Vietnam
Fast Facts
Official Name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV)
Location: South East Asia – Vietnam has land borders with China, Cambodia, and Laos.
Population of Vietnam: ~ 100 million
Capital of Vietnam: Hanoi
Vietnamese Money: Vietnamese Dong (VND)
Vietnamese Timezone: UTC +7
Visa Requirements for Vietnam: Many nationalities do not require a visa for up to 45 days to enter Vietnam. The country reintroduced three-month visas for many other nationalities. The new official government visa website is HERE. However, at the time of writing (Sept 23) it was having all kinds of glitches. As an alternative check your eligibility and additional requirements for entry HERE.
Things to Do and See in Vietnam
Our Experiences in Vietnam
We have visited and lived in Vietnam since the mid-1990’s as both independent, travelers, and English teachers. It is undeniably one of our favorite countries.
Our first visit in 1996 was part of our big three-and-a-half-year world tour. After almost 6 months in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong, we flew to Ho Chi Minh City for a 1-month trip. After exploring the Mekong Delta we took a hop-on-hop-off bus to Nha Trang, Dalat, Hoi An, Danang, and Hue, before catching the famous Reunification Express to Hanoi and Halong Bay.
Our next visits started in 2011, when we arrived in Haiphong (in the north) as newly trained English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. After summer school we headed south to Ho Chi Minh City where we would spend alternative years teaching and exploring this incredible metropolis.
Most recently we got stuck there during the 2020/21 COVID-19 pandemic. But still managed a 3-month bicycle tour from Hanoi back to Ho Chi Minh City. This tour visited many of the main tourist destinations along the coast, including many lesser-known cities and towns in between.
Unfortunately, the stories for the first visit are safely stored in a container with our other remaining possessions in Australia.
But in 2015, I started another website focused on Ho Chi Minh City. I’m gradually migrating some of the best content on there to this site.
Relevant Blog Posts about Vietnam
Vietnamese Dong, Money, and Costs – Learn about Vietnamese money, how to access it, and what it will cost you to stay there.
1-Day Walking Tour of Ho Chi Minh City: Unveiling the Magic of Saigon
Ho Chi Minh City Walking Tour 2 – See Another Side of Saigon
Reunification Palace – Crashing Down the Gates For Independence
Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral – A Beacon of Faith in Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon Opera House – Ho Chi Minh city’s Best Performance Venue?
Saigon War Remnants Museum – A Graphic Reminder of Vietnam’s Past
Guided Tours of Vietnam
Vietnam is relatively easy and safe to travel independently if you’re visiting the main destinations. However, not everyone has the time or desire to plan and complete an independent trip. So for those who prefer to have someone else do the organizing, would like input from a local guide, or just want to skip the line for attraction tickets, here’s a selection of what’s on offer.
Short Tours (1 to 3 days)
Get Your Guide has over 800 short tours for popular activities in various destinations for you to investigate. Take a look HERE.
Viator has almost 11 000 tours and experiences!!!. You can check them out HERE
Longer Tours
Intrepid Travel has a range of tours, with a good selection for both Malaysian Borneo and as part of a longer tour through other parts of South East Asia. You can check them all out HERE
GAdventures has a smaller range of tours than Intrepid that are ‘same, same, but different.’ You can check them out HERE.
Tour Radar – Has a large range of different experiences, from city tours to multi-day hiking experiences.
Heading to Vietnam Soon?
Check out our Travel Resource pages before you start planning and booking. Everything you need in one place to save you money and travel better.
And more…
Book Your Flight
Use WayAway to find cheap flights. They are our favorite search engine because they search websites and airlines around the globe. (Including the tiny budget ones many other search engines ignore.)
Book Your Accommodation
To find the best deals and book most of our accommodation (when we’re not housesitting,) we use:
-
- WayAway
- Booking.com, and
- Agoda
If you are more into Hostels, then Hostelword is the biggest platform for those.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Travel insurance will protect you if anything goes wrong before or during your trip. We never travel without it and have needed it many times. We’ve used a few companies with excellent results over the years.
Consider:
- Cover-More (Australians)
- Safety Wing (All nationalities. Great for long-term travelers and Digital Nomads.)
- World Nomads (All nationalities. Great for long-term travelers and Digital Nomads.)
- Visitors Coverage (to see a more extensive range of available plans from different providers, including policies for over 60’s.)
Disclosure: Note that some of the links and advertisements on this page lead to products from our partners. If you buy something after using those links, we may earn a small commission from the sale. However, you have our assurance that you won’t pay any more than you would by buying directly from their site. And we promise to only link to products or companies we’ve used personally, been recommended by trusted family, friends, or travel buddies, or researched thoroughly before adding them to the list. You may also see other links served to you by Google. These will display products that Google thinks you want to see. If you click on those advertisements, we also get paid a small (minuscule) amount. If you want to know more about how you help to fund our travels without costing you a cent – then CLICK THIS LINK for a more comprehensive explanation.