Khao Lak Weather by Month & Best Time to Visit

The month-by-month table

Month	Islands	High / low	Rain	Rain days	Sea & weather	Rates
Jan	Open	33 / 22 °C	62 mm	5	Dry and calm. Flat water, long visibility.	High — eases after New Year
Feb	Open	33 / 22 °C	45 mm	4	Driest month. The most reliable of the year.	High
Mar	Open	34 / 23 °C	145 mm	9	Still calm. The heat starts to build.	High
Apr	Open	34 / 24 °C	222 mm	14	Hottest month. Sea calm, air heavy. Songkran mid-month.	High until Songkran
May	Open	33 / 25 °C	431 mm	20	The monsoon arrives. First squalls, sea turning over.	Falls sharply mid-month
Jun	Closed	32 / 25 °C	457 mm	19	Rain in bursts rather than all day. Sea rough, surf up.	Low
Jul	Closed	32 / 25 °C	466 mm	20	Wet and green. Busy with European school holidays regardless.	Low, but firmer
Aug	Closed	31 / 25 °C	570 mm	21	Wet. Inland is at its greenest and fullest.	Low, but firmer
Sep	Closed	31 / 24 °C	636 mm	23	The wettest month on this coast.	Lowest of the year
Oct — current month	Open	31 / 24 °C	529 mm	22	Wet early, turning through the month. The coast wakes up.	Low, rising late
Nov	Open	32 / 23 °C	232 mm	14	Seas settle, rain tails off. The season proper begins.	Rising — good value early
Dec	Open	32 / 23 °C	78 mm	7	Dry, calm and the busiest of the year.	Peak over Christmas and New Year

Temperatures, rainfall and rain days are the World Meteorological Organization’s 1991–2020 averages for the Takua Pa weather station, the nearest official one, just north of the Khao Lak coast. A rain day is a day with at least 1 mm. The park column is generated from the same closure dates the rest of this site runs on, so it cannot drift out of step with the Similan and Surin pages. All of it is a long-run pattern, not a forecast.

Months shown as open or closed at the midpoint. The season changes around 15 October and 15 May, so May and October are each split down the middle in practice.

Khao Lak weather in each month

Khao Lak weather in January

Average high 33 °C, low 22 °C, with 62 mm of rain over about 5 rain days. Dry and calm. Flat water, long visibility. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: high — eases after New Year.

Khao Lak weather in February

Average high 33 °C, low 22 °C, with 45 mm of rain over about 4 rain days. Driest month. The most reliable of the year. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: high. It is the best month to visit for most people: the islands are open, the sea is calm and the New Year crowds have gone.

Khao Lak weather in March

Average high 34 °C, low 23 °C, with 145 mm of rain over about 9 rain days. Still calm. The heat starts to build. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: high.

Khao Lak weather in April

Average high 34 °C, low 24 °C, with 222 mm of rain over about 14 rain days. Hottest month. Sea calm, air heavy. Songkran mid-month. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: high until Songkran. Songkran, Thai New Year, is 13–15 April: the busiest travel days of the Thai year, with heavy roads and transport booked out.

Khao Lak weather in May

Average high 33 °C, low 25 °C, with 431 mm of rain over about 20 rain days. The monsoon arrives. First squalls, sea turning over. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: falls sharply mid-month. The Similan and Surin parks close around 15 May, so the first half of the month is the last chance for the islands.

Khao Lak weather in June

Average high 32 °C, low 25 °C, with 457 mm of rain over about 19 rain days. Rain in bursts rather than all day. Sea rough, surf up. The Similan and Surin marine parks are closed at mid-month. Hotel rates: low.

Khao Lak weather in July

Average high 32 °C, low 25 °C, with 466 mm of rain over about 20 rain days. Wet and green. Busy with European school holidays regardless. The Similan and Surin marine parks are closed at mid-month. Hotel rates: low, but firmer.

Khao Lak weather in August

Average high 31 °C, low 25 °C, with 570 mm of rain over about 21 rain days. Wet. Inland is at its greenest and fullest. The Similan and Surin marine parks are closed at mid-month. Hotel rates: low, but firmer.

Khao Lak weather in September

Average high 31 °C, low 24 °C, with 636 mm of rain over about 23 rain days. The wettest month on this coast. The Similan and Surin marine parks are closed at mid-month. Hotel rates: lowest of the year. In the monsoon, red flags go up along this coast because of rip currents; if one is flying, stay out of the sea.

Khao Lak weather in October

Average high 31 °C, low 24 °C, with 529 mm of rain over about 22 rain days. Wet early, turning through the month. The coast wakes up. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: low, rising late. The Similan and Surin parks reopen around 15 October; before that the islands are shut.

Khao Lak weather in November

Average high 32 °C, low 23 °C, with 232 mm of rain over about 14 rain days. Seas settle, rain tails off. The season proper begins. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: rising — good value early.

Khao Lak weather in December

Average high 32 °C, low 23 °C, with 78 mm of rain over about 7 rain days. Dry, calm and the busiest of the year. The Similan and Surin marine parks are open at mid-month. Hotel rates: peak over Christmas and New Year. On 26 December memorial services for the 2004 tsunami are held at Bang Niang and Ban Nam Khem.

The question that actually decides it

Most “best time to visit” pages rank months by rainfall. That is the wrong axis here. Khao Lak’s tourist economy exists because of two marine national parks, and those parks are closed for five months of the year. Whether they are open matters more than whether it rains.

If you are coming for the islands — Similan, Surin, liveaboard diving, snorkelling day trips — your window is mid-October to mid-May, and that is not negotiable. Book inside it.

If you are coming for the mainland — Khao Sok, Cheow Lan Lake, a quiet beach, a good hotel at half the price — the monsoon is genuinely a reasonable choice, and the rainforest is at its best in it.

What closes when the parks do

More than the boats. Khao Lak empties out in a way that Phuket does not, and a stretch of restaurants, bars, dive shops and tour desks simply shut from May to October — some for the whole five months. The strip at Bang Niang stays alive; the smaller places along the coast road often do not.

The beaches get dangerous, and this is the part that gets left out. Red flags go up along this coast in the monsoon because of rip currents, and people drown here every year. If a flag is flying, the sea is not a judgement call.

What keeps running: hotels, the Phuket airport transfer, Khao Sok, and most of the road-based day trips. Ferry connections thin out and some crossings pause.

Two dates worth knowing

Songkran, 13–15 April. Thai New Year, marked with a nationwide water fight. It is genuinely good fun and it is also the busiest travel period of the Thai year — roads are heavy, transport books out, and some businesses close for family time.

26 December. Khao Lak was the worst-hit place in Thailand in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Memorial services are held each year at Bang Niang and at Ban Nam Khem, and the anniversary falls in the middle of the busiest week of the season. Visitors are welcome; it is worth knowing what the day is.

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Where to stay

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We cover hotels along this coast — the Khao Lak beaches, Phuket and Krabi — plus a handful on Koh Samui, across in the Gulf. Start with hotels in Khao Lak, or browse every hotel we cover; prices and availability show on the partner's own site.

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Questions

Common questions

What is the best month to visit Khao Lak?

February. The islands are open, the sea is calm, visibility is at its best, and the Christmas and New Year crowds have gone. January and March are close behind. If price matters more than the islands, late October and November give you an open park at shoulder rates.

What is the weather like in Khao Lak?

Hot all year: average highs run from 31°C to 34°C and lows from 22°C to 25°C, and it is split into two seasons rather than twelve. From November to April it is dry and calm — February is the driest month, averaging 45 mm of rain over about four days, and March and April are the hottest. From mid-May to mid-October the southwest monsoon brings rain in heavy bursts with dry stretches around them, rather than continuous drizzle, and September is the wettest month on this coast, averaging 636 mm over about 23 rain days (World Meteorological Organization 1991–2020 averages for Takua Pa, the nearest official station). The bigger practical difference is not the rain but the sea, which turns rough enough to close the marine parks.

When is the rainy season in Khao Lak?

The southwest monsoon runs roughly mid-May to mid-October, which is the same window in which the Similan and Surin marine parks close. It is not five months of continuous rain — but the sea gets dangerous, red flags go up along this coast because of rip currents, and a stretch of restaurants, bars and dive shops shuts for the season.

Is Khao Lak worth visiting in the rainy season?

It depends entirely on why you are coming. The marine parks are shut from roughly 15 May to 15 October, so there are no Similan or Surin trips and no liveaboards. Khao Sok, Cheow Lan Lake, transfers and the hotels all run as normal, the coast is close to empty, and rates are the lowest of the year.

Does it rain all day in the monsoon?

Usually not. Rain on this coast tends to come in heavy bursts with dry stretches around them rather than as continuous drizzle. The bigger practical constraint is the sea: it is rough, and swimming is often unsafe.

When is Khao Lak most expensive?

Christmas through New Year, by a wide margin, with high season running roughly November to April. Rates drop sharply once the parks close in May and bottom out in September. Off-season rates along this coast are the lowest of the year. Compare what your dates cost — the search and the booking both happen on our booking partner's own site.

Planning the rest of the trip? Compare places to stay, or see what is open month by month.