VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
The City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh CityThe City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Ho Chi Minh City by trungydang, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Ho Chi Minh City for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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. Guilin 8, Ho Chi Minh City 18: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Ho Chi Minh City 86: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Ho Chi Minh City 55: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Ho Chi Minh City 70: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Ho Chi Minh City 28: Guilin leads by 60 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Ho Chi Minh City 58: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Ho Chi Minh City 40: Guilin leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Ho Chi Minh City 38: Guilin leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Ho Chi Minh City 55: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Ho Chi Minh City 92: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, Ho Chi Minh City 40: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 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: Guilin and Ho Chi Minh City.

Your match

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

Guilin
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Ho Chi Minh City
Best match
53match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinHo 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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Ho Chi Minh City: 1991-2020 normals, Ho Chi Minh (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinHo Chi Minh City
Official languagePutonghuaVietnamese
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Dong (VND)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzACFG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114
Elevation153 m13 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsTan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)7 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinHo Chi Minh City
City population4,931,13714,002,598
People per km²-2,068
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guilin 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.