Which parts of Thailand are driest in May?

None of them. May is a month with no training region inside its dry window, which is why the choice is about which wet stretch is lifting rather than about finding dry weather. Almost every camp in Thailand trains under a roof, so the rain costs you a run rather than a session.

Month 05 of 12

May

The month the map flips. The southwest monsoon arrives and the Gulf becomes the dry side of the country.

In May, train in Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Hua Hin. Think twice about Phuket and Krabi.

May is the arrival month for the southwest monsoon, which puts the Andaman coast, the central plains and the whole interior into their wet stretch at roughly the same time. Almost every camp in Thailand trains under a roof, so what that actually costs you is your run and your beach day rather than your session.

What it changes is where the value is. The southern Gulf is out of both its windows in May, neither dry nor wet, at the same moment Phuket and Krabi enter theirs. For anybody who can move their dates, May is the first month of the year where going to the less obvious coast is clearly the better trade.

7 regions

Inside the wet window

The months the region prints as its own wettest. Almost every camp trains under a roof, so this reads as heat, humidity and a quiet gym rather than as a cancelled session.

Phuketภูเก็ต

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Andaman coast

Camps

Chiang Maiเชียงใหม่

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Inland north and northeast

Camps

Paiปาย

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Inland north and northeast

Camps

Bangkokกรุงเทพฯ

Calendar

Central and eastern

Camps

Krabiกระบี่

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Andaman coast

Camps

Pattayaพัทยา

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Central and eastern

Camps

Isaan (Northeast)อีสาน

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Inland north and northeast

Camps

3 regions

Between the two

Named in neither stretch. The shoulder weeks, which is where the better trades usually are: the weather of the good months without the prices or the crowds of them.

Koh Samuiเกาะสมุย

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Southern Gulf

Camps

Koh Phanganเกาะพะงัน

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Southern Gulf

Camps

Hua Hinหัวหิน

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Upper Gulf

Camps

The month either side

Dates that can move

Most trips can move by a fortnight and a fortnight is the difference between two of these pages. Both neighbours are worth reading before the dates are booked rather than after.

All twelve months

The month before
April
The hottest month of the year, Songkran in the middle of it, and the smoke still sitting inland.
The month after
June
Wet on the Andaman coast and across the interior, and the Gulf islands sitting between their two seasons with nobody on them.