North of Vietnam: March, April, October, November. Central coast: February to August. South: December to April. If your trip has to cover the whole country, late March to mid April is the one window where all three regions behave.
The north: Hanoi, Ha Long, Sapa, Ninh Binh
The north has four real seasons, which is unusual in South East Asia and is the reason half of our favourite frames come from here.
March and April are the kindest months. The winter haze lifts, mornings are cool, and the light has a soft quality that suits a long walking session in the Old Quarter. October and November are the other good window: dry, clear, and warm enough to stand still in a gown at seven in the morning.
December to February is the honest problem. Hanoi sits between roughly ten and seventeen degrees, and the sky can stay a flat grey for a week or more, with a fine drizzle that never becomes proper rain. It is atmospheric for a quiet, cinematic set, and some couples want exactly that. It is not the month for bright blue skies over Ha Long Bay.
May to August is hot and humid, often above thirty five degrees by nine in the morning, with heavy afternoon showers and the beginning of storm season. We still shoot, but we move everything to sunrise and keep the session short.
Sapa deserves its own note. It makes its own weather. Cloud sits in the valley for days, then opens for twenty minutes and gives you the picture of the trip. The rice terraces turn gold in late August and early September, which is the most photogenic fortnight of the year up there, and also the most booked.
The centre: Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An
The central coast runs on the opposite calendar to the north, and this catches people out more than anything else.
February to August is warm, bright and dependable. Hoi An in March, with the lanterns on and the river still, is the easiest beautiful place in Vietnam to photograph.
September to December is storm and flood season. This is not a matter of a shower passing through. The old town of Hoi An floods most years, roads close, and flights into Da Nang are cancelled. We will tell you this before you book rather than after.
The south: Saigon, Phu Quoc, the Mekong
The south has two seasons and both are warm. December to April is dry: clear mornings, hard midday sun, and long, warm evenings that work well for the city at night.
May to November is the rainy season, which in practice means a dramatic downpour in the late afternoon and a clear morning either side of it. Sessions move to sunrise. Phu Quoc and Nha Trang hold their light slightly longer into the season than Saigon does.
Month by month, all three regions
| Month | North | Centre | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Grey, drizzly, cold | Wet, cool | Dry, clear |
| February | Grey, often Tet | Turning bright | Dry, clear |
| March | Best of the year | Excellent | Dry, hot |
| April | Best of the year | Excellent | Hot, still dry |
| May | Hot, humid | Hot, bright | First rains |
| June | Hot, showers | Hot, bright | Afternoon rain |
| July | Hot, storms start | Hot, bright | Afternoon rain |
| August | Storms, rice turns gold in Sapa | Hot, last good month | Afternoon rain |
| September | Clearing, lovely | Storms begin | Afternoon rain |
| October | Very good | Floods | Rain easing |
| November | Very good | Floods | Drying out |
| December | Cold, grey | Wet, cooler | Dry, clear |
What happens when it rains
We do not cancel for rain. A tropical shower is twenty to forty minutes, and the half hour after it is often the best light of the day: wet stone, clean air, no harsh shadow. Our kit always has umbrellas and a car close by, and we know which arcades, doorways and covered bridges work in each city.
What we do move is flooding and typhoons, because those are about safety and roads, not about a wet dress. If a storm is forecast on your date we will say so early and offer another day or another province.
What time of day we shoot
Vietnam is close to the equator, so the sun comes up fast and goes down faster. Golden light lasts roughly twenty to thirty minutes, not the hour you may be used to at home.
- Sunrise session. We meet about forty minutes before sunrise. Streets and beaches are empty, the temperature is bearable in a gown, and the light is clean.
- Late afternoon session. We start about three hours before sunset, use the shade while the sun is hard, and save the open frames for the last half hour.
- After dark. Saigon and Hanoi both photograph beautifully at night. We light these frames ourselves, and they are often the ones couples print.
Tet and the two weeks around it
Lunar New Year is the one date that changes everything. For about a week the country stops. Studios close, make-up artists go home to their provinces, drivers are with their families, and domestic flights double in price for the week on either side.
The first two mornings of Tet give you something you cannot get at any other time: Hanoi with no traffic, peach blossom on every corner, and whole streets to yourselves. Some couples plan their trip around exactly that. Just tell us your dates early so we can tell you honestly whether we can staff them.