Vietnam

Vietnam spent a thousand years under Chinese rule from 111 BC, which is why the Confucian bureaucracy, the Temple of Literature in Hanoi and the character-based writing that preceded the Latin alphabet all look the way they do. Independence came in 938 AD and a series of Vietnamese dynasties followed, expanding south at the expense of the Hindu Cham kingdom, whose brick temple towers at My Son and along the central coast are the visible remains. The Nguyen dynasty, the last, established its capital at Hue in 1802 and built the Citadel and the royal tombs along the Perfume River.

France colonised the country from the 1860s, creating French Indochina and leaving the boulevards, opera houses and shophouses of Hanoi, Hue and Saigon, along with the baguette and the coffee. The Viet Minh defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the country was divided at the 17th parallel, and the American war followed - roughly 1965 to 1973 for US ground forces, ending with the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 and reunification in 1976. Around three million Vietnamese died. The doi moi economic reforms from 1986 opened the country, and the Vietnam a client sees now is young, fast-growing and thoroughly commercial. The war is close enough that the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels are unavoidable parts of the itinerary, and both present a firmly Vietnamese account - brief clients on that rather than letting them be surprised.

Vietnam is shaped like a long S, 1,650 km from the Chinese border to the Ca Mau peninsula, and only about 50 km wide at its narrowest point near Dong Hoi. The Annamite range runs down the western side along the Lao and Cambodian borders; the Red River delta in the north and the Mekong delta in the south are flat, intensively farmed and densely populated. The limestone karst that defines the northern landscape appears at Ha Long Bay, where roughly 1,600 islands and pillars rise from the Gulf of Tonkin, and inland at Ninh Binh, often called Ha Long on land. There are 3,260 km of coastline.

Plan around flight times, not road distances. Hanoi to Da Nang is 760 km, 1 hour 20 by air and 16 hours by road - always fly it. Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City is another 1 hour 20 by air. Within each region the drives are short: Hanoi to Ha Long 2 hours 30 on the expressway, Hanoi to Ninh Binh 1 hour 45, Hanoi to Sapa 5 to 6 hours or an overnight train to Lao Cai, Da Nang to Hoi An 45 minutes, Da Nang to Hue 2 hours 30 over the Hai Van pass, Ho Chi Minh City to Cu Chi 1 hour 30, to My Tho in the Mekong 1 hour 45 and to Can Tho 3 hours 30. Phu Quoc is an island off the Cambodian coast, 1 hour by air from Ho Chi Minh City.

• Kayaking among the karst at Lan Ha Bay, which allows kayaking where central Ha Long largely does not, and swimming off the cruise boat.
• Caving at Phong Nha-Ke Bang - Paradise Cave and Phong Nha cave are accessible day trips, and Hang En is a two-day expedition, while Son Doong, the largest cave passage on earth, requires a permit and books a year ahead at several thousand dollars.
• Trekking in the Muong Hoa valley around Sapa with a Hmong or Dao guide, with homestays at Ta Van and Lao Chai; Fansipan, the highest peak in Indochina at 3,143 metres, is now reached by cable car in 15 minutes, which is either a relief or a shame.
• Motorbike touring the Hai Van pass with an Easy Rider driver, never self-ridden.
• Cycling the rice fields and back lanes of Hoi An, and the Ninh Binh valley.
• Canyoning at Da Lat.
• Diving and snorkelling at the An Thoi islands off Phu Quoc and at Cham Island off Hoi An.
• Bamboo basket-boat rides in the Cam Thanh coconut palms, which is touristy but fun for families.

• From Hanoi: Ninh Binh for Trang An or Tam Coc sampans, Mua Cave's 500 steps and Bai Dinh pagoda, 1 hour 45 each way; the Perfume Pagoda by boat and cable car, 2 hours; Bat Trang ceramic village, 40 minutes; Duong Lam ancient village, 1 hour 30; and Ha Long or Lan Ha as an overnight rather than a day trip.
• From Hoi An or Da Nang: My Son, the Cham sanctuary, 1 hour; Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge, 1 hour; Marble Mountains, 20 minutes; Hue over the Hai Van pass, 2 hours 30, done as a long day or better as an overnight; Cham Island by speedboat in season.
• From Hue: the Nguyen royal tombs of Tu Duc, Minh Mang and Khai Dinh along the Perfume River.
• From Ho Chi Minh City: the Cu Chi tunnels, 1 hour 30; My Tho and Ben Tre in the Mekong for a day on the river, 1 hour 45; Cao Dai Great Temple at Tay Ninh combined with Cu Chi; Can Gio mangroves.
• From Can Tho: Cai Rang floating market, which has to be done at 5.30am to be worth doing.

• Varied and genuinely good in places, which is not true everywhere in the region.
• Ho Chi Minh City has the strongest scene - rooftop bars at the Reverie, Chill Skybar and Saigon Saigon at the Caravelle; the Bui Vien walking street, which is loud, cheap and aimed at backpackers and is fine for one look; and better cocktail bars in the alleys off Dong Khoi and the Layla and Snuffbox end of the market.
• Hanoi is smaller but more atmospheric: Ta Hien beer corner for bia hoi at VND 10,000 a glass sitting on plastic stools in the street, the Binh Minh jazz club, and the Old Quarter's rooftops over Hoan Kiem.
• Hoi An after dark is the best evening in the country and has nothing to do with drinking - the Ancient Town closes to traffic, silk lanterns come on and boats carry paper lanterns on the river.
• Da Nang has a beach club scene and the Dragon Bridge breathing fire at 9pm on weekends.
• Note that Hanoi enforces a rough 12am closing more strictly than the south.

• Hoi An is the shopping stop and tailoring is the reason - several hundred tailors will make a suit, dress or coat in 24 to 48 hours, and the good ones (Yaly Couture, Bebe, A Dong Silk) are worth the premium over the cheap end, which uses poor fabric and unfinished seams.
• Allow two fittings, which means two nights in Hoi An minimum if the client wants clothes.
• Also Hoi An for silk lanterns, leather shoes and bags made to measure.
• In Hanoi, the Old Quarter's craft streets each sell one thing - Hang Gai for silk, Hang Bac for silver, Hang Ma for paper goods - plus Dong Xuan market for volume and the Craft Link and Indigo Store social enterprises for genuine ethnic minority textiles rather than machine copies.
• Bat Trang village for ceramics.
• In Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Thanh market is touristy and hard-sell but worth one visit, and the Saigon Square and Dong Khoi boutiques are better.
• Worth buying: Vietnamese robusta and arabica coffee and a phin filter, cashews, black pepper, lacquerware, and conical hats for the children.
• Do not buy anything sold as an antique.

Better than most of Southeast Asia, largely because Vietnam has a genuine Buddhist vegetarian tradition of its own. Look for "com chay" or "quan chay", vegetarian restaurants that exist in every city and are excellent and cheap, and note that the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month sees many ordinary restaurants offer full vegetarian menus. The critical phrase is "toi an chay" - I eat vegetarian - and the essential warning is that fish sauce (nuoc mam) and shrimp paste (mam tom) are default seasonings in almost everything, including most vegetable dishes and dipping sauces, so "no meat" is not enough; say "khong nuoc mam" as well. Pho broth is beef or chicken bone stock by default and a vegetarian pho has to be asked for specifically at a chay restaurant. The genuine selling point for Indian clients is that Indian restaurants are plentiful in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang - Namaste, Tandoor, Dhaba, Baba's Kitchen and Ganesh among many others - so there is always a familiar fallback, and this is worth saying early to a client hesitating over Southeast Asia. Jain requirements need an Indian restaurant in each city plus a hotel kitchen briefed ahead; onion and garlic are in most Vietnamese cooking. Halal is available in Ho Chi Minh City's Cham Muslim area around the Saigon Central Mosque and at a handful of Hanoi restaurants, but is not widespread - brief Muslim clients honestly and plan around the Indian restaurants, several of which are halal.

Vietnamese food is the lightest and most herb-driven in Southeast Asia, built on fish sauce, lime, chilli, rice noodles and enormous quantities of fresh herbs, and it varies sharply by region - northern food is subtle and less sweet, central food around Hue is spicier and more complex, southern food is sweeter with more coconut. A street bowl of pho or banh mi is VND 30,000-60,000 (INR 110-220) and is often the best thing the client eats all trip. A mid-range restaurant is VND 150,000-350,000 (INR 550-1,300) a head. The upper tier - Anan Saigon, Quince, Nen in Da Nang, the Metropole's dining rooms - runs VND 900,000-2,500,000. Benchmarks in the middle: Cha Ca Thang Long and Bun Cha Huong Lien in Hanoi, Morning Glory and Mermaid in Hoi An, Cuc Gach Quan and Nha Hang Ngon in Ho Chi Minh City. Breakfast is eaten out and early, from 6am, and pho is a breakfast dish. Lunch is 11.30 to 1.30 and dinner from 6, with street kitchens closing by 9 or 10pm and many pho stalls selling out well before that.

Do not drink the tap water anywhere. Bottled water is VND 8,000-12,000 and is universal. Ice in hotels, cafes and proper restaurants is factory-made with a hole through the middle and is fine; irregular chipped ice from a street cart is not. Street food is one of the reasons to come and it is safe if the stall is busy, the turnover is fast and the food is cooked in front of you - a queue of locals is the only quality control needed. What to avoid: pre-cut fruit sitting out, raw herbs washed in tap water at a low-end stall, raw blood pudding (tiet canh), and anything lukewarm. Wash or peel fruit. Vietnamese coffee is extremely strong and clients drink three a day without noticing. In the south, heat and humidity dehydrate faster than clients expect, so carry water and oral rehydration salts. Dengue is present in both the north and the south, particularly in the rainy season, so use repellent.

Not traditionally Vietnamese but now normal from foreign visitors in tourist areas, and wages are low enough that it matters. Restaurants: 5-10%, or round up, and check whether a 5% service charge has already been added at a hotel or upmarket restaurant. Street stalls: no tip, just round up. Grab: not expected, though the app offers it. Private driver: VND 100,000-200,000 a day. Licensed guide: VND 200,000-300,000 a day. Cruise crew on Ha Long: there is usually a shared tip box at the end, VND 200,000-400,000 per person is normal. Hotel porter VND 20,000-50,000. Spa therapist 10%. Tip in dong, not dollars - dollar notes have to be changed and small dollar bills are awkward here.

Two main gateways and Vietnam is sold on both, which is why open-jaw is the default. Tan Son Nhat (SGN) in Ho Chi Minh City is 8 km from District 1 and is the busier airport; Noi Bai (HAN) in Hanoi is 27 km from the Old Quarter. IndiGo, Vietjet Air and Vietnam Airlines fly nonstop to both from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, taking 4 hours 30 to 5 hours 30. Da Nang (DAD) handles some international services and is convenient for a Hoi An and Hue itinerary. Phu Quoc (PQC) is reached domestically from Ho Chi Minh City in an hour. The point to repeat at every stage: the port of entry nominated on the e-Visa application is binding, so if the routing changes the e-Visa has to be reissued, and this is the commonest self-inflicted problem we see on Vietnam files.

Tan Son Nhat to District 1 is 8 km and 25 to 45 minutes depending on traffic, VND 200,000-350,000 (INR 740-1,300) by prebooked car, or VND 150,000-250,000 on Grab from the designated pickup area. Noi Bai to Hanoi's Old Quarter is 27 km and 40 to 55 minutes, VND 350,000-500,000 (INR 1,300-1,850) prebooked. Use Grab, Xanh SM or a hotel car; the meter taxis to trust are Mai Linh and Vinasun, and the risk is the unbranded lookalikes with rigged meters that wait outside both terminals. At Tan Son Nhat, build in extra time on arrival - the Digital Arrival Card has been mandatory since 15 April 2026 and groups who have not filed it in advance lose 30 to 45 minutes in the hall. Da Nang airport is 10 minutes from the beachfront and 45 minutes from Hoi An, VND 350,000-450,000.

Grab is everywhere and is the default: cars, taxis and food delivery, priced up front, paid by card or cash, and it removes the meter argument completely. A short hop in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 or Hanoi's Old Quarter is VND 40,000-80,000 (INR 150-300). Xanh SM is the newer all-electric alternative, slightly pricier, with newer cars and drivers who tend to speak a little more English - many clients prefer it. Be is a third option. Grab Bike, the motorbike version, is cheaper and faster through traffic and we do not book it for clients. Among metered taxis, Mai Linh and Vinasun are the reputable companies; anything with a similar-looking livery and a slightly different name is the scam. Coverage is good in all the cities and at Da Nang and Hoi An, thinner in Ninh Binh and Sapa and absent in the Mekong villages.

The standard product for intercity legs and touring days. A car with an English-speaking driver runs INR 3,500-5,500 a day, a 16-seat minibus INR 6,000-9,000, inclusive of fuel and tolls. As everywhere in Southeast Asia, the driver is not a guide - a licensed English-speaking guide is a separate INR 3,500-5,000 a day and is genuinely needed at Cu Chi, the War Remnants Museum, My Son and Hue, where the sites carry history that is not self-explanatory. For a one-way transfer such as Hanoi to Ha Long or Da Nang to Hue over the Hai Van pass, book the car point to point rather than by the day. Many Hoi An and Da Nang hotels include a free shuttle between the two, which is worth asking about before quoting a car.

Do not. Vietnam has one of the highest road accident rates in Asia, traffic in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City moves as a continuous river of motorbikes that takes years to read, and a foreign licence alone is not valid - a client needs a Vietnamese licence or a properly converted International Driving Permit under the 1968 convention, and without it travel insurance is void, which is the part that matters when a hospital asks for payment. The Hai Van pass and the Ha Giang loop are heavily marketed to backpackers and produce a steady flow of serious injuries. If a client is determined, put them on the back of a licensed Easy Rider tour with a professional driver instead, which is a legitimate and much safer product.

Hanoi's Old Quarter is compact and the best walking in the country, though the pavements are occupied by parked motorbikes and food stalls so most walking is done in the road - which works, because traffic flows around pedestrians who move steadily and predictably. Teach clients to walk at a constant pace and never to stop suddenly; that single instruction prevents most incidents. Hoi An's Ancient Town closes to vehicles for much of the day and is entirely walkable. Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 around Dong Khoi and Nguyen Hue is walkable but hot and humid, so most clients end up on Grab after midday. Expect 5 to 8 km on a city day. Ninh Binh involves steps - 500 up to the Mua Cave viewpoint - and Sapa involves genuine hill walking on wet clay tracks.

Google Maps is accurate for both driving and walking and includes Grab integration. Download offline maps for Ninh Binh, Sapa and the Mekong, where signal is patchy. Street numbering in Vietnamese cities can repeat with letter suffixes and alley addresses - an address like 25/7 means alley 25, house 7 - so have the hotel card with the address in Vietnamese, which every hotel provides. Google Translate with Vietnamese downloaded handles menus well through the camera function, which is genuinely useful for a vegetarian client. For domestic flights use the airline apps, and note that Vietjet changes schedules frequently and notifies by SMS to the number given at booking, so that number must be one the client will have in Vietnam.

Vietnam borders China, Laos and Cambodia. The crossing that matters to us is Moc Bai to Bavet for Cambodia, about 6 to 7 hours by coach from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh, which is open, straightforward and genuinely usable for a Vietnam plus Cambodia combination - though most clients prefer the 1 hour flight. The Mekong river route from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh by speedboat is a pleasant alternative. Lao crossings at Lao Bao and Nam Can are open but slow and remote, and we do not build itineraries on them. The Chinese border at Lao Cai and Huu Nghi requires a Chinese visa and is not a tourist route for Indian clients. Note that a land re-entry into Vietnam needs a new e-Visa with the correct land port of entry nominated - the original air-arrival e-Visa will not cover it.

The Vietnamese Dong (VND), and the zeroes are the problem - INR 1 is about VND 270 and USD 1 is about VND 25,915, so an ordinary dinner is a six-figure number and clients routinely confuse the VND 20,000 and VND 500,000 notes, which look alike and are both blue-green polymer. Tell them to check the numbers every time. Indian rupees cannot be exchanged. Carry US dollars in clean untorn notes as a backup and change them at a gold shop or a bank in the city rather than at the airport, where rates are poor; the gold and jewellery shops in Hanoi's Hang Bac and Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 give the best rates and are entirely normal places to change money. ATMs are everywhere and dispense dong; most charge VND 50,000-60,000 a withdrawal, but TPBank and some Vietcombank machines charge less. Prices for cruises, hotels and tours are often quoted in USD but paid in dong at the day's rate.

Cards work in hotels, mid-range and better restaurants, malls and larger shops in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hoi An, usually with a 3% surcharge which is often not disclosed until the bill. Everything else is cash: street food, markets, cyclos, small cafes, temple donations, the Mekong, Ninh Binh and most of Sapa. VietQR has made QR payments near-universal among Vietnamese but it needs a local bank account and is not available to visitors. Grab takes international cards in the app, which is the easiest way to avoid carrying much cash for transport. Budget VND 2,000,000-3,000,000 per person per week in cash for incidentals, and keep small notes for street food and tips. Tell clients to notify their Indian bank of travel dates.

Vietnamese social manners are quiet and indirect. Greet with a slight nod or a handshake; a two-handed handshake to someone older is respectful. Pass and receive things with both hands. Do not touch anyone's head, do not point with a single finger, and do not point your feet at a person or a Buddha image. Remove shoes at temples and in homes. Public displays of anger cause a serious loss of face and will get the client nothing - the person on the other side will simply stop engaging. Do not be loud in temples or on the street. Modest dress at pagodas. Two political sensitivities worth briefing. First, the war is presented from a firmly Vietnamese perspective at the War Remnants Museum and at Cu Chi, and clients should go in knowing that rather than arguing with a guide. Second, Vietnam is a one-party state and criticism of the government, the Party or Ho Chi Minh himself is genuinely unwelcome and in some circumstances illegal - photographs at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum are tightly controlled and the guards mean it. Also note that Vietnamese feeling about China is complicated and is not a topic for casual opinions.

Relaxed in general - Vietnam is hot and humid and normal summer clothing is fine everywhere in the cities and on the beaches. Temples, pagodas and the Hue Citadel require covered shoulders and knees for both men and women, and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum enforces a strict dress code and refuses shorts, vests and hats. Carry a light scarf or sarong for temple days. Beachwear stays on the beach; topless sunbathing is not acceptable anywhere. For the north in December to February, clients need a proper jacket and layers, because Hanoi at 14C with damp cold and no indoor heating feels far colder than the number suggests and this is the most common packing mistake on Vietnam files. For Sapa in winter add a warm coat. Sensible shoes for Ninh Binh's 500 steps and Hoi An's uneven lanes, and something that dries fast for the boats.

Expected at markets such as Ben Thanh and Dong Xuan, with street vendors, cyclo drivers and souvenir stalls; not done in restaurants, supermarkets, fixed-price shops, hotels or at the better Hoi An tailors, where the price reflects the fabric. Open at about 40-50% of the asking price at a tourist market and settle around 60-70% - the opening quote at Ben Thanh to a foreign face can be three or four times the real price, which is wider than an Indian client expects. Keep it friendly and be prepared to walk, which usually produces the real price before the client reaches the door. Two things Indian clients get wrong. First, using Grab removes the entire cyclo and taxi negotiation and costs less than the argument is worth. Second, hard bargaining at a Hoi An tailor to get the price down produces cheap lining and unfinished seams rather than a bargain - pay for the better shop instead.

Passport valid at least six months beyond the date of arrival with at least two blank pages. The passport used for the e-Visa application must be the one carried, and every detail - name, number, date of birth - must match exactly, because the e-Visa is checked against the passport chip at the gate and a single mistyped character means refusal of boarding. Review the approved e-Visa PDF against the passport the day it is issued, not at the airport. Carry two printed copies of the e-Visa and keep a digital copy. Children need their own passport and their own e-Visa.

Cash above USD 5,000 or VND 15,000,000 must be declared on arrival, which is a lower threshold than most countries and catches people out. Duty-free is 200 cigarettes, 1.5 litres of spirits and personal effects up to VND 10,000,000 in value. Prohibited: weapons, drugs, pornography, and politically sensitive printed or digital material, which is enforced more seriously than travellers expect. E-cigarettes and vapes have been banned since 2025 and are confiscated. Drones require prior permission from the Ministry of National Defence and are effectively impractical for tourists - do not bring one. Antiquities and anything appearing old cannot be exported without a permit. Drug penalties include the death sentence for trafficking quantities, and this is not theoretical.

Not mandatory for entry and not checked, but we insist on it and quote it in every file. Vietnamese public hospitals are basic and international-standard care means FV Hospital or Vinmec in Ho Chi Minh City or Vinmec in Hanoi, all of which require payment up front. Serious cases are evacuated to Bangkok or Singapore and that is a bill in lakhs. Make sure the policy covers road accidents, which are the most likely claim here, and that any client who intends to ride a motorbike understands the licence exclusion that will void the whole policy. Clients doing Ha Long kayaking, Sapa trekking or diving at Phu Quoc should have those declared.

Vietnam issues an electronic visa to Indian passport holders. The official fee is USD 25, about INR 2,400, for single entry and USD 50, about INR 4,800, for multiple entry. It is valid for stays of up to 90 days and processing takes 3 to 5 working days, so apply at least two weeks out. Apply only at evisa.gov.vn or thithucdientu.gov.vn - the government moved domains in November 2024 and the old address still circulates in travel forums and old agent files, alongside a large number of commercial clone sites charging three to five times the fee. Three traps account for almost every problem we see on Vietnam files, and all three must be briefed to the client. First, the port of entry nominated on the application is binding: the e-Visa is only valid at the airport, land crossing or seaport named on it, so if a flight is changed to a different airport the e-Visa becomes invalid at that gate and must be reissued. Check the nominated port against the ticket before ticketing and again before any schedule change is accepted. Second, the Digital Arrival Card has been mandatory and free at Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City since 15 April 2026, filed online up to 72 hours before arrival, and it does not replace the e-Visa - it is a separate step in addition to it. Expansion to Hanoi and Da Nang is expected but is not yet in force, so do not assume it applies there. Third, Phu Quoc operates its own separate visa-exemption rules for direct international arrivals, and those rules do not carry over to a mainland itinerary. Passport validity must be six months beyond arrival with two blank pages, and every detail on the e-Visa must match the passport exactly, because a single mistyped character means refusal of boarding. Rules here move frequently - reconfirm on evisa.gov.vn before quoting.

AI ESCAPES CLIENT PRICE: INR 4,319 per adult, all-in, for the Vietnam e-Visa (single entry) - visa fee INR 2,550 + Ai Escapes service fee INR 1,499 + 18% GST on the service fee INR 270. Quote this figure to the client; the government fees above are reference only. (Rate card as of 21 Sep 2026.)

220V, 50Hz. Sockets are Type A, C and F, and most modern hotel sockets are multi-fit and will take an Indian Type C two-pin plug, though the Indian Type D three-pin will not fit. Carry a universal adapter - older hotels and guesthouses in Ninh Binh, Sapa and the Mekong have two-pin sockets only. Power is generally stable in the cities; brief cuts happen in rural areas and on the islands, and Ha Long cruise boats run on generators that are often switched off overnight, so charge devices during the day. A power bank is worth carrying for long touring days.

Very good and very cheap. Viettel has the best national coverage including Sapa and the Mekong, with Vinaphone and Mobifone as alternatives. A tourist SIM costs VND 150,000-300,000 for 30 days with large or unlimited data, bought at the airport or any phone shop against a passport, and eSIMs are available from Viettel and from international providers. 4G and 5G are fast in all the cities and along the coast. Coverage drops on Ha Long and Lan Ha Bay out among the islands, in the Phong Nha caves and on some Sapa trekking routes. Hotel and cafe wifi is free, fast and universal - Vietnam is one of the better-connected countries in the region. Note that some international services are occasionally throttled; a VPN is worth having but is not usually necessary for a tourist.

Shops 8am-8pm or later, seven days a week; markets from 5am or 6am and best early - Dong Xuan and Ben Thanh both wind down by late afternoon, and the Cai Rang floating market is effectively over by 8am. Banks 8am-4.30pm on weekdays with a long lunch break from 11.30 to 1.30, and Saturday mornings at some branches. Museums 8am-5pm, many closing for lunch from 11.30 to 1.30, and Monday is a common closing day - the War Remnants Museum is open daily but the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum closes Monday and Friday and shuts entirely for about two months in autumn for maintenance, which needs checking. Restaurants: breakfast from 6am, lunch 11.30-1.30, dinner from 6pm with street kitchens closing 9-10pm. Hoi An's Ancient Town pedestrianises in the evening. During Tet, in late January or February, much of the country closes for a week and prices spike.

• Grab (rides, food, payments)
• Xanh SM (electric taxis, newer cars)
• Google Maps with Vietnam downloaded offline
• Google Translate with Vietnamese downloaded, for the camera menu function
• Vietnam e-Visa portal (evisa.gov.vn) bookmarked
• Vietnam Digital Arrival Card portal, for the mandatory Tan Son Nhat filing
• Vietjet, Vietnam Airlines or Bamboo (domestic flights and schedule changes)
• XE Currency (the dong has a lot of zeroes)

• Light breathable cotton and linen, plus a proper jacket and layers for Hanoi, Ha Long and Sapa between December and February
• A light rain shell and a small umbrella, whichever season
• Covered-shoulder tops and long trousers or skirt for pagodas and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
• Comfortable walking shoes plus something that dries fast for boats and Ninh Binh
• Insect repellent with DEET - dengue is present north and south
• High-factor sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat
• Refillable water bottle and oral rehydration salts
• Universal travel adapter
• Power bank - cruise boats cut generators overnight
• A soft bag or space for whatever gets tailored in Hoi An

• Passport valid six months beyond arrival with two blank pages
• Printed e-Visa approval, checked character by character against the passport
• The port of entry on the e-Visa confirmed against the actual flight, and rechecked after any schedule change
• Digital Arrival Card filed for Tan Son Nhat arrivals, up to 72 hours before landing, free
• Travel insurance covering road accidents and any trekking, kayaking or diving booked
• Domestic flight confirmations, with a phone number the client will actually have in Vietnam
• Cruise confirmation showing whether the Ha Long entrance fee is included
• Photocopies of passport and e-Visa kept separately
• Prescriptions for personal medication in original packaging

Refill rather than buy - Vietnam has a serious plastic waste problem visible on every beach and canal, and most good hotels and an increasing number of cafes offer free filtered refills. Refuse the plastic straw and the plastic bag, which are handed out reflexively. On Ha Long and Lan Ha, choose a cruise operator with a genuine waste policy and do not throw anything overboard; the bay is visibly degraded by tourism and the better boats are actively trying. In the Mekong, use smaller local boats rather than the large motorised ones for the narrow canals. Do not buy coral, shells or anything made from turtle. At Phu Quoc and Cham Island, use reef-safe sunscreen and do not stand on coral. Take domestic flights only where the distance genuinely requires it, which in Vietnam it usually does, and use the car and the train for shorter legs.

Do not give money or sweets to children selling postcards and lanterns in Hoi An, at Ninh Binh or in the Sapa valleys - it is what keeps them out of school, and it has created a real problem in Sapa in particular, where young Hmong girls are sent out to follow tourists rather than to class. Buy from the adult maker instead. In Sapa, book a Hmong or Dao guide through a community operator such as Sapa O'Chau rather than a hotel desk, so the money reaches the villages rather than a Hanoi agency, and pay properly for a homestay. Ask before photographing people, particularly ethnic minority women in traditional dress, who are photographed constantly and rarely asked. Do not buy "ethnic" textiles at a tourist stall assuming they are handmade - most are machine-printed imports; Craft Link and the Indigo Store in Hanoi sell the real thing. Treat Cu Chi and the War Remnants Museum as history rather than entertainment.

No elephant riding, including in Dak Lak province where the tourism board has been moving operators to observation-only programmes - book those instead. Avoid bear bile farms, the caged-civet operations selling "weasel coffee", snake wine villages and crocodile fishing, all of which are sold as attractions and all of which we decline. Do not eat wildlife: pangolin, civet, porcupine and various birds still appear on some rural menus and the trade is both illegal and a serious conservation problem. Do not buy ivory, rhino horn products, turtle shell or coral, and be aware that Vietnam remains a major transit market for all of them. Endangered Primate Rescue Centre at Cuc Phuong near Ninh Binh and the Son Tra Peninsula red-shanked douc langurs at Da Nang are the genuine wildlife experiences worth booking. On the bays and at Phu Quoc, do not touch or stand on coral.