Deciding when to visit Vietnam really depends on your target cities. There are big temperature and rainfall variations from northern Vietnam all the way to the south throughout the year. Many first-time Vietnam travelers don’t know that Hanoi can be pretty chilly for a few months of the year.
If you’re planning a Vietnam itinerary, you’ll need to be flexible because your travel dates might be a great time in one city, while being a tolerable or “second best” time to visit another. But if this is a one-time trip, and you have full flexibility, then the best time to visit Vietnam is between March and April. This will give you the best of an overall Vietnam trip, from Hanoi down to Ho Chi Minh City (or by going south to north).
🏨 The Oriental Jade (see on Agoda / Booking): This is a very nice hotel right near Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi — a great location
🏨 La Siesta Premium (see on Agoda / Booking): I’m a huge fan of the La Siesta chain in Vietnam. This is in a great location in District 1, HCMC
🏨 Sala Danang Beach (see on Agoda / Booking): A great choice in Da Nang, right near My Khe Beach
🎟️ Tours & Activities: this HCMC Cu Chi Tunnels tour, this Hanoi Train Street/food tour, and this Ba Na Hills and Golden Bridge tour
The best times to visit Hanoi are a bit split up, as the city experiences weather extremes throughout the year. If you catch a window of sunny days, September through November can be great times to visit Hanoi. December through February are cold in Hanoi, but with low total rainfall. March and April are also good and warmer months.
March and April are two of the best months to visit central Vietnam (Da Nang, Hoi An, and Hue). For Ho Chi Minh City, my two favorite months are January and February.
Below, I cover the three main travel hubs in Vietnam: Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Each hub’s nearby cities (like Ninh Binh for Hanoi) experience similar weather. The weather information should be enough to help give you an overview for planning a Vietnam trip.
Vietnam Weather: Best Cities to Visit By Month
| Month | Best City (Cities) to Visit |
|---|---|
| January | Ho Chi Minh City |
| February | Ho Chi Minh City |
| March | Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City |
| April | Hanoi, Da Nang |
| May | Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue |
| June | Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue |
| July | Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue |
| August | Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue |
| September | Hanoi |
| October | Hanoi |
| November | Hanoi |
| December | Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City |
Hanoi (and the north)
The best time to visit Hanoi and northern Vietnam is from October to April. This is a general timeframe that I base purely on it being the dry season. I figure low rain is really the best start to planning a Vietnam trip. However, for Hanoi and northern Vietnam specifically, there are nuances here.
You also need to factor in Hanoi’s pollution. There are times when Hanoi is among the most polluted cities in the world. This generally coincides with the colder months. Here’s an air quality index for Hanoi.
If you have trip flexibility, keep an eye on October and November in Hanoi. They’re both warmer than the next few months, with highs around the low-80s°F (28°C) and lows in the 70s°F (22°C). There’s just a higher likelihood of rain in October, and then less so in November, compared to the few months that follow. I recently visited Hanoi in October and had a great stretch of five sunny days.
I filmed this video on a nice day in October at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.
December, January, February, and March are well into the dry season in northern Vietnam — but the temperatures can get pretty chilly (or cold!) at times. This goes for visiting Ninh Binh, Halong Bay, and Sa Pa, too.
In Hanoi, expect highs from the upper 60s°F (20°C) down to the upper 50s°F (15°C) from December to February, with March being when it starts to warm up. For Ninh Binh and Halong Bay, you can expect about the same.
For Sa Pa, expect temperatures in the mid-50s°F (14°C) down to the mid-40s°F (8°C) in December, January, and February. Sa Pa gets warmer in March, with highs of around 65°F (18°C) and lows of the mid-50s°F (14°C).
The rainy season in Hanoi usually starts in April and winds down in October. June, July, and August are typically the wettest months in northern Vietnam. These are also the hottest months, with temperatures in the low 90s°F (33°C) in Hanoi.
June, July, and August are good times to visit Da Nang, Hoi An, and Hue because of the dry weather — but it will be hot!
Da Nang (and central)
The best time to visit Da Nang and central Vietnam is from March to August. The rainy season usually starts sometime in September and winds down around December. But in my experience, gray skies and clouds often linger into January and February.
The worst month to visit Da Nang and central Vietnam is October. This is the wettest month in the region. As I mentioned above, if you have flexibility, keep an eye on Hanoi and the north around this time because windows of sunshine often open up, and the temperatures are comfortable.
My favorite months in Da Nang are March, April, or May because the rainy season will have ended, and it’s just before the hottest time of the year. This is a window of dry and slightly cooler weather. This goes for Hoi An and Hue, too. March, April, and May are great months for a central Vietnam itinerary.
March and April are the best of the three, only because May starts to get hot. Here’s a video I filmed in May on My Khe Beach in Da Nang.
Expect temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80s°F (28°C to 31°C) in March and April. In May, expect temperatures in the high 80s°F and low 90s°F (31°C to 33°C). It will begin getting very hot as May rolls into June and July.
June and July are still “great” months to visit Da Nang, Hoi An, and Hue because of the low rainfall, but they’re the hottest times of the year here. In June, July, and August, expect temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90s°F (mid-to-upper 30s°C). The temperature decline begins in September, usually when the rainy season starts.
Ho Chi Minh City (and the south)
The best time to visit Ho Chi Minh City and southern Vietnam is from December to April. The rainy season usually starts around May and winds down around November. My favorite months in Ho Chi Minh City are December, January, and February.
If you have trip flexibility, choose either January or February — these two months also have the lowest humidity — December isn’t bad for this, either.
For December, January, and February, expect highs of around 90°F (32°C) and lows in the 70s°F (22°C). And if it does rain (very low chance), it will likely be a brief shower.
I filmed this video in February at the Independence Palace in HCMC.
The second-best time to visit HCMC and southern Vietnam is March or April. It will be dry, but it starts getting hotter, and March, April, and May are the hottest months of the year in the region. Expect highs of around 94°F (34°C) and lows of 76°F (24°C).
But as I said, the rainy season usually starts around May. So if you have trip flexibility somewhere in this timeframe, choose March or April to avoid the higher chance of rain that begins in May.
The above information is generally consistent with other cities in the region, like Phu Quoc, Vung Tau, Can Tho, and the Mekong Delta. There may be some subtle differences in temperature and rainfall, but January and February are great months overall to visit southern Vietnam.
Other Popular Cities
The beach city of Nha Trang experiences more stable weather compared to Da Nang. The heat and rain exist in Nha Trang, but the extremes are less so for both. But the timeframe is roughly the same: the best time to visit Nha Trang is from March to August.
In the photo above, I made an impromptu trip to Nha Trang in January and hit a nice stretch of weather. The reason I wouldn’t include January as a great time is that the rainy season usually ends in December and might bleed into January a bit.
The year-round temperature floats between highs of the low 90s°F (33°C) and lows in the 70s°F (24°C). The rainy season is at its worst from September to December (with October and November being the wettest months), but it’s usually far milder compared to Da Nang’s rainy season.
Da Lat is a popular mountain city in Vietnam. The weather here is generally cooler (or cold!) all year. The year-round temperature highs in Da Lat never get warmer than the upper 70s°F (25°C). The lows stay between the 50s°F (12°C) and 60s°F (16°C).
The rainy season in Da Lat usually starts in April and lasts through October. The best time to visit Da Lat would be December through March. This would be a good city to pair with Ho Chi Minh City by visiting both in January, February, or March. But it’ll be cooler here compared to HCMC, so you’ll need to pack (or buy here) both types of clothes.
