"Best time to visit" gets treated as a weather question, and weather is maybe a third of the actual answer. The other two-thirds are crowds and what's actually happening on the ground — a destination's shoulder season is often better than its peak, not despite the smaller crowds but because of what that absence makes room for.
Take the Serengeti: peak migration season draws the most travelers, understandably. But a shoulder month with a smaller but still substantial resident wildlife population, at a fraction of the camp cost and with guides who have more time for you, is a real trade worth considering — not a compromise.
Price follows demand almost exactly, which means the 'best' window by weather alone is usually also the most expensive and most crowded one. We'll always tell a client the honest trade-off rather than default to the postcard month, because the postcard month is postcard-crowded for a reason.
The actual question we ask before recommending timing: what do you want more of — certainty, or room to have the place partly to yourself? Most people, once it's framed that way, are surprised which one they pick.
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