Getting around Vietnam without wasting the trip

Vietnam is about 1,650 km from top to bottom, and there are four ways to cross it. Getting around Vietnam is not really a question of comfort. It is a question of what a day of your trip is worth. The cheapest fare on the screen is rarely the price you end up paying.

How should you choose between train, bus and plane?

By distance, and nothing else. The country's shape does the deciding: two long thin halves with the centre in between, and hops that fall naturally into three brackets. For a day with several stops rather than a hop, a car with a driver beats all three. Which end to start from is a separate question, answered in north to south, or south to north.

Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City settles the argument on its own: about two hours by air against 32 to 35 by rail. On a ten-day route that difference is a third of the trip.

What do Vietnam's train classes actually mean?

Four classes, and only two of them are for a long journey. The names describe the padding, not the service, which is why they confuse people who book by price alone.

Hard seat is a wooden bench. Genuinely cheap and genuinely punishing after about two hours. Soft seat is cushioned and fine for a daytime hop of a few hours.

Hard sleeper puts six berths in a compartment, in two facing tiers of three, with a thin mattress. Soft sleeper puts four in two tiers, with a lockable door, a thicker mattress, reading lights and a small table. Most visitors book the soft sleeper, and it is the right default.

Two booking notes that cost money if you miss them. Berths are priced by level, and lower ones cost more. Worth paying for: the lower berth is also where everyone in the cabin sits during the day. Book early, too. A Hanoi to Da Nang soft sleeper runs around 1,100,000 dong for a 2026 departure, about 45 US dollars, and the cheap berths go first.

What is a sleeper bus really like?

Bunks rather than seats, and your shoes come off at the door. Vietnamese sleeper buses hand you a plastic bag for your shoes as you board. That is the first sign it is a different kind of vehicle, not a coach with reclining seats. The railway is the alternative on most of these legs, and Vietnam by train sets out which ones repay the hours.

Where the bus actually leaves from is its own problem, which the bus stations guide untangles.

Two layouts exist and the difference is large. A standard bus has three rows of bunks, 32 to 44 of them, each 50 to 60 cm wide and open to the aisle. A VIP bus has two rows and 20 to 24 wider bunks. A VIP cabin is an enclosed pod with a curtain or door, USB charging and a reading light.

Prices track that closely. Roughly 7 to 15 US dollars for a short route, 12 to 20 for a medium one, 20 to 35 for a long overnight. A cabin runs 20 to 50.

Three practical facts nobody mentions until you are aboard. Most sleeper buses have no toilet, and the driver stops at public ones every two and a half to three hours. Petty theft happens to sleeping passengers, so valuables belong against your body rather than in the luggage bay. And bunk position matters more than the price difference suggests — the back row sits over the axle.

Which domestic airline should you book?

Vietnam Airlines if the bag matters, VietJet if the fare does. The two are not competing on the same thing, and comparing their headline prices is how travellers end up surprised at the airport.

VietJet raised its domestic baggage prices in 2026. Twenty kilos went up 25 per cent to 250,000 dong, with 30 kg at 360,000 and 40 kg at 480,000. Excess bought at the counter costs 100,000 dong per kilo. A ten-dollar fare with a checked bag is not a ten-dollar fare.

Bamboo Airways is the third name you will see, and it is currently restructuring on a fleet of three aircraft. Treat it as a schedule risk rather than an option.

Does Grab work everywhere?

In the big cities, yes. In the small tourist towns, less than you expect. Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Nha Trang are well covered. Hoi An and Sapa are thin enough that a hotel-booked car is the more reliable plan.

The two-wheeled version of the same app is cheaper and faster in traffic, and the bike taxi guide covers when it is the wrong choice.

Where it works, it is cheap. A 10 km GrabCar starts around 2.80 US dollars and a GrabBike around 1.60. The fare is fixed before you get in, which removes the negotiation entirely.

Two things to know. Grab charges about 450 dong a minute of waiting after the first three, against 750 to 1,000 for a metered taxi. A car that has to wait for you is cheaper booked than hailed. And prices surge hard in heavy rain, which in the wet season is exactly when you want one.

What about renting a scooter?

Don't, on a two-week holiday. The US State Department advises tourists against it. Insurance often excludes riding without the right licence, and the traffic is a system you have not learned to read.

Our guide on what the risk in Vietnam actually is goes through the reasoning and the insurance problem in full. The short version: this is the single most dangerous thing available to a visitor here, and every other option in this article is genuinely good.

Which four decisions cover every journey?

Getting around Vietnam comes down to four decisions. Pick by distance. Book the soft sleeper rather than the cheapest berth. Price a VietJet fare with the bag included, and use Grab in the four cities where it works. Those cover almost every journey a first trip involves.

Internal travel is also one of the two lines that actually move a Vietnam budget, as our guide on what a week costs sets out. Choosing well here is worth more than economising anywhere else.