Gambia Bird Lodge - Rough Guide 1

WHEN TO GO: The Gambia's peak tourist season roughly coincides with the coastal dry season, which lasts around eight months from mid-October to mid June, when the rainy season starts. Up-country, where temperatures are more extreme, the dry season lasts a few weeks longer.

The best month to visit is November, when the rains are over, humidity has dropped, the dirt roads are passable, and the bush is still green and busy with birdlife. December and January see the highest concentration of visitors. It's not unusual to have weeks of unbroken sunshine at this time, but there can sometimes be grey days and chilly nights. By March, the upcountry landscape is a near-uniform golden brown and hazy with airborne dust; the last three months of the dry season are normally totally rainless.

While daytime temperatures in the resort areas vary little all year, humidity levels fluctuate considerably, rocketing at the end of the dry season and remaining high until October - nights can be very sticky from June to September. Some of the tourist hotels are closed from May to October, when there's a much reduced choice of charter flights.The country gets around 1300 millimetres (51 inches) of rain from mid June to mid-October - nearly double London's yearly average - most of it falling at night, with August by far the rainiest month. The malaria risk is higher than usual during the rains, and some roads are waterlogged; however, birds, flowers and fresh vegetation are all abundant at this time, mangoes are in season, the resorts are pleasantly uncrowded, the sea is at its warmest, and, between the spectacular thunderstorms, the days are bright and clear.