Asia Unseen · Vietnam
Vietnam
The best ratio of strangeness to price in South-East Asia, and it is not close. Street food with no equivalent anywhere, landscapes that change every 200 kilometres, and a country where three weeks still costs what one week in Japan does.
Who it suits: A first trip to Asia, small budgets, people who travel for food, motorbike riders.
- Entry
- 45 days visa-free
- Best months
- Mar · Apr · Oct · Nov · Dec
- Budget
- from €25 / day
- Rules checked
- September 2026
Hanoï · Dong (VND) · UTC+7
Can you enter, and for how long
Ordinary passports, tourism. Each rule below comes from the traveller's own government, with the month it was read — not from another guide.
By passport
45 days visa-free
Visa-free for up to 45 days on a French passport; e-visa beyond that.
Taken in September 2026 · France Diplomatie — Vietnam, entrée et séjour ↗
45 days visa-free
45 days visa-free for tourism or business.
Taken in September 2026 · GOV.UK — conseils aux voyageurs, conditions d'entrée ↗
Visa required
Visa required. Tourist e-visa for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry.
Taken in September 2026 · Gouvernement du Canada — conseils aux voyageurs ↗
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the US portal refuses automated reading — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the Australian portal refuses the connection — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the New Zealand portal does not publish entry rules — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
When to go
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Vietnam runs 1,650 km north to south, so there is no single season — there are three. North (Hanoi, Sapa, Ha Long): October to April. Centre (Hoi An, Hue): February to August. South (Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong): December to April. Any itinerary covering the whole country will hit rain somewhere, and that is normal rather than bad planning.
What not to do
- Booking Ha Long Bay from a street desk in Hanoi — half the boats sold that way are not the boat in the photograph
- Changing money at the airport, where the rate is 5 to 8 % worse than in town
- Underestimating distances: Hanoi to Saigon by train is 32 h 45
- Renting a scooter without a valid international licence — your insurance will not cover anything
Booking your trip
The links below are affiliate links: they change nothing about what you pay, and they fund the writing of these pages. We only put here what we actually use.
Accommodation
The best coverage of small family-run hotels, and free cancellation almost everywhere.
Find a hotel (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Trains, buses and ferries
The only reliable aggregator for overland transport in Southeast Asia, with real timetables and named operators.
See the routes (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Activities and guides
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before, verified reviews, and someone to talk to when a boat does not sail.
See what is on (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)The French version of this page also lists a travel insurer. It is not here on purpose: that insurer sells to French residents, and a policy you cannot buy is not a recommendation.
More on Vietnam
Sources and data
Entry rules for Vietnam are read on these official pages, and re-read every night. When one changes, the page changes and the correction is published in the corrections log, next to what we used to say.
Some source names below are in French, and stay that way on purpose: they are the titles of French government pages. Renaming them in English would make them harder to find, and finding them is the point. The rule for your own passport is read at your own government's portal, named alongside it above.
- France Diplomatie — Vietnam, entrée et séjour
- Portail e-visa officiel du Vietnam
- Enregistrement préalable (aéroport de Hô Chi Minh-Ville)
- France Diplomatie — Conseils aux voyageurs
The data behind this page is open: vietnam.json, CC BY 4.0.