Find the best places to visit in any month, check the best time to visit 250 destinations, plan trips day by day, and map every country you've been to, all in one free platform.
You've got a week off in July. Where should you go?
For most of us, answering that question takes a dozen browser tabs. A weather site. Three "best places to visit in July" lists that disagree with each other. A forum thread from years ago. A spreadsheet for the budget, a notes app full of saved places, and a scratch map on the wall that still doesn't know about last year's trip.
PickOH brings those tabs together. It's a free travel platform that helps you decide where to go, plan the trip day by day, and keep a map of everywhere you've been.
Here's what you can do with it:
- Find where to go in any month, with destinations ranked on 30 years of climate data
- Check the best time to visit 250 countries and territories, month by month
- Explore a community for every country, with quick facts, top places and travel tips
- Plan trips day by day, with maps, routes, budgets, shared costs and packing lists
- Map every country you've visited, pinned in the order you went
- Earn points and levels as you add trips and help other travellers
Every feature is free, and you don't need a credit card to sign up.
1. Start with when: where to go in any month
Sometimes you know when you can travel long before you know where. That's what Where to Go is for.
Pick a month, and PickOH lists every destination where that month is one of its two best months to visit. Each card shows the average daytime high, night low, monthly rainfall and number of rainy days, plus the destination's other great month.
Where to Go in July: 60 destinations where July is one of the two best months to visit. Sort them by best match, warmest or driest.
Open July, for example, and southern Africa fills the top of the list. Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa are all in the top six, with Peru at number two. Namibia leads with 23°C days and almost no rain, in the heart of the region's dry season.
How the ranking works. PickOH scores every month with a simple rule. It counts how many degrees the average daytime high sits outside a comfortable 18–26°C band, then adds a penalty for rain, where about 25 mm of monthly rain counts the same as 1°C of discomfort. The two lowest-scoring months become a destination's Top pick and 2nd Best.
The figures are 1991–2020 climate averages from ERA5 reanalysis data, via Open-Meteo. They describe a typical year, not a forecast, which makes them useful for planning months ahead.
Browse by month: January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December
Weather is only one part of the decision. Check entry requirements, costs and current travel advice before you book.
2. Check the best time to visit, month by month
Already have a destination in mind? Every country and territory on PickOH has a weather page that answers the question "When should I go?"
Thailand's weather page picks December and January, and shows why.
Each page charts rainfall and average highs across all 12 months and explains its two picks in plain language. It ends with a table of lows, highs, how each month feels and how many rainy days to expect. It also tells you where the numbers are measured, usually the capital or the main city travellers visit.
Thailand's page, for example, picks December and January. December brings 30°C days and about 10 mm of rain over two rainy days. September, the wettest month, averages around 240 mm of rain over 26 rainy days.
3. Get to know a destination through its community
Weather tells you when to go. A destination's community page helps you understand what a visit could involve.
Every country community starts with quick facts and a ranked list of top places to visit.
Each of the 250 countries and territories on PickOH has a community page with:
- Quick facts: population, area, local time and capital
- Top Places: a ranked list of places to visit, each with a short description
- Explore: regions to dig into
- Posts: questions, travel tips, recommendations and itineraries shared by travellers
- Travel Tips: members' tips gathered into one summary
- Weather: the month-by-month guide from the previous section
The communities are new, so many are still waiting for their first post. If you know a country well, your tip could be the first thing its next visitor reads.
4. Plan the trip, day by day
Once you've picked a destination, the itinerary planner turns your ideas into a plan. Create a trip with your destination, dates, number of travellers, travel style and budget, then build it one day at a time.
Day 1 of a sample 7-day Japan trip: stops on a timeline, the route on a map, and the distance and travel time between stops.
- Build each day by adding stops to time slots: sights, restaurants, activities and places to stay.
- Add travel legs by air, rail, road or water. You can look up flights by flight number.
- See the route on a map, with distances and travel times between stops. Find Shortest Route reorders a day's stops for you.
- Catch problems early. PickOH flags overlapping stops, unrealistic travel times and overpacked days.
- Start from a draft. Plan it with AI builds a first version from Wikivoyage travel guides and OpenStreetMap: one area per day, about four sights plus lunch and dinner, saved as a private draft for you to edit.
The money side lives in the same place.
The Budget tab for the same sample trip compares planned spending with the budget, by category and by day.
The Budget tab totals your costs in one trip currency, converted at today's rate, and compares them with your budget. Split Costs divides shared expenses equally, by exact amounts, by percentage or by shares, and shows who needs to settle up. The Packing List combines a shared group list, a private list and a smart packing list. Document turns the whole plan into text you can copy and share, or a PDF you can download.
Planning with friends? Invite friends who follow you back as collaborators. You all edit the same plan, changes sync live, and every trip has its own chat. Trips stay private until you choose to share them, and once you do, other travellers can clone your plan and make it their own.
5. Map every country you've visited
After the trip comes the part many of us love most: remembering it.
A demo travel map: 24 countries, pinned in the order they were visited.
Add the countries you've visited, with dates, and PickOH pins each one on your travel map with its flag, numbered in the order you went. Repeat visits count, too. Your Trip Timeline shows how much of the world you've explored, out of 195 countries, and Play Journey replays your travels across the map, trip by trip.
You can also share the places you loved as attractions, with photos and your own rating, for other travellers to like, comment on and save. And when someone else's find catches your eye, save it to your bucket list for a future trip.
Each country also gets a page of its own for trip costs, photos, the hotels you stayed in, videos from YouTube, TikTok or Vimeo, and your memories. Analytics turns it all into travel insights: countries and continents covered, how many years your travels span, your most active year, and how many countries you visited each year.
6. Earn points and level up
PickOH rewards the things that make it more useful for everyone. You earn points for adding a country (+20), planning an itinerary (+15) and sharing a travel tip (+10), and you earn more when other travellers save your places or clone your itineraries.
Points unlock 30 levels, from New Explorer to PickOH Titan. A leaderboard ranks travellers by points this week, this month and of all time.
Bonus: PickOH in your browser
If you use Firefox, two free add-ons put PickOH's climate data in your toolbar. Where to Go — by PickOH shows the best countries to visit this month, or any month. Weather Trends for Travel shows month-by-month climate for countries worldwide and lets you compare two places side by side.
More than a holiday picker
Making travel information easier to explore does more than settle where to spend a week off.
- You travel at the right time. Visiting a place in its best months means more good-weather days for what you came to see.
- You look beyond the usual shortlist. Monthly rankings put lesser-known places next to famous ones. July's top ten includes Madagascar, Mozambique and Eswatini alongside South Africa and Peru.
- You learn from people who've been there. Community questions and tips turn one traveller's experience into knowledge everyone can use.
- You remember every trip. In PickOH's own words: "We believe every trip — whether across the street or across the globe — deserves to be remembered."
Get started in three steps
- Create a free account at pickoh.com, or continue with Google.
- Add the countries you've visited and watch your travel map fill in.
- Open Where to Go for your next free month, then turn your favourite destination into an itinerary.
Frequently asked questions
Is PickOH free?
Yes. Every feature is free: the travel map, attractions, bucket list, itinerary planner, communities and analytics. You don't need a credit card to sign up.
How does PickOH decide where to go each month?
It scores each month's 1991–2020 climate averages by how far the average daytime high sits outside 18–26°C, plus a rain penalty (about 25 mm of rain counts as 1°C). Each destination's two best-scoring months become its Top pick and 2nd Best. Each month's page lists every destination that has that month in its top two.
Do I need an account?
No account is needed to browse Where to Go, the weather pages or the country communities. You need a free account to map your travels, keep a bucket list, plan itineraries and post in communities.
Can I plan a trip with friends?
Yes. Invite friends who follow you back as collaborators. You edit the same plan together, changes sync live, every trip has its own chat, and Split Costs works out who owes what.
Can I keep my travels private?
Yes. Turn on Private Account in Settings → Privacy, and only followers you approve can see your travel timeline, attractions and itineraries. Your bucket list is always private, and new itineraries stay private until you share them.
Is the weather data a forecast?
No. It's long-run climate averages, which describe a typical year and are useful for planning months ahead. Any particular year can differ.
So, where to next?
Your next trip doesn't have to start with a dozen tabs. Pick a month on Where to Go, find a place that fits, and plan it on PickOH.
Which country is next on your list? Tell me in the comments. 🌍
PickOH · Where to Go · Explore communities · About PickOH · Help Center
Prashanth Sams — Creator of PickOH
Top comments (1)
PickOH is completely free for the first 10k users [Unlimited Premium access]