Fancy a cheap, last-minute holiday in Bali? Admit it, we've all been seduced by those giveaway prices in travel agency windows. Expectations are high and the holiday of a lifetime begins just beyond the baggage carousel. So why are all the meeters and greeters carrying umbrellas?
Travel agents are quick to book us on discount deals to luxury resorts on sun-drenched beaches. They're slower to inform us that because it's the monsoon season we'll be spending most of our time sandbagging the hotel doorways and aquaplaning around souvenir shops. Instead of cultivating a golden tan we end up with foot-rot.
Of course, prices fall when the rains fall and there are fewer tourists around. Locals seem less frazzled and more likely to interact in ways that aren't profit-driven. Low-season regulars point out that it only rains for an hour at four o'clock and leaves everything fresh afterwards. Liquid sunshine, as they say in the Caribbean.
It's not all plain sailing though. The monsoon season often means unrelenting grey skies, rain and high humidity. Scuba-divers and snorkellers know all about the reduced visibility a churning ocean causes and sunbathers find beaches can become lagoons during wet months. Small hotels and restaurants struggling with overhead costs may close temporarily and touts seem to double in number when there aren't enough tourists to go round. Because traders need to sell to survive, sales pitches become understandably more persuasive.
But travelling at peak times has its share of headaches too. The following list may appear to be a guide to high-season tourist gridlock. In some places it would indeed be wise to book accommodation, but there's plenty of space in Mongolia during the 'busy' season. You'll find peace and quiet on Hokkaido, an island the same size as Austria, and good-natured revelry during the Qingdao beer festival.
The effects of the Boxing Day devastation will reverberate around the Indian Ocean for years; but paying heed to the repeated appeals of tourism-dependent communities for holidaymakers to return to their battered coasts, we include here some of the regions hit hardest by the tsunami. Meanwhile, as a disclaimer, any complaints of meteorological inaccuracy will be blamed on El Ni?o. Take an umbrella just in case.