When to go: seasons and festivals

Figures are Can Tho climate normals, the nearest published series for most of our routes. Dengue in Vietnam peaks from June to October, mostly in the centre and south, so repellent matters in the rainy months.

The Bà Chúa Xứ festival was inscribed in 2024 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It brings very large crowds to Sam Mountain: plan for heat, queues and full hotels, and book early. Ok Om Bok has been national intangible heritage since 2022; in 2025 it featured 60 ghe Ngo teams on the Maspéro river and a moon offering at Chùa Kh’leang.

We do not publish future solar dates until the organisers announce them. The Festival Journey is built to fit either festival.

Every year the Mekong rises and spreads across the upper delta. VNAT recommends September to November at Chau Doc, when the floodwaters fill the Tra Su forest. In 2025 the government forecast the flood peak at Tan Chau and Chau Doc for 8–13 October, with levels around alarm levels I–II and well below the 2000 records. Downstream, riverside streets in Can Tho and Vinh Long flood at the highest tides in October and November, and residents were advised to limit travel during high tide hours.

For a cultural journey the flood is mostly scenery, and road travel continues. What it changes is boats — river cruise ships sometimes cannot reach Chau Doc under low bridges in high water — and the timing of a few riverside visits.

Rain in the delta usually comes as heavy showers rather than all-day drizzle, and the September total at Can Tho is about 451 mm over some 22 rainy days. You will get wet, and some boat crossings may wait for a storm to pass, but a pagoda visit rarely needs to be cancelled. In return, the landscape is green, the fields full, and the towns quieter outside the festivals.

If you can choose, December to February combines dry weather with the coolest temperatures of the year — still around 30 °C by day.