Ho Chi Minh City's most comfortable stretch: the coolest temperatures of the year (relatively speaking, this is still the tropics), the lowest humidity, and the least rain. December carries a small, fading risk of a late-season tropical cyclone, and by February the heat is already creeping back up, but this is as good as the weather gets here. Expect the busiest, priciest hotel rates of the year too.

This tier spans quite different halves of the year. March and April are still officially dry season, but the heat becomes intense, regularly climbing toward the year's hottest days, and April's first showers signal the monsoon is close. May, June, and October sit within the wetter half of the year, rain is frequent, but conditions haven't reached the deepest, most saturated stretch of the monsoon yet. November sees the rains largely retreat, though a late typhoon is still possible into early December.

The heart of the monsoon, when rain falls on the majority of days and September, the wettest month of the year, can bring flooding to low-lying parts of the city. Humidity peaks here too. Hotel prices drop to their lowest point of the year to match.