Weather in Hoi An in May

Shoulder season. May is shoulder season in Hoi An — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. The heat itself is manageable at 32.6 °C, but 82% humidity is what you will actually feel.

May ranks 8 of 12 in Hoi An: past the worst of the year but short of February, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 12 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 82% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 28 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 38.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 21.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 96 mm — roughly 120% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 27 mm in the driest year against 253 mm in the wettest, around an average of 80 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 5.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 82%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 31.2 °C in April, 32.6 here, 33.1 in June. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 5 days more than April had.

Daylight in May

Hoi An sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.9 hours in May, against a range of just 1.9 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.9 °C in May — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

May in Hoi An versus nearby

If Hoi An is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Qui Nhon is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.3 °C cooler, 2 days more rain. Ubon Ratchathani is the weaker option in May — within a degree on temperature, 9 days more rain.

So: May is a compromise. February is 33 points better and is what Hoi An is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Hoi An

See all twelve months in Hoi An, or where else to go in May.