Været i Port Louis (Mauritius) i mai

Regulars are specific this counts as one of the best months to visit, genuinely good anywhere on the island, real heavy rain not expected to arrive until around mid-December even though some rain does fall this month itself. Our row backs that hot, genuinely wet read, 28.3C reading as a hot 31C, over 23.4C nights feeling 25C, with 66.1mm of rain across 14.9 days and humidity at 74 percent. Regulars are consistent cyclone season doesn't properly start until December, running through April, so this month reads as genuinely safe on that front, any rain that does fall typically brief rather than a settled wet day. The sea sits at a warm, swimmable 26.8C. The record: 11.9 hours of sun, a 22.8 kph wind and AQI 29.

August is winter here and the regulars' advice is about which side of the island you book. The south-easterly trades blow hard through July and August and do not ease until well into September; on the east and south coasts they can take the beach away from you altogether, which is why the boards point people to the north and west. Our row sits on the sheltered side at 24.9C by day over 20.5C nights, and even here the wind averages 28.6 kph. Rain looks frequent at 11.5 days but totals 38.3mm, three millimetres a time. The sea holds 24.8C. Their east-coast figure runs a degree or two under ours, which is the wind rather than the thermometer. The record: humidity 72 percent, 10.4 hours of sun and AQI 39.

September is the turn of the Mauritian year - winter runs April to September, summer October to March - so the month starts in one and ends in the other. The forum's practical version: high 20s C, occasional cloud and showers, a sea around 23C, and less chance of rain than most months. The variable is wind. The winter trades are still blowing early in September, strongest on the east and south coasts, and they ease towards the end of the month and further into October. If wind matters to your trip, regulars say pick the west or north, which are sheltered, and the later half of the month over the earlier. The record: 25.7C days, 20.8C nights, 12.3 precipitation days but only 30.3mm, a 24.8C sea and a 28 kph wind.

Forum posters describe April daytime temperatures typically in the high-70s to low-80sF (roughly 27-29C), still hot and humid early in the month with conditions gradually easing toward late April. Posters are consistent that rain remains a real, frequent feature - easily half the month's days seeing some rain, most often a short shower overnight or in the evening rather than an all-day washout, though a handful of visitors have reported heavier downpours causing localized flooding around Port Louis itself. Posters generally rate late April into early May as noticeably more pleasant than early April, with warm temperatures holding while the heaviest mid-summer rain eases off.