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Photo by P. Hughes, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Hanoi

Vietnam · Southeast Asia

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Hanoi

Tap a month for its page

  1. Hanoi in January: sweet spot
  2. Hanoi in February: ok, busy
  3. Hanoi in March: sweet spot
  4. Hanoi in April: sweet spot
  5. Hanoi in May: avoid
  6. Hanoi in June: avoid
  7. Hanoi in July: avoid
  8. Hanoi in August: avoid
  9. Hanoi in September: avoid
  10. Hanoi in October: sweet spot
  11. Hanoi in November: sweet spot, busy
  12. Hanoi in December: ok, busy
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in Jan, Mar, Apr, Oct or Nov — these months score within a whisker of each other; in Mar, 26C max, 5 rainy days. Feb is the next best.

Dry season: Feb–Apr, Nov–Dec, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.

  • Prices thereVery cheap, about 29% of the US
  • MoneyVietnamese đồng
  • PlugsType A and C and F and G, 220 V
  • DrivingOn the right

Things to do in Hanoi

  • Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum The city down south may have his name, but only Hanoi has the man himself, entombed in distinctly Lenin-esque fashion.
  • Hanoi Train Street Buildings press up nearly to the railroad ties of the railway through central Hanoi, creating a narrow corridor for trains to pass through.
  • Temple of Literature The Temple was founded in 1070 and became the country's first university six years later.
  • St. Joseph's Cathedral A late 19th-century Gothic Revival church that serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi.
  • Hoàn Kiếm Lake A pleasant park in the centre of town, an easy walk from anywhere in the Old Quarter.
  • Trấn Quốc Pagoda The oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, on an island near the southeastern shore of West Lake.
  • Presidential Palace Completed in 1906 as the residence of the French Governor-General of Indochina.

Tours and tickets in Hanoi

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Hanoi), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Hanoi in pictures

Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum
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NKSTTSSHNVN, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hanoi Train Street
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Takeshi Aida from Hong Kong, Hong Kong, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Temple of Literature
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The original uploader was Chuoibk at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St. Joseph's Cathedral
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John Ragai, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hoàn Kiếm Lake
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Bem photography:, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trấn Quốc Pagoda
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Thang Nguyen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Presidential Palace
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Jorge Láscar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Month by month

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 21° 7d 76% 4.5h sweet spot 21C max, 7 rainy days
Feb 23° 6d 79% 3.9h okbusy holidays: VN: 29 of Lunar New Year; VN: Fifth Day of Lunar New Year…
Mar 26° 5d 81% 4.2h sweet spot 26C max, 5 rainy days
Apr 29° 5d 81% 6.4h sweet spot 29C max, 5 rainy days
May 32° 12d 81% 8.3h avoid 32C max, 12 rainy days
Jun 33° 14d 80% 8.6h avoid 33C max, 14 rainy days
Jul 33° 14d* 82% 8.7h avoid 33C max, 14 rainy days
Aug 32° 19d 86% 7.8h avoid monsoon: 19 rainy days, 440mm
Sep 31° 15d 84% 8.1h avoid 31C max, 15 rainy days
Oct 28° 10d 78% 7.4h sweet spot 28C max, 10 rainy days
Nov 26° 5d 77% 7.3h sweet spot busy busier than usual
Dec 22° 5d 72% 5.5h okbusy busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Hoan Kiem Lake, the Old Quarter, 22 km from the airport (HAN): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.* Rainy days in July are as the weather station at Ha Dong, Hanoi (11 km away) counts them, where it and the model disagree on a wet month (WMO 48825, 2017–2026).

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in November and December; quietest in May and June.

Then and now

Hanoi's February days now average 22.6°C, 2.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 7 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–9019.4°20.5°24.2°28.2°30.8°32.1°32.3°31.5°30.2°27.1°24.1°21.0°
2017–2621.3°22.6°26.0°29.4°31.5°33.4°32.7°31.8°30.9°28.1°26.0°21.5°
Change+2.0°+2.1°+1.8°+1.2°+0.7°+1.3°+0.4°+0.3°+0.7°+1.1°+1.9°+0.6°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Busy and quiet times in Hanoi

Hanoi experiences a monsoon season from May to October, which brings moderate rain. The climate normals indicate that the summer months can be quite humid and hot, which may affect comfort during travel.

Busiest
early Jul to late Aug — This is the peak summer season with the highest temperatures and humidity, attracting many tourists.
Quieter, still good
early Mar to late Jun — These months offer warmer weather and lower rainfall, providing good conditions for travel.
early Sep to late Nov — The weather is cooler and drier, ideal for visiting after the summer peak.
Wet or stormy
early May to late Oct — monsoon, moderate
Watch out for extreme heat; rainy season

Written by a language model from the climate figures above. The month-by-month table is measured — ten years of ERA5 readings and published holiday calendars — and where the two disagree, the table is the one to believe.

What Hanoi is like

Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Nội), the capital of Vietnam and its second-largest city, is a fascinating blend of East and West, with Chinese influence from centuries of dominance, and French je ne sais quoi from its colonial past. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Fine Arts Museum (Bảo Tàng Mỹ Thuật), Nguyen Thai Hoc St (opposite Temple of Literature). Only party-approved art is shown here with information in English and Vietnamese. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Flavors of Hanoi, Hang Be, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. A local foodie experiences provider, they offer personal street food tours to help visitors explore Hanoi’s Old Quarter and French Quarter through their taste buds. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Nội Bài International Airport (HAN IATA) (35 km north of the city center). You can transfer through Nội Bài to other international destinations without a visa as long as you do not leave the terminal. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe
The simple act of walking can be intimidating, especially in the narrow streets around the Old Quarter. More on Wikivoyage
Staying healthy
Public hospitals are generally poorly equipped and overcrowded, and staff tend to speak little to no English. As such, foreigners are highly advised to rely on private hospitals instead. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Hanoi, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Getting there

How far Hanoi is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Like a local in Hanoi

On arrival

  • Paying — Cards work in hotels, malls and tourist places; carry cash for street food, markets and small shops. Most shops show a VietQR code, which some Asian bank and wallet apps can now scan.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Not expected, though welcome in tourist places. Carry small notes so a taxi driver cannot keep the change.

Getting around Hanoi

Tap a contactless Visa card or a phone at the gates of metro lines 2A and 3; station ticket counters and the Hà Nội Metro app also sell tickets.

  • Apps — Rides: Green SM, Grab, Be. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Zalo, WhatsApp. Green SM, the electric taxi and motorbike app, was called Xanh SM until April 2026, so older signs and guides use that name.

Getting around Hanoi can be a challenge: traffic slows to a crawl for most of the day, and the public transport system has not kept up with the city's explosive growth. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Hanoi, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — police 113 · ambulance 115 · fire 114. The emergency lines answer in Vietnamese only.
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (21)

Before you go

Type A and C and F and G plugs at 220 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Vietnamese đồng. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Entry rules for British travellers. Everything for Vietnam: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Around Hanoi

Also in Vietnam

Nearby

Routes through here

Kind of place

Hanoi is in Vietnam, Southeast Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and holiday data before any link is built.