Vietnam Travel Guide for Visiting in 2020
In this video, we're talking all the things: transportation, phone and internet, weather, visas, immunizations, food and language. If you’re like me and hate reading, check out the video below - or if you’re secretly planning your vacation at work we have the video transcribed below.
The Perfect Vietnam Itinerary
If you're looking for a video about bucket list destinations and itineraries, got that too. If you are curious about information specific to motorbiking in Vietnam, we've got a lot of information on that.
Best App for Visiting Vietnam
Take everything that you know from Uber and Uber eats, throw them into one app that dominates the Asian market and that is Grab. Grab is important to have because Grab is probably the first thing that you're going to use when you land in any of the Vietnamese airports because then you can grab your ride right to your first hotel.
Then we get to your hotel and you're exhausted. Ordering food from the Grab app is super convenient. Not to mention all the food in Vietnam is very budget friendly and in the app, all of the restaurants have English on the menu. So feed yourself before you go out and hit the streets.
Phone + Internet
I have a primarily American audience that reads this- using SIM cards and phone is kind of foreign to us. So if you're American and you don't know what I'm talking about, go research about grabbing a SIM card in the country that you're entering.
If you already know what I'm talking about, go ahead and grab your SIM card right in the airport. They're affordable, it's super convenient. It's still commonly purchased right there in the airport that that's really the easiest place to get it done.
That way you can then affiliate your Vietnamese phone number with the Grab app. That way you can use it anytime. You can download, grab right when you get into the airport using either your new SIM card or airport wifi, which brings us to Vietnamese wifi, which is going to blow your mind.
Wifi in Vietnam
I'm telling you, as digital nomads as youtubers, obviously we're always on the hunt of the internet chase, and Vietnam has got to be the best country that we traveled to for internet. I mean, it was a better than the US. It is awesome. Shame on you Comcast. Wifi is also readily available in many of the modes of transportation in Vietnam when you're talking about buses and trains, and let's dive into this topic a little bit deeper.
Getting around in Vietnam
So we talked about the Grab app earlier. You can grab a seat in a car just like an Uber. You can also grab a seat on the back of a motorbike through the grab app of a motorbike. They've got an extra helmet, throw it out in your head and off you go. That's a cheaper rate to use the grab of motorbike.
If you're talking about transportation, moving between city and city, it’s a choice between the bus, the train and a flight.
Riding the bus in Vietnam
The buses in Vietnam are the most uncomfortable way to travel in the country. There are sleeper buses available. That might seem like a cute idea, but it's extremely uncomfortable. The roads are very narrow. You're likely going through some type of mountainous region and do not plan on getting a good night's sleep.
I want to be very opinionated for you when it comes to the buses, we do not recommend traveling this way. It’s certainly not the end of the world and they are actually nicer than you would think! This is just your budget option, THE THING IS it's likely negligibly more expensive to take the train it. It shouldn't sway you not to pay the extra $5 or something to take an overnight train.
Taking the Train in Vietnam
Make sure you're at least taking one train on your Vietnamese trip. It's just kind of a novel thing to do. when you're shopping for seats online, I recommend doing it in advance if you can. If not, you can always purchase that at the train station. You just might not get maybe the cabin or seat type that you want. You are deciding between a hard birth and a soft birth: the comfort of your bed or seat and different price options.
On the overnight train trips, the cabins within the train cars have four beds, so if you and your partner are traveling together, you might end up with two other travelers or two other local Vietnamese that are traveling also within the same small car. As far as safety and your stuff goes, your luggage is in the car with you so you know you can kind of go to sleep and everything's right there.
Taking the sapa tourist train
The only exception to a four person car is if you're taking the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa. There's some tourist trains that allow you to purchase the entire car. There's only two beds in there. So that's kind of a fun novel experience, but that's more of an expensive trip compared to the rest of the country.
Domestic Flights in Vietnam
I'll talk about this more in our itinerary video, but Vietnam is a very long country. It's over a thousand miles South to North, so that's about the distance of Florida to New York. You are likely traveling quite a distance depending on how many locations do you want to see in Vietnam.
Domestic flights in Vietnam are so affordable - don’t just assume they’re expensive. If you were coming to the U S to travel and you were flying from Florida to Virginia and Virginia to New York, it might cost you $500. In Vietnam it might only be $45 USD for a seat to get from Saigon to Danang and Danang up to Hanoi.
In Conclusion: Vietnamese Transportation Options
So lots of affordable transportation options that can save you loads of time. In conclusion, I'd recommend starting by looking at domestic flights within the country and then work your way down to train and then finally the bus if maybe there's not a train route in that area.
Vietnam Weather
Don't just assume that because Vietnam is in Southeast Asia, that it's always hot and humid. Think about a day in March in Florida versus New York. It could be 85 degrees down in Florida and it can be 40 and raining up in New York. Throw in some jungles, some mountains and in rainy season and you've got yourself quite a dramatic temperature and weather change throughout the country.
When to visit Vietnam?
Do your research on the specific weather for the specific city or location you plan on visiting (not just googling “Vietnam Weather” … that’s like saying “USA weather”.)
Ha Long Bay Weather
If you're picturing yourself swimming and kayaking and going to the beaches, it can get chilly in the winter. So much so that you probably don't want to swim. If Ha Long Bay is on your list, you likely won’t be swimming in December and January.
SaPa + Ha Giang Weather
In Northern Vietnam it can even snow up in the mountains. So if you're doing a motorbike trip to northern Vietnam make sure you're packing accordingly. Especially if you're coming from Saigon, that could be 90 and humid on the same day.
Food in Vietnam
Vietnamese food is reason to travel to Vietnam just in and of itself. So instead of making a five hour video on all the amazing Vietnamese food, I want to help you navigate your way outside of the restaurants that are catering to travelers and help you navigate a local restaurant
Visiting Restaurants in Hanoi and Saigon
In large cities like Saigon and Hanoi, there is going to be plenty of opportunities to find English on the menus. There's Italian food, there's hamburgers you can get just about anything that you can get in a big city.
Gluten Free in Vietnam
I'm celiac. The food of Vietnam is so gluten free friendly because almost everything is made out of rice. I've never had a glutened moment in Vietnam. Yay.
How to Order Food at Local Restaurants
There's likely not a menu at these small restaurants. Walking up to a local Vietnamese restaurant you will see a big large sign out in front of it and it will say the type of food that is serving and the types of meats that it has. There is loads of food choices in Vietnam, but for the sake of simplicity for this video, let's talk about three of them:
Popular vietnamese dishes
Pho (rice noodle soup) “Fah”
Com (rice dish) “Cohm”
Bun (cold rice noodle dish with fish sauce) “Boon”
vietnamese meats
Bo (beef) “boh”
Ga (chicken) “gah”
Cha (pork) “Chah”
Each restaurant usually only serves one type of dish but will be asking you what meat you want.
Vietnamese coffee
You have got to have the Vietnamese coffee when you go to Vietnam. So you can also look for “Ca phe”. That one's easy to remember, right? And it is popularly served “Sua Da” with condensed milk and ice.
Basic Vietnamese Phrases
So now we're getting a little bit more complicated and talking about the language. Let me help run you through a little bit about the Vietnamese language. I am not a Vietnamese speaker. I do have my masters in Spanish and spent a lot of time due to my program in university level linguistics programs. So I'm, I'm coming from somewhere at least!
Vietnamese is a tonal language, meaning the way that you say or sing the word changes, the meaning. So for example, we talked about, the word for beef is two letters, B O but you can say that word in multiple different ways and it means different things.
The good news is that the tone for both chicken and beef found the same. So you can remember it in that way. They both have the accents above the vowel, that slant downwards. So your sound is traveling downwards.
(Watch the video at top of page for pronunciation - Time stamp: 10:13.)
The reason why that's important is because we're typically asking for that at a restaurant and in English we're using tone to indicate a question. For example,
“Can I get you anything?”
“Chicken soup?”
“Soup?”: the question intonation is raising, but you don't want to change the word of chicken or beef by asking for it. So you always need to say it like a statement and follow the tone down. “Chicken Soup.”
Hello in Vietnamese
Xin Chao! “Seen Chaow”
Thank you in Vietnamese
Cam On “Cahm-un”
Vietnamese Visa
Americans and many other travelers of foreign countries need visas prior to arriving in Vietnam. We Americans are fortunate to have such a great passport that gets us visa free or visa on arrival and just so many countries that it feels unnatural at this point.
How to Apply for a Vietnam Visa?
So what does that mean? That doesn't mean you have to go drive to your nearest consulate and make an appointment? No, it's (thankfully) not this whole huge deal. But you do need to apply online for an E visa before you arrive. You will pay a fee online when you submit your application. Make sure you're doing this far enough advance that you have your waiting and approval periods. Do this at least a week in advance so you have plenty of time.
You will then receive your approved visa
you will print it out, (I know print it out!)
and carry it with you and bring it to Vietnam.
Then you will arrive in your Vietnamese arrival city airport
Then you will hand it to immigration and then they will check everything over and then approve you once you are there.
This is part of the whole process of getting to Vietnam! Make sure go do your research about the visa according to the country of your passport.
Immunizations
Oh no, the super fun topic of immunizations! I didn't really fully understand this before we started traveling. Okay: so all of these countries, they're not requiring you to receive a vaccination before you arrive. You're not handing them a piece of paper saying I'm immunized for X, Y, and Z. The immunization recommendations are medical recommendations from the country that you live in or if you visit your doctor.
So these are just recommendations for you to go.
For example, it's recommended you receive a tetanus shot or you're up to date on your tetanus vaccine because if you're walking through a waterfall with flip flops on and you step on a rusty nail, it's a good idea to be up to date on, on tetanus. And the thought of that is just, you're doing more adventurous things than like walking into the office if you're not up to date on tennis is probably low risk, right?
You're hepatitis vaccination is another recommended vaccination, but once you start getting into these like deeper things like Japanese encephalitis or taking malaria pills or typhoid pills, that's a little bit more on the safer side, which isn't good or bad, but it's not necessarily required.
What Vaccines should I get to visit Vietnam?
So if you're just curious what Tim and I do, we've never taken malaria pills, Typhoid pills or that Japanese encephalitis, random thing. Part of the issue with pills, especially malaria, is typically they need to be refrigerated (and can be extremely expensive!) So do your research on that and consult with a medical professional, which I am not.
Now you have the information of the fact that no, there's no specific vaccinations that are required to enter Vietnam.
Time to plan your trip to Vietnam!
If you want more, make sure you check out the Vietnamese Itinerary Guide that will help you think through some bucket list destinations and how to manage your time while you're in the country. And motorbikers- I know this is coming from some random blonde chick on the internet, but yeah, I, have motorbiked all over the country. More motorbike information here.