Before You Go: Vietnam

Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and Canadians need a visa for Vietnam, and the only sensible way to get one is the official e-visa at evisa.gov.vn. Other sites charge extra for the same form. The e-visa is valid for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, and the fee is 25 USD single entry or 50 USD multiple. Allow at least a week, and longer around holidays. Print the approval and carry it with your passport. Visa costs are not included in the ride price.

The application asks for your entry gate and your exit gate, and the entry gate is what trips people up. Choose the land border you will cross, not an airport: Ha Tien (Kien Giang province) for the Cambodia rides, Tay Trang (Dien Bien province) for the Laos rides. The exit gate is the airport you fly out of, Tan Son Nhat or Noi Bai. Put the crossing date from your itinerary as the entry date, and if you are not sure of it, ask us before you apply. The visa runs from the start date on your application, so a day or two of margin before the crossing does no harm.

Citizens of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, South Korea and Russia can enter without a visa for up to 45 days, and so can citizens of a further group including Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. If you hold one of those passports, check the current list on the official site before you rely on it. Vietnam also has an optional online arrival form that you can complete within 72 hours of entry. Rules change, so check the official site and the Smartraveller page for Vietnam before you book your flights.

The currency is the Vietnamese dong, at roughly 26,000 to the US dollar, so prices run into the hundreds of thousands and a million dong is about 40 USD, or 55 AUD. Unlike Cambodia, US dollars are not accepted in shops or restaurants. You need dong. Change some before the border, in Phnom Penh or Kampot on the Cambodia rides and in Luang Prabang on the Laos rides, because the first day across the border is rural and ATMs are scarce until Can Tho or Dien Bien Phu. After that, ATMs are easy to find in the towns, with a fee of about a dollar or two per withdrawal plus your own bank’s charge, and cards work in the city hotels and restaurants. Bring any US dollars in clean, newer notes.

Your meals, hotels and the support van are paid for, so your spending money covers the lunches that are not included, drinks, laundry, souvenirs and your own time in Saigon or Hanoi. Tipping is not a custom in Vietnam and nobody in a restaurant expects it, though it is becoming more common in the cities. The ride team is the exception. If you would like to tip the Vietnamese guides and driver at the end, it is appreciated and never expected, and riders typically give 0 to 100 USD per person, as the ride pages say. Because the team changes at the border, riders who tip usually do it once in each country.

Your Cambodian or Lao SIM stops working at the border, so plan to buy a Vietnamese one. The main networks are Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone. A tourist data pack for the rest of the ride costs a few dollars, you need your passport to register it, and the guides will show you where to buy one in the first town. The networks sell eSIMs as well, if your phone supports one, which saves the queue at the kiosk. Wi-Fi is free and fast in the hotels and cafes. The group’s WhatsApp chat carries on across the border.

Your travel doctor will have covered Vietnam with the rest of your trip. If your ride goes north into the mountains between Dien Bien Phu and Sapa, mention that, because the advice differs from the delta. Malaria is rare in the Mekong Delta and no tablets are recommended there. Bring a tropical-strength insect repellent for both, because dengue is around in the wet season. Your travel insurance covers the whole ride, and the same rules apply: we hold your policy details, your insurer runs any evacuation, and the Smartraveller insurance guide explains what to look for.

The Vietnamese riding days are the long ones, 80 to 100 km in the delta, and the mountain days in the north are the hardest we run, so eat and drink more than you think you need. Drink two to four litres of water a day, bottled only; the van carries plenty. The last 15 km into Saigon is in city traffic and is optional, so the van is there if you would rather watch it than ride it. The 25 km descent into the Sapa valley is optional too.

Smartraveller‘s advice for Vietnam is to exercise normal safety precautions, updated 24 September 2026.

The south and the north are different countries for weather. The Mekong Delta is hot all year, around 30 degrees by day, with a dry season from about December to April and a wet season from May to November, when the rain comes as afternoon downpours and the rice paddies are at their greenest. The northern mountains have real seasons: warm and wet from May to September, cool and clear from October to November, and cold from December to February, when Sapa sits in cloud and can be close to 10 degrees. The ride over the mountains from Dien Bien Phu to Sapa is at its best in the cool months, with a warm layer packed for the evenings.

For the numbers: Ho Chi Minh City’s average daily high sits between 32 and 35 degrees all year, with under 20 mm of rain a month from January to March and around 490 mm in September. Hanoi, the nearest station to the northern rides, runs from a 20-degree high in January to 35 in June (WMO long-term averages).

The departure months for each ride are on the Vietnam page and the dates page.

Everything on the Cambodia or Laos list covers Vietnam too. A few things to add:

Vietnam is faster, louder and busier than Cambodia or Laos, especially in the cities. Xin chao is hello and cam on is thank you. Dress modestly at temples and pagodas, take your shoes off where you see others do it, and keep your voice down inside. Crossing a road in Saigon or Hanoi is its own skill: walk steadily, do not stop or run, and the scooters flow around you. The food is a reason to come on its own, from the floating markets of the delta to pho on a Hanoi pavement, and the guides know where to eat.

Ask before you photograph a person, and respect a no. Do not photograph children without a parent present and their consent. It is part of our child protection policy, and the ChildSafe Movement’s tips for travellers explain why. The same applies in the Hmong villages around Sapa, where you are a guest. On the visits to the organisations we support, we do not photograph children at all.

Saigon is the best shopping of the whole trip: markets for clothes and sports gear, coffee and coffee makers, lacquerware and silk. Mekong Plus and Mekong Quilts, the social enterprise we visit on the last full day, sell beautiful quilts and crafts that put money back into the villages we rode through. In Hanoi the Old Quarter does the same job, street by street.

The plan is the same as in Cambodia and Laos: a first aid kit on every ride, guides trained in first aid, the nearest hospital known to the team, and for anything serious a call to your insurer, your embassy if needed and the emergency contact on your booking form. Your insurer runs the evacuation. In the delta a hospital is never far. In the mountains between Dien Bien Phu and Sapa it can be two to three hours’ drive, and the support van is with the group the whole way.

The Australian Government’s travel advice for Vietnam is on Smartraveller. We follow it, and so does your insurer.