Spring seems like a naturally GREAT time to travel the world. It means grass and warmth, maybe some rain, but mostly good and beautiful things. Right?

Well, not totally.

While in the United States most of us can embrace Spring with  shorter pants and lighter dresses, much of the world is still in a chilly part of the year. Here in Colorado we can get our heaviest snows of the year between March and May.

April in Paris? Well the song speaks of romance, but the reality is frozen fingers and drinking a lot of hot tea. Northern Scotland can have some of it’s coldest and worst rain and wind in April; while much of the United Kingdom and Ireland can stay pretty chilly into June.

Of course, much of this changes the closer you get to the equator. June in Spain and Italy is warm and welcoming. Which means these are all popular areas for Brits to run away to. Germany warms up in late April to a more comfortable temperature. When you add in humidity this also changes the feel of everything.

While Paris is always beautiful, April is often cold.[/caption]

When we look at other parts of the world, we see that the rainy and monsoon seasons hit Southeast and other parts of Asia with months of rain and flooding. While we look on this as problematic, it’s vital for these areas to survive.  This season varies slightly from place to place. “Spring” ends up having different or no meaning in some parts of the world. For more information on rainy seasons in Southeast Asia, click here.

For the Southern Hemisphere some areas are moving into “fall” or “winter” so the weather can get cooler and messier depending on the distance south. For instance, weather in Cape Town, South Africa in June is cooler and rainier than other times of the year.

Wherever you want to head, check Weather.com or Lonely Planet to see what the weather may look like for your scheduled dates. While weather is manageable in most conditions with the right gear, one may have a better time if it’s not freezing and raining.