VacationSelector
The City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh CityThe City Hall of Ho Chi Minh City
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Ho Chi Minh City by trungydang, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Ho Chi Minh City or Limassol?

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
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Limassol for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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, Limassol 77: Limassol leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Ho Chi Minh City 86, Limassol 58: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Ho Chi Minh City 55, Limassol 38: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Ho Chi Minh City 70, Limassol 50: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ho Chi Minh City 28, Limassol 65: Limassol leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Ho Chi Minh City 58, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Ho Chi Minh City 40, Limassol 63: Limassol leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Ho Chi Minh City and Limassol are level on 38.
Shopping & style. Ho Chi Minh City 55, Limassol 42: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Ho Chi Minh City 92, Limassol 44: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ho Chi Minh City 40, Limassol 32: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ho Chi Minh City 60, Limassol 42: Ho Chi Minh City leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ho Chi Minh City and Limassol.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Ho Chi Minh City
53match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Limassol
52match

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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Limassol in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ho Chi Minh CityLimassol

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.

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHo Chi Minh CityLimassol
Official languageVietnameseTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyDong (VND)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114112
Elevation13 m10 m
Main airportTan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)7 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureHo Chi Minh CityLimassol
City population14,002,598107,970
People per km²2,0682,405
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ho Chi Minh City or Limassol 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.