Vietnam – The Basics
Want to know the basics like how to cross the street, make a call, or find local currency? We’ve got you covered.
Posts on Vietnam:
Hanoi: Things to Do, Food, Markets/Shopping
Hoi An: Things to Do, Food (Hoi An and Hue), Markets/Shopping
Sim cards
Most websites recommend Viettel first, then Mobifone or Vinaphone. TLDR: buy the cheapest, most convenient or best data plan SIM of the three major cell phone companies and you will be fine, but Viettel does seem to have an edge over at least Mobifone.
Viettel is apparently the largest company with the most comprehensive coverage though Mobifone and Vinaphone seem pretty comparable based on coverage maps. Data costs for all three seem similar online. We planned to buy Viettel sim cards. We decided to avoid the kiosks at the airport (which are more expensive) and seek out the Viettel store in Hanoi Old Town (there are actually two stores in Old Town). As we were walking out of our hotel to get the SIM card, the reception staff told us they had Mobifone SIMs for 180,000 dong (US$7.65) for 3Gb/day for 30 days. I thought we could get a better price at Viettel – boy, was I wrong! Viettel charged almost 3x as much for a plan with less data for 30 days. So, we ended up buying Mobifone SIMs at the hotel. They worked well throughout Vietnam, including the rural areas of Ha Giang.
We actually tested Mobifone vs. Viettel when we were in the middle of Vietnam by purchasing one Mobifone SIM (with calls included) and one Viettel SIM (data only). Viettel definitely had stronger signals, more frequently – we could be in the same spot and the Mobifone card would have 1-2 bars, while the Viettel SIM would have 4 bars. Viettel data also seemed to be faster than Mobifone (both claimed to be 4G). Conclusion: buy the cheapest or most convenient SIM of the three major cell phone companies and you will be fine, but Viettel might be a bit better if you can find one for a reasonable price.
Visas
Visas are required for US citizen tourists. The application for an e-visa is here. You can provide a headshot and photo of your passport using your phone (rather than getting a passport photo taken at a local store). Note that it provides a maximum of 30 days in the country (as of 2022). We thought we might just go the Immigration Office to extend the visa (which apparently could be done prior to COVID), but several other ex-pats told us they were turned away unilaterally. Since we had a six-week trip planned in Vietnam, we ended up going to Thailand after 3.5 weeks for about a week and then returning to Vietnam via Cambodia (which also requires a visa for US citizen tourists).
It costs $25 and was processed in a few days for us. Be sure to put the FIRST airport of entry, and the LAST airport of leaving. For example, we flew from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh airport, then transferred planes to our final destination, Hanoi. Our entry airport is Ho Chi Minh. We made that mistake on one of our applications. They don’t allow changes so we re-did the application for another $25. Even so, it was cheaper than having the hotel process for us.
You can ask your hotel to do it for you which will be more expensive and more effort at the airport. What hotels and travel agencies offer is the ‘visa on arrival’ track – they provide a letter ‘inviting’ you to Vietnam, but it’s not a visa. You have to stand in the visa-on-arrival line first, pay up to $50 in stamp fees, then go to the immigration line with your visa.
Banking
Many Vietnam banks seem to be on either the Plus (Visa) or Star ATM networks, which is what most American banks and credit unions are on. We had to try a few banks before we found one that actually dispensed money though. In Hanoi (and Ho Chi Minh City), HSBC is a good ATM – it also allows for large withdrawals. Elsewhere in the country, you will probably only encounter Vietnamese banks. Agribank and Sacombank both worked well for us but you can only withdraw 3 million dong per transaction (we were able to do multiple transactions over a few minutes in order to pull out more). Interestingly, Sacombank, although it states it will charge a 1.5% access fee for foreign ATM card transactions, did not charge any fee when we used their ATMs.
Health prep
At least 2 weeks ahead you may need some medications, so you should check with your local travel nurse or similar for recommendations and referrals. (We found the cheapest was Costco. They charged $40 for the consultation part and then the fees for unusual vaccines were cheaper than other places. We also used a GoodRx coupon to lower it more. ) We had vaccinations or boosters for Japanese encephalitis virus, typhoid (pills), rabies, and hepatitis. We also took medication with us for malaria, pepto bismol for preventative traveler’s diarrhea, and Imodium and an antibiotic in case of larger issues. Keep in mind that these steps were based on our personal medical histories and travel itinerary, and yours might be different.
Drinking water
Nobody in or out of Vietnam thinks you should drink the tap water. Bottled water here, however, does not have a great track record either. We did a little research on quality testing of the popular brands available in Vietnam (without finding any real data), but also got ourselves a Grayl brand water purifier and filter to protect from E. coli, arsenic, and more. Hotels usually provide 2 bottles of water a day. We ended up drinking any water or ice provided. Perhaps we got some arsenic or other fun things we don’t know about, but we did not get sick.
Laundry
There are wash/dry businesses all over Vietnam. In Hanoi, we found one that was 2 minutes from our hotel (Giat Say Worldwash Laundry, 15 Phu Doan, Hang Trong, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi; worldwash.vn) that was fast and cheap. Their turnaround was typically half a day, and they charged 50,000 dong (US$2.17) for 2 kilograms and 70,000 dong (US$3.00) for 3 kilograms of clothing (both wash and dry). For one week’s laundry consisting of underwear, socks, pair of shorts, pants, etc. for each of us, we never paid more than 70,000 dong. Many other laundries have similar rates and turnarounds, so googlemap searching near your lodging should find you a comparable choice.
Tipping
We talked to one of our Vietnamese guides about this, and read a bunch of blogs with conflicting advice. Tipping is not traditional in Vietnam. Given that Vietnam is a socialist country, most workers make an ok wage (not quite clear if it’s really a living wage). We found that no one expected a tip, even those people who work in foreign tourist-oriented roles. Basically we found that tips for restaurants and Grab rides (or, for example, a car to the airport) were not necessary. We did however, tip our single-day and multi-day guides, as well as the employees of our Halong cruise ship, and the staff of our hotel. All of these people provided what we considered fantastic service, so we had no issue showing our appreciation by providing some compensation (and thanking them frequently and profusely). We read about two general rules of thumb: US$7-10/day for a guide or 10% of the total cost of the trip. We ended up somewhere in between in terms of how we tipped. Also, note that most guided trips also include a driver – we gave an additional 50-70% of the guide’s tip to the driver.
Transportation in Hanoi
Walking is the easiest way to get around, though street traffic in Hanoi can be oppressive. A friend said crossing the street is like Frogger (the video game from the 80s) and she was frighteningly accurate. We found the best way to cross streets was to a) look both ways (even if the street is one way…), b) find a gap, c) walk slowly but deliberately towards your destination. In fact the slower you go, the easier it is to cross the street – that seems counterintuitive but when you move slowly, you are basically a fixed object and the faster objects (cars, motorbikes) just go around you.
Taxi/Car. We used Grab to get around sometimes – it’s the Southeast Asian alternative to Uber. The app works slightly differently than Uber but the basics are the same. Several things to note: first, you don’t need to enter your credit card info; instead you can just pay cash for every ride. (Grab drivers pay a commission for every pickup, so Grab still gets their cut). Second, you need a local phone number, so assuming you have a local data SIM you should be good to go. (If you don’t know your phone number you can usually enter a short code on the phone and it’s provided automatically. On Mobifone just dial *0# , and then screen shot the phone number that is displayed.). Third, you can choose whether you want a car or motorbike as your form of transportation.
Car service with hotel. Our hotel offered cars via several mechanisms. For short drives, they would use Grab to summon a car, tell us the cost and then we paid the driver at the other end (we did that before we just starting using Grab ourselves). They also had a group of drivers available for longer drives (such as Duong Lam Ancient Village). The prices were pretty reasonable and the driver stayed nearby, so we could wander around, WhatsApp or text the driver and jump in the car to the next destination. Additionally, the cost of the car was just added to our hotel bill. As an example, the drive to Duong Lam Ancient Village (and Van Phuc silk village which is sort of on the way), cost us a total of 1.7 million dong (US$74) and we basically had the driver all day. We considered using Grab to go further out from Hanoi, and it’s easy to find a car to leave the city; we were concerned about Grab availability for the return trip. The hotel staff confirmed our concern about limited availability of Grab cars, so we mostly used our hotel’s car service.
Pedicab. We didn’t use pedicabs because we preferred walking to be able to stop anywhere, or Grab, if we wanted to get somewhere fast or far away.
Traffic
It took us
3 days to learn how to cross the street
2 weeks to feel comfortable walking in the middle of the street like the locals do
Hanoi could be difficult to navigate for persons in wheelchairs or with significant mobility issues. I would also hesitate to come here with children who can walk on their own but are spacey.
But we loved Hanoi once we got used to how the traffic works!
Thinking about Crossy Street or Frogger–the video games–actually helps.
When we left Hanoi we felt like street-crossing champions no matter where else we went!
The basics:
Traffic moves in all directions all the time. Sidewalks are primarily for motorcycle/scooter parking, eating, or doing work.
If the sidewalk is wide enough that you feel able to walk without dodging parked vehicles and lunch tables, then be careful for motorcycles in motion. They use wide sidewalks like streets, especially if they are running parallel to a one-way street.
If a street is one way, you still need to look for traffic in both directions.
If the light is green, you still have to look in both directions for traffic.
You can walk in the gutter, except that’s also where the trash goes, and some parked cars. You go in the street to get around it.
Honking means “I’m near you so make room”. Nobody honks if you break traffic laws; everyone breaks traffic laws and doesn’t care.
Our favorite traffic story: we were headed from an airport hotel to the airport, and our Grab driver went about 200 yards the wrong way on a busy 4-lane one-way street. He stayed to the far left for most of that, and oncoming traffic was un-phased. Yep, he’s going the wrong way and he realizes it, so we’ll all just go around. Then our driver crossed the 4 lanes to make a right turn onto the street going the correct direction. Drivers here–and pedestrians–are all watching everyone all the time in all directions. Everyone goes kind of slowly enough that they can avoid obstacles.
P.S. I finished writing the story above on our last day in Hanoi, and then Dan and I were invited to drinks and snacks with some of our hotel employees, and this adventure would include our new favorite traffic story. This would be our first Vietnam motorbike ride and Sarah’s first ever. Dan sat on Daniel’s bike, and Sarah with Jenny. Daniel was pulled over by traffic police because he did not use a turn signal. First the officer threatened to take the bike, then Daniel offered a payment of 200K dong which the officer took. Jenny came over to say her uncle is a big boss with the police. The officer became very upset and eventually gave the money back to Daniel. We zoomed off, hit significant traffic, and then Jenny realized we had gone too far. To make the back-tracking faster we went the WRONG WAY in full-on commute traffic. This was more visceral than when we were in the car because on the motorbike, all of the oncoming traffic was so close to us! But again, everyone seems to accept someone traveling the wrong way. With both the traffic stop and the wrong-way drive, we certainly had a quintessential Hanoi driving experience!
Driving the wrong way on a 1-way street in full commute traffic
Dan and Daniel on the bike; Jenny advising
Daniel (left) and Lizzy (right) ready to take us to drinks
Hotels: how to pick them and a few specific spots we liked.
We don’t get kickbacks from affiliate links, so we only name hotels when we are really happy with them.
Hanoi
Hotel Marvellous (yes with 2 L’s)
Location in Old Town was great, right near several wonderful restaurants. The beds were super comfortable. They were firm but with a pillow-top covering. Air conditioning worked well and was quiet. Bathrooms were clean–no mold, no stink, well-configured. Room sizes are huge. We stayed in 4 different room types. Our favorite was (no surprise) their balcony room. Gorgeous huge balcony! Second favorite was a city view suite that had a twin bed plus a queen bed. Even their lower-end room, however, was comfortable. Breakfast offered a small variety of Western and Asian foods. We did not get tired of it even after more than 2 weeks and we watched as many vegetarian guests had their needs happily met. Spa massage was nice; we visited several times.
All that was enough for us to whole-heartedly recommend this place, but what really puts it above the rest is the staff. All of them were so friendly and warm, and Daniel and Lizzy were like our private food tour guides. They recommended AMAZING restaurants, and gave us interesting local history (mostly about food, which is what we like). On our last night, we went out for drinks and snacks with them when Daniel’s shift ended. I was a little scared because Daniel asked if I preferred chicken feet or organ meat. Uhh, that’s a rough choice for me! They really wanted a quintessentially Hanoi food capstone experience and I think we had already eaten anything that was easier.
Below (left) is a picture of us with the hotel staff (Lizzy, Daniel, , and (right) at dinner with Lizzy, Daniel, and the new hire, Jenny.
Ninh Binh
Chez Hiep, Tom Coc near Ninh Binh: bungalow-style with private bathrooms, good breakfast and dinner, French-speaking staff, and a nice pool. Huge bonus: NO CHICKEN NOISE in the morning.
Ha Giang: check out our page on Ha Giang for the names of homestays we enjoyed.
General recommendations for hotel picking:
Vietnamese tourists like karaoke. If you will be in an area with Vietnamese tourists (say a weekend in Ha Giang) then know if you pick a hotel where locals stay you may have noise until quite late. (Off-key noise totally possible.) If you are able to travel to popular destinations on weekdays and have the weekends in the major cities, you are more likely to avoid this.
Lodge: “Homestay” does not always mean a stay in someone’s home. Sometimes a “homestay” means more like a lodge, which is one step up from a hostel. These are quite popular with Vietnamese tourists. Lodges have food available or included in the stay. You might be able to get a private bathroom, but if most rooms at the place have a shared bathroom, you are looking at a lodge. Most lodges we stayed in had barely passable bathrooms, even when fairly new construction and private for our room. They also had too hard beds and tended to be noisy.
Homestays: many ethnic minority families run homestays and we experienced 2 of these in Ha Giang. Like the lodges described above, it is quite common for most of the rooms to be organized with 10-20 beds in a room, with curtains or thin walls separating each mattress area. In this space, you will have the sound of snoring during the night and a shared bathroom. If this is not your speed, we recommend looking for homestays that have private bedroom and bathroom, or a bungalow situation where everybody has their own separate cabin/bathroom. THERE WILL BE CHICKEN NOISE if you are in the country.
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