> I prefer to travel to a city the time of year its most uncomfortable. So like Montreal in the winter, or New Delhi in the summer. I want to see a place when it’s at the apogee of its essence, not when it’s the most comfortable. A kinda, if you are going to do X really do X thing. It’s also when it’s a lot cheaper.
No, sorry, if you visit New Delhi in May, Tokyo in August or Montreal in February, you're going to have a pretty miserable time.
The beautiful summers are so great it makes the winters tolerable.
For example I always take visitors on a river/lake boat tour. Even though I grew up here it always blows my mind mind. The problems is those are completely shut down in the winter.
If someone wanted to visit me in the winter and “act like a local” I don’t know what I would suggest, maybe stay indoors where it’s warm.
As in all cases, careful research can reveal opportune times that you can balance with your other goals. If you want to see the cherry blossoms in Japan, you're stuck to a very particular time, for example; but I don't think they put away Mt Fiji until very late in winter.
I'd still recommend it. But it taught me to pack based on the weather forecast and historical weather. I make sure to bring a warm and dry enough outer layers that I can sit outside for an extended period.
OSHA recommends offices to be cooled below that point, with 24C/76F being the upper end of acceptable. Some of this observation is also dependent on metabolic rate, which makes opinions on this somewhat gender-skewed.
For someone who has experience with such weather and has adapted to it, it's not a big deal.
I wouldn't presume to tell other people how they should feel, but giving them a head's up that it may be miserable if they're not ready for it is wise.
Winter in Montreal just needs the right clothing, but then you’re not packing light. A proper winter coat, gloves, boots, etc. will need way more space than exists in that tiny backpack.
I've spent a few weeks in Tokyo and Kyoto mid summer (though less extreme I guess than this summer) because of business trips and you can "manage"--in the sense that you can limit activities during the hottest parts of the day or just in general--but I don't really recommend picking visits at those times unless you have some specific reason to.
Montreal in winter on the other hand is fine. But, as you say, you need the right clothing which can be reasonably compact but isn't going to fit in tiny luggage. (And activities will be at least somewhat different from in summer.)
I'm a fairly compact traveler in general (just carry-on usually) and you can get off with a lot in temperate to warm climates in urban locations where you don't need to dress up. But I also don't like to pack only those things that I'm sure I need. For example, I have a little kit bag of miscellaneous stuff I mostly don't need but am sometimes glad I have.
Depending on where you live it might be winter already there too so not necessarily a problem as you already wear the shit and remove what you don't need during the flight. Otherwise you just have to wear them when you enter the plane and put them back in the ikea bag that was in the coat's pocket the rest of the time.
Tell me you’ve never lived in a place with actual winter without telling me. The clothes aimed at locals are designed to be a 5 to 10 year investment. Not a jacket you buy to throw away in spring.
That said, you are right that unless you’re in a place like that, the correct gear isn’t even available for you to buy.
But while you’re shopping, and the trip in from the airport would be pretty miserable.
The "cheap, serviceable, but used" is... fairly picked over by the locals (and especially the homeless).
Consider San Francisco for a moment and the daily occasion of tourists who suddenly find that the fog rolling in the evening is cold and then buy the "cheap" (but horribly marked up) jackets that aren't the right size in which they stand out like sore thumbs.
Or they could go to the Salvation Army store and buy a winter jacket - consider the availability of them there.
Or they could go to REI or Farm and Fleet (I know there aren't any F&F in SF) and buy a new winter jacket there.
After childhood, locals have winter clothes that often last 5-10 years or more (and they pay for durability). My winter jackets are from '10 (I've got a medium weight photographer's jacket that I got in Keeble & Shuchat in '01 that I still wear... wish I could find something like it again). My father's winter jackets are in the 10-20 year range.
I'm also going to note the plural. Locals will often have two or three "winter" jackets depending on the weather.
The only time you get a jacket for a season that is cheap is for a child who is going to outgrow it by the next winter.
If I buy winter clothes in my home country, the clothes will be ugly, expensive, and I have no way to make sure if they even work for their intended purpose. It's too hot here.
But when I go to countries that have actual winters, especially First World countries, then I can find decent winter clothes even in, say, a Target.
> The clothes aimed at locals are designed to be a 5 to 10 year investment
Not if you shop at Target :)
We're comparing https://www.target.com/p/cutter-buck-mission-ridge-repreve-e... (and honestly, the puffy jackets are... to me, as a local to the upper midwest, those... they're not what you see many locals wearing... some, yes... but not many) to things in https://www.rei.com/c/snow-jackets?ir=category%3Asnow-jacket...
Easy yes, cheap, not so much.
We had similar in AR back in 21 and I was outside in a tshirt or if more than 10 minutes the thinnest windbreaker ever. (Single layer of plastic and compresses to a baseball size or so.) I might go to a hoody at -20 but not sure even then.
Most countries have more than 4 season in practical terms though, and going during the "seasons inbetween" is my recommendation. In Australia, the indigenous have up to 6 different seasons they identified depending on the location/tribe, and they have more nuanced events expected for each season. Most countries are like that in real terms, so intimate knowledge can get you a great budget off-season holiday experience.
Skiing in colorado is best end of March into April. Crowds are completely gone and snow is the best.
In the winter, it's a cold, wet and relatively low interaction time of the year. I assume some place have a high, low and dead season for tourism, and I personally aim for low, but to each their own. Quebec in general is a great place for winter vacation, just have to go outside Montreal island.