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Photo by Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Best time to visit Dawson City
Canada · North America
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Dawson City
Tap a month for its page
- JanJDawson City in January: avoid
- FebFDawson City in February: avoid
- MarMDawson City in March: avoid
- AprADawson City in April: avoid
- MayMDawson City in May: sweet spot
- JunJDawson City in June: sweet spot
- JulJDawson City in July: good
- AugADawson City in August: good, busy
- SepSDawson City in September: ok
- OctODawson City in October: avoid
- NovNDawson City in November: avoid
- DecDDawson City in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.
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Flights from
Flights
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Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Month by month
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -18° | 4d | 82% | 2.3h | avoid | bitter cold: -18C daily max |
| Feb | -16° | 3d | 76% | 5.2h | avoid | bitter cold: -16C daily max |
| Mar | -6° | 3d | 71% | 8.7h | avoid | bitter cold: -6C daily max |
| Apr | 6° | 3d | 67% | 10.9h | avoid | bitter cold: 6C daily max |
| May | 15° | 8d | 63% | 12.6h | sweet spot | 15C max, 8 rainy days |
| Jun | 20° | 9d | 65% | 13.5h | sweet spot | 20C max, 9 rainy days |
| Jul | 22° | 8d | 68% | 12.6h | good | 22C max, 8 rainy days |
| Aug | 19° | 10d | 74% | 9.9h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Sep | 13° | 8d | 79% | 7.5h | ok | 13C max, 8 rainy days |
| Oct | 2° | 6d | 81% | 4.7h | avoid | bitter cold: 2C daily max |
| Nov | -12° | 5d | 84% | 2.3h | avoid | bitter cold: -12C daily max |
| Dec | -17° | 4d | 82% | 1.3h | avoid | bitter cold: -17C daily max |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Front Street, the gold-rush town, 15 km from the airport (YDA): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Dawson City's October days now average 2.1°C, 2.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 3 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | -17.8° | -14.9° | -3.8° | 4.7° | 13.5° | 18.9° | 21.1° | 17.9° | 11.2° | -0.1° | -13.7° | -16.0° |
| 2017–26 | -18.2° | -16.0° | -5.5° | 5.6° | 14.6° | 20.3° | 22.2° | 19.2° | 12.6° | 2.1° | -11.5° | -17.4° |
| Change | -0.3° | -1.1° | -1.8° | +0.9° | +1.1° | +1.5° | +1.1° | +1.2° | +1.3° | +2.1° | +2.2° | -1.3° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
Fly into Whitehorse (YXY), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Whitehorse.
| Whitehorse (YXY) | the drive is not measured yet |
|---|---|
| Dawson City (YDA) | the drive is not measured yet |
The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.
How far Dawson City is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Vancouver
- from Calgary
- from Seattle
- from Portland
- from San Francisco
- from Salt Lake City
- from Denver
- from Las Vegas
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Dawson City, flying or not.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Canadian dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Canada: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Visa and Mastercard are taken almost everywhere and many Canadians rarely use cash; Interac is the local debit network. At petrol pumps, pay inside if your card has no chip and PIN.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Customary though not required: 12–18% in restaurants and bars. Check the bill for a service charge already added.
Getting around Dawson City
- Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Messenger, Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp.
Great White North Taxi. Polaris Adventures. Local transportation & custom tours More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Dawson City, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (33)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/canada/getting-help
- ttc.ca/riding-the-ttc/Updates/Pay-your-fare-with-your-debit-or-credit-card
- translink.ca/rider-guide/visiting-vancouver
- translink.ca/transit-fares/paying-your-fare
- destinationvancouver.com/plan-your-trip/travel-guide
- uber.com/global/en/cities/toronto
- lyft.com/rider/cities/city-of-toronto-on
- lyft.com/rider/cities/vancouver-bc
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Canada
- infobip.com/blog/most-popular-messaging-apps-by-country
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- artm.quebec/en/fare-schedule
- artm.quebec/en/fares/occasional-fares
- artm.quebec/en/fares/fare-platform/opus
- artm.quebec/en/fares/fare-platform/which-card-to-use
- mtl.org/en/experience/practical-guide
- mtl.org/en/experience/airport-yul-guide
- mtl.org/en/what-to-do/city/747-aeroport-p-e-trudeau-centre-ville
- yow.ca/parking-transportation/ground-transportation
- masstransitmag.com/technology/fare-collection/press-release/53071705/oc-transpo-oc-transpo-rolls-out-o-payment-across-entire-transit-system
- niagarafallstourism.com/services/transportation/wego
- nrtransit.ca/fares
- gotransit.com/en/partners-and-promotions/go-train-to-niagara-on-weekends
- gotransit.com/en/partners-and-promotions/toronto-to-niagara-falls-weekday-trips
- gotransit.com/en/blog/tap-with-credit-debit
- calgarytransit.com/fares---passes.html
- calgarytransit.com/fares---passes/where-to-buy-.html
- calgarytransit.com/rider-information/how-to-ride.html
- calgarytransit.com/plans---projects/long-term-strategic-plans/funding-our-future/fare-revenue-review/free-fare-zone-survey.html
- yyc.com/en-us/transportation/public-transit
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Dawson City in pictures
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Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Arthur Chapman from Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Arthur Chapman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Dawson City is like
Dawson City is a historical town of 2,270 people (2021) in Yukon. It invites visitors to celebrate its heritage as a late 19th-century gold rush town, with frontier buildings and boardwalks, saloons, and a vintage sternwheeler. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- It's composed of eight sites, one of which is in the Tombstone Territorial Park and the other seven in and near Dawson City: Dawson City as well as the Native American settlement of Tr’ochëk slightly to the south… More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall, 1001 Fourth Ave. Summer: 7PM-2AM, Off-season: Select weekends 7PM-1AM, but no cancan shows. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Dawson City is accessible by Highway 9 (Top of the World Highway), if you are travelling east out of Alaska. Dawson City can also be reached on Highway 2 (Klondike Highway), if you are travelling north from Whitehorse. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Dawson City, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Dawson City
Also in Canada
- Banff best May, Jul, Aug
- Calgary best May, Jun, Aug
- Golden best May, Jul, Aug
- Halifax best May, Jul, Sep
- Inuvik best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Jasper best May, Jul, Aug
- Kelowna best Apr, May, Jul
- Mont-Tremblant best May, Jun, Sep
- Montreal best May, Jun, Jul
- Niagara Falls best May, Jul, Sep
- Ottawa best May, Jul, Sep
- Prince Rupert best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Quebec City best May, Jun, Sep
- St. John's best May, Jul, Aug
- Tofino best May, Jul, Aug
- Toronto best May, Jun, Jul
- Vancouver best May, Jul, Aug
- Victoria best May, Jun, Jul
- Whistler best May, Jul, Aug
- Whitehorse best May, Jun, Jul
Nearby
- Fairbanks United States · 407 km
- Anchorage United States · 620 km
- Juneau United States · 694 km
- Sitka United States · 810 km
Kind of place
Dawson City is in Canada, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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