May brings a real split across Oceania, with the south cooling toward winter while parts of the tropical north stay warm and inviting.
Southern Australia and New Zealand settle into cooler, quieter weather, with ski season still weeks away and the summer crowds long gone. Northern Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef region, stays warm and increasingly dry, making May a strong month for diving and snorkeling there. Across the Pacific islands, the wet season winds down around this time, giving way to a drier, more settled stretch that lasts for much of the rest of the year. Prices and crowds ease across most of the region compared to the busy months just before. Whale watching season also begins along parts of the coast as migrations get underway.
The destinations on our list for Oceania reflect that same split between a cooling south and a warm, drying north.
