

And this was surprising because based on all the guides you'd read, you were there at the perfect time to trek.

So could you give me sort of the Cliff Notes on what happened on that trip and when it became clear to you that it wasn't just bad luck when it came to the weather, but something tied to a larger shifting climate pattern?

Honestly, it was pretty early on during the trip that I realized that, okay, there's this gap between what I expected and what I'm seeing and that this is likely going to be a pattern for the rest of my trip.

Mostly because, like, I landed in Kathmandu.

And of course, right after landing, I looked around and I couldn't see much.

Like, I couldn't see the hills and the mountains in the distance that I had been told I would see.

In the first few days, I even had a little bit of a headache.

And initially I thought it's just probably like maybe travel fatigue or I'm tired or.

But then I also found that my eyes were burning, which is when I realized that, okay, none of this is normal.

And I sort of put two and two together.

And then of course, I sort of googled this to find out if this is really an issue in Nepal, because this is when I started suspecting that maybe I missed something while I was planning this trip or I did not.

I was not careful enough.

So I did some Googling and I was very specific in terms of what I searched.

Like I directly searched on Google, that is bad pollution or bad visibility in Nepal during the pre monsoon months, a problem.

And there were quite a few, mostly personal essays on personal blogs or Reddit threads that sort of popped up where people were speaking about how this has been an issue in Nepal for decades actually, but has worsened in the last few years because of mostly climate change.

And the dryness is a lot more.

And there's more forest fires, there's a lot of construction which leads to a lot of dust in the air.

And the way Kathmandu is sort of geographically, it's like a valley, like a bowl shaped valley.

So because of the way it's structured, all of this gets trapped in there and cannot escape.

And so the pollution has been a problem for a while.

And I realized that this is, okay, clearly not just bad luck.

It's been a thing for a while.

But I just did not find that information in the articles I read before.

And then this pretty much continued even while I traveled to other parts of Nepal.

So after Kathmandu.

I went to Pokhra, which is in central Nepal.

I was there for like, four weeks.

And it was the same scene there.

Like, the visibility was bad, we couldn't see much.

I then went further into, like, western Nepal, which is a lot more remote, but.

And I thought maybe it would be better there because it's remote and maybe there's lesser pollution.

But the same thing continued there as well.

So, yeah, I pretty much realized at the start of the trip that I'm going to have to improvise and adapt and that, yeah, this is a real problem and it's not just going away.

And people had told us that that that was a bad time to go, that the weather was gonna be really bad because it wasn't warm yet.

It was still like, kind of winter, I guess.

But we ended up having incredible weather, which was so funny to us because, like, going trekking, our guide had said, like, you know, like, it's gonna be touch and go because this isn't the best time to be trekking.

So we had sort of the inverse experience of you where we like, I guess rolled the dice ongoing during the supposed off season and ended up having really great weather.

Although I will say visibility wasn't good.

And that's been my experience every time I've been to Nepal.

I think I've been three times now.

And every time I have found that, especially in the Kathmandu Valley, were all.

Three times in the same season.

So the first time I was there in June, then it was end of February, first week March, and then June again.

Yeah, all three times.

Visibility wasn't that great.

I guess it just adds to this point that it's really difficult to predict these days.

Yeah.

So the best time to visit is a concept that you really do see everywhere in the travel community and in the industry.

I'm a blogger myself.

I know bloggers write whole blogs about when to visit places.

Guidebooks always include sections on this and people Google this.

I think it's pretty commonplace that like anyt a person is traveling somewhere, they're going to Google.

When is the best time to visit?

I literally googled this a few weeks ago for an upcoming trip.

So in your article for the BBC, you talk a bit about what this concept of the best time to visit means traditionally.

Could you share that definition, I guess, and maybe talk about how it's evolved over recent years?

Yeah, I think traditionally, and this was probably years and years and years back, best time to visit a destination simply meant peak travel season for that particular destination.

So this was usually this sweet spot between good weather and by good, I mean weather that is not too extreme, like not too hot or not too cold.

So it was a sweet spot of good weather and easy access to experiences.

But of course, this advice was kind of one dimensional in that it did not considered the fact that different travelers may have different expectations and they might be seeking something different from their trip.

So over time we did see that advice, especially in these travel blogs and articles, became a lot more tailored and it started accounting for the fact that different people want to experience different kinds of things.

So in the article I also mentioned how like maybe an Italy travel guide might now suggest April and October for those who want fewer crowds or better prices.

February for somebody who wants to experience the Venice Carnival, or maybe January for skiing in the Dolomites.

Right.

So advice started accounting for this and the timeframe started catering to more specific experiences beyond just good weather.

Some people really enjoy cold weather, right?

Like I have lived in Mumbai all my life and it's always hot here.

Like there's nothing like winter in this city city.

So I really enjoy winter and cold weather now when I'm traveling.

So I may go to places that are considered like not ideal times to visit for most people, but I may be an anomaly and an exception there.

So yeah, I think best time to visit XYZ destination over time became best time to visit XYZ destination for a certain activity or an experience.

I think that's how it's evolved.

But of course, despite these refinements, there's this assumption seasons will behave the way that we expect them to.

So if you're going to Italy, to the Dolomites in January, there will be snow is what all of this advice is assuming.

They probably will not mention the fact that snowfall has been pretty unreliable across different parts of Europe for the last few years.

And that if you are going to the Dolomites for skiing in January, that might not be the way you expect it to be.

So I guess there's no reliability in the patterns of weather anymore.

So we can give a synopsis of what the expectation would be based on past patterns, but there's no reliability in that.

So you might get there and it might just not be at all what it was the year prior or the years prior?

Yeah, sort of.

Basically take all advice with a pinch of salt and just expect that things might go wrong.

I like your comments about cold weather travel too, because I've actually noticed that this seems to be trending a little bit.

I'm noticing in myself.

I'm gravitating towards cooler places as well.

I think.

In general, I'm noticing people are choosing to go to winter places more often than maybe in past years.

I'd be curious to see if there's any data around this because it seems to be a thing like Greenland and Iceland and Norway.

All of these countries seem to be gaining a lot of interest recently for sure.

Is it just because the hot places are so dang hot now?

That's what I'm assuming it is.

Could be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like the idea of this like European summer holiday I think is sort of like falling apart for a lot of people.

Like just going to Spain or France and like hanging out on the beaches and having these ideal summery beach days.

I don't know how doable that is.

So maybe I think more and more people are like, okay, let's, let's try skiing, I guess.

Yeah.

When you think about the nuances that are now being included in these discussions around the best time to visit, what are nuances that maybe you don't see appearing often that you think should be factored in when people are talking about this?

How detailed should we be getting?

Or is it more that we should just be prefacing any commentary on the best time to visit with the fact that it's not predictable?

So this is based on past patterns, but like we don't know for sure.

It's an interesting question actually because I often post about my travels on Instagram, whether it's like reels or stories.

So I'm constantly sharing my experiences and have this Persona of somebody who travels often.

So I'll often get like DMs or questions from friends or acquaintances, even strangers sometimes about, oh, I saw that you've visited this place.

I'm planning a trip there.

Can you tell me what the best time to visit is?

And I always sort of reply saying that that's simply not enough information for me to give you a well informed answer that actually helps you.

And you're also making me do all the work, like give me more information.

Right.

If you're seeking an answer.

So tell me what you want to do.

Do you want to be spending lots of time in the outdoors?

Do you just want to maybe be Sitting in your Airbnb or homestay, just reading books, taking it slow.

What are three restrictions?

Like, do you have a good enough budget to travel at a popular time?

Or maybe you have lesser money to shell out for this.

So you might want to consider, say, off season traveler travel or shoulder season.

First things first, we just need to start by understanding really well what the traveler wants.

And then of course, I think we need to talk about things on a climate front.

Right?

So I obviously don't think that we need to turn travel advice into this elaborate scientific forecast, because that is not possible to do.

But I do think we need to show up with more honesty.

So that means talking about variability or what could go wrong instead of saying that, okay, this is exactly what's going to happen.

Talking about trade offs and compromises instead of simply making these wild promises.

So saying that this used to be a great time to do this, and it still kind of is.

But here's also what to watch out for now.

Here's also what could go wrong now that's often more useful than just declaring something for sure, because it's just not black or white anymore.

I think it's, it's all just gray.

And it's important for us to treat it as such.

Of course, as travelers, we need to plan better, and there's definitely that expectation from us.

But also when we're talking about, say, travel operators or agencies who are planning these trips for travelers, this could involve updating packing lists for unpredictable weather or setting realistic expectations right from the start, encouraging travelers to get comprehensive travel insurance because things could go wrong.

And of course, having backup plans for when itineraries fall through.

But most importantly, the honesty, I think needs to be there, especially when trips are being sold to travelers.

Yeah, that's, that's the only sustainability, sustainable way to do it.

I believe I relate to your grievance about DMs from people on Instagram.

I literally got a DM this morning from someone asking me what they should pack for their trip and didn't tell me when they're going or any details how long or what they're doing on the trip.

And I was just like, I can't really answer this question.

So you mentioned tour operators.

I know that you spoke with people from around the tourism industry for your article.

So I'm curious to know how this evolving concept of the best time to visit is impacting people who are on the ground.

How's it impacting their ability to bring in tourists and the way that they're interacting with tourists, what kinds of things were they telling you about their experience?

A lot of my travels have been in Asia, especially recently.

So of course I can only speak from what I've heard in these regions.

But I would assume that it's not too similar in other parts of the world.

But what I have been hearing most consistently on the ground is that people that are working in tourism are needing to be more flexible than they have ever been.

This old rhythm of sort of having this clear high season and low season just does not hold in the same way anymore.

A lot of guides, especially in the Himalayas, because that's where I often find myself, especially when I'm trekking, they told me that they're dealing with seasons that may arrive early and abruptly or not expecting, not behaving as they expected at all.

So just this year I was hiking.

I went on the Mardi Himal trek, which is in the Annapurna region in Nepal.

And in addition to the low visibility and bad pollution that I spoke of earlier, another problem was that the rains arrived pretty early.

So of course we were still able complete the trek, but it did slow us down because we had to take more breaks.

And of course you can't just be hiking when it's just pouring, right?

So that's happening.

And that of course makes planning really difficult, especially for these guides and porters.

Not just financially, but also logistically.

The staffing, safety, planning, and even deciding when to open or close becomes really uncertain and unpredictable.

Then of course, because of all of this, there's also an emotional toll.

Like there's a lot of stress.

I feel like a lot of these guides are just constantly struggling with this unpredictability.

Some speak of, like constantly needing to re educate visitors who arrive expecting this like perfect conditions that they maybe read about online or saw in a reel.

And so it's sort of like the onus of educating them also largely falls on them often, which is a lot because travelers may come and they may be disappointed.

And then it's on these guys to sort of manage their expectations and keep their spirits high or whatever.

And then they feel like a sense of guilt potentially because people have paid a lot of money to come exactly.

Really out of their control.

And so pretty much at the same.

Time, though, like, I have also found that there's people on the ground adapting to this really well and in very creative ways.

So like, there's some companies that are shifting towards to maybe if there's a walking tour, they might shift it to different times of the day to avoid Heat or expand what they offer so that they can offer travel in so called off seasons as well.

But of course this adaptation I think is also sort of to be able to do that is not always easy.

And not everybody has the same ability to just quickly pivot.

Yeah.

And I guess it depends as well.

I'm thinking about it in the context of trekking.

I know a lot of these guides pre book the teahouses that their group will stay in, but even an on the ground bus tour is doing the same.

They're booking accommodations ahead of time.

And then if you have to make changes based on the weather, it can disrupt the booking that have been planned.

And when you start to think about it logistically, it really can cascade into quite a problem if you have to make big changes to a trip partway through.

I wonder if tour experiences in the future are going to consist a lot of plan A, plan B type schedules where it's not going to be as rigid and it's sort of like here's the indoor versus outdoor version of this trip and we could do either or depending on the day kind of thing.

Mm.

It's just that like financially if they have to book these activities, they can't book both.

Like it just financially doesn't work out.

Yeah.

So I guess like it would be mostly a problem in really busy places where you have to pre book things.

But I actually was on a media trip in B.C.

earlier this year and my itinerary was that it was because this is what you do if the weather is good and this is what you do if the weather is bad.

But none of it was like pre booked activities.

So yeah, we were able to pivot like at the last minute for some experiences.

Like even when you're traveling by yourself, say you're not traveling with a travel operator, you've planned it all by yourself.

Some experiences do require you to book well in advance.

Like while I was interviewing people for this story, I remember somebody said that they went to the Great Barrier Reef for a diving trip and they're actually somebody who usually plans trips at the very last minute.

They're not like a long term travel planner, but for this thing they had to book it well in advance because they were going for a proper course and they made bookings based on when the visibility underwater is meant to be the best and the weather's good and sunny.

But everything like went against her and her trip sort of fell apart.

And yeah, it really sucks because sometimes you have no option but to book in advance and you do lose out on money, you do lose out on experiences.

It's just how it is now, I suppose.

Yeah.

Actually you've just reminded me on the same trip to B.C.

so one of the activities we were doing was bear viewing.

Grizzly bears in Toba Inlet, which is a pretty remote part of northern B.C.

and in difficult to get there.

You have to book far in advance because they only bring a limited amount of people per day.

And we had been on a nearly three hour boat journey to get there.

And once we got there, the indigenous guides that bring you to see the bears immediately told us that there had been heavy rains and it had washed out part of the river where we were meant to go and watch the bears fishing for salmon.

And so they said to us straight up, they said, we doubt that you will see bears today.

So your options are to turn back, drive, take the boat all the way back to Campbell river or give it a shot.

And if you decide to turn back, you can come tomorrow without pain.

You'll just come and do the experience tomorrow.

But if you decide to stay, you won't have the rain check.

So if we don't see bears, like that's just how it is.

And people were visibly upset in our group.

We were like a small group of, I think eight people.

And people were quite upset because there were a lot of people.

We luckily had the flexibility to do it the next day if we needed to.

But there were people who were like, I'm flying out tomorrow, like this is not a possibility for me.

We ended up like deciding to all stay.

Like we decided as a group to give it a go and see if we would spot new bears.

And we were very lucky to spot some.

But it could have completely gone the other way.

It really stood out to me that so many tour guides and operators told you that they just don't know anymore when it comes to recommended seasons.

I think this kind of honesty is pretty rare, especially in mainstream travel marketing.

I think marketing is trying to sell a specific narrative and obviously having preciseness about it is important in marketing.

People don't want to hear, I don't know.

They want a concrete answer and a concrete narrative.

But do you think that over time we'll see more honesty around the issue of uncertain weather?

And like, what would this look like in the context of like marketing to tourists?

Firstly, like, I have this line, like, we just don't know anymore.

I have also mostly heard it from founders of, or like people who work at much smaller companies or say local guides, local homestay people.

I have not seen it come from bigger marketing companies ever.

And I can't even imagine what that would look like.

I do think we will see more honesty in the coming years, but I also think that it will be uneven and sort of gradual because like you said, like traditionally, travel marketing has always been built around certainty and this clear promise of what you will get, whether that is like sunny days or summer, summery beach days or, you know.

So admitting uncertainty is always risky because obviously these companies don't want to deter travel travelers and they want to make money.

But I do think that what's different now, unfortunately, is that the gap between these promises and the reality is becoming pretty hard to ignore.

Like, it's when visitors arrive at a certain destination during what's marketed as the best time for a certain thing, and then maybe they encounter extreme heat or closed trails or water restrictions, their trust is going to erode pretty quickly because they're obviously not experiencing what they were promised they would.

So if a destination or operator, I believe if they want to sustain themselves long term, being clear about what might happen will almost become mandatory.

I mean, I think it already is.

Because if you don't have the trust of your customers or travelers or for a destination people visiting you, then what's the point of anything?

And they're not going to come back here.

And I think travelers, because operators also need to realize that every traveler is, in the end a human being and lives in this world and understands that these climate unpredictabilities are something that we're dealing with.

I mean, most of us are dealing with it already back at home, wherever it is that we live in different shapes and forms.

So I think it's fair to expect, fair to think that the traveler would be capable enough of dealing with that while traveling as well.

But you need to be honest and you can't sort of be fooling them or lying to them or keeping information from them just so that they make that trip, you know, because that's not going to serve you long term.

So I do think that over time it will sort of become, yeah, impossible for operators and destinations to not be honest about this.

And it's sort of like if you set the expectation that there may be bumps in the road when it comes to weather, there's less space for disappointment.

It's more beneficial to them to be honest about it because if people go into the trip with this, like, idealized version of what it'll be like, then they're set up to be disappointed.

I think especially now, people are looking for transparency in pretty much every part of their lives.

Now, I would, I would imagine that would be a benefit to a lot of tourism campaigns, but I don't know how.

Well, like, come to Nepal, you might be able to see the mountains.

Is going to be a great marketing campaign.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's exactly what I can't imagine, like in the copy or like, I don't know, marketing collaterals or social media marketing.

I can't imagine that.

But I do think that, say, like, if I'm a client wanting to travel to a destination with a certain travel operator while I'm having discussions with them, or maybe like consulting somebody at the company, they can sort of like make it clear to me and set realistic expectations.

But yeah, in terms of hardcore marketing, I have no idea how that's going to play out.

It should be a good time.

You'll probably enjoy yourself.

You know what it makes me think about though?

Like, it's also an argument for embracing slower travel.

Like, this is what my partner and I always say.

Like, we saw the mountains in Nepal because we spent a month there.

We were there long enough that even when we had low visibility days, it was okay because it was balanced out by the few days that we had that were high visibility.

But if you're going to go somewhere and be moving every day from place to place, you are giving yourself a small window to experience the idealized version of that place that you have in your brain that was maybe shaped by marketing or Instagram.

I think, like, with climate change, people should be pivoting more to slow travel if they want to have those experiences.

I think it's going to be essential for sure.

When I went on this Mardi Himal trek that I spoke of, I had to delay the trek by quite a few days actually because it was raining non stop.

Like I said, the monsoons arrived early and it was only because I was in Nepal for a long time and I had a lot of days, I had a huge buffer that I could afford to do that and then set out during a window that at least seemed like the weather would be better and more favorable.

So yeah, that's so true.

But yeah, I suppose not everybody can afford to do that.

And I also, like, acknowledge my privilege to an extent in being able to just travel slow and long.

And you know, I also don't have a job that requires me to go to work.

Everything's remote.

I can be wherever I want.

But yeah, I do think that if it's definitely something people should consider slow travel for sure.

Something I've been thinking a lot about, like, especially because I am also one of those privileged people where like when I travel I generally have more time to spend compared to people that have like three weeks of vacation a year.

So something I've been thinking about is how to talk about slow travel within the context of a slower trip.

For example, if you only have two weeks to go to Nepal, instead of going to four or five different places within Nepal, maybe spend a week in Kathmandu and then a week in Pokhara and spend longer in each place but within the confines of the amount of time that you have.

Because I do think you can sort of practice a slow travel mindset even if you have limited time.

It's just about limiting how much you're going to shove in to the time that you have, I guess.

Which again, I understand people who can't travel often might say, well, I'm only going to go one time, I only have my two weeks, so I need to see as much as I can.

But I do think you can strike a balance.

So it sounds like you can't rely so heavily on historical data anymore to predict weather during specific seasons.

You also quoted meteorologists and researchers who suggested that even short term predictions are becoming less reliable for weather.

So in your experience, what would you say tourists can do to prepare and plan the best?

Especially if they're trying to plan a trip in advance, sometimes months in advance.

I think that's a tough one and something I personally don't often face because I am somebody who is a last minute traveler.

So I don't usually book trips months in advance.

But I do understand that that is the case for most people.

So I would, I think first things first, I would say do your research.

And by research I mean like go really deep into it.

Like don't just look at the articles that come on the first search results page on Google.

Don't just go by like trending reels or what you see on social media platforms.

Discussion forums can be really helpful.

I find that Reddit is really, really helpful in this regard.

Like when you want to learn about what things are really like on the ground.

Because I do find that most people on people on Reddit are not, not writing what they are to gain followers or get engagement.

Right?

They're just doing that because they like sharing their experiences and being part of a community.

They want to be helpful.

So it's nice to.

And there is way too much information on Reddit.

Like I often say that if there's Something I look up on Reddit and I do not find information for it, especially if it's like some problem I'm dealing with.

Like that's gonna be really worrisome because that means that's a really unique problem that nobody on Reddit has ever spoken about.

Ye that means I'm all alone, I need to figure that out all by myself.

And that's scary.

But anyway, so platforms like Reddit can be really helpful when you're trying to get real time information about what things are like on the ground.

There's also other travel focused websites that have discussion forums.

So there's one that I know of that's on this website called TravelersPoint.

They have a discussion forum where travelers share their experiences, often on weather and what are good times to go to certain places.

I think you can also lean into social media in terms of checking if some acquaintances or friends of friends live in the destination that you're going to maybe chat up, like chat with them, ask them specific questions about the weather.

So yeah, lean into your network and friends and families.

And of course I think it's if you're planning like a summer trip to say Italy or France and the weather there in the summers for the past few years has been too hot or too difficult, just assume that that likely will happen again.

And I guess sometimes we think that, oh, when I'm going, things might just somehow work in my favor magically and things won't go that wrong and I'll just somehow do all the things that I've wanted to, you know, it'll just work, work for me.

But yeah, I, I don't think that's very wise.

And that's you setting yourself up for likely setting yourself up for disappointment.

Also, of course this is on the planning front, but when you're on the ground, I think it's important to keep your ears and eyes open, your mind open as well.

If you think that something is not going the way you expected it to, don't be afraid to improvise.

Like this is never ideal again.

And we all want to experience destinations and the we had imagined.

But being adaptive and flexible will pave the way for a more satisfying trip and you'll be able to get more out of your time in that destination.

So yeah, in a nutshell, in the planning phase, do a lot of research, lean into your networks, talk to people.

Don't just go by what you think you know of a place or what you have heard in the past because things might, might be very different now and they're literally changing so quickly, which is also so scary.

Like things are changing so quickly, but it's hard to keep up.

The change is often outpacing how well and quickly we're able to adapt with it.

I love your suggestion of Reddit.

I think it's a very underappreciated resource for travel.

As a travel vlogger, I think people get upset when I say Reddit is actually one of my first go tos for travel planning.

But it's so true what you say.

You get very unbiased in the moment, up to date information, especially my hack is to always go to the subreddit for that city or country or region, not the travel subreddit.

It's the one that local people are talking in that you want to go to.

And it's also valuable, I find, for understanding local politics, local issues, political things that you might want to be up to date on.

You'll also often find upcoming weather updates in there because people will be talking about it.

But something I wanted to add actually is it's also helpful, I think, these days in the age of climate change to register for your local country's alert system.

So for example, Canada has a system where you can register as a Canadian abroad and then you'll receive alerts when there's really intense weather systems headed to wherever you're headed.

So that's a really helpful resource for in the moment updates for like extreme weather events.

Yeah.

And people don't do it.

Like most people I know don't sign up for that, which always surprises me because you kind of want those updates if there's something extreme coming your way.

I'm going to be setting that up for that.

I'm like highly anxious about earthquakes when I go to Japan.

Yeah, I got earthquake warnings when I was in Japan thanks to that.

Yeah.

I think it's pretty clear that with the unpredictability of weather these days, more and more of us are going to end up on trips where the weather conditions don't match what we hope for.

Sometimes it'll be in our favor.

Like it was like, for example, Luke and I were in the Netherlands in the early spring this year and everyone told us it's going to pour rain the entire time.

It was pure sunshine every single day.

So on that trip it was in our favor.

But there's also trips where you go and it's not in your favor.

The weather ends up being horrific.

So I think this is going to be the reality of most people traveling these days.

To your point about flexibility.

I think it's about going in with that flexible mindset, but also positive mindset and a mindset where you're ready to pivot if you need to.

Do you have like, tips for how people can do this in practice?

Like, maybe it's about like coming up with alternative activities for the day.

If you don't know what the weather is going to turn out to be.

I think first things first.

If, like things are not going as per your plan, it's important to give yourself the permission to be disappointed and to admit that this is something that really sucks and is out of my control.

Because often when you're planning a trip for months or even years of often unexpected conditions, especially when they're not in your control, can feel like a real loss.

Because of course, you've also spent a lot of time and money into making this happen.

And so, yeah, I think it's important to acknowledge that this is disappointing because pretending otherwise usually will just make it worse.

On a practical level, like we already discussed, it helps to plan loosely rather than very rigidly and having extremely rigid structures and saying, okay, on day one I do this, day two, I do this.

So maybe having a more loose plan, it's okay to have like a small checklist of certain things you absolutely want to do, but try to leave some buffer time that also may be unplanned and you don't know what you will do with it.

You might just go there and figure it out based on how the conditions are.

Having a few indoor and like low stakes options can also help.

And of course, being open to changing the shape of your days can make a huge difference.

Like for example, when I was in Nepal this year and I did not know that the haze and the early monsoons would be a problem, of course, and then I was there and I realized that this is restricting me from doing what I wanted to.

And hiking was something I really wanted to do a lot of during my two months journey in Nepal.

But of course I realized that that's not something that's going to work out for me.

So I knew, immediately knew that I had to improvise and I thought, okay, if I can't hike, what are some other ways that I can move or, you know, work out or.

Because movement is something that brings me a lot of joy in different forms.

Like I'm always looking for creative ways to move my body.

So I was in Pokhara for five weeks and there was a climbing gym there.

And I do to climb.

Like I started sometime last Year.

So I was like, okay, I'm gonna try to climb more regularly, because since there is a gym so accessible here, I did that.

To my surprise, I also found a skating rink in Pokhra.

Like, who would have thought?

I had no idea.

Nobody had.

I know it.

I know that skating rink.

Yeah, we went there.

Yeah.

We also were like, wow, there's a skating rink.

There's actually two or three.

And I realized that there's actually some sort of, like, a skating obsession across Nepal because I was in some village in remote, like, western Nepal, and we were at, like, some 3,000 meters, I guess, and there was a skating rink there.

Like, that village almost does not have, like, proper medical facilities.

Like, it's so remote and they have a skating rink.

I even took my friend along who had never roller skated in his life, and he actually learned.

Learned a little bit to an extent, how to roller skate.

Picked up a new skill just because we could not hike as much as we thought.

So, of course it sucks that.

I mean, I'm not saying that climate change is good.

It sucks.

But all I'm saying is that if you change your perspective a little bit and think about, okay, how else can I derive value from this trip now that I'm here, things might just work out in your favor in a very surprising way.

And.

And, yeah, I'm so here for it.

So I think, yeah, it's very important to shed this idea of a perfect trip that we had imagined based on something we've seen or read or heard.

These things happen.

Climate unpredictabilities are inevitable now, unfortunately.

And I think it's also important to remember that this is not about you, and it's not like.

Because I think it's also natural to sometimes think that, oh, this only happens with me.

Things always go wrong with me.

But the environment obviously does not have a personal vendetta against you.

And speak to anybody who travels often, or not often even, and you'll realize that this is something that everybody is dealing with right now, and it's not just you.

Yeah.

And the thing too is, I think, like, it's important for people to remember the context of, like.

Like, the local weather is impacting those communities, often in very extreme ways as well.

So, sure, it's annoying for your trip there, but just for the broader context, think about how it might be impacting daily life for people that are living in those regions as well.

I'm curious to hear what you think about the idea of shoulder season and off season now.

I feel like like those are things especially in the responsible tourism space people talk about a lot because generally people encourage folks to travel during those times, especially for places that are over touristed.

So a lot of people talk about European cities.

European cities are experiencing tons of overtourism during the historical peak season.

And so, yeah, I just feel like it's very common advice to, to see, to say, try the shoulder season or the off season.

Do you think that this whole concept of the changing best time to visit also turns or disrupts this idea of what the shoulder season or off season is?

What would you say for the responsible travel tourism space?

How should we think about this?

Should we still be talking about shoulder and off season?

So activity, I mean, I think it.

Also depends on the destination and will differ from destination to destination.

But I do think that the lines are definitely getting more and more blurred between like what's peak season and what's shoulder season or off season.

And more and more we're seeing like these days I feel like I see people traveling all year.

Like there's, there's.

Initially it used to be that a lot of people traveled at a certain time of the year, but now it's, it's pretty much all throughout the year.

And that said, I feel like one shouldn't assume that shoulder season or off season are also entirely safe to travel in.

And things can also go wrong around that time.

Anomalies and disruptions should just be expected throughout the year.

But yeah, like I said, I think that'll depend on the destination itself because not all places can redistribute demand outside of the peak seasons.

Right.

For example, if a certain destination's appeal depends on some very specific natural conditions, maybe it could be like snow covers or coral health or wildlife migration.

So obviously, like, if a destination is known for these very specific things, you can't easily shift that experience to another season without.

Without fundamentally changing what's being offered.

Right?

So like if, if we're talking about Africa and like the migration, the wildlife migration season, I guess then it's also about like really promoting and marketing other sides of Africa and telling people that there's a lot more to this place than just the wildlife migration.

But yeah, the point is that it's not always very easy to shift experiences to another season for every destination.

But I do think that overall it's really getting blurred as to what peak season and shoulder season is, because I also see that some destinations in fact might now be getting more people or just as many people during the shoulder season as say the Peak season, we're seeing this a lot in places like France or Spain, where the summers are getting more intense and a lot of people are now choosing to travel, say, in autumn, like October, November, fall time is set to be.

Be really good to travel there.

And so way too many people are going there now compared to a few years back.

So for some destinations, yeah, the lines are definitely getting blurred.

And I do think that we will see more of that in the coming years.

It's so true.

I can say anecdotally, my partner's family is originally from Sicily, so we still have family members and friends there, and we go pretty often.

And the last time that we went, some family friends were telling us that peak season in Sicily used to be July, August, like summer, but they're seeing more crowds now in the early spring and in September, October, because July and August are unbearably hot now in Sicily.

So they're kind of seeing their peak season shift.

And now summer might eventually become the quote, unquote, low season.

And depending on how much this gets mainstream for people to understand.

They were saying it's mostly Italians that know, like, Italians who come from northern Italy to Sicily, which is very popular, like domestic travel.

Italians know, like, oh, don't go in July or August.

But they were saying, like, Americans and Canadians still show up in July and August, and then they're shocked when it's too hot to go to the French speech.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, of course we're seeing these changes slowly already.

But, like, for.

In the context of the example you just spoke of, like, to see fall as peak season for Italy, like, as simply put as that, I think that'll take a few more years, like, quite some time.

I think I can only see that happening when I really zoom out.

But I guess, like, maybe the concept of peak season won't exist potentially in a few years.

Yeah, I mean, I think.

I hope it does not.

That would only make sense.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

And where can people find your work if they'd like to read more of your travel coverage?

I mean, of course there's Instagram, where I think what I share is a lot more informal and candid.

So if that's kind of what you dig, I think find me there.

But my work, I put it up on my website.

All of my work goes on my website website, which is tarangmhanod.com and I also post consistently or try to on LinkedIn.

And so if there's any stories that I'm working on, even If I'm like seeking people to contribute to stories or seeking voices, all of that goes on LinkedIn.

You can find my account by my name.

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Sam.

It.