The Travel Planner's Weather Guide

I am a Travel Consultant specializing in selling adventure travel. The "Travel Planner's Weather Guide" has been one of my best resources, when clients ask the best time of year to travel to a destination ... the first thing I do is consult my Weather Guide. I highly recommend this guide for any travel consultant or anyone who travels.

A friend flew to Mexico on a cheap 2-week holiday package and came home soaked. He hadn't known it was the rainy season. I vowed never to be caught like that. I searched for a weather book and found the Travel Planner's Weather Guide by Russell and Penny Jennings. I discovered that every country in the world is listed, as are many island dependencies. The weather of each country is described and supported by weather tables, and there is a recommendation for the best time to visit. Some large countries are divided into regions and the regional weather is described, season by season. The authors mentioned that they acquired 30 years of weather records from the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climate Data Center in North Carolina, USA. They have presented this data into easy-to-read weather tables which show month by month weather and include morning and afternoon temperatures, rainfall in millimetres and inches, the number of rainy days expected per month and the average hours of sunshine per day. The book sparkles with information about each country - capital,languages and topography. Additionally, advice is given about where and when to cruise, trek, dive and when to go on safari. With the countries arranged in alphabetical order I could quickly flip through the book for my country of choice. Alternatively, I could use the extensive 16-page index which makes the search for information a breeze. I highly recommend it.

A friend flew to Mexico on a cheap 2-week holiday package and came home soaked. He hadn't known it was the rainy season. I vowed never to be caught like that. I searched for a weather book and found the Travel Planner's Weather Guide by Russell and Penny Jennings. I discovered that every country in the world is listed, as are many island dependencies. The weather of each country is described and supported by weather tables, and there is a recommendation for the best time to visit. Some large countries are divided into regions and the regional weather is described, season by season. The authors mentioned that they acquired 30 years of weather records from the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climate Data Center in North Carolina, USA. They have presented this data into easy-to-read weather tables which show month by month weather and include morning and afternoon temperatures, rainfall in millimetres and inches, the number of rainy days expected per month and the average hours of sunshine per day. The book sparkles with information about each country - capital,languages and topography. Additionally, advice is given about where and when to cruise, trek, dive and when to go on safari. With the countries arranged in alphabetical order I could quickly flip through the book for my country of choice. Alternatively, I could use the extensive 16-page index which makes the search for information a breeze. I highly recommend it.

I bought this guide shortly before embarking on a recent 7 month journey all around Australia, North and SE Asia, and Arabia. I can say now that I have returned (Temporarily at least) that weather is a crucial part of the travel experience. WIthout a doubt, places where I knew the weather would be more humid, etc... stood out as much tougher places to travel in. Needless to say, I minimized this by using this guide. In defense of "bad" weather - I will say that to get a true impression of places one should experience less than ideal (Or what most would think of as ideal) weather from time to time. In some places the changes can be dramatic - and it is different weather that forms a culture and people over time among several major factors. Certain festivals and/or animals also occur/appear outside of the most ideal touring weather. This guide has little simple maps showing the location of a country relative to it's neighbors. Also regional maps. Larger countries are broken down also - such as the USA, Brazil, Indonesia, etc...the maps usually reflect this breakdown too. Temperatures are given in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. The only failing of this book then is that global weather patterns are changing and that the "best time" to travel to a country is relative (Which the authors also note somewhat in the beginning). But, for what most would consider "ideal and easy" it is good. Improvements would be bar graphs (Like Lonely PLanet or a chart like in Rough Guides - though this might make the book much thicker) and more charts showing the time of year as it relates to such events as animal migrations - as the book has for Kenya. Alhough this latter improvement might change the scope of the book. Also, incorporating sunrise/sunset might be good.Lastly - I'm not sure if the alphabetical order of countries is the best method - sorting by regions might be more useful. FYI - there is a newer version of this book.