VacationSelector
The City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh CityThe City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach

Photos: Ho Chi Minh City by trungydang, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License.

Ho Chi Minh City or Honolulu?

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 Ho Chi Minh City for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Honolulu for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Honolulu’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. Ho Chi Minh City 18, Honolulu 91: Honolulu leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Ho Chi Minh City 86, Honolulu 70: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Ho Chi Minh City and Honolulu are level on 55.
Nightlife. Ho Chi Minh City 70, Honolulu 45: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ho Chi Minh City 28, Honolulu 88: Honolulu leads by 60 points.
Day trips. Ho Chi Minh City 58, Honolulu 38: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Ho Chi Minh City 40, Honolulu 80: Honolulu leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Ho Chi Minh City 38, Honolulu 52: Honolulu leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Ho Chi Minh City 55, Honolulu 60: Honolulu leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Ho Chi Minh City 92, Honolulu 15: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 77 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ho Chi Minh City and Honolulu are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Ho Chi Minh City 60, Honolulu 50: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ho Chi Minh City and Honolulu.

Your match

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

Ho Chi Minh City
53match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Honolulu
Best match
57match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ho Chi Minh City in July

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

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ho Chi Minh CityHonolulu

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. Ho Chi Minh City: 1991-2020 normals, Ho Chi Minh (6 km from centre). Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHo Chi Minh CityHonolulu
Official languageVietnamese-
CurrencyDong (VND)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-10
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation13 m12 m
Main airportTan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)7 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHo Chi Minh CityHonolulu
City population14,002,598350,964
People per km²2,0681,981
Museums within 10 km912
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 Ho Chi Minh City or Honolulu 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.