40 Ho Chi Minh City Travel Tips

Before you book

Four details decide whether your paperwork works. Check them before you pay for flights.

1. The e-visa covers 90 days. Vietnam issues e-visas to every nationality, single entry for $25 or multiple entry for $50, and you apply online before you fly.
2. Your passport needs six months. The six months run from your arrival date, not from the day you apply. Airlines enforce this at check-in.
3. Some passports skip the visa entirely. Citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Korea, Russia and the Nordic countries get 45 days visa-free until March 2028. ASEAN members get 30 days. Australian, New Zealand, American and Canadian passports are not exempt.
4. Insurance has to cover two things. Medical evacuation by air, and riding as a pillion on a motorbike. Most standard policies exclude the second until you ask.

Our guide says

I give the same three instructions before anything else at the airport. Change money inside, order the car before the doors, and always decline the ATM's own conversion.

The best time to visit

The city stays warm all year, so the season you pick changes rain and crowds rather than temperature. Average humidity runs between 78 and 82 percent, and between 1,800 and 1,970 mm of rain falls each year, depending on the source. Our guide to the best time to visit breaks the year down month by month.

5. Plan around rain, not against it. Showers are short and heavy and usually land between 13:00 and 16:00, so locals run errands in the morning.
6. Check the Tet dates. Vietnamese New Year falls on 17 February 2026 and 6 February 2027. Shops close and reopen gradually, and long-distance transport sells out weeks ahead.

Money, costs and tipping

Vietnam runs on cash for anything small, and prices look large because of the zeros. Give every price in both currencies and the arithmetic stops hurting. For a day-by-day figure, our cost per day guide adds it all up for three budgets.

7. Learn three banknote colours. The 20,000 is blue, the 500,000 is cyan, the 10,000 is yellow and the 200,000 is red. Tourists mix the last two up most often.
8. Pick your ATM by the fee. Eximbank charges nothing to about 22,000 VND. TPBank, Agribank and OCB sit between 22,000 and 55,000, with BIDV and Vietcombank at 50,000 to 66,000.
9. Decline the conversion. Any ATM or card machine that offers to charge you in your home currency adds three to five percent. Always take the amount in VND.
10. Tipping is not compulsory. Restaurants without a service charge get five to ten percent. A day-tour guide gets 100,000 to 200,000 VND, a driver 50,000 to 150,000.

SIM cards, apps and staying connected

A local SIM is cheap and it solves three problems at once: maps, ride-hailing and a Vietnamese phone number for the driver.

11. Buy the SIM in a shop, not at the airport. Viettel sells 3 GB a day for 30 days at about 150,000 VND in a city store. The same package costs $10 to $13 at Tan Son Nhat.
12. Register it against your passport. Vietnamese law requires it, and a shop will do it for you in five minutes.
13. An eSIM works if you arrive late. Plans run from about $2.90 for 1 GB to $11 for 5 GB, and they activate before you land.
14. Install five apps. Grab carries about 55 percent of ride bookings, Xanh SM about 32 percent and needs a local SIM, and Be and inDrive cover the rest. MoMo and ZaloPay pay for the metro.

Landing at Tan Son Nhat

Our guide to getting from Tan Son Nhat to the city covers the buses, the taxis and late arrivals. The airport is about 8 km from the centre, which is 25 to 45 minutes in normal traffic and 45 to 60 at peak. The trouble is not the distance, it is the people who meet you before you reach the door.

15. For Grab, walk to the car park. At terminal 2, the pickup point is on floors 3 and 4 of the multi-storey car park. Expect to wait five to ten minutes.
16. Fair fares to the centre. A metered Vinasun or Mai Linh costs 170,000 to 230,000 VND, and a four-seat GrabCar 110,000 to 160,000 VND.
17. Surge is normal, being cheated is not. Rain and rush hour push fares to 1.3 to 1.8 times base. That is the algorithm, not a scam.
18. Keep two hotlines. Mai Linh is 1055 and Vinasun is 028 38 27 27 27. Calling one of them is the fallback when your phone battery is dead.

Getting around the city

Choose by distance and weather. Below 2 km the answer is usually your feet, and above 8 km the metro or a car beats a bike in the rain.

19. Tap in and tap out on the metro. Line 1 opened on 22 December 2024 with 19.7 km and 14 stations, and fares depend on both ends of your trip. A day pass costs 40,000 VND and a three-day pass 90,000 VND.
20. A 2 to 3 km Grab ride costs 20,000 to 30,000 VND. That is about $1, so the bike is often cheaper than two metro tickets for one person.
21. Do not drive yourself without a licence. You need a 1968 International Driving Permit plus your home licence, and insurance is mandatory. The 1968 permit is the only version Vietnam accepts.
22. Give the driver your address in Vietnamese. Ward names replaced district names in 2025, and apps still show both. A screenshot of the map pin saves the last five minutes of every ride.

Road rules that catch visitors

Vietnam takes road safety seriously in law, and the fines are large enough to ruin a holiday. The rules below apply to a passenger as much as to a rider.

23. Zero alcohol is the law since January 2020. The top fine tier runs 8 to 10 million VND with a 22 to 24 month licence suspension, for any detectable level.
24. An unfastened helmet costs the rider 400,000 to 600,000 VND. Since January 2025 the driver pays that fine for a helmetless passenger aged 6 or over. Children under 6 are exempt.
25. Red lights and pavement riding are the expensive ones, at 4 to 6 million VND, and a 12-point licence system now tracks repeat offences.
26. The stakes are why we ride carefully. Motorbikes are involved in 65 to 70 percent of crashes and more than 90 percent of traffic deaths in Vietnam. That is 30.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

The scams that actually happen

Violent crime against visitors is rare. Nearly everything that happens is opportunistic and takes about two seconds.

27. The drive-by snatch is the main one. Two people on a motorbike, the passenger takes your phone or bag. Hold your phone with both hands, and keep your bag on the side away from the road.
28. Know the four hotspots. Ben Thanh, Bui Vien, Nguyen Hue and the bus stops around them, especially after dark.
29. Let the bag go. Injuries come from being dragged, not from the theft. Nothing in your bag is worth a broken arm.
30. Expect the small cons. Fake tour desks near Ben Thanh, fake monks with donation books, the shoe-shine that becomes a hostage negotiation. And the folded note that turns 20,000 into 200,000, or the reverse.
31. Be careful with spirits after 22:00. Cheap unbranded liquor in the Pham Ngu Lao area has caused methanol poisoning deaths. Drink spiking is reported but rare.

Staying well, and who to call

Most visitors get through a trip with nothing worse than an upset stomach. The two things worth real attention are water and dengue.

1. 1
   Before you fly

   Vaccines worth having

   Typhoid and hepatitis A are the standard pair. Add hepatitis B and Japanese encephalitis if you stay longer than a month.

2. 2
   Every day

   Water, ice and raw food

   Tap water and the ice made from it are unsafe. Avoid raw meat and blood dishes such as tiet canh, and drink bottled water.

3. 3
   Rainy season

   Dengue, which is not rare

   The city logged 31,032 cases by 6 September 2026, more than 1,000 a week for five straight weeks. The peak comes in November and December. Repellent, long sleeves at dusk and air conditioning all help.

4. 4
   If it goes wrong

   Three hospitals we trust

   FV Hospital at 6 Nguyen Luong Bang in Phu My Hung, emergency (028) 35 11 35 00, JCI accredited. Family Medical Practice at 34 Le Duan, 24/7. Vinmec Central Park at 208 Nguyen Huu Canh.

32. Save the emergency numbers. 113 for police, 114 for fire, 115 for an ambulance and 112 for search and rescue. English is not guaranteed on any of them.
33. Rabies kills about 75 people a year in Vietnam. Do not pet the dogs and cats, and treat any bite or scratch as an emergency.
34. Air quality is poor in the dry season, and people with asthma feel it. A mask costs 10,000 VND at any pharmacy.

Small habits that make you a good guest

None of this is enforced, and all of it is noticed. Locals read small gestures as a sign of respect for the city.

35. Cover shoulders and knees at religious sites, and take your shoes off before entering a pagoda. Arrive early at the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which fills up in the evening.
36. Use two hands for money, cards and gifts, or one hand supported by the other. It signals respect in a way that a polite voice does not.
37. Learn how Tet works before you arrive. Shops close for the first days, families eat together, and red envelopes go to children and elders. Do not schedule a market morning on the first two days of Tet.
38. Ask for former district names. Since 1 July 2025 the city has no districts and wards replaced them, but hotels, drivers and maps still say District 1. Use both and you will be understood.

What to pack for this city

Half of what you need is for rain and the other half is for taking your shoes off. Everything else is replaceable within 200 metres of your hotel. Plugs are types A, B and C at 230 volts and 50 Hz, so a European charger works without a converter.

39. A poncho beats an umbrella. Showers arrive with wind, streets flood at the kerb, and one hand stays free for your phone.
40. Shoes you can slip on and off. Pagodas, temples and some restaurants ask for it, and you will do it several times a day.

How long to stay, and what comes next

Forty tips, one question left: how many days do they add up to?

If you are still deciding whether the trip earns its place at all, we answered that separately. Read is Saigon worth visiting, case against included.

Onward travel is quick by air and slow by land. Saigon to Hanoi flies in 2 h 09, with around 384 flights a week. Da Nang is 1 h 21 away and Phu Quoc about an hour.

The train to Da Nang takes 16.5 to 18.5 hours for $30 to $55, and Hanoi takes 32 to 35 hours. The bus to Phnom Penh takes six hours, with a printed e-visa in hand before boarding.

Questions we get on the bike