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According to my guidebook, spring is the best time to visit Vietnam because it is not cold and not hot. Indeed, it is about 26C most days and the Vietnamese repeat often that this is good weather.

What it fails to mention is that Vietnam is blanketed by a permanent fog and cloud cover is 100% all the time, every single day. I asked around and everyone says this is normal for this time of the year and I am getting different answers or blank looks when I ask when it gets clearer. Everything looks depressing and dull now, even the famous Halong Bay is barely visible.

When does Vietnam experience the most clear days? Of course, I know weather varies and I do not expect a season with absolutely no clouds but which months would have the least clouds?

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    What part of Vietnam? It's over 1600 km from one end to the other, and elevations from 0 to 3000 meters. I would expect it to have some very different weather patterns in different places.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Apr 8, 2017 at 3:37
  • At sea level lets say, that includes most touristy areas. I was told it was like this everywhere, except colder when you go into the mountains but permanently cloudy nonetheless. Actually, I didn't even know it went up that high! It looks so flat to me except for the limestone bumps once sees once in a while.
    – Itai
    Apr 8, 2017 at 3:52
  • It's OK if the answer names different periods for different parts, I wouldn't know without asking!
    – Itai
    Apr 8, 2017 at 3:54

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Northern Vietnam and southern Vietnam have different climate patterns. Hanoi area, since you mentioned Ha Long Bay, has a rather drizzly spring, even though it is still considered "dry" season. Ho Chi Minh on the other hand is more sunny at that time of year.

But this year has been different, as in more rain, throughout SE Asia. The southern portions of Thailand and coastal areas in other parts of SE Asia have had much more rain than normal, many areas going for days without sunshine. Even here in northern Thailand where we see basically no rain for months, has had a number of unexpected rainy days.

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It very much depends on which area of Vietnam you're talking about. Mountains, coastal flows, even rivers and caves can have their own climate.

From at least one travel guide online, you can see how it differs from region to region.

Northern - November to April seems to have more chance of cloud, and rain

Central - similar with monsoon type weather from Nov to March, although it can depend on the town (see link)

Southern - May to November is raining season (note how it's almost the opposite of the north).

At the bottom of the linked page are charts for climate, rainfall for each month for the regions, followed by links to weather for individual cities.

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  • Good info but I am concerned that no rain does not mean no fog and little clouds. My guidebook helped me avoid the rain, it only rained a few hours in the last week but there has not been a single spot of clear sky.
    – Itai
    Apr 8, 2017 at 8:55

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