Vietnam Month by Month: When to Go

There is no best time to visit Vietnam, and any article that gives you one month is describing a third of the country. Vietnam is 1,025 miles (1,650 km) long and runs three separate calendars at once: a north with a real winter, a south with no winter at all, and a centre that takes the year's rain

This is the calendar our consultants work from, written by the team in our own Hanoi office.

The year at a glance

Month	North	Centre	South
January	Cold, grey, damp	Cool, showery	Dry and warm, the peak
February	Cool, misty, improving	Drying out	Dry and warm
March	Mild, crachin drizzle	Good	Hot and dry
April	Warm and pleasant	Very good	The hottest month
May	Hot, first storms	Very good	Rains begin
June	Hot and wet, terraces green	Hot, dry, beach weather	Wet afternoons
July	Hot, wet, typhoon risk	Very hot, dry	Wet afternoons
August	Hot, wet, typhoon risk	Very hot, dry	Wettest, still workable
September	Terraces gold, storms	Flood season begins	Wet, easing
October	The best month	Worst of the flooding	Drying out
November	Excellent, dry and clear	Still unreliable	Dry season starts
December	Cold and grey again	Cool, showery	Dry and warm

The north: Hanoi, the bays, Ninh Binh, Sapa, Ha Giang, Pu Luong

December to February is winter, and visitors from warm countries are consistently caught out by it. Hanoi sits around 57 to 68 F (14 to 20 C) and can stay under 50 F (10 C) for days beneath low grey cloud. The mountains are colder again, occasionally near freezing, and views can be under cloud for a week. Hotels here are not heated to the standard a European expects, and the damp makes it feel colder than the number.

March and April bring the crachin, the fine persistent drizzle that sits on the bays and makes the karst either atmospheric or invisible, depending on the hour. Temperatures climb into the seventies and eighties Fahrenheit (low to high twenties Celsius). A good window, not a perfect one.

May to September is hot and wet, above 95 F (35 C) in July, with humidity that makes the middle of the day unusable. Rain comes in heavy bursts rather than all day. Typhoons cross the Gulf of Tonkin between July and October and close the bays, sometimes for two or three days at a time. The compensation is the far north: the rice terraces are green in June and turn gold in late September, which is the finest fortnight of the year in Ha Giang.

October and November are the best weeks in the north, without argument. Dry, clear, in the seventies Fahrenheit (low twenties Celsius), with reliable mountain roads. This is when we send people to Ha Giang.

The centre: Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Phong Nha

February to August is dry, and genuinely so. April to June is the sweet spot: hot, bright, with the sea warm and the Ancient Town at its best early in the morning. July and August are very hot and the beaches earn their keep.

September to December is the problem window, and it is the single most important thing to understand about Vietnamese planning. The central coast takes its rain in one block, typhoons make landfall between September and November, and Hoi An floods. Not metaphorically: the Ancient Town goes under water most years, shops move their stock upstairs and carry on, and boats replace bicycles in the lanes. Roads close and flights into Danang are cancelled. October and November are the worst of it.

This is the awkward fact of the country. The months that are perfect in the north are unreliable in the centre. We handle it by building the central days so they can move, sometimes by putting Hoi An early in the route so a flood has somewhere to go, and by telling you in advance rather than afterwards. More on how the centre works in Hoi An and the centre.

The south: Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc, Con Dao

Warm all year at 82 to 95 F (28 to 35 C), with no cold season at all.

November to April is the dry season and the best time to be here, with March to May the hottest stretch. May to October is wet, though not in the way people fear: a heavy downpour in the late afternoon, then it clears. It rarely wrecks a day, rates are lower and the delta is greenest.

Phu Quoc follows the same pattern. Con Dao runs the other way and is at its best from March to September, which is occasionally useful when nothing else lines up.

Tet, and why it changes everything

Vietnamese Lunar New Year moves each year between late January and mid February, and it is the most disruptive week in the calendar.

In the days around it, most family-run restaurants close, many shops shut, museums close for several days, domestic flights and trains sell out months ahead at roughly double the fare, and staff go home to their villages. The country is not shut, exactly, but it is not open for business either.

The week before Tet is genuinely worth seeing: flower markets, kumquat trees on the back of motorbikes, a whole country in motion. Travelling through Tet without knowing it is Tet is a bad holiday. Because the date moves with the lunar calendar we always check where your dates fall before quoting, and we say so plainly if they land badly. The other domestic peaks are 30 April with 1 May, and 2 September.

So which month would we pick?

March or April. The fewest compromises anywhere in the country: the north in its shoulder, the centre dry, the south dry. This is our default recommendation for a first two-week trip and it is what sits behind classic Vietnam in 16 days.

October or November. The best possible north, and a real risk in the centre that we route around. If the northern mountains are the reason you are going, take this window and accept that Hoi An may need to move.

June to August. A different trip, and a good one: less city, more coast and mountain, early starts, and the far north when the terraces are green. Rates are lower and the bays are busier with domestic travellers.

December and January. Excellent in the south, cold and grey in the north. If your dates are fixed here we would weight the route southwards rather than pretend Hanoi will be pleasant.

What the month does to the price

Peak in the south and the centre is roughly December to March, and peak in the north is October and November. The bays and the best small hotels are where the seasonal difference bites hardest, and Tet raises domestic flights sharply. A June trip at the same hotel standard can be twenty to thirty percent cheaper than the same route in March. Our Vietnam cost article works through the whole budget.

Plan this trip

Tell us your dates and we will tell you honestly what they will be like in each region, then build the route to suit them. Free first outline, no obligation.

Start planning →

Keep reading

Frequently asked questions

Is there one month that works everywhere?

April comes closest. Even then the north can be misty and the south is at its hottest.

Will a typhoon actually affect us?

Between July and October in the north and September to November in the centre it is a live possibility, usually costing a day or two rather than a trip. We build routes so the vulnerable days can move and our Hanoi office reworks them on the ground.

Should we go north to south or south to north?

It depends on your month. In October and November we often start in the south and finish in the north, so the flood-prone central days sit early and have somewhere to move to. In March and April the direction barely matters.

When do the rice terraces look their best?

Green in June, gold in the second half of September and the first week of October. The gold window is short and it moves each year with the planting.

How far ahead should we book?

Four to six months for October to April, longer for dates near Tet or for a specific boat. Two to three months is comfortable outside the peak. —

East Asia

Southeast Asia

South Asia

Central Asia and the Caucasus

Beyond Asia

Not sure where?

Vietnam month by month, region by region