Tips for traveling in Vietnam: Before the trip

Mindset

One of the first tips for traveling in Vietnam is that Vietnamese culture patterns are very different to what foreigners are familiar to.Vietnamese people are so curious and they tend to ask you personal questions, such as: How old are you? Are you married? What do you do? How much do you earn?in the first conversation. These questions don’t aim at interfering your privacy butto show their care to you.

Visa issue

One of the utmost importance when visiting Vietnam is applying for Vietnam visa. Of course it’s wonderful if you are in the list of Vietnam visa waiver. Nonetheless, if not, there is nothing to worry as you can get the visa easy by submitting online Vietnam visa, called Vietnam visa on arrival. All you have to do is to send your visa request to Vietnamvisavoa.com and we will take care all other things. The processing time is just 2 working days and the payment is made via a secured online system.

Read more about visa on arrival to Vietnam.

Money and bargaining

• Currency is used in Vietnam is Vietnam Dong. There are 10 popular notes in Vietnam (see the below picture) including 500d, 1000d, 2000d, 5000d, 10.000d, 20.000d, 50.000d, 100.000d, 200.000d and 500.000d.

• One US dollar now equals about 23,200 Vietnam Dong. You can exchange money right at Vietnam airport when you just land or atbanks, hotels or jewelry shops.
• You may be confused when it comes to counting the total amount of Vietnam money as of multiple zeroes on the note so always double check yourself prior to paying or receiving money from other people.
• The k letter means 1000d. For example, if you see some one write 10k, it means 10*1000d=10.000d.

Source: Internet

• When go shopping, especially in the wet market or small shop, you should ask for discount as the shopkeepers may charge a higher price when you are foreigners. It is preferable for you to be accompanied by a local friend if you are the newbie in Vietnam.

Weather

Vietnam has typical monsoon weather with diverse weather pattern. It is changeable among regions from the North to the South, from the West to the East, from coasts to mountains. Hence, there is not really a best time to visit Vietnam, just the best time for each region.

There are 4 seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter in the North while the South region is divided into dry season and rain season. When you travel to Vietnam,depends upon which seasonand place you choose to travel, you make a suitable plan with range of activities. For people travelling from North to South in winter, you should bring all kinds of clothes including water-resistant shoes, raincoat, ponchos when go trekking or hiking in Vietnam.

Read the article "When is the best time to visit Vietnam?"

Medication

In Vietnam, with the high humidity, malaria is the biggest concern in the summer. When you visit the country in summer, you had better to get advice from doctor about anti-malaria and anti-diarrhea drugs.

Have a nice trip!