VacationSelector
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals
The City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh CityThe City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City

Photos: Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ho Chi Minh City by trungydang, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Fort Lauderdale or Ho Chi Minh City?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’s own page.

Choose Ho Chi Minh City for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Ho Chi Minh City’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Fort Lauderdale 88, Ho Chi Minh City 18: Fort Lauderdale leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Fort Lauderdale 47, Ho Chi Minh City 86: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Lauderdale 28, Ho Chi Minh City 55: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Fort Lauderdale 52, Ho Chi Minh City 70: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Lauderdale 62, Ho Chi Minh City 28: Fort Lauderdale leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Fort Lauderdale and Ho Chi Minh City are level on 58.
Good for families. Fort Lauderdale 66, Ho Chi Minh City 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Fort Lauderdale 32, Ho Chi Minh City 38: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Lauderdale 52, Ho Chi Minh City 55: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Fort Lauderdale 32, Ho Chi Minh City 92: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Lauderdale 42, Ho Chi Minh City 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Lauderdale 40, Ho Chi Minh City 60: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Lauderdale and Ho Chi Minh City.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Fort Lauderdale
50match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Ho Chi Minh City
Best match
53match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Ho Chi Minh City in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
285 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Fort LauderdaleHo Chi Minh City

Where the figures come from

Ho Chi Minh City has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre). Ho Chi Minh City: 1991-2020 normals, Ho Chi Minh (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort LauderdaleHo Chi Minh City
Official language-Vietnamese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dong (VND)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACFG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114
Elevation11 m13 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsTan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)7 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFort LauderdaleHo Chi Minh City
City population182,76014,002,598
People per km²1,8292,068
Museums within 10 km69
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Lauderdale or Ho Chi Minh City somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.