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We are just beginning our plans to take a 2-3 week trip to Vietnam/Cambodia
and would like to know the optimal month to travel.
Thanks
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best month to travel in Vietnam/Cambodia
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Best months are from late November until mid April.
It depends on where you want to travel to in VietNam. Central Vietnam gets flooding in November. In Dec and especially January it can be cold in Sapa and Halong Bay. For the Cambodia Nov, Dec and January are the least hot.
take a look at www.weatherbase.com and look at each location you want to visit.
I agree that you need to look at each place in terms of rain and temps, as they can vary. I think Hanoi would be great in January, but you may find the temps too cool if you were expecting “tropical”. You do have to watch rain in Vietnam in November.
You also will want to look out for holidays. Tet (i.e., the Lunar New Year) can be a good or a bad time to be in Vietnam, you can see local festivities and eat the seasonal foods, but can also find crowds when travelling, and some closures of sights. The time of the holiday varies with the moon phase, it can be anytime from mid Jan to late Feb. Also in places like Ankor Wat you will find lots of Western expats taking a long holiday from places like Hong Kong, Singpaore and the PRC (which are celebrating at that time as well), which may increase prices and make flights less available. So you may want to work around that.
The Cambodian new year is in generally in April, as in Thailand. There are other holidays in both countries which you may want to time your visit with. See guidebooks and websites.
My daughter says April is the worst month in Seim Reap but then her house was flooded in September! I usually visit in July and have no problems with the heat. I try to avoid over air conditioned cars and travel round by tuk tuk. I feel the abrupt changes in temperature are more likely to lead to colds etc.
In my experience March is the perfect time to visit north and central Vietnam. By then the north has warmed up after the winter, central Vietnam has not yet attained the very high temperatures that prevail in the summer, and in both locations rainfall is minimal. Saigon is pretty hot and humid all year round, so there it's more a question off avoiding the rainy season.