The Sacred City of Kandy is situated in the mountainous interior of Sri Lanka. At such an elevation the temperature usually becomes much more tolerable than other parts of the country. The city is surrounded by tropical rain-forests that also mellow down the temperature. As such, Kandy's weather is luke-warm and the average temperature lies between 23 to 25 degrees centigrade, so the major seasonal change comes with the arrival of monsoon winds. Sri Lanka experiences two monsoon seasons, the Yala Monsoon Season which comes first, lasts longer and is not as heavy as the Maha Monsoon Season. A dry season follows monsoon and is easily the best time to visit Kandy.

The Dry Season is characterized by scanty rainfall and most importantly low humidity. This combination makes it a perfect time to visit the island and enjoy every aspect of it, like trekking, sight-seeing and exploring the city. The temperature can go as low as 18 degree centigrade to as high as 30 degree centigrade during the season. But thanks to its height above the sea, it is far more comfortable than the rest of the island.

The months of May, August and September see much shorter and lesser rain than the other months in the season. The months of June and July experience long showers and torrential rain making it very hard to do activities like trekking and sightseeing. However, this doesn’t have to stop you from coming here especially if you want to enroll at a meditation centre or explore the cultural aspects of the city. In fact with tourist traffic out of your way and the romantic monsoon clouds hanging over the city, this may be the perfect time to do so.

As the name suggests, the maha (meaning great or large) monsoon season brings with it the most amount of rainfall. This is perhaps the most severe of all seasons and is the most avoided time of the year. Not only is the climate humid, but the instability of the weather makes it difficult to plan anything and can make your trip difficult to organize.