The cities with the most weeks a year of comfortable, dry weather for being outdoors. Of 204 towns and cities that draw visitors in South Asia, 134 have at least one Good stretch; these are the ones where it lasts longest.
Where to go
- 1Good 24 of 36TehriIndia
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 24 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about eight months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 11, Poor. At its best in late October.
- 2Good 22 of 36BangaloreIndia
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 22 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about seven and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 2, Poor. At its best in early January.
- 3Good 21 of 36ThimphuBhutan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 21 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about seven months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 11, Poor. At its best in early October.
- 4Good 19 of 36KodaikānalIndia
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 19 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about six and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 1, Poor. At its best in mid April.
- 5Good 17 of 36PokharaNepal
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 17 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about five and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 3, Poor. At its best in late November.
- 6Good 12 of 36IndoreIndia
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 12 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about four months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in early January.
- 7Good 11 of 36MurreePakistan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 11 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about three and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 7, Poor. At its best in late April.
- 8Good 11 of 36LahorePakistan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 11 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about three and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late November.
- 9Good 9 of 36SylhetBangladesh
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 9 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about three months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 7, Poor. At its best in mid January.
- 10Good 7 of 36NāsikIndia
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 7 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about two and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in early January.
- 11Good 7 of 36DwārkaIndia
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 7 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about two and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in mid January.
- 12Good 5 of 36Cox’s BāzārBangladesh
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 5 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about six weeks in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in mid January.
- 13Good 2 of 36Nuwara EliyaSri Lanka
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 2 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about three weeks in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 19, Poor. At its best in mid January.
How this list is worked out
The data
Every figure comes from a decade of weather-station observations, blended into one typical year and read at midday, local solar time. Scores here are across the whole year; a city missing a reading for any part of that stretch is left out rather than scored on part of it.
The rating
Easy outdoors: A comfortable feels-like gates the score — best 16–26 °C for an easy day out (strolling, sitting out, sightseeing). Dryness matters most; strong wind knocks it back. Sun is a bonus, not required.
The spread
To keep one warm corner from filling the list, entries are at least 150 km apart, no more than three sit within 1,000 km of each other, and no more than three come from one country unless the list would otherwise run short.
Only places that draw visitors
Towns and cities with plenty of hotels, guest houses and holiday lets nearby for their size, or a great many of them in all, counted from Overture Maps Places, an open dataset. That keeps out places the weather favours but nobody travels to. Where two places share one resort or city, the one a visitor would name is kept.
The dotted links open the map at that place and time of year, on the same layer. The map remembers the time of day you last chose there; set it to midday to see these exact numbers.