We will explain the year-round weather (climate), best season, and off-season for Okinawa, which is attracting attention as a popular travel destination.
Okinawa's climate is known for the rainy season to arrive earlier than Japan's Honshu, and for it to be hit by more typhoons.
However, when it comes to actually planning a trip, many people end up planning it around their own days off.
We also have bitter memories of going to Okinawa for a long vacation in early May without thinking deeply about the climate, and it was raining heavily every day, making the trip to Okinawa very difficult. For information on traveling to Okinawa during the rainy season, please refer to the article below.
Although the amount of precipitation in Okinawa is quite high throughout the year, the rainy season ends around the end of June, and summer arrives earlier than in the Honshu region.
Also, from around the end of August, Okinawa's weather becomes quite severe, with typhoons directly hitting the island. As you can see from the precipitation graph above, there is quite a lot of precipitation from August to October.
Best season to travel to Okinawa
The best season to travel to Okinawa is from the end of June to the end of August.From the end of June to the end of August, Okinawa experiences typical Okinawan summer weather, making the weather perfect for playing marine sports on the beach or in the sea.
However, from late July to mid-August, around Obon, not only air ticket prices but also hotel prices tend to increase, which can be a problem for people who want to travel to Okinawa as cheaply as possible.
In addition, the typhoon season has recently moved forward, and typhoons may hit Okinawa directly from the end of May, so caution is needed.
If you want to travel to Okinawa during the best season, but want to keep your travel expenses as low as possible, we recommend traveling to Okinawa from the end of the rainy season in late June to early July.
When can you swim in the sea in Okinawa?
There is an image that Okinawa is warm all year round and that you can swim in the sea at any time, but in reality there are only limited times when you can go into the sea and play.
The sea in Okinawa opens from late March to early April every year, and you can only go into the sea until the end of September.However, in August, there will be more jellyfish, so you need to be careful.
By the way, even though nets are set up at larger beaches to avoid jellyfish, you may still get stung, so be careful.
It's not that you can't go into the ocean in October, but it's the season when the sea water temperature drops, so keep that in mind.
Travel costs are low in Okinawa's off-season!
When you think of Okinawa, you might think that it's only attractive during the summer, but in fact, it's recommended to go outside of the summer because it's less crowded and more comfortable to visit.
The off-season, from November to February, is when air tickets to Okinawa and hotels in Okinawa are cheap.If you want to travel to Okinawa at the cheapest time possible, we recommend the off-season from November to February.
By the way, Okinawa is the first place in Japan where cherry blossoms bloom. If you go to Okinawa from the end of January to the beginning of February, it would be fun to go to see the cherry blossoms, which is the earliest in Japan.
Measuretrip offers a variety of Okinawa information guides that you can enjoy even in the off-season, so please use them as reference for your next trip to Okinawa. Let's enjoy your trip to Okinawa by planning well and considering Okinawa's climate and weather♪See you soon!