Hoi An in the rain: a shower and a flood are not the same thing

Between September and December, a good share of travellers who arrive in Hoi An under a grey sky ask the same badly-framed question: what do we do if it rains?

There are in fact two very different situations behind that question, and they are worth handling one at a time rather than together — which is what most guides do not do.

When does it actually rain in Hoi An?

The risk window runs from September to December, peaking in October and November. Central Vietnam does not follow the calendar of the north or the south; October is precisely when it enters the peak of the typhoon and flood season.

The typhoon season broadly spans August to November, with heightened risk in the central coastal provinces from September to November. Monsoon rain there brings a genuine risk of flooding, which in turn causes landslides and temporary closures of roads and railway lines.

What we could not confirm: precise monthly rainfall figures in millimetres for Hoi An. The numbers circulating come from tourist climate sites rather than from an official Vietnamese meteorological service we could reach. Take the order of magnitude — October is statistically the wettest month — without trusting any figure to the millimetre.

Shower or flood: telling them apart

Most rainy days in Hoi An amount to a tropical squall of an hour or two, late in the afternoon. That is the common case, and it is dealt with by sheltering in a café for twenty minutes, not by writing off the day.

A flood is a different thing, and it is not hypothetical. Between 16 and 22 November 2025, record rainfall struck central Vietnam from Quang Tri province down to Dak Lak, with a national toll that reached 90 dead according to the Vietnamese authorities cited by the international press — most of those victims in the highlands of Dak Lak, far from the coast. But the old town of Hoi An itself was submerged several times in late October and November 2025, with streets such as Bach Dang and Nguyen Thai Hoc under water and a level-3 flood alert declared by the local people’s committee on the Thu Bon river.

What that changes in practice: a flooded street in Hoi An is not just a photograph of reflections. Some businesses close, the authorities can restrict access to certain areas, and the road back to Da Nang can be cut by flooding elsewhere in the province.

What to do on an ordinary wet day

This is the common case, and it leaves plenty to fill an afternoon without ever standing in the downpour.

The Precious Heritage Museum. Free, open daily from 08:00 to 18:00 according to the information published by its founder, the photographer Réhahn: more than 200 photographs and 62 traditional costumes from Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups, across 500 m² under cover. It is the easiest thing to slot between two showers, in the middle of the old town.

The Cham sculpture museum in Da Nang. About thirty minutes away. A museum announcement dated 2023 set admission at 50,000 VND per person — we could not verify whether that has changed since, so check it locally or before you set off rather than taking the figure on trust.

A workshop rather than a visit. A cookery class, a lantern-making workshop, a fitting at a tailor: these are the activities that benefit most from a wet day, because they happen indoors anyway. Prices vary too much between operators to be quoted here without being wrong in six months — compare two or three addresses on the spot.

The train to Hue. If the rain settles in for the whole day, head for Da Nang station and take a return trip to Hue, over the Hai Van pass. The line, its classes and its fares are covered in our Hanoi–Saigon train article, which includes this section.

If a flood warning is actually issued

Three reflexes, in order.

1. Follow your accommodation, not social media. Hoi An hotels are used to the Thu Bon rising and often know before the visitors do when a district is starting to go under.
2. Check your own government’s travel advice before and during the trip, particularly if it falls between September and November. That is the page that centralises official alerts for the country, independently of what the viral videos show.
3. Do not treat rising water as an attraction. The images of tourists in boats along flooded streets circulate widely; they do not show the residents who carried their furniture upstairs the night before, nor the power cuts that usually come with these episodes.

What not to do

Book three full nights in Hoi An betting on fine October weather. One spare day, with no fixed plan, absorbs a downpour without costing the rest of the trip anything.

Ignore the city’s posted alert level on the grounds that this happens every year. November 2025 showed that a flood can run well outside the usual pattern — the international press described it as the heaviest rainfall in decades in the region.

Assume a ticket bought in the morning expires that afternoon. That is not what the heritage conservation centre’s announcement says: keep the stub, it stays valid on the following days of the same stay.

The rest of the country’s practical information is on the Vietnam page, which also gives the entry rule for your passport, with its source and the month it was read.