Best time to visit Taos

United States · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Taos

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Apr, May, Aug, Sep or Oct — these months score within a whisker of each other; 16C max, 4 rainy days. Jun is the next best.

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.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Flights

Choose where you fly from

Where to stay

Things to do

Car hire

Rent direct

Travel insurance

SafetyWing Ad

Mobile data (eSIM)

Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.

Things to do in Taos

Taos Pueblo Ancient Tiwa pueblo in Taos County, New Mexico, United States
Taos Ski Valley A major downhill ski locale, usually with the best snow in New Mexico if not the entire Southwest.
Church of San Francisco de Asis An incredibly photogenic example of the churches founded in New Mexico during the Spanish mission period.
Rio Grande del Norte National Monument National Monument in New Mexico, United States
Millicent Rogers Museum Famed artist Millicent Rogers lived here in Taos and amassed a huge collection of Southwestern art, and this superb museum continues her legacy.
Kit Carson Home and Museum The Taos home of Kit Carson, a 19th-century frontiersman, Indian agent, and Army officer who played a prominent role in the Indian Wars.
Taos Plaza Center of shops and monuments within the Taos Downtown Historic District in Taos, New Mexico

Tours and tickets in Taos

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Taos), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	3°	4d	60%	8.6h	avoid	bitter cold: 3C daily max
Feb	5°	5d	59%	9.4h	avoid	bitter cold: 5C daily max
Mar	10°	6d	52%	10.5h	good	10C max, 6 rainy days
Apr	16°	4d	40%	11.8h	sweet spot	16C max, 4 rainy days
May	21°	4d	38%	13.0h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Jun	28°	2d	37%	13.2h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Jul	29°	3d	47%	13.3h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Aug	28°	2d	48%	12.5h	sweet spot	28C max, 2 rainy days
Sep	24°	4d	48%	11.4h	sweet spot	24C max, 4 rainy days
Oct	17°	4d	47%	10.2h	sweet spot	17C max, 4 rainy days
Nov	10°	3d	49%	9.1h	ok	10C max, 3 rainy days
Dec	5°	4d	56%	8.6h	avoid	bitter cold: 5C daily max

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Taos Plaza, 11 km from the airport (TSM): 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

Busiest from May to July; quietest in January, February and April.

Then and now

Taos's August days now average 28.3°C, 3.0°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 6 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	2.7°	4.0°	8.0°	13.8°	19.1°	24.9°	26.6°	25.3°	22.1°	15.9°	8.5°	3.2°
2017–26	2.6°	5.1°	10.4°	16.1°	21.2°	27.5°	29.2°	28.3°	24.5°	17.3°	10.2°	5.0°
Change	-0.1°	+1.0°	+2.4°	+2.2°	+2.2°	+2.6°	+2.6°	+3.0°	+2.4°	+1.4°	+1.7°	+1.8°

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 Albuquerque (ABQ), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Albuquerque.

Albuquerque (ABQ)	the drive is not measured yet
Santa Fe (SAF)	the drive is not measured yet
Taos (TSM)	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 Taos is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay work almost everywhere, though a few small places take cash only. Keep some $1 and $5 notes for tips; Venmo and PayPal are for locals.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Expected: 15–20% in sit-down restaurants (18–20% is standard in New York) and 10–20% for taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers. Large groups may find it already on the bill.

Getting around Taos

Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp. In San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and some other cities you can also book a driverless Waymo in its own app.

With little traffic Taos is easy to drive around in, seeing as there is really only one main road stretching from the beginning of town to the end. the downtown area is great for walking, with many restaurants, shops… More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Taos, 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.

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 (50)

Taos in pictures

Taos, New Mexico (14394423812) — i

Christopher Michel, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Taos is like

Taos is a prominent town of 6,000 people (2018) in North Central New Mexico. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: The historic district at the center of town, this is where you'll find the majority of traveler attractions in Taos. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: Taos Ski Valley, NM 150, north of town. A major downhill ski locale, usually with the best snow in New Mexico if not the entire Southwest. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Taos Regional Airport (TSM IATA). JSX from Dallas–Love, Denver–Rocky Mountain, Austin–Executive, Burbank, San Diego/Carlsbad. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: The areas of and near Taos of most interest to the traveler generally have little crime, although the potential for petty theft from unlocked cars always exists, particularly in remote areas… More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Taos, 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 Taos

Also in United States

Nearby

Kind of place

Taos is in United States, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and holiday data before any link is built.