Tet, and what it does to a trip

Tet is the lunar new year, and for about a week either side of it the country you planned to travel through changes shape. Shops shut, fares triple, and streets that sold breakfast at 7am every morning of the year go dark for three days. It is also the most interesting week in the Vietnamese calendar.

When is Tet?

In 2027 the first day falls on Saturday 6 February, with new year's eve — the part that matters most to families — on Friday 5 February. The official public holiday spans roughly 3 to 11 February.

The dates move every year because the calendar is lunar, which is the first thing to check rather than assume. The holiday also runs longer in practice than on paper: many small businesses close a day or two early and reopen a day or two late.

What actually closes?

Small businesses, which in Vietnam means most of what a visitor uses. Family-run restaurants, street stalls, markets and independent shops close for at least the first three days. Some close for a week.

What stays open is the formal tourism economy: hotels, larger restaurants, international chains, and the ticketed attractions in the main destinations. Convenience stores in the cities generally keep some hours.

The practical consequence is that a town whose appeal is its street food becomes a town with no street food, while a resort with its own kitchen carries on unaffected.

Why do fares triple?

Because the whole country travels at once. Tet is when people working in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City go home to their provinces. The days before new year's eve are the heaviest domestic travel of the year, and the end of the holiday is the reverse wave.

Seats disappear before prices rise. A route that is bookable on the day for most of the year needs weeks of notice here. The transport guide figures for the train and the sleeper bus assume an ordinary week.

How should you travel through it?

Arrive before it and sit still during it. The workable shape is to be in place a few days ahead, spend the holiday itself somewhere that does not depend on shops being open, and start moving again once the country does.

Somewhere with its own catering is the safe choice: a resort, or a hotel with a restaurant. So is a place like Hoi An or Phong Nha, where the surroundings rather than the businesses are the attraction. A city whose whole pleasure is eating out is the wrong bet.

Stock up before the last two days. Cash especially, because ATMs run dry over the holiday and banks are shut.

Is any of it worth seeing?

The week before is genuinely one of the best things in Vietnam. Flower markets fill the streets with kumquat trees and peach or apricot blossom, families buy for the house, and the preparation is public in a way the holiday itself is not.

Tet itself is private. It is a family occasion held indoors, so a visitor sees a quiet street rather than a festival. The cities empty as people leave, which makes Hanoi and Saigon briefly and unusually walkable.

If you can only see one part, see the run-up.

What else moves in the Vietnamese year?

Tet is the big one, but not the only one. Reunification Day and International Labour Day fall together on 30 April and 1 May and produce a domestic travel peak of their own; National Day on 2 September does the same. Both fill beaches and put resort prices up without closing the country. The public holidays guide lists all eleven statutory days and what each one closes.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, is visible and pleasant rather than disruptive: lanterns, mooncakes, and no closures worth planning around. The rest of the calendar, including the monthly lantern night in Hoi An, is in the festivals guide. For everything else, the calendar that actually governs a trip is the weather, not the holidays.