Planning · when to go
Best time to visit Kochi, month by month
December – February. Dry and warm, with the Cochin Carnival's Pappanji burning at midnight on 31 December and, in Biennale years, the warehouses full of art from December to March. August brings Onam and its sadyas; on dark nights after the rains Kumbalangi's water can glow — most often reported February to May, never guaranteed. The monsoon, June to September, is real — and the cheapest, greenest time if you don't need the ferry. Our pick: January — the Carnival just over, the Biennale open in its years, the nets working in clear dawns, and the harbour at its stillest.
The season, honestly
December to February is the season: dry, warm, humid, the Biennale in its years, the Carnival at New Year. March and April heat up; the south-west monsoon arrives around 1 June and the city gets some three metres of rain a year, most of it between June and September — ferries in rough water, nets idle, hotel rates at their lowest. October brings a second, lighter monsoon; November dries.
October to March
Oct: 30° / 24° — second monsoon
Nov: 30° / 24° — drying out
Dec: 31° / 23° — season begins; Carnival
Jan: 31° / 23° — dry, humid — peak season
Feb: 32° / 24° — dry; the Biennale's best weeks
Mar: 32° / 25° — hot, pre-monsoon
April to September
Apr: 32° / 26° — thunderstorms begin
May: 31° / 25° — pre-monsoon showers
Jun: 29° / 24° — monsoon onset — the wettest weeks
Jul: 28° / 23° — still the wettest stretch; ferries in rough water
Aug: 28° / 24° — monsoon; Onam at the end
Sep: 29° / 24° — easing; the nets back at work
If you can only come in the heat
Start at opening, be back indoors by eleven, and go out again an hour before sunset. The Chinese fishing nets at 8am in May is emptier and better than at noon in December — the city's rhythm is the desert's, and it rewards anyone who keeps it.
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