Vietnam averages 4-6 typhoons making landfall or directly hitting the mainland in a year, and they never hit the whole country at once. The worst window for the central coast — Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An — is early October to mid-November, when Da Nang alone averages 467 mm of rain in November. The north takes its typhoons three months earlier, June to August. The south mostly gets afternoon monsoon rain, May to October. If your dates are locked, the fix is to move the region, not cancel the trip.
I run tours out of Da Nang and have sat through every central-coast October since 2023, including the last week of October 2025, when Hoi An’s Thu Bon River went 14 cm above its 1964 record. I also sell tours here, so weigh my “come anyway” advice accordingly. That is why every figure below comes from meteorological records and carries a source at the bottom.
Which weeks are actually the worst, region by region?
There is no single bad month for Vietnam. The country stretches from the Chinese border to the Mekong Delta, and the storm track migrates down that coast as the season progresses: north in mid-summer, central in autumn, with the far south on its own monsoon clock. The table below is the short answer — find your region, read the worst window, and check the safe window in the last column before you book flights.
| Region (main stops) | Worst weeks | Wettest month (avg) | Main risk | Safest window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North (Hanoi, Ha Long, Sapa) | mid-June – August | August, 338 mm (Hanoi) | Direct typhoon landfall, landslides | October – April |
| Central coast (Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An) | early October – mid-November | November, 467 mm (Da Nang) | Flooding, late-season typhoons | February – August |
| Central Highlands (Dak Lak, Gia Lai) | September – early November | — | Late typhoon landfall | December – April |
| South (Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong) | June – September | September, 321 mm (HCMC) | Daily monsoon downpours, street flooding | December – April |
| South-central coast (Nha Trang) | October – December | November, 330 mm | Short wet season, inverted vs the south | January – April |
| Phu Quoc | outside the dry season (May – October) | — | Heavy island monsoon | November/December – April |
Rainfall figures are long-term monthly averages from climate-data.org and weather-and-climate.com; the risk windows follow the US Embassy in Hanoi’s typhoon season guidance and Vietnam’s national forecaster. If you want the positive version of this table — what each month is good for rather than what it ruins — I wrote that separately in the best time to visit Vietnam .
Why does central Vietnam flood in October and November?
Central Vietnam catches the northeast monsoon against the Truong Son mountains at the same moment the typhoon track has swung south. Da Nang averages 467 mm in November against 87 mm in April. Hue’s rainy season runs September to December and peaks in October near 407 mm across roughly 14 rainy days. Hoi An’s old quarter takes 50-150 cm of water in the streets, typically October to mid-November.
October 2025 showed the ceiling of that risk rather than the average. Hue recorded 1,085 mm of rain in 24 hours by 27 October — the highest 24-hour total ever measured in Vietnam. The Bo River crested at 5.31 m the same day, past its 2020 record. Three days later the Thu Bon River at Hoi An reached 5.62 m, 0.14 m above the historic 1964 flood. That came weeks after Typhoon Bualoi killed at least 13 people in the same central provinces in September 2025.
A normal October is milder: three or four days of hard rain, a wet fortnight, and an old quarter you walk through in sandals, with maybe one week where the boats come out. The problem is that you cannot know in June which week of October you will get, and a 10-day trip has no slack to absorb it. The month matters more than the city — Hoi An, Hue and Da Nang compared covers the rest.
When is the north at risk, and why is it a different season?
The north runs on its own clock. Hanoi’s wettest month is August at 338 mm, with a rainy season from May to September, and the typhoons that reach Quang Ninh and Hai Phong arrive June to August — while the central coast is still dry. By the time Hoi An floods in late October, Hanoi and Ha Long are heading into their best months.
Typhoon Yagi set the northern benchmark. It made landfall at Quang Ninh and Hai Phong on 7 September 2024 with winds over 200 km/h, which the government called the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnamese land in 70 years. It killed close to 60 people and did roughly 28 trillion VND (about $1.14 bn) of damage in Quang Ninh province alone. Ha Long Bay cruises stop entirely when a storm is inbound, and mountain roads around Sapa and the Ha Giang loop close for landslides rather than wind.
What about the south — is the monsoon a dealbreaker?
Not usually. Ho Chi Minh City’s rainy season runs May to October with every one of those months over 200 mm, peaking in September at 321 mm spread across about 20 rainy days. That last number is the useful one: the rain arrives as a violent afternoon burst, floods a few streets for an hour, and clears. Mornings are mostly usable. The reliably dry window is December to April.
“The south is immune to typhoons” is the part that is wrong. Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall on 6 November 2025 in Dak Lak and Gia Lai — the central highlands, well south of Hoi An — with sustained winds near 149 km/h. It killed 5 people in Vietnam, forced the evacuation of more than 260,000, and cut power to 1.28 million households. Late-season storms drift further south than most itineraries assume.
Where do you go instead when the centre is flooding?
North, or Phu Quoc. Hanoi’s dry window opens in October and runs to April, precisely when Hoi An is at its worst. Phu Quoc is dry from November or December through April. Nha Trang looks like the obvious swap and it is the wrong one: it peaks at 330 mm in November, the same month as Da Nang, because the whole coast turns wet together in autumn.
Nha Trang earns its reputation on the annual total and on the summer. It takes about 1,280 mm a year against Da Nang’s 2,574 mm, runs a dry season from January to April, and squeezes its wet months into September-December — so it stays comparatively dry through May to August, while Ho Chi Minh City is deep in monsoon. Nha Trang vs Phu Quoc is a real decision, but it is a summer decision rather than an October one.
This is the point where people usually write to me. Your leave is booked for the second week of October, everything you have read says central Vietnam will be underwater that week, and it might be. What I do is rebuild the route around the dates you already have: the same trip through Hanoi and the north instead of Hoi An, with the forecast watched in the week before you fly. Send me your dates on Telegram and I will tell you which half of the country is actually dry in them.
How do you plan around it without cancelling?
Four rules cover most of it. Let your dates choose the region. Keep two spare days in any October or November itinerary through the centre. Book refundable accommodation for the flood weeks. And check the forecast at 5-7 days out — beyond a week, a typhoon track is still guesswork.
Storms here are forecast days ahead and the country handles them competently — evacuations happen, cruises stop, flights get moved. What actually ruins a holiday is a rigid 10-day itinerary through the centre in the last week of October with no room to shift.
If you would rather not run this calculation yourself, that is what my team in Da Nang does — we build the route around your dates and watch the forecast in the week before you land. Message me on Telegram with your dates and I will tell you honestly whether they work and where. To see the country first, Instagram @vietnam_samurai is where the real weather ends up, flooded weeks included.
Methodology: Where These Numbers Come From
Monthly rainfall averages for Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc come from climate-data.org and weather-and-climate.com, both built on long-term station records, accessed July 2026. Where the two disagreed by a few millimetres I used the lower figure.
Season and landfall windows follow the US Embassy in Hanoi’s typhoon guidance and Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (nchmf.gov.vn ), the official body that issues storm warnings. Storm details — dates, landfall provinces, wind speeds, casualties — come from Al Jazeera, CNN, the Washington Post and VnExpress, cross-checked against at least two outlets each.
Two things I deliberately left out of the table. There is no published numeric forecast of how many storms will make landfall in Vietnam in 2026 — the national forecaster says only that the season should be less severe than 2025 as ENSO shifts toward El Niño, and I will not convert a qualitative outlook into a number. And no hydrological agency publishes an average flood count for Hoi An, so the “50-150 cm, October to mid-November” range is a pattern rather than a statistic.
Frequently asked questions
When is typhoon season in Vietnam?
The core season runs June to November. The wider East Sea cyclone season spans May to December, so early-May and December storms do happen — they are just rarer and usually weaker than the September-November peak.
Is it safe to visit Vietnam during typhoon season?
Generally yes. Storms are forecast several days out and the response is organised. Vietnam’s national forecaster expects the 2026 season to be less severe than 2025 as conditions shift toward El Niño, though seasonal outlooks move.
How often does Hoi An flood?
No hydrological agency publishes an average. What is documented is the timing — October to mid-November — and the scale in a bad year: the October 2025 floods forced more than 8,600 people to evacuate across four central provinces.
When is the dry season in Phu Quoc?
November or December through April. December averages around 104 mm and February drops to roughly 34-40 mm, which is why the island fills up exactly when the central coast is at its wettest.
Can you visit Ho Chi Minh City during the rainy season?
Yes — the rain concentrates into short afternoon bursts rather than all-day drizzle, so mornings stay usable. If you want it properly dry, February is the driest month of the year at about 12 mm.