The practical half of a Vietnam trip: the e-visa, money, transport, connectivity, safety and the calendar. These are the pages that answer a question with a number rather than an adjective, and every figure in them is checked against a source rather than repeated from other travel writing.
Before you go
The decisions that have to be made at home: the e-visa, what the trip will cost, when in the year to come, and what a first trip should expect. These are the pages with the numbers in them.
What Vietnam costs per day, per week and per fortnight, with a price list for pho, rooms, buses and flights, and the two decisions that move the total.
Vietnam has three climates and they disagree. What each region does month by month, which weeks to avoid outright, and the window that costs you least.
Vietnam runs 1,650 km end to end, the pavement is mostly motorbike parking, and the daily layer is cash. The practical things a first trip has to plan for.
Hepatitis A and typhoid are the two vaccines every source names for Vietnam. What else matters, what does not, and the one risk that outranks all of them.
Storms run from about June to November and land hardest on the centre. Which months are exposed, what stops running, and how to build a trip that survives one.
Hanoi's winter air is the country's worst, the coast and the mountains are fine, and the difference is seasonal. What to check and what actually helps.
Tet is the one week of the year when Vietnam stops. The 2027 dates, what actually shuts, why fares triple, and how to travel through it rather than into it.
Vietnam requires no travel insurance from tourists. Whether you need it anyway, what claims are actually made here, and the motorbike clause that voids them.
Visa on arrival in Vietnam needs an approval letter arranged in advance and works only at airports. When it still makes sense, and when the e-visa is simpler.
Vietnam is one of the cheapest countries in Asia to backpack, and the standard route runs one way down the coast. What it costs a day and how to move.
Month by month
Twelve pages for twelve months, because the country runs three climates that disagree. Each one says what the weather does in each region, where to go that month, what it costs and what is on.
December is dry and warm in the south, cold in the northern mountains and busy over Christmas. Where the month works and what the holiday peak costs.
Getting around
Vietnam is 1,650 km long and almost every mistake in a route is a transfer nobody priced. How the trains, buses, planes and bikes actually work, and what each leg costs in hours rather than kilometres.
Four ways to cross Vietnam, and the cheapest fare is rarely the price. What the train classes mean, what a sleeper bus is like, and which airline to book.
Every city has several stations serving different directions, and limousine vans collect from their own offices instead. How to find the right boarding point.
A bike taxi crosses Hanoi for a dollar and beats a car in traffic. What the apps cost, what the helmet is like, and when two wheels is the wrong answer.
Thirty kilometres of coast road between the airport city and the old town. What each way costs, how long it takes, and which one the hotel books for you.
A midnight flight and an eleven o'clock checkout leave twelve hours with a suitcase. Who stores bags, what it costs, and the free option everybody forgets.
The bay is two to two and a half hours from Hanoi by expressway. What each transfer costs, what time to leave for a cruise, and why the train is not an option.
Saigon's airport sits 8 km from District 1 and the exit is the hard part. Which terminal, what the bus costs, where Grab waits, and which taxi to refuse.
Ha Giang is six to seven hours from Hanoi with no airport and no useful train. What the night bus and the limousine cost, and which one starts the loop well.
Hanoi to Hoi An is about 800 km and there is no airport or station in Hoi An. How each option works through Da Nang, what it costs, and which one to book.
Once you are there
Everything that starts after the plane lands: the sim card, the drinking water, the shoes at the threshold, what a haircut costs and who to tip. Small things that decide whether a week feels difficult or easy.
A tourist SIM in Vietnam costs a couple of dollars, and the airport kiosk charges up to half as much again. Which network, eSIM or plastic, and what to pay.
Tap water is not drinking water here, and nobody drinks it. What households use instead, what a bottle costs, and the two places the rule actually bites.
The mini-mart is air conditioning, a toilet, a seat and cold water at two in the morning. What each chain is good for, and what costs less on the street.
Vietnamese is written in Latin letters and carries six tones, which is why reading it is easy and saying it is not. The dozen phrases worth learning first.
Markets bargain, shops do not, and knowing which you are in is most of it. What is worth buying, what the tailoring really takes, and the four-step haggle.
A suit in three days is the pitch. What it actually costs, how many fittings it takes, which fabrics are worth it, and why the last day of a trip is too late.
A filling costs less than a taxi from the airport and an implant a fraction of home. What the clinics are like, what to check, and when not to do it on a trip.
Wooden drawers, weighed herbs and a diagnosis by pulse. What a traditional pharmacy does, how it differs from the green-cross one, and when to use which.
Karaoke here is a private room with a family in it, or a wheeled speaker on a pavement. What a room costs, which signs to avoid, and who to ask about noise.
Most Vietnam scam lists are copied from each other. These are the ones travellers still meet, what each costs, and the sentence that ends most of them.
The wifi is better than the visa rules. Which city suits a month of work, what it costs, and the time-zone arithmetic that decides whether it works at all.
Vietnam is one of the easiest countries in Asia to travel alone. Where solo works, what the single room adds to a budget, and the two meals that resist it.
A pram is close to useless here and everything else is easier than you expect. What to bring, what to buy locally, and how to move a small child around.
Not the sights but the pavements, the stairs and the heat. Which places work at a slower pace, how to shape a day, and what to pay for rather than endure.
A homestay here is either a family guesthouse or a bed in a stilt house. What each costs, what dinner is like, and where the valley beats the hotel in town.
Rooms that went for $60 in 2023 are quoted at $80 to $110 now, and guesthouses barely moved. What each tier buys, where to book, and what to check first.
Vietnam runs 220 volts on flat and round two-pin sockets. Which plugs fit, when a US device needs a converter, and what to do about the missing earth pin.
Choosing where to go
Two places, one week, and no way to do both. These are the comparisons that come up most often, each answered by what the two places are actually for rather than by which is better.
Not a list of every sight. The experiences that fill a Vietnam trip, what each costs in time and money, and which ones people quietly regret paying for.
Two towns at 1,500 m and almost nothing else in common. One is flowers and coffee near Saigon, the other is terraces and trekking near the Chinese border.
Two Vietnamese cities with a long beach and an airport. One is a base for everything nearby, the other is the trip itself. Which suits yours, and when.
They are not two versions of the same city. One is older, cooler and slower; the other is hotter, richer and faster. Which to pick, and when to pick both.
One island has resorts, a cable car and a visa exemption; the other has a prison, turtles and almost nobody. Which suits your trip, and when each is dry.
One is walked, the other is ridden. Sapa or Ha Giang comes down to whether you want valley trekking with a town attached, or four days on a mountain road.
Both are cheap and easy, and good at different things. How Vietnam and Thailand compare on cost, beaches, food, routes and weather, and which suits which trip.
