🇻🇳Vietnam

Who needs what

Two things frame everything below. Airlines decide whether to board you using Timatic, the tool behind the IATA Travel Centre, so the outcome can depend on your entire route including transit countries. And official guidance for Vietnam calls for a passport valid at least 6 months from arrival with at least 2 blank pages.

How to decide

Start with the visa-exemption list.

• On the list, staying up to 45 days → no visa needed.
• On the list, staying longer than 45 days → eVisa.
• Not on the list, staying up to 90 days → eVisa.
• Staying beyond 90 days → classic visa or a sponsored procedure; verify in Timatic against your full route and purpose.
• Arriving via HAN, DAD, CXR or SGN → complete the pre-arrival electronic declaration. At other airports it does not apply.

This flow combines the official Vietnamese eVisa portal, the current visa-exemption list, and the IATA Travel Centre - the Timatic-type tool carriers use to decide whether to let you board.

Personalized matrix for three passport examples

The table is built from the official eVisa system, the immigration portal, the visa-exemption list of Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the IATA Travel Centre and the Vietnam Airlines arrival information page. "Return ticket", "proof of funds" and some health items are deliberately left unconfirmed where no unambiguous, current Vietnamese primary source exists - those are exactly the most Timatic- and route-dependent items.

What matters in practice

• The eVisa is now the main standard route for most tourists not in the visa-free group, or wanting to stay longer than 45 days. The official immigration portal lists validity up to 90 days, both single and multiple entry, and standard processing of 3 working days after payment. The fee is 25 USD single entry and 50 USD multiple entry, non-refundable if refused.
• A classic visa via an embassy or sponsor is what to plan for outside the standard eVisa workflow, or for a purpose needing a different category. The Vietnamese embassy in London runs both tourist and business processing requiring a valid passport and an approval letter from the Vietnamese immigration authority, with standard processing of 5–7 working days. Read that as a signal for other countries too: if your case is not a standard tourist one, do not count on visa on arrival.
• Visa on arrival is not an ordinary walk-up tourist product. The official sources describe prior authorization or a sponsored procedure rather than a universal option. If a website promises "VOA for everyone", compare it against Timatic or an official immigration or embassy source.
• The pre-arrival electronic declaration is new and practically important. Vietnam Airlines states that foreign travelers arriving via Nội Bài, Đà Nẵng, Cam Ranh and Tân Sơn Nhất should complete it at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn or by QR code, which then opens the priority "Pre-Arrival Info" entry lane.
• Be conservative about your passport. Published guidance calls for at least 6 months of validity from arrival and at least 2 blank pages, and warns that a damaged passport can mean refused entry or departure. Carriers and Timatic evaluate transit segments separately, so if you connect outside Vietnam, check the transit country's rules too.

• E-cigarettes and heated tobacco products have been banned nationwide since 1 January 2025. Vietnam's National Assembly adopted Resolution 173/2024/QH15 in November 2024, prohibiting the production, trade, import, storage, transport and use of these products; the World Health Organization confirmed the ban remains in force, with no exemptions, as of December 2025. The UK FCDO separately confirms vapes are banned and cannot be brought into the country.
• Duty-free allowance: 200 cigarettes, or 20 cigars, or 250g of loose tobacco; and 1.5 litres of spirits at 20% ABV or higher, or 2 litres under 20% ABV, or 3 litres of other alcoholic drinks/beer - per adult traveller, per Vietnam Customs' own allowance table.
• Cash equivalent to USD 5,000 or more must be declared, along with Vietnamese dong above a separate and much lower threshold, per the UK FCDO.
• Drug offences carry the death penalty for the most serious cases regardless of the quantity involved, per the UK FCDO.
• Cultural relics and antiquities may not be exported without a permit. Vietnam's Law on Cultural Heritage prohibits illegal trade or transport of relics and antiquities, and the US State Department's cultural-property rules reflect a bilateral agreement restricting import of undocumented Vietnamese antiquities into the US - ask the seller for export paperwork before you pay for older items sold in Hanoi and Hoi An shops.

Health, insurance and where to be treated

Hospitals that work for travelers, from the available sources:

• Hanoi - Vinmec Times City and the Hanoi French Hospital, both with 24/7 emergency care.
• HCMC - FV Hospital, with a 24/7 emergency department.
• Da Nang - Vinmec Da Nang, nonstop emergency department, and it also lists airport patient transport on demand.
• Still at Nội Bài airport? It has its own 24/7 emergency medical points in both T1 and T2, on (024) 3587 6601.

Do not drink tap water. The US travel.state.gov states plainly that it is not considered safe to drink anywhere in Vietnam, the large cities included. Use bottled or safely filtered water.

Vaccinations work in two layers.

• No universal vaccination requirement appears as a blanket entry condition for every tourist in the immigration sources reviewed.
• The CDC still recommends keeping routine vaccines up to date, and highlights measles, a year-round risk of dengue, and in some situations rabies or other vaccines depending on the trip.
• Combine that with Timatic checked against your full route, especially if you fly through countries with different sanitary rules.

The EHIC is useless here. Vietnam is not an EHIC destination, and even inside Europe the EHIC is no substitute for travel insurance - it covers neither repatriation, private care nor lost belongings. For Vietnam, standard commercial travel insurance is a necessity, not a nice-to-have.

Accommodation

Three platforms matter in Vietnam:

• Booking.com - a very strong workflow around managing reservations, messaging the property and flexibility.
• Agoda - long-standing strong Vietnam inventory and aggressive pricing.
• Hostelworld - the one for dorms and backpacker hostels.

Your passport is the standard identification at check-in. Agoda states explicitly that presenting it is standard and that the identification must match the name on the reservation.

• Registration went electronic in 2026. Accommodation providers must report foreigners' temporary stays electronically or by form, and the rule applies to digital accommodation platforms too.
• So a hotel, hostel or properly run short-term rental can all ask for your passport and genuinely need it.

Be careful with Airbnb-type short-term rentals in Ho Chi Minh City. Regulations changed between 2025 and 2026: after a tightening, 2026 brought a renewed authorization under new conditions - business registration, taxes, contracts, temporary-stay registration, and compliance with the rules of the specific building.

• Before booking an apartment in HCMC, verify that the host can genuinely handle a legal short stay and that the building allows it.

Comparison table

The comparison rests on official Viettel and MobiFone materials, Opensignal measurements, and fresh Reddit reports from travelers on airport vs. city prices.

Practical recommendation by length of stay

• 3 days: an international eSIM, or any activation before departure. Local tourist plans often start at 7 days, so on a three-day trip you are not playing for the lowest absolute price but for zero stress after landing. Saily lists a 1 GB/7 day Vietnam bundle at 3.99 USD, with a 5 GB/day plan at 18.99 USD for five days if you need more.
• 7 days: Viettel at an official store. A quasi-official overview lists 5G60T and 5G60H at 60,000 VND - exactly the case where an airport "tourist SIM" mostly buys you a convenience markup. Reddit posts from 2026 put it bluntly: "go to an official store, not the airport".
• 30 days: Viettel again, if your priority is coverage and minimal trouble outside the big cities. Official and semi-official materials show 5G120H, 5G150T and 5G180H with 30-day validity. Staying in a city and wanting maximum simplicity, the MobiFone Travel eSIM or a 20 GB Saily plan are worth considering - but purely on the numbers Viettel wins on coverage.

Where exactly to buy

• At airports, use the operators' official counters in arrivals, not the first reseller you pass. Viettel's own materials list a presence in HAN T2 arrivals and in the SGN international arrival hall after baggage claim.
• In the cities, the best-documented are the MobiFone store locator and the VNPT/VinaPhone store locator. For Viettel the safest route is official channels or maps - a tourist-friendly public locator is harder to find than MobiFone's or VNPT's.

Quick verdict

• Cheapest - an official city store, ideally Viettel.
• Easiest - an eSIM activated before you board.
• Best coverage - Viettel.
• Best for 3 days - a Saily eSIM or another profile bought before departure.
• Best for 7 days - a Viettel 7-day bundle from an official store.
• Best for 30 days - a Viettel 30-day bundle, or a local eSIM from an official channel.

Sockets in Vietnam are Type A, C and F at 220 V, 50 Hz, and most of them are unearthed hybrids that take both flat American pins and round European ones.

• The common socket has two openings that accept either shape. That is why so many travellers report that "everything fits" here.
• Fitting is not earthing. A Schuko plug pushes into many Vietnamese sockets and connects no earth at all, which matters for anything with a metal case.
• American appliances fit and then meet 220 V. A US hair dryer or shaver that is not marked 100-240 V will burn out in a socket it slid into perfectly.
• Newer hotels and apartment blocks fit earthed Type F sockets, so the same trip can have both.
• Adapters cost almost nothing in any electrical shop, and hotel receptions keep a box of them.

Local rules and cultural differences

• Vapes are banned. The FCDO states that vapes and related products are banned in Vietnam - do not buy them and do not bring them in. If you normally travel with an e-cigarette, sort this out before departure, not at security.
• Restricted medicines are the second trap. The FCDO warns that Vietnam restricts medicines it classifies as addictive or psychotropic, and that carrying more than 7 days' worth of such prescribed medication without the proper paperwork is illegal. Carry the prescription and a doctor's letter in English.
• Do not photograph anything that could read as a military or security site. The UK source warns explicitly that it can lead to questioning, fines or travel delays. The same caution applies to drones and more professional filming - verify in advance rather than improvising.

Everyday practical information

• Time zone - ICT / UTC+7, with no daylight saving in 2026. It matters for alarms, for the daily reset time of data bundles, and for planning transfers.
• Electricity - 220 V / 50 Hz, compatible with standard modern EU chargers. Sources differ on the exact socket types, so pack a universal adapter: real buildings have at least types A and C, per some overviews also B, and elsewhere D appears.
• Wi-Fi is common across the tourist infrastructure. Nội Bài lists free wifi among its airport services, and fresh Reddit threads note many public places offer it - which is still no reason to travel without your own data plan.
• For basic supplies, the modern chains work well: AEON, Co.opmart, GO!, Lotte Mart, MM Mega Market, Emart and WinMart. Useful on your first evening, when you need water, repellent, an adapter or toiletries without haggling at a market.
• Weather cannot be summed up in one sentence - Vietnam is climatically divided. The official tourism page shows central Vietnam with its rainier, cooler period from September to February and sunnier, warmer months roughly March to August; the south runs drier November - April and wetter May - October.
• Air quality varies city by city and day by day. Check live monitoring on the day you arrive, especially in Hanoi and HCMC.

Money and payments

The currency is the Vietnamese dong (VND), and cash still matters - street food, small cafés, markets, local transport and some smaller services. International Visa/Mastercard are commonly accepted by hotels, larger restaurants, supermarkets, spas and more organized tourist services.

The single most useful rule: always choose VND, never the conversion the terminal offers. Visa and HSBC both explain that dynamic currency conversion converts into your home currency at the point of sale and usually costs you more than paying in the local currency with your card network handling it.

On ATM fees, be honest about the uncertainty.

• There is no single current official Vietnamese overview of bank ATM fees for foreign cards, so this rests on personal experience and local testing.
• Recent Reddit patterns - TPBank is no longer reliably "no-fee", while VPBank, OCB and sometimes LPBank still draw better reports. Experiences vary by card, issuing bank and ATM location.
• The practical conclusion - withdraw at bank ATMs in larger branches or shopping centres, check the fee before confirming, refuse DCC, and do not trust old blog posts claiming some bank is always free.

Treat tap-to-pay as a bonus, not a plan.

• Apple Pay officially lists Vietnam as supported, with a published list of participating banks.
• Google Wallet supports Vietnam and has a country page.
• On the ground, adoption is less even than card acceptance, and local wallets like MoMo and ZaloPay still play a significant role.

On tipping, tourist fees and a single daily budget figure, there are not enough good current primary sources for a reliable answer, so no figure is given rather than manufacturing false precision. If your hotel or restaurant already adds a service charge, there is no reason to add another fixed percentage without checking the bill.

Cheapest: in Hanoi, the public bus from the airport; in HCMC, Bus 152 if you travel light and during the day; in Da Nang the price gap between the bus and Grab is often so small that comfort wins.

Fastest: in all three cities usually Grab or an official taxi, but at rush hour traffic decides, not theory. In Hanoi, Bus 86 performs excellently if you are staying along the Lake/Old Quarter corridor.

For 3–4 people with lots of luggage: GrabCar / official taxi. Used correctly, the app is the lowest-stress option in Vietnam. Conversely, avoid people who approach you before you have even opened your own booking.

After midnight: plan primarily on app-based rides or taxis. In Hanoi the official airport bus services end in the evening, and for HCMC and DAD night public transport is either poorly documented or practically unsuitable for a first-time traveller.

The apps that deliver the most value for arrival and the first days in Vietnam:

Four notes matter most:

• Grab is the single most important app in Vietnam, but expect a foreign payment fee on a non-Vietnamese card, per traveler reports. Grab does confirm it accepts international phone numbers for registration.
• GoMo/BusMap is the best local app for HCMC public transport.
• Vexere is very strong for domestic transfers, with better international payment usability than some directly local transport websites.
• Booking, Agoda and Hostelworld work without problems, but with third parties it is sensible to confirm your arrival with the hotel by in-app message right after booking.

Only a 1968-convention permit is accepted, and the permits issued in the United States, Japan and Australia are not that.

• Check which convention issued your permit. Vietnam joined the 1968 Vienna Convention in 2014 and recognises permits issued under it. A 1949 Geneva permit - the kind issued in the US, Japan, Australia and several other countries - is not valid here.
• Motorbike hire is the real issue. Renting a scooter without a licence valid for it voids travel insurance, and a motorbike accident is the most common serious injury to visitors in Vietnam.
• The alcohol limit is zero. Vietnam introduced absolute zero tolerance in 2020 with very large fines, and roadside checks are frequent.
• Traffic works by flow rather than by right of way. Crossing a junction is a negotiation, and hesitation causes more accidents than speed.
• Cars with drivers are cheap and normal, which is what most visitors end up doing between cities.

Safety and the most common scams

Official UK and US advice agree that violent crime against tourists is less common in Vietnam, but petty crime, pickpocketing and bag-snatching occur regularly in touristy and crowded parts of cities.

• The fake Grab or taxi "helper" at the airport is the most common recent scam, repeated on Reddit throughout 2026. Threads from HCMC and Vietnam generally describe the same pattern: someone with a badge or a "Grab" look approaches, "helps" with a supposedly wrong pickup point, redirects you to a different car and raises the price outside the app. The defence is strict: show your booking to no one, let no one touch your phone, and get into the vehicle only when the exact licence plate and profile match the app.
• ATM fees, bad rates and DCC are the second recurring problem - not a romantic scam, just very common unnecessary overpayment. Bank terms change quickly and old "best ATM in Vietnam" articles go stale. Prefer bank ATMs, check the fee before confirming, and always pay and withdraw in VND.
• Scooter rentals and damage disputes are the third. Even where it is not a targeted scam, forums and traveler warnings repeatedly describe extra charges for scratches, parts, or unclear handover protocols. Photograph and film the bike at pickup, never hand over your passport as a deposit, and ride only if you genuinely meet the licence and insurance conditions.

The official baseline worth monitoring: the UK FCDO travel advice for Vietnam was updated on 2026-06-26. It is a good master checklist alongside Timatic and the local weather.

Emergency numbers

The lines below answer in Vietnamese. Getting a hotel receptionist or a translation app on the call makes a real difference.

The basic emergency numbers in Vietnam are: police 113, fire 114, ambulance 115, plus the newer national search-and-rescue line 112. The official UK source also warns that these lines operate in Vietnamese, so when reporting a problem, a hotel, reception desk or translator helps considerably.

Noi Bai airport runs its own 24/7 medical points in T1 and T2 on (024) 3587 6601. See the Health section for hospitals with English-speaking emergency departments.