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Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated August 2026
Cuba has two seasons and one long shadow: a dry, warm winter that is close to perfect, a hot and wet summer, and a hurricane window laid over the second half of it. This page takes the year month by month, and adds the one thing the old guidebooks do not — how the island’s power situation should shape your dates.
March. The driest month of the year, the humidity not yet risen, the New Year crowds gone and the Easter ones not yet arrived. February and early April are close behind.
Late November to early December, and the second half of April. Dry-season weather, shoulder-season prices, and noticeably fewer people in Old Havana and Trinidad.
May, June and September. September is the quietest month of all, and for good reason: it is the wettest, and the peak of the hurricane window.
August and September. Hot, very humid, wettest, most storm-prone — and, with the power supply as it is, the least comfortable time to sit out a blackout.
This is Cuba at its best and it is why the island fills up in winter. Days run warm rather than hot, evenings cool enough to sit outside comfortably, humidity manageable, and rain occasional rather than daily. Havana averages about 27°C (81°F) by day in January, dropping to around 20°C (68°F) at night. March is the driest month of the year, with roughly 26 mm of rain across about five rainy days.
One thing the brochures leave out: in January and February a northerly cold front — Cubans call it a norte — can arrive and drop the temperature into the low teens Celsius for a day or two, whip the sea over the Malecón and close the seafront road. It passes in 48 hours, but pack a light jacket and a long-sleeved layer even for a winter trip. Older travellers in particular find the evenings cooler than they expect.
Hot, humid and much wetter, though not the wash-out people imagine: the classic pattern is a bright morning, a heavy afternoon downpour of an hour or two, and a clear, steamy evening. Havana averages about 33°C (91°F) by day in August with nights near 26°C (79°F), and September is the wettest month at roughly 140 mm across thirteen rainy days. Total annual rainfall is about 878 mm.
The numbers understate it. What makes a Cuban summer hard is not the thermometer but the humidity, which rarely lets up, and the fact that the nights do not cool. There is a partial reprieve in July, which is often slightly drier than June or August, and the sea is at its warmest — genuinely bath-like — from July to October.
What each month actually feels like on the ground, and what is on.
Cool, dry and lovely — the pick of the winter alongside February and March. Days around 27°C, nights near 20°C, and the occasional norte to remind you it is winter. Busy with Canadian and European visitors, and dear over the first week. Havana’s jazz festival usually falls this month.
Arguably the most comfortable month of the year: warm days, cool evenings, low rainfall, brilliant light. The Havana book fair fills the Cabaña fortress across the harbour and is a genuinely Cuban spectacle. Book ahead; this is high season and it shows.
The driest month on the calendar — about five rainy days all month — with the heat still gentle and the humidity not yet arrived. If you can only go once, go now. Watch out only for Easter when it falls late in the month.
The last of the good weather and, in its second half, one of the two best-value windows of the year. Warmer than March and beginning to feel humid by month’s end, but still dry, and noticeably quieter once the Easter traffic clears.
The rains begin, prices fall and the crowds thin. Afternoons turn heavy and showery; mornings are usually fine. Good value if you plan around the weather rather than through it, and the countryside around Viñales turns brilliantly green.
Hot, humid, wet, and the official opening of hurricane season on the 1st — though June storms affecting Cuba are uncommon. Cheap, quiet and perfectly workable if you accept an afternoon indoors. The sea is warming fast.
The hottest stretch begins, often with a slight dip in rainfall compared with June. This is the month of Carnival in Santiago de Cuba, the biggest and most authentically Cuban party on the island, usually in the second half of July. Hot work, and worth it.
Peak heat — about 33°C by day, 26°C at night, humidity unrelenting — and the hurricane risk starts to climb in earnest. Havana empties of Cubans who can get to the coast. The hardest month for anyone who does not do well in heat.
The wettest month of the year and the peak of the hurricane window: roughly 140 mm of rain across thirteen days. The cheapest and quietest time to travel, and the one that most needs proper insurance and flexible plans.
Still wet and still inside the storm window, but improving as the month goes on and often good value. By the last week the humidity begins to break, and the light in Havana starts to turn golden again.
The turn of the year. Hurricane season formally ends on the 30th, the rain eases, the humidity drops and the island becomes lovely again — but the winter crowds and prices have not yet arrived. Late November is one of the two sweet spots of the whole calendar.
Dry, warm and increasingly busy. The first fortnight is superb value; from about the 18th the prices roughly double and stay there until the New Year. Remedios holds its extraordinary firework parrandas on Christmas Eve, and the Havana film festival runs early in the month.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November. For Cuba the real risk sits in the second half of it — August through October, with September the most active month historically. June and July storms reaching Cuba are uncommon; late-season November storms are rare but not unknown.
Perspective matters. Most trips in those months pass without a storm anywhere near the island, and Cuba’s civil defence system is genuinely one of the best in the region: warnings are early, evacuations are orderly, and visitors are moved inland well ahead of landfall. What a storm mostly does to a holiday is disrupt it — cancelled flights, closed airports, a week of rain — rather than endanger it.
If you travel between August and October: buy travel insurance that explicitly covers weather disruption and read what it covers; keep the first and last days of the trip loose; do not book a tight connection home; and take the local advice you are given without argument. Your casa hosts will know what is coming before the news does.
And take the current fuel situation into account too. Airlines have been suspending routes, adding refuelling stops and cutting frequencies through 2026, so a weather disruption has fewer alternative flights to fall back on than it would have had two years ago. That is an argument for the dry season quite apart from the rain.
Cuba has suffered repeated national grid failures through 2025 and 2026, and long daily blackouts are routine across much of the island. Havana and the main tourist areas are prioritised and better casas and hotels run generators, but you should plan on losing power at some point in any trip of a week or more.
A blackout in January — evening temperature about 20°C, a window you can open, a cool breeze off the sea — is an inconvenience and, frankly, rather atmospheric. The identical blackout in August, at 33°C with 80 per cent humidity and no fan, is genuinely punishing, and more so for older travellers or anyone with a heart or breathing condition.
If you have any choice at all in your dates, take the December to April half of the year. It is the better weather anyway; the power situation simply turns a preference into a recommendation.
Whenever you go, travel with a good torch, a large power bank, and any essential medication kept somewhere that does not depend on refrigeration. Ask your casa host on arrival what the local outage pattern is that week — they will tell you the hours precisely, because they live by them — and plan your afternoons around it.
May, June and September are the cheapest months, with September the quietest of the year. You will pay noticeably less for a casa and find rooms available at short notice even in Trinidad and Viñales, which are the two places that fill first in winter.
Different thing entirely. The best value is late November to mid-December and the second half of April — dry-season weather at shoulder-season prices. Avoid 18 December to 5 January and the week either side of Easter, which are the dearest and busiest of the year and need booking months ahead.
March. It is the driest month of the year in Havana — roughly 26 mm of rain across about five rainy days — the humidity has not yet built, and the Christmas and New Year crowds have gone while the Easter ones have not yet arrived. February and early April run it close. If you want the same weather with fewer people and lower prices, aim for late November and early December, or the second half of April.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November. For Cuba specifically the risk is concentrated from August through October, with September historically the most active month and also the wettest in Havana at around 140 mm of rain over about thirteen days. A hurricane does not spoil a whole season and most trips in those months pass without incident, but if you travel then, buy insurance that covers weather disruption and keep your plans loose at both ends.
Havana averages about 27°C (81°F) by day in January, falling to around 20°C (68°F) at night, and about 33°C (91°F) by day in August with nights near 26°C (79°F). Those figures understate the summer, because the humidity is high and the nights stay warm. In January and February a norte can drop the temperature into the low teens Celsius for a day or two and send spray over the Malecón, so pack a light jacket even for a winter trip.
Yes, and it is worth building into the decision. Cuba has had repeated grid failures and long daily blackouts through 2025 and 2026. A power cut in January, when the evening is 20°C and you can open a window, is an inconvenience. The same cut in August, at 33°C with no fan and no air conditioning, is genuinely hard — and harder still for older travellers. If that matters to you, it is another argument for the December to April half of the year.
May, June and September are the least expensive months, with September the quietest of all because it is the wettest and the height of the hurricane window. The best value, as opposed to the lowest price, is the shoulder: late April and May, when the dry season has only just ended, and late November and early December, before the Christmas rush. Christmas, New Year and Easter are the dearest weeks of the year and book out furthest ahead.
Ten to fourteen days is a comfortable first trip: three or four nights in Havana, two in Viñales, two or three in Trinidad, a night in Cienfuegos on the way through, and a couple of days by the sea if you want them. A week is enough for Havana plus one other place. Trying to add the eastern end of the island to a short trip is the commonest mistake we see — journeys take longer than the map suggests, particularly with the current fuel situation, so leave slack.
Our full Cuba chapter covers the legal position for American travellers, the money situation, where to stay and how to get about — written plainly, and without booking links, because our partner does not sell the island.