Vietnam's Rainy Season, Month by Month

Vietnam does not have one rainy season. It has three, and they run at different times. The north is wet from roughly May to September, the south from May to November, and central Vietnam, which includes Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An and Phong Nha, is wet from September to December with the worst of it in October and November. The country is almost never entirely wet, and never entirely dry. For the wider seasons picture, read our honest month by month guide to when to visit Vietnam. This travel guide is about the rain itself: what it does, and what to do about it.

Vietnam has three rainy seasons

The country sits under two monsoon systems. The north and the south follow the southwest monsoon and get their rain in summer. Central Vietnam does the opposite. The Truong Son mountains run along its western edge, and when the northeast monsoon pushes moist sea air inland in autumn, that air hits the mountains and drops everything it carries on the coastal strip. That is why the centre is wettest in October, while Hanoi and Saigon dry out.

In annual totals, Hue takes 2,795 mm a year, Dong Hoi 2,190 mm and Da Nang 2,145 mm, against 1,930 mm in Ho Chi Minh City and 1,610 mm in Hanoi. The centre is not just wet at a different time, it is wetter in total, and it takes most of that rain in three months.

The north is also the only part of Vietnam with anything close to four seasons. Hanoi swings from a mean of 17.1°C in January to 30.0°C in June. Hue moves less, 21.3°C to 29.9°C, and Ho Chi Minh City barely moves at all, 26.9°C to 30.4°C, which is why the south is usually described as having two seasons rather than four: wet and dry.

So: when the north and south are drying out, the centre is at its wettest, and the other way round. A traveller who understands that reorders their route instead of cancelling the trip.

Hoi An looks the best during rainy weather in Vietnam!

Vietnam rainfall by month

Before the month notes, here is the whole year in one place. Same sources: Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City are 1991 to 2020, Dong Hoi is 2000 to 2020, all from Climates to Travel. Figures are average rainfall in millimetres.

Follow the Hue column down and you can see the whole problem. Nine months of the year it is drier than Hanoi. Then October arrives.

Month by month

January. Central Vietnam is drying out. The north is cold, grey and damp, with drizzle that never quite becomes rain. The south is dry. Bring a fleece for Hanoi and Sapa, not a raincoat.

February. The driest month in the south, 5 mm in Ho Chi Minh City. Central Vietnam is settling down and cave season is properly open. The north stays cool and misty. The easiest month to combine all three regions.

March. Dry almost everywhere. Central Vietnam warms up, the north lifts out of its winter grey, and the south is hot and clear. If you want one month with no compromises anywhere, this is it, along with April.

April. Still dry nationwide, and the last comfortable month before real heat. Showers begin in the south late in the month. In Phong Nha the streams are low and the trekking is at its most manageable. Book cave and jungle trips now rather than in June.

Ho Chi Minh city road during heavy downpour

May. The southwest monsoon arrives. Rain starts in the north and the south, usually as heavy late-afternoon storms rather than all-day rain. Central Vietnam is hot and mostly dry. Start days early to beat the heat.

June. Peak heat in the centre, Dong Hoi averaging 31.2°C with days into the high thirties. The Ha Giang loop is green and dramatic now, but small mountain roads can be blocked for hours after heavy overnight rain.

July. The north is at its wettest and Ha Long Bay cruises are occasionally cancelled for storms. The south has daily downpours that pass in an hour. Central Vietnam is dry and very hot, with Phong Nha's rivers at their lowest and clearest.

August. Hanoi's wettest month. The south keeps its afternoon rhythm. Central Vietnam gets its first real rain of the year and this is the last dependable month for river caves before the season turns. Watch the forecast from mid-month.

September. The switch. The north starts to dry and the centre jumps to 475 mm in Dong Hoi, nearly triple August. Son Doong and Hang En stop running, and storms become likely on the coast. If your trip is centred on Phong Nha, September is a gamble that worsens every week.

October. The wettest month in central Vietnam by a wide margin: 650 mm in Dong Hoi and Da Nang, 755 mm in Hue. It is also the peak of flood season. One upside, the rain drags the temperature down, and Dong Hoi averages 25.9°C in October against 31.2°C in June. If you are set on Hue or Hoi An this month, keep your schedule loose and your bookings refundable.

November. Still wet in the centre, though the north and south are pleasant. Typhoon risk persists on the coast. A north and south itinerary works beautifully in November. A central one does not.

December. Central rain falls off sharply. The south is dry, the north cold and damp. Hang En reopens, so this is when Phong Nha starts being reliable again. Pack layers for anywhere north of Hue.

Hanoi in rain

Typhoon season, and what it actually means

Vietnam's typhoon season runs from around 20 April to 10 December, and on the central coast the risky window is early September to 10 December, according to Climates to Travel. That is the same period as the central rainy season. The rain and the storms come from the same weather pattern.

The honest version: typhoons are tracked for days before they arrive. Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting issues warnings, provinces act on them, and by the time a storm is close, everyone in town knows. Most travellers caught by one lose two or three days rather than face any danger. Flights into Dong Hoi, Hue and Da Nang get cancelled the day before landfall and rebooked once it passes. The Reunification Express slows or halts, and services are cut when track is under water. Buses stop because sections of Highway 1A and the Ho Chi Minh Highway flood. Our guide to getting to Phong Nha by train, bus, plane and motorbike covers the routes that recover first, which is usually the train once the water drops.

What about the 2026 season specifically? Nobody can tell you yet. Long-range forecasts for a single monsoon are not reliable enough to plan a trip around, so treat September to December 2026 as the same risk window as any other year and check the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting once you are inside a ten-day horizon.

The flooding that follows the storm is usually the bigger disruption. On 26 to 27 October 2025 the Bach Ma station near Hue recorded 1,739.6 mm of rain in 24 hours, a national record. In Hoi An that same week, Old Town streets were under 1 to 1.5 m of water, reaching 1.78 m at 4am on 27 October. That is an extreme year, not a normal one, but it is why nobody local treats an October forecast casually.

What the rain does to cave and jungle tours

This is where general advice stops being useful. Water levels, not rainfall totals, decide whether a cave tour runs.

The river caves close first. Son Doong does not operate from September to the end of December, because an underground river runs through it and flood water inside can rise tens of metres. Hang En runs December to mid September and shuts from late September through November for the same reason. Those closures are set by the river, not by demand.

Jungle Boss has no fixed closure calendar, because the weather is different every year. Tours are assessed against conditions, and route elevation does a lot of the work. Route 24 sits higher, so light or scattered rain does not change the itinerary. Route 17 is lower and is affected sooner. Through September to November, the sales team sends weather updates so guests can move their date before they are standing at the trailhead.

Water changes the treks themselves, not just whether they run. The Hang En trek involves around 30 river crossings, knee to waist deep in normal conditions. The Elephant Cave and Ma Da Valley day trip includes a 600 m swim through Tra Ang Cave and several river crossings, and takes children from age 9. Add rain and the same crossing becomes faster, higher and a different judgement call. On the Tra Ang route you cross the stream on a fixed safety rope, and after heavy rain that crossing is where a guide will turn a group around.

Leeches are real and completely manageable. Jungle Boss confirms they are present and provides leech spray. Long socks tucked into your trousers handles most of it. They are unpleasant, harmless, and not a reason to change your trip. Slippery trails are the bigger problem. Use poles, slow down, and expect a wet-season descent to take noticeably longer than the same trail in April.

Phong Nha town floods too, and often. A study of flood vulnerability there found 81% of households suffered flood damage in the five years from 2019 to 2023, with flooding occurring annually. The October 2020 flood hit 85% of homes, around 52% of them under 1 to 3 m of water. For a visitor, a flood day looks like this: boats to Phong Nha Cave stop, the riverside road goes under, homestays move guests upstairs, and dry caves at higher elevation carry on. In late October 2024, after Storm Trami, Quang Binh suspended all cave tours, forest expeditions and river activities across Phong Nha Ke Bang at once. Those suspensions last days, not weeks.

If a tour is cancelled for weather, the Jungle Boss cancellation policy is specific. You are told as soon as possible and offered a new departure date at no extra cost, or an alternative tour not affected by the weather, with the price difference refunded or charged. Refuse both and you get a 100% refund of the tour price paid. For force majeure events including weather, the policy states a 100% refund. Cancelling by choice is different: multi-day tours refund 100% at 7 days' notice, 50% at 3 days, and nothing inside 3 days.

What is actually better in the rainy season

Waterfalls that are a trickle in June run properly in October. The calcite pools inside the caves fill up, and the jungle waterfalls near the Phong Nha routes only look like the photographs when there has been rain. Cave interiors stay around 22 to 25°C all year, so a wet-season cave is as comfortable as a dry-season one while the outside sits well below June's 31.2°C average.

The rice terraces in the north are green in the wet months and brown in the dry ones. There are fewer people on the trails, guides have more time for you, and rooms in Phong Nha, Hue and Hoi An are cheaper and easier to get at short notice.

Now the honest part - October in Hue is not so good if you have three days and a fixed schedule. Wet clothes do not dry. Photographs come out flat and grey. If you cannot afford to lose a day, do not book central Vietnam in October or November.

How to plan around it

Follow the dry weather rather than fight it. A rough two-week shape, depending on when you arrive:

• Arriving June to August: start in the centre while it is dry and hot, then go south, where afternoon storms leave your mornings free. Save the north for another trip or accept the rain.
• Arriving September to November: do the north and the south. Hanoi, Ninh Binh and Ha Giang are at their best in October and November. Add Phong Nha only if you have spare days, and put it at the end so you can move it.
• Arriving December to April: go anywhere in any order. February to April is the only stretch when all three regions are dry at once.

The Phong Nha cave tour guide explains which caves are wet and which are dry, and the full tour list shows what runs at short notice.

For packing, the short version for wet-season central Vietnam:

1. Quick-dry clothing only, and one full set kept sealed in a dry bag for camp.
2. Trail shoes you accept will be soaked, plus long socks for leeches.
3. A poncho rather than a rain jacket, because a jacket cooks you at 28°C.
4. Dry bags for phone, passport and camera, not just a plastic bag.
5. Cash, because power cuts take card machines down.

Our jungle trek packing list covers what the tour supplies and what you carry. One habit worth borrowing from the things not to do in Vietnam list: do not book a tight, non-refundable central Vietnam schedule in October and expect the weather to cooperate.

FAQs

1. Is it rainy season in Vietnam now?

It depends which part you mean. In late August the north is at the end of its wet season, the south is mid-season with afternoon storms, and central Vietnam is just starting, with Dong Hoi rainfall rising from 165 mm in August to 475 mm in September. By late October the centre is at its peak while the north and south are pleasant.

2. When is the rainy season in central Vietnam?

September to December, peaking in October and November. Dong Hoi near Phong Nha averages 475 mm in September, 650 mm in October and 320 mm in November, against 75 mm in July (Climates to Travel, 2000 to 2020). Hue is wetter still, 755 mm in October. This is the opposite of the north and south, which are wet in summer.

3. Is Phong Nha flooded?

Not usually, but it floods most years. A study of Phong Nha town found flooding occurs annually and that 81% of households suffered flood damage between 2019 and 2023. When it happens, river boat trips and low-lying roads shut for a few days while dry caves at higher ground keep running. Check with your operator on the day rather than writing off the trip.

4. Does Vietnam get typhoons?

Yes. The season runs from about 20 April to 10 December, and the central coast is most exposed from early September to 10 December. Storms are forecast days ahead, so the practical effect is cancelled flights, halted trains and suspended tours rather than personal danger. After Storm Trami in October 2024, Quang Binh suspended all cave and river activity across the national park.

5. Can I still do cave tours in the rainy season?

Some, not all. River caves including Son Doong and Hang En have hard seasonal closures because underground water levels become dangerous. Dry caves at higher elevation run through most conditions, and Jungle Boss keeps Route 24 tours going in light or scattered rain. There is no fixed closure calendar, so the answer for your date comes from asking.

6. What happens if my tour is cancelled because of weather?

Jungle Boss contacts you as soon as possible and offers a new date at no extra cost, or an alternative tour unaffected by the weather, refunding or charging the price difference. If neither works, the policy is a 100% refund of the tour price paid. Force majeure cancellations, weather included, are refunded in full.

7. Does the Ha Giang loop work in the rainy season?

It runs, but June to August is the wettest period in the north, with Hanoi averaging 255 to 275 mm in July and August. Mountain roads get slippery and small routes can be blocked for hours after overnight rain. The scenery is at its greenest. If you are not a confident rider, take an easy rider driver rather than the wheel.

8. Which month should you not visit Vietnam?

It depends where you are going. Avoid Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An and Phong Nha in October, the wettest month on the central coast and the peak of flood season. Avoid the far north in July and August, when Hanoi averages 255 to 275 mm. The best time of year for a whole-country trip is February to April, when all three regions are dry at once.

9. Is Vietnam wet in September?

It depends on the region, and September is the month where the map flips. The north is drying out, Hanoi down to 245 mm from 275 mm in August. The south is still in the wet season at 325 mm in Ho Chi Minh City, mostly afternoon storms. Central Vietnam gets hit hard, with Dong Hoi jumping from 165 mm in August to 475 mm. Son Doong and Hang En both stop running in September.

10. When should you not visit Ho Chi Minh City?

June to September is the wettest stretch in Ho Chi Minh City, peaking at 325 mm in September. It is rarely a trip-ruiner. The rain arrives as a heavy afternoon downpour, lasts under an hour, and floods some streets briefly. December to March is drier and more comfortable, though February and March are hot and hazy. The south gets far fewer typhoons than the centre and north.