Tips for Traveling to Hanoi Vietnam 2020

 
Vietnam is quickly becoming a top place for Americans to visit in Asia.

My wife and I stayed in Hanoi Vietnam towards the end of 2019 and it was one of the highlights of our trip to Asia.

Vietnam is a couple of decades behind Thailand as far as tourism is concerned and that added a feeling of authenticity.

Hanoi can feel a bit chaotic. There is constant stream of motorbikes, sometimes with entire families crammed on one.

When we first got to Hanoi it was in the early afternoon, around the time that children were getting out of school. It was amazing seeing more than a hundred motorbikes pulling up to the school to pick up their kids. There are cars in Hanoi, but motorbikes far outnumber them.

Another unique aspect of Hanoi is the street food. Most people in Hanoi do not cook. Instead they go to one of the many street vendors and have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The seating areas typically take up portions of the sidewalk.

There’s a lot to see in Hanoi, but one thing I absolutely have to recommend is a one-day tour of Ha Long Bay, if not a two- or three-day tour. I’ll share some pictures later in this post, but essentially there are these massive limestone islands that shoot out of the water. While similar formations can be seen in a few places elsewhere in the world, Ha Long Bay is a great opportunity to take a day or two out of your trip to see them.

What I’ll cover in this post is general tips for traveling to Hanoi Vietnam. We’ll cover everything from where to stay, what currency is used, things to see, and safety.

 

Visa and Customs

 
The visa process can be a bit stressful, but a little prep can make it go much smoother.

While you can go through the entire process when you arrive at the Hanoi airport, I wouldn’t recommend it. The best thing to do is to have everything prepped and ready to go prior to landing.

The first step is to get a “visa on arrival.” There is no official government website or list of approved vendors, so you’ll see lots of options if you enter Vietnam visa on arrival into Google. We went with myvietnamvisa.com, which cost $18 per person. Within a couple business days (they quote 3-5 business days as an estimate) we received our visa approval letter. Likely not applicable to most but it is worth noting that visa on arrival is only valid if entering by air, not through land borders.

We received this list from myvietnamvisa.com of other things we would need to have at the airport:

• Valid passport (6 months of validity)

• Two photos 4x6CM (2×2 inches are accepted)

• Letter of approval (PFD file that we sent to your email along with this email)

• Stamping fee (in cash, credit cards are not accepted): $25 USD for single entry and $50 USD for multi-entry visa ($95 USD for 6 month and $135 USD for multi-entry visa in 1 year)

• On arrival form or Entry/exit form (For the form, please search: “myvietnamvisa form download”)

The part we botched was the two photos. Totally forgot to prep and bring these. Thankfully they can take them on site, but they charged $2 or $5 USD a person, can’t remember the exact amount. The visa counter was a bit unpredictable with some people getting through quickly (including us) and others having to wait longer despite getting there earlier.

We also forgot to fill out the arrival form or entry/exit form, but most people filled it out on-site. If you want a less stressful time, though, I would just prep everything ahead of time and go straight to the visa counter.

 

Currency

 
In Vietnam they use their currency, the Dong, and you should get some before heading on your trip or exchange US dollars for Dong at the airport. At the time of this writing $1 USD equaled approximately 23,000 Vietnamese Dong.

Larger bills will get a better exchange rate. Because I went to an ATM shortly before leaving on our trip I had a bunch of twenties. It’s better to have $50 or $100 if you want the best exchange rate.

We ended up spending just about $100 USD worth of Vietnam Dong over the course of 48 hours. We did have a number of meals pre-paid, though, both at our hotel which included breakfast and lunch on our one-day Ha Long Bay cruise. We also were able to pay for drinks on the cruise with a credit card (make sure you use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees).

 

Internet

 
Having access to internet is important, especially when you are traveling to a new country. In Vietnam you have two options: pocket WiFi or a local sim.

I personally didn’t want a local sim for a few reasons. First, you can’t get it ahead of time and the more I could do prior to leaving on a trip the better. You also would be using a different phone number.

What we went with was the Teppy Pocket WiFi. This is a small piece of hardware that you carry with you, similar to the size of a phone but slimmer. Read my review of Teppy Pocket WiFi for a detailed overview including pricing.

 

How to Get Around

 
You breezed through customs because you had all your documentation prepared. You fired up your Teppy Pocket WiFi and connected your phone. You either brought Vietnamese Dong with you or exchanged currency at the airport. The next step is to get to your hotel.

We paid for transportation to and from the airport through our hotel. It ended up being about $35 before tip. Most hotels will be happy to arrange something similar, but if you want to save some money you can use Grab, which is similar to Uber.

Uber used to be in Southeast Asia but abruptly left in March 2018. As part of the departure Uber took an approximately 30% ownership of Grab. I recommend Grab over taxis for the simple reason that it is predictable. The beauty of Uber and Lyft is that you can see how much the ride will cost prior to booking it. Grab is the same way. There are also many stories of taxi scams targeted at tourists such as drivers not starting the meter or claiming it was broken and demanding more than they should at the end of the ride.

The one downside to Grab is that Americans won’t be able to link it to a credit card, so you’ll have to pay in cash. If you are planning on using Grab, plan accordingly and take out some extra cash. You’ll also want to make sure you have some smaller bills.

There are quite a few tuk-tuks as well, but I have heard too many stories of drivers bringing people to stores and vendors they don’t want to go to, with pushy salespeople trying to sell them things they don’t want.

Once you are in Hanoi walking is always an option. Crossing the street can be a challenge, or at least seem like a challenge. Because the traffic is relentless and there are motorbikes everywhere, you eventually just have to cross the street. We watched other people cross first to get the hang of it. Essentially you need to slowly cross, and waving your hand back and forth can help. The motorbikes and vehicles will go around you. It’s totally counter-intuitive, but you get the hang of it.

Another challenge with walking is that there are tons and tons of motorbikes parked on the sidewalk. There is also a lot of people sitting and eating street food. With that being said, my wife and I walked for long periods of time without an issue.

This is a good time to address crime.

At our hotel the manager warned us about pickpockets. Unfortunately petty theft is an issue in Vietnam. I read another travel blog where a solo traveler was pick-pocketed in the airport and she had her camera stolen when she was distracted at a vendor while on a tour (it’s a long story but she did get it back). We did not have any issues with petty theft, nor did we talk to any other travelers who did, but you should always be aware of your surroundings and keep your valuables close. I found it helpful having pants with pockets that zipped. My wife also kept her valuables close and secure.

 

Where to stay

 
The best place to stay in Hanoi is the Old Quarter. This is an area that is close to Hoàn Kiếm Lake. The French Quarter is also a good area, which is south of Hoàn Kiếm Lake and the Old Quarter.

There are some new hotels going up close to Hoàn Kiếm Lake so depending on when you read this you may have some new options. There are a lot of boutique hotels and that’s what we went with. We stayed at Hanoi E Central Hotel, which is just a few blocks east of Hoàn Kiếm Lake.

I can’t say enough about this hotel. The service was like nothing I had seen in the United States. The entire staff cared deeply about us having a good time in Hanoi and were always smiling and addressing us by name. They have breakfast included which was huge since we didn’t have to venture out and find breakfast. The manager communicated via Hotels.com and Whatsapp which made it really easy to communicate. I highly recommend this hotel.

 

What to See and Do

 
There’s a lot to see in Hanoi. Here are places that we visited and would recommend checking out.

 

Train Street

 
Hanoi has a train track running through it and if you are really lucky you’ll see a train. But more likely than not you won’t see one, but that doesn’t make it any less unique to see.

Some portions of train street are blocked off so what I would recommend doing is just finding the train track on your Google Maps and walking to it. Keep going until you find a good spot to take some pics. Here are a couple of pics we took on the tracks.

 

Ha Long Bay Tour (DO THIS!)

 
The highlight of our visit to Vietnam was our one-day Ha Long Bay tour. Ha Long Bay has these incredible towering limestone formations. There are hundreds of them and cruising past one after another was an amazing experience.

Ha Long Bay used to take about 3 1/2 hours to get to from Hanoi. But that’s not the case anymore. It’s only about two hours each way on the new highway that was built that connects Hanoi to Ha Long Bay.

We went on a one-day cruise with JadeSails, which we booked through TripAdvisor. It was $82 per person, which is at the high end, but it was worth it. With this cruise we had a modern boat, a knowledgeable and friendly tour guide, great staff on the boat, and amazing meal for lunch that catered to our diet. We went out on raft boats underneath a cool cave (you can see it in one of the photos below) and also had an opportunity to go swimming and kayaking.

Many of the one-day tours pick you up in Hanoi around 8:00 or 9:00. This tour will pick you up early, about 7:00, which is ideal because you have more time on the boat cruise. There are also two- and three-day cruises you can book if you want more time in Ha Long Bay. If you go with the one-day cruise I recommend finding one, like JadeSails, which will pick you up early in the morning.

 

Temple of the Jade Mountain and the Huc Bridge

 
The Huc Bridge and the Temple of the Jade Mountain are likely the most popular thing to see in Hanoi. The temple is located on Hoàn Kiếm Lake and the red Huc Bridge is how you get to it. It costs a couple of dollars to enter. The Temple of the Jade Mountain is a Confucian temple and is really cool to see.

While this next picture isn’t from inside the Temple of the Jade Mountain, it is from right outside. I thought it was a unique altar and it was humbling to see people lighting incense and offering up prayers.

Here’s what the Huc Bridge looks like:

 

Puppet Water Theater

 
The Puppet Water Theater is just what it sounds like: a theater where the stage is water of sorts and the puppets are controlled on the water. It’s world renowned and is something that you won’t see anywhere else. You won’t see the puppeteers at all until the end of the performance, as the puppets are controlled through sticks under the water, but you will see the handful of live musicians. Definitely worth checking out.

 

Temple of Literature

 
The Temple of Literature is another Confucius temple. It was built nearly a thousand years ago, in 1070. There is the temple itself, but also extensive gardens and other structures. It costs a few dollars to enter.

 

French Quarter

 
Vietnam used to be a French colony, and because of that many French lived in Vietnam years ago. With the French came French architecture, which is still notable today in the French Quarter. The most famous building is the opera house. We walked around the French quarter and looked at the opera house from outside, but didn’t go inside or attend a show. I’ve heard good things about the opera house and you may want to consider attending a show if you have time.

 

How We Save Money Through Travel Hacking

 
Other than taxes our flights to and from Asia were covered through airline miles. We primarily got the miles through signing up for travel rewards credit cards that came with large sign-up bonuses. We also accumulated hundreds of dollars of travel credits.
 
It takes some planning, but it’s possible to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on your trip. This can be the difference between going on a big trip or not, or going on two trips instead of one. Read my post on tips for making travel more affordable and my top travel rewards credit cards (updated monthly).