MiamiBeachMomma

Are we crazy to visit Vietnam/Cambodia/Bangkok in late July early August???

What kind of rain can we expect? What kind of heat?

We were in Granada 2 summers ago and it was 105 degrees - it was insanely hot!!!
Last summer in Munich it was in the 90s every day.

Trying to make some quick decisions before United Reward tickets go up Feb 1st!!

crellston

Being a long thin country Vietnam weather varies by location but in July and August you can expect heavy rain and hot humid weather. Not as hot as Granada but a lot less comfortable because of the high humidity. We lived near Granada for a while and it does get incredibly hot we saw temps of around 45c at times. The max you will normally get in Vietnam, being in the tropics is around 30-35c It is also the typhoon season in Central and Nothern Vietnam. Not the best time to go but we have visited at that time of year and had a good time with plenty of sunshine in between the showers. Hotel rates may well be lower as there are likely to be fewer tourists around.

MiamiBeachMomma

Grappling with summer or Christmas Break trip.

I know Christmas will be very busy and we have a shorter window of time and no flexibility. Weather will be colder in the North and can snow, right?

Until my kids graduate from high school these are our only choices for traveling far off places like SE Asia.

MiamiBeachMomma

And because of camp and school we really can only travel in the summer between mid July and mid August.

crellston

Given your situation, I would travel in Dec or jan. Yes, prices will be higher and it will be a bit busier, but the weather generally will be much better. We were there over the Xmas / NY period a few years ago and had pretty good weather overall. We had freeing temps in Sapa one day and 75f and blue skies the next. Unfortunately, in these days of climate change it is impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy what the weather will be like at any given time.

mareeS55

Getting towards the monsoon. There can be bad floods in August. Take your chances. Nov-March is better.

Kathie

Take a look at one of the weather sites. I use www.weatherbase.com You'll see that different areas of the country get monsoons at different times. For instance central VN - Hoi An, Hue, Da Nang often get flooding in November. Other places, both north and south are much drier in November.

jgg

We were in Vietnam in dec. 2011 with our kids. Spent Christmas there. It was warm in the south in HCMC and Mekong Delta. Cooler in HoiAn with some rain, so no beach time but we still had an amazing time there. Also cooler in Hanoi and Halong Bay. Locals were all wearing puffy coats - but really not quite THAT cold. We were still able to do everything. Only did the 1N/2D Halong Bay Cruise because was too cold to do any water activities, but still loved it and we found the cooler weather and light clouds to bring more mystery to Halong. Would have loved to go to Sapa but we did skip that due to weather at that time of year - but will definitely go there on the next trip!

Personally, we enjoyed the trip a lot more than a previous trip to Thailand/Cambodia in late March/early April which was their hottest time of the year.

Here is a link to my Vietnam trip report along with pictures:
http://www.fromhometoroam.com/catego...hristmas-2011/