VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh CityThe City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ho Chi Minh City by trungydang, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Ho Chi Minh City for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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. Galway 28, Ho Chi Minh City 18: Galway leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Ho Chi Minh City 86: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Ho Chi Minh City 55: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Ho Chi Minh City 70: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Ho Chi Minh City 28: Galway leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Ho Chi Minh City 58: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Ho Chi Minh City 40: Galway leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Ho Chi Minh City 38: Galway leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Ho Chi Minh City 55: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Ho Chi Minh City 92: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Ho Chi Minh City 40: Galway leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Ho Chi Minh City 60: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Ho Chi Minh City.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Ho Chi Minh City in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
285 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayHo Chi Minh City

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Ho Chi Minh City: 1991-2020 normals, Ho Chi Minh (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayHo Chi Minh City
Official languageEnglish, IrishVietnamese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Dong (VND)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzACFG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114
Elevation25 m13 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsTan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)7 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayHo Chi Minh City
City population83,45614,002,598
People per km²1,5632,068
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.