Fiji · Month comparison
December vs May
May ranks #1 overall vs December at #11. Dry season begins — 90mm of rain, 7 hours of sunshine, and the best diving conditions returning.
December
#11 of 12 months
Strong option
Wet season proper — heavy rain returns alongside Christmas holiday tourists and the year's warmest sea.
- ↑Christmas and New Year resort atmosphere: the festive period brings a genuine holiday mood to Fiji's resorts — special dinners, cultural performances, and a joyful atmosphere across the Mamanuca properties
- ↑Warm sea at 27°C and rising: the best water temperature of the year for swimming and for coral growth — the reef is vibrant despite the wet season overhead
May
#1 of 12 months
Best match
Dry season begins — 90mm of rain, 7 hours of sunshine, and the best diving conditions returning.
- ↑Dry season properly underway: 90mm versus 154mm in April — the pattern shifts to occasional light showers rather than heavy rain, and multi-day stretches of clear weather become normal
- ↑Diving visibility recovering to dry-season clarity: 15–25 metres of visibility in the Somosomo Strait (Taveuni) and the Mamanuca outer reefs as river runoff subsides
| Factor | December | May |
|---|---|---|
| Weather score | 4 | 8 |
| Value score | 5 | 6 |
| Crowd score | 5 | 6 |
| Events score | 4 | 4 |
| Atmosphere | 6 | 8 |
| Avg high temp | 30°C | 28°C |
| Monthly rain | 222mm | 90mm |
| Daily sunshine | 6hrs | 7hrs |
December trade-offs
- ↓222mm of rain: the wet season is firmly re-established — heavy daily rain from Christmas week onward makes outdoor activity weather-dependent and island transfers uncertain
- ↓Christmas and New Year week prices spike back toward dry-season levels: the festive occupancy surge eliminates the low-season discount for the last two weeks of December
- ↓Cyclone risk is real: December cyclones are historically less common than February–March but they do occur — the 2016 Category 5 Cyclone Winston made landfall in February but December is not risk-free
May trade-offs
- ↓90mm is still light rain: May is not reliably dry, and island transfers to the more exposed Yasawa Islands still carry occasional weather delays
- ↓Cooler evenings by Fiji standards: 22°C lows mean a light layer is useful after dark — nothing dramatic, but a shift from the wet-season warmth
- ↓Visibility still building toward its best: while dramatically better than March–April, May's visibility is below the July–August peak at many dive sites
Scores compare months within Fiji. Climate data: Open Meteo ERA5 30-year normals (1991–2020). Methodology →