Where has good weather in August?

[maw1681]

We are thinking of doing a "big" holiday next summer, somewhere other than the usual Spain/Canaries type we usually do.
Unfortunately with school holidays it would have to be in July/August really which i know isn't the best time weather wise for lots of places on our dream list (Patagonia/Chile, Thailand, Caribbean, Costa Rica).

Any ideas?

DC would be 10 & 14

Canada

Eastern Slovakia (fly into Kosice or Poprad) it's got mountains, castles, adventurous hiking, historic towns one massive water park https://www.tatralandia.sk/en/ and various smaller ones, so good for older kids. It's generally a hot and dry but not as painfully boiling as a Southern Europe summer. You could combine with visiting Budapest (nice train ride into Slovakia), Romania or Poland.

Er there are loads of places that have pleasant weather in July/August: US, Canada, pretty much all of Europe.

Save the Caribbean and SE Asia for your winter break.

Koh Samui and that side of Thailand is good in July/ August. It's rainy season on the Phuket side.

Anywhere on the west coast of Canada/USA is good in the summer (although inland can be very hot).

A few other ideas: Iceland, Indonesia, Borneo, Kenya, parts of Mexico incl. Mexico City and the Yucatan Peninsula, northern and western Australia, South Africa (it's winter in both of those, but it never gets very cold).

If you want to go to Thailand ...

@maw1681
Costa Rica is great in our summer school hols! Green season. Last summer in 3 weeks there were 2 wet days (one we spent white water rafting), some brilliant overnight storms. It's the time for seeing turtles laying eggs in tortuguero.

Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Bali all good. Kenya and other African countries south of there too.

The right places in Thailand also (that's probably our plan for next summer).

Costa Rica its rainy season but it was c 27C every day when we went in August and sunny to c 4pm each day with a heavy rainshower for a couple of hours after that but very easy to work around. And rain in the rainforest is amazing and its very green. Its ideal for kids that age with wildlife, ziplines, kayaking, horse riding, water slides through jungle etc. Otherwise Borneo.

Canada is on the list, thank you!

Ooh I didn't realise that, thanks!

Good to hear! Maybe back on the list then

California for a road trip, Santa Barbara, Yosemite, Sequoia, Mammoth Lakes etc

We are going to Tanzania this year and trying to find the migration, then on to Zanzibar for a bit of RnR. Next July we are heading to Svalbard. Both are good for Summer.

Previous top trips with our kids for August have been:

Iceland - just fantastic in August
Namibia - not just safari, but culture and scenery
Indonesia - not just Bali but Borneo and Komodo. All this area is amazing and I'd go back.
Peru - just fantastic. Our DC were 11 and 13 and loved it. That would be my top recommendation.

Plans for future Summer trips

Brazil
Singapore, KL, and into Malaysia

UK summer is quite restrictive if you want 'the best' weather. We went to Costa Rica at Xmas and they describe July/August as really wet. I'm not sure I'd do it as the days it rains does impede what you do. Even at Xmas the weather can be mixed. Definitely worth a trip though, it was an amazing place.

Costa Rica is a small country, but it has a lot of different climates. We were also there at Christmas and did four different places and in each one the weather was completely different, so I imagine that may be true in summer too.

We were told that they have 2 seasons in Costa Rica: wet and really wet 😂

Southern Caribbean is similar all year round - we went to Aruba last august and it was lovely

What PP said
We did Kph Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao in august, with our 14 year old and 11 year old. It rained on the first day and then sun the rest

Finland.

We didn't find the weather in Costa Rica in August impeded anything but we didn't go to sunbathe / lie on a beach, depends what you are after, I would not recommend it for lying on the beach as beaches are quite wild and more for activities. For activities it was fine and activities could be from 6am to 4pm and then rain would be after 4pm. We love rain in a rainforest and greenery and 27C is plenty hot enough for us. That time sounds early but they are behind us in time so that's like 1pm UK time for 6am their time so it helps with the time difference. I don't know if we were just very lucky with weather but seen lots of people say similar. We went to both pacific and Caribbean side and places like Arenal, were in the north of the country. My kids thought it was amusing that their winter weather was better than UK summer weather. Some roads could be waterlogged.

I live in Maine. August in New England is hot but not unbearable and it's a beautiful area, especially on the coast. I wouldn't go anywhere south of North Carolina though. My DD is taking the kids to Disney in Florida in August and I'm seriously concerned about the heat there for them all.

Thanks everyone, some great ideas here! I really want to go now

I suppose the cloud cover (having climbed a volcano), but couldn’t see the crater lake kind of impede. Yes we still climbed, but it wasn’t the same.
We tend to be up and out every day, but back for pool action late afternoon (kids will do a lot with the promise of a pool), rain I suppose doesn’t stop that, but it still not high season so clearly doesn’t suit everyone.

We didn't have any visibility issues anywhere we went in Costa Rica in August. We went out from 6am to 4pm day out then day around beach / pool / sea /rainforest around hotel which had monkeys / coati / gecko etc on site. Here's a guide to the weather.

https://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/best-time/august/#:~:text=Costa%20Rica%20has%2012%20hours%20of%20light%20since,about%206%20o%E2%80%99clock%20year%20round%20in%20the%20tropics.

If it's the Arenal volcano it's often cloudy all year round and more likely to be cloudy in dry season. On day we went it wasn't cloudy but we were lucky. We also saw the Rincon de la vieja ones and visibility was fine.

It wasn’t it was outside San Jose. I can’t change the fact that Aug is considered the wet season. You may well have had a good experience, but the fact is, the weather across CR is wetter in Aug. It also is true that it doesn’t deter lots of visitors.