vietnamese travel restrictions

Vietnam Travel Restrictions

Traveler's COVID-19 vaccination status

Traveling from the United States to Vietnam

Open for vaccinated visitors

COVID-19 testing

Not required

Not required for vaccinated visitors

Restaurants

Not required in public spaces and public transportation.

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Can I travel to Vietnam from the United States?

Most visitors from the United States, regardless of vaccination status, can enter Vietnam.

Can I travel to Vietnam if I am vaccinated?

Fully vaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Vietnam without restrictions.

Can I travel to Vietnam without being vaccinated?

Unvaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Vietnam without restrictions.

Do I need a COVID test to enter Vietnam?

Visitors from the United States are not required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test or antigen result upon entering Vietnam.

Can I travel to Vietnam without quarantine?

Travelers from the United States are not required to quarantine.

Do I need to wear a mask in Vietnam?

Mask usage in Vietnam is not required in public spaces and public transportation.

Are the restaurants and bars open in Vietnam?

Restaurants in Vietnam are open. Bars in Vietnam are .

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Info for travelers on Covid-19 in Vietnam: Entry requirements & Restrictions

Vietnam officially reopened its inbound tourism on 15th March 2022 after nearly two years of closure. Two months later (on 15th May 2022), Vietnam also removed the pre-entry Covid-19 testing requirements for all arrivals as per a recent government’s Official Dispatch No. 416/CD-TTg. The latest decision is expected to boost the traveling of international visitors to Vietnam in the context that the country’s Covid-19 infections have dropped to a 10-month low.

Vietnam Travel highest priority is our duty of care to your health, safety and well-being. The uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 makes it a confusing time to travel. As the situation evolves, we are closely monitoring official guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and working with Vietnam authorities on a country-by-country basis to ensure what we are doing is correct, comprehensive and effective.

We will support you to do whatever you feel is best for you and your loved ones. Below are a few useful fact you need to know before you go to Vietnam during and post-Covid 19:

Table of Contents

1. Vietnam Visa Exemptions

2. vietnam electronic visa (evisa), 3. vietnam visa on arrival, ii. passports, iii. borders, 1. heath check on arrival, 2. insurance requirement, 3. current snapshot of covid-19 situation in vietnam, v. what you can bring with, vi. traveling by air, 1. northern vietnam (hanoi, sapa, ha giang, halong & the red river delta…), 2. central vietnam (hue, danang, hoian, nha trang, phan thiet…), 3. southern vietnam (ho chi minh city, the mekong delta & phu quoc…), 1. location, 2. time zone, 3. country calling code‎, 4. capital city, 5. population, 7. language, 8. history & culture, 9. religion, 11. currency, 12. electricity, 13. vaccinations, 14. main airports, 15. major airlines, 16. internet access, 17. sim cards, 18. credit cards, 19. tipping, 20. emergency calls, 1. cambodia, 2. thailand, x. final lines.

– You may also need a visa to come into or travel through Vietnam, depending on your nationality. – Vietnamese visit visas are issued to foreign nationals for a limited duration and on the basis that visitors must leave on or before the date of expiry. Those who come to Vietnam to work are required to apply for a work visa / permit. You should check the visa validity and conditions carefully. Overstaying your Vietnamese visit visa is a serious matter and you may be delayed from travel until a fine is paid, and may be prevented from visiting Vietnam in the future. – In a very small number of exceptional cases, the Vietnamese authorities may be prepared to consider extending visit visas. This often requires agents who are prepared to act as sponsors, including taking some legal and financial responsibility, for the people applying for visa extensions.

Below is all the information you need on visas for Vietnam.

Vietnam offers visa exemptions ranging from 14 to 90 days to citizens of 24 countries holding valid ordinary passports. The full list of countries with visa exemptions is below.

Vietnam’s e-Visa is now available to nationals of 80 countries ALL countries: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Chile, China (including Hong Kong and Macau passports), Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Salomon Islands, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor Leste, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, and Western Samoa.

The e-Visa takes three working days to process, costs 25 USD, and is a single-entry visa, valid for 30 days. You can enter Vietnam on an e-Visa at any of the country’s eight international airports, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Phu Quoc, as well as 14 land crossings and 7 seaports.

How to Apply for Vietnam’s e-Visa: Step 1 : Prepare the required materials: + One 4×6 passport photo in .jpg format with a white background, without glasses. + One photo in .jpg format of your passport data page, + Passport valid for at least six months. + Your temporary address in Vietnam and points of entry and exit. + Debit or credit card for payment. Step 2 : Click this link or access www.immigration.gov.vn and go to ‘E-visa Issuance’ then click on the link for ‘Outside Vietnam foreigners’. Step 3 : Upload your .jpg images (passport data page and passport photo) and fill out the required fields on the form completely. Submit your form. Step 4 : Pay the e-Visa fee of 25 USD. Copy down the document code provided. Step 5 : Within three working days you should receive news of your e-Visa application via email. If not, you can also run a search for your e-Visa at this link. Step 6 : Use your document code to locate your e-Visa online. Download and print the e-Visa in two copies for extra safety. Travelers with an eVisa can go directly to immigration counters at their point of entry and do not need to queue at Visa On Arrival counters.

If you are planning a multiple-entry visit or a stay of more than 30 days, you will should apply for a visa on arrival. Requirements: + A 4×6 passport photo with a white background and no glasses. + A filled-out visa application form. + A passport or substitute ID valid for six months from the date you plan to enter Vietnam. + Payment (25 USD to 50 USD) for visa fees. + A Letter of Approval from a Vietnamese embassy or consulate (if you are picking up your visa at the airport). + If you are near a Vietnamese embassy or consulate, you can submit your photo, application form, passport, and visa fee in person.

If you are unable to reach a Vietnamese embassy, or are short on time, Vietnam Travel can help you obtain the Vietnam Visa Approval Letter . Bring this letter and together with a visa application form and your other documents to the Visa On Arrival counter at the airport when you land. You will need to pay your visa stamp fee in USD or Vietnamese Dong on arrival at the airport.

1. Your passport should be valid for a minimum of 6 months on the date you enter Vietnam. 2. A number of foreigners have been refused entry and exit due to their passport being damaged. Make sure your passport is in good condition before arriving in Vietnam. 3. Your passport will be checked when you arrive at a Vietnam port or airport to make sure you’re allowed to come into the country. It should be valid for the whole of your stay. 4. Being refused entry can result in significant cost and a long stay at the airport.

When checking into a hotel, you’ll have to hand over your passport so that the hotel can register your presence with the local police. Make sure your passport is returned and keep it in a safe place. You may be fined if you don’t register.

On 15 March 2022, Vietnam officially reopened its inbound tourism after nearly two years of closure.

IV. HEALTH AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS FOR TRAVELERS

Travelers in Vietnam are encouraged to take sensible precautions against Covid-19 during their trips.

The World Health Organization outlines these basic practices to keep yourself and your loved ones safe: 1. Avoid traveling if you have a fever and cough. If you have fever, cough, and difficulty breathing, alert health care services and share with them your recent travel history. 2. Maintain social distancing. Stay a metre or more away from others, especially those who are sneezing or coughing, or have fever. 3. Wash your hands regularly with soap and running water. You can also use an alcohol-based hand-sanitizer to spray your hands as often as you like. 4. Cover your mouth and nose with tissue when you cough or sneeze. Dispose of dirty tissues immediately and wash your hands after coughing or sneezing. 5. Avoid contact with live animals. Wash your hands with soap and water if you touch live animals or animal products in markets. 6. Eat only well-cooked food. Make sure your meals especially animal proteins and dairy products are thoroughly cooked and prepared in a sanitary environment. 7. Discard single-use masks. If you choose to wear a single-use mask, ensure it covers your nose and mouth, avoid touching the mask, and wash your hands after removing it.

Vietnam dropped Covid-19 testing requirements for all international arrivals from 15 May 2022 as per Official Dispatch No. 416/CD-TTg after a significant decrease in the number of cases.

Purchase medical/travel insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment with a minimum of 10,000 USD cover. This typically costs about 40 USD.

Any travelers experiencing symptoms of the virus – fever, cough and difficulty breathing – should immediately call Vietnam’s health hotline: 19003228, or contact Vietnam Travel’s consultants for instant support.

What you can bring with you depends on where you’re traveling from. You must declare to customs: + anything over your duty-free allowance. + banned or restricted goods in Vietnam. + goods that you plan to sell. + more than 5,000 USD (or its equivalent) in cash. You and your baggage may be checked for anything you must declare.

Passengers must wear face masks when flying in Vietnam, including with Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways. Flight attendants will also be required to wear masks. Passengers on flights within Vietnam are also required to undergo verbal health assessments and temperature checks.

VII. WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN VIETNAM

Vietnam’s unique geography creates a range of weather patterns, with both tropical and temperate zones. Generally, there are two monsoon seasons, between October and March in the northeast and between April and October everywhere but the mountains. While March to May offers the best weather countrywide, there is no bad time to visit Vietnam, as there is always some part of the country with holiday skies. Below is a guide to climate of Vietnam ’s major regions and destinations, so you know what to expect during your trip.

December – March : cool to cold, misty, cloudy. April – June : warm to hot, clear skies, sunny. June – August : hot, humid, rainy. September – November : cool, clear skies, sunny. The best time to visit Hanoi and the Red River Delta (including Halong Bay, Cat Ba Island, Ninh Binh) is usually from April to June or from September to December. From April the days are normally hot, occasionally above 30 degrees with clear skies. September to November sees cooler temperatures of around 25 degrees and sunny skies – perfect for exploring the region.

If you’re coming to Hanoi in June, expect soaring temperatures with humidity highs of 40 degrees Celsius, and the rainy season is full swing (June to August). December is cool, misty and atmospheric, however from late December until March temperatures are surprisingly cold with lows of 10 degrees. You’ll want to bundle up.

September – January : rainy, cool, cloudy. February – August : warm to hot, sunny, clear skies. Tropical storms often hit Central Vietnam starting in September. March is an excellent time to see the region when the fields, gardens and streets are awash in bright blossoms and soothing greens. From May to August, it can be hot, and you’ll want to head to the beach to cool off. In the late months of the year, from September to November, the Central Vietnam sees a lot of rain and even a few small floods. The temperatures begin to dip and reach their coldest point in January, warming up just before the Vietnamese New Year.

May to November : sporadic rainfall, hot, humid. December to April : clear skies, hot, sunny. Southern Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) have consistent temperatures year-round. HCMC is either hot and dry or hot and rainy, although there are some pleasant fresh days early in the year, and some scorching days mid-year. Temperatures are normally around 30 degrees, with sunshine. From May to November, the wet season brings a dependable afternoon downpour, usually lasting a few hours.

VIII. THE BASICS

Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia and borders China, Laos, Cambodia, Gulf of Tonkin, the Pacific Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. It comprises over 330,000 square kilometers, with more than 3,200km of coastline. From Dubai, a non-stop flight is 7h15m, and from Australia, it is roughly 8 hours direct.

Indochina Time Zone UTC + 07:00.

International dialing code for Vietnam: +84.

Hanoi is the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is the second biggest city of the country, just after Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon).

Vietnam’s population has been recorded at over 96.2 million on 1 st April 2019, making it the 15th most populous country in the world and the third in Southeast Asia.

Vietnamese people are composed of 54 different ethnic groups coexisting peacefully, in which the Kinh (Viet) people account for 86% of the population and 53 other ethnic groups represent over 10%.

The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese. English is spoken across the country and you should have no issue with basic communication or greetings.

Vietnam’s long and complex history includes Chinese, French, Japanese, and American influences adding to the intrigue of the country. Millennia of invasions and conflicts have shaped Vietnamese culture into what you see today. Vietnamese culture is complex, diverse and represents something of a history lesson. Vietnam’s culture focuses on humanity, harmony, family, and community values through music, art, dance, and literature. There are hints of French and American influence, but national symbols like dragons, turtles, bamboo, and lotuses are strictly Vietnamese and can be seen on many buildings and Buddhist temples throughout the country.

Vietnamese society is both conservative and fairly tolerant, so it’s best to follow these simple rules to avoid causing offence: shorts and sleeveless tops fine for the beach, not so at religious sites, and nudity on the beach is a no-no.

Vietnam’s major religions are Buddhism (14.91%) and Catholicism (7.35%), although the largest percentage of the population follows Vietnamese folk traditions or identifies as non-religious. Around 7% of the population is Christian, and there are also tiny numbers of Hindu and Muslim believers.

Vietnam travel is safer than you’d expect – the government has done a good job on keeping a lid on civil unrest in Vietnam, and violence to tourists has remained thankfully rare. Which isn’t to say that crimes of opportunity don’t happen: in Hanoi, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City, tourists may be targeted by pickpockets and motorcycle-riding purse snatchers.

Vietnam uses the Vietnamese Dong (VND). It is safe to withdraw money from banks or ATMs while you’re in Vietnam – just check how much you’re really withdrawing. Exchange rates: 1 USD ~ 0 VND 1 EUR ~ 0 VND 1 AUD ~ 0 VND 1 SAR ~ 0 VND 1 INR ~ 0 VND

The electrical current in Vietnam is 220V/50Hz using plug types A, C and F. The standard voltage in the US is 110 volts, so you may need a surge adapter.

Typhoid, Hepatitis A and B and antimalarial tablets are advised, but not compulsory. You will, however, need a Yellow Fever certificate if traveling from a high-risk area. Consult your doctor 4 to 8 weeks before you depart.

Noi Bai International Airport (Hanoi – in the North), Tan Son Nhat International Airport (Ho Chi Minh City – in the South) and Danang International Airport (Danang City – in the Centre) are the international and domestic hubs for travelers. Other international airports of the country are Cat Bi (Hai Phong), Van Don (Quang Ninh), Vinh (Nghe An), Phu Bai (Hue), Cam Ranh (Nha Trang – Khanh Hoa), Can Tho (Can Tho City), and Phu Quoc (Phu Quoc Island).

With four airlines operating internal flights in Vietnam, and all providing an online booking service, there’s plenty of choice and booking in advance is easy. Vietnam Airlines is Vietnam’s national carrier. It has a comprehensive domestic network and a growing international one. Following names are Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways, Jetstar Pacific Airlines.

Vietnam ranked 60th in the world for mobile speeds and 59th for fixed broadband speeds during May 2020. Internet and Wi-Fi are widely available throughout Vietnam. Something like 98% of hotels and guesthouses have Wi-Fi; only in very remote places (such as national parks, islands) is it not standard. Wi-Fi is almost always free of charge. Many cafes and restaurants also have (free) Wi-Fi. Connection speeds are normally fast and stably. Most travelers also surf the net using 4G mobile phone connections.

In Vietnam, Google (including Gmail, Google Maps, Youtube…) Facebook and TikTok are tops and Twitter isn’t blocked.

SIM cards are easy to get and affordable in Vietnam so there is no excuse for not getting one, even if you’re only traveling through for few days. For only 5 USD, you can enjoy a 2GB mobile data valid for 30 days with a speed up to 30Mbps. The cost of Vietnam sim card (mobile data) is between 5 USD to 14 USD, equivalent to 2GB – 20GB. Make sure your phone is unlocked. You can purchase SIM cards almost everywhere, including at the airport, mini marts, street vendors and travel agencies. The biggest mobile networks in Vietnam are Viettel, Vinaphone and Mobifone.

Credit cards are widely accepted throughout Vietnam. Please check with your bank about any foreign transaction. Mostly, transaction fee will be applied by agents, hotels, shops in Vietnam (about 3% for processing fee).

While tipping is not compulsory or always expected, but it is recommended to leave a tip to show your gratitude and appreciation for the food or service. As a guideline if you are traveling, alone we would recommend that you tip your guide between 5-7 USD per day, if traveling in a couple then allow 7-10 USD per couple per day. When traveling in a group of 3-4 then tipping in the region of 10-12 USD per group per day is appropriate, when traveling in groups larger than four then allow an increase roughly equating to 10% more for each additional person in the group.

The phone numbers to call in case of emergency are 113 for the police, 114 for a fire and 115 for an ambulance.

IX. OTHER TRAVEL INFORMATION RELATED TO CAMBODIA, LAOS, THAILAND & MYANMAR

Now Cambodia no longer requires inbound travelers to complete a health declaration form or provide proof of vaccination as 6th Oct 2022, effectively ending all border controls. However, travelers will continue to be subjected to temperature screening at all entry points into Cambodia.

No requirement for Covid-19 insurance coverage as well.

Visa on Arrival for all travelers to Cambodia is also reopened and this is applicable for all travelers arriving in Cambodia by air, land and sea. You can apply Cambodia e-Visa yourself at: https://www.evisa.gov.kh/

From 1 October 2022, passengers is no longer required to present Covid-19 related documents such as a certificate of vaccination and Covid-19 test results upon arrival in Thailand. No requirement for Covid-19 insurance coverage as well.

Laos officially dropped Covid entry restrictions for fully vaccinated tourists from Monday, 9 May 2022. Unvaccinated visitors must produce a Rapid Antigen Test issued within 48 hours of leaving their origin country. Visitors contracting or arriving with Covid-19 will be responsible for all treatment costs. Treatment can be obtained at state and private hospitals, while self-isolation and self-care is another option.

Those who have been infected with Covid-19 and recovered will not need to take an RT-PCR test, however, an official medical certificate will be required.

All international checkpoints is reopened for entry and exit by citizens and foreigners. Vehicles will be allowed to enter and exit as normal, the same as before the pandemic.

Citizens of countries that have bilateral or unilateral visa waiver agreements with Laos may now enter Laos without the need for a visa.

Citizens of countries that do not have a visa waiver agreement with Laos may now apply for a visa at a Lao embassy or consulate abroad or via the e-Visa online system. Visa on arrivals will also be reinstated at certain international checkpoints.

Now Myanmar is officially open for travel if visitors are fully vaccinated and meet the criteria to secure an online e-visa. You will be expected to take a Covid-19 Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Test at the airport, regardless of your vaccination status. You should bring 15,000 MMK (Myanmar Kyat; roughly 7 USD) with you or be prepared to convert cash at one of the exchange counters. This is in addition to the test you need to take 48 hours before your arrival. Which test you can take depends on if you are fully vaccinated or not.

If the test result is negative, you will be free to leave. Travellers who display symptoms or test positive will be isolated and taken to a hospital or hotel designated by the Ministry of Health at their own expense.

International travelers are also required to purchase Myanmar health insurance that covers Covid-19 (starting price 50 USD for insurance valid for 15 days). If the in-country test is positive, the health insurance covers the additional cost of hotel quarantine and hospital fees according to requirements by the health authorities for a maximum of 4,500 USD.

The list of approved hotels where international travelers must wait for results from their PCR test can be found here . There will be two categories of hotels to choose from: Category A which is 5 star accommodation and recommended for travelers and Category B which is 3* accommodation.

Due to the current situation in Myanmar, some areas of the country are either off limits to tourism or require special permission to visit. We recommend you only visiting established tourism centers including Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle and to avoid overland travel where possible by using flights.

Cash withdrawals from ATMs in Myanmar are not possible at the moment, and businesses do not accept international credit cards. Travelers must pre-arrange their trip to Myanmar through a travel agency and bring lots of cash to cover the entire holiday costs.

We share your passion for travel and are always here, whether you are looking for a family vacation , a beach escape or seeking an adventure or a contentment. We hope that our information gives you some peace of mind and we look forward to welcoming you soon. Please keep in mind that information is correct at the time of 15:00, 31 Oct 2022 (GMT +7, Hanoi Time) and will be updated as soon as possible.

Bookmark our Vietnam Travel Guide to see the most updated news and useful tips related to tourism first.

Thank you for choosing Vietnam Travel !

Updated: 31 Oct 2022

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Vietnam Travel Advisory

Travel advisory july 24, 2023, vietnam - level 1: exercise normal precautions.

Reissued with obsolete COVID-19 page links removed.                    Exercise normal precautions in Vietnam.

Read the  country information page  for additional information on travel to Vietnam.

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• Visit the CDC page for the latest  Travel Health Information  related to your travel.
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COVID-19 in Vietnam: Travel Updates and Restrictions

Update: On May 15, 2022 all COVID-19 related requirements for entry into Vietnam were lifted. Pre-COVID entry requirements have now resumed, although with some changes. See: Vietnam’s Visas and Work Permit Procedures

In light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak , Vietnam has imposed several travel restrictions on those entering the country. As of May 15, 2022, Vietnam had confirmed 10,695,036 cases of COVID-19 with 43,065 deaths, though 9,349,592 of the patients, had recovered.

Those planning to travel to Vietnam should be aware of the latest restrictions currently in place:

• Vietnam dropped COVID-19 testing requirements for all international arrivals from May 15 as per Official Dispatch No. 416/CD-TTg after a significant decrease in the number of cases.
• Vietnam suspended the medical declaration requirement for all international arrivals from April 27 as COVID-19 cases dropped nationwide. Medical declarations for domestic travel have also been suspended.
• Take a COVID-19 negative test using the RT-PCR method 72 hours before entering Vietnam OR a rapid Antigen test (no self-test) 24 hours before entering Vietnam. This does not apply to children under 2 years of age;
• Make a health declaration (screenshot at end of article) before entry and download the PC-COVID app; and
• In case a COVID-19 test is not taken prior to departure, a test will be taken within 24 hours after arriving in Vietnam. If negative, travelers can travel anywhere within Vietnam; no quarantine required.
• Tourists entering Vietnam should also have medical or travel insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment with a minimum liability of US$10,000.
• The e-visa government website link is now open for visa submissions.
• Vietnam’s government on March 15 agreed to resume its visa exemption policy for 13 countries for up to 15 days regardless of the purpose of entry. This applies to citizens of Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. The visa exemption policy had been in place prior to the pandemic. Further details on entry procedures are awaited from the government.
• The government has agreed to reopen Vietnam for international tourism from March 15. A detailed reopening plan is expected to be released soon by the relevant government authorities.
• Vietnam lifted restrictions on the frequency of regular international flights from February 15 as per the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.
• Vietnam scrapped the quick test for COVID-19 for international arrivals before boarding and after arriving in Vietnam. The measure had earlier been imposed for travelers coming from countries that had detected the Omicron variant. However, the negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test, 72 hours prior to boarding for international arrivals remains.
• The government on January 18 issued a new Directive allowing foreign employees and overseas Vietnamese with valid TRCs, PRCs, and visa exemption certificates to enter Vietnam without approval from the immigration department and the local peoples committee. 
• Vietnam’s Immigration Department has announced that it will discontinue the automatic stay extension for foreigners stranded in Vietnam from January 15. The stay extension measure had earlier been applied to foreign tourists who had entered the country since March 1, 2020, due to border restrictions caused by the pandemic.
• Travelers coming from countries that have detected the Omicron variant will have to undergo a quick test for COVID-19 before boarding and when they arrive in Vietnam at their own cost. In addition, the self-quarantine locations such as residences and hotels must be as per standards as per the Ministry of Health, otherwise, they will have to undergo quarantine in centralized facilities. Airlines have asked authorities to scrap the quick test requirements as travelers are required to have a negative RT-PCR test 72 hours prior to boarding.
• While Vietnam approved the resumption of international flights with nine destinations from January 1, 2022, only five international routes have been confirmed such as to the US, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia, and Singapore.
• Hanoi scrapped the centralized quarantine rule for travelers that come from countries that have detected the Omicron variant as per transport authorities.
• The transport ministry has stated that passengers from Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho do not need to provide negative COVID-19 tests before boarding for flights. Only passengers from very high-risk localities or locked-down areas would have to provide test results within 72 hours.
• Travelers entering Vietnam for business purposes for less than 14 days will be exempt from quarantine requirements as per the Ministry of Health, however, they must comply with pandemic prevent measures including staying at separate accommodations. Further details are likely to be provided by the MoH.
• Vietnam has reduced quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated international arrivals from January 1, 2022. Arrivals with negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test results would only need to self-quarantine at home or their places of accommodation for three days when they enter Vietnam. Two RT-PCR tests will be conducted on the first and third day of entry. If negative, entrants are still required to monitor their health for the next 11 days. Further details are likely to be released by the health and transport ministries.
• Vietnam’s government has approved the resumption of international flights between Vietnam and nine destinations from January 1, 2022. These include San Francisco or Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Beijing or Guangzhou, Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei. Further details on schedules and entry procedures are awaited.
• Vietnam’s Immigration Department announced automatic visa extensions until December 31, 2021, for foreigners that entered the country on visa waiver programmes, e-visas, or tourist visas since March 1, 2020. The measure applies to those who entered Vietnam since March 1, 2020, allowing them to leave the country without any penalty or paperwork until December 31, 2021.
• Vietnam plans to allow fully vaccinated foreign tourists in a three-phase plan beginning in November at specific locations such as Phu Quoc, Da Nang, Hoi An, Nha Trang, and others. The second phase would begin in January 2022 with further locations added to the list with a full reopening expected sometime in June or July 2022. Tourists on packaged tours have arrived at the aforementioned locations since November 20.
• Vietnam has temporarily recognized COVID-19 vaccine passport or certificates from 72 countries including China, the US, UK, UAE, Thailand, India, South Korea, Singapore, Italy, Germany, France, Cambodia, and Canada among others to facilitate the entry of foreign arrivals who are fully vaccinated.
• Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City relaxed social distancing measures on September 21 and October 1 respectively to help recover the economy with pandemic prevention controls. Residents of Ho Chi Minh City must receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and obtain a QR code through the mandated health apps for movement within the city.
• Vietnam has cut the centralized quarantine period for fully vaccinated foreign arrivals to 7 days from the previous 14. Arrivals must also test negative for the virus within 72 hours before arrival and would then be required to self-monitor for another 7 days after the quarantine period. In addition, those infected with COVID-19 and have certificates that they have recovered from the virus within six months would also have their quarantine period reduced. The government is yet to provide further details and date for implementation.
• The government on September 15 issued Notice No 330/TB-VPCP allowing Vietnamese carriers to resume international air routes with six countries – these are Guangzhou (China), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Taipei (Taiwan), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), and Vientiane (Laos). However, incoming travelers will need to present a negative RT-PCR test three days before departure and test again on arrival in Vietnam. Commercial flights, however, are yet to resume pending further instructions from government authorities.
• Foreign employees will be allowed to quarantine at the company’s factory, the company headquarters, or at a designated hotel/facility. In addition, if they test negative twice, they could be released and self-quarantine at their residence or company headquarters in accordance with local health authorities. 
• While Vietnam Airlines began one-way flights to Japan on September 19, carriers will release specific schedules for air routes after official confirmation from the authorities. 
• Vietnamese authorities will charge a quarantine fee for anyone entering Vietnam from September 1. However, the medical treatment of Vietnamese nationals in case they are infected by the pandemic will be covered by the state budget. Foreign nationals are required to pay for their own medical treatment. International arrivals who opt to stay at government quarantine facilities are required to pay at least VND 120,000 (US$5) per day.
• Foreign employees that want to enter Vietnam should ensure they have a sponsor who can assist in obtaining the necessary paperwork and be prepared for a mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival in Vietnam
• Vietnam will grant e-visa to citizens of 80 countries from July 1, 2020 as per  Resolution No. 79/NQ-CP . Details on the list of countries can be accessed  here . While this is a positive sign, Vietnam’s borders remain closed to foreign visitors due to the pandemic and the government has not made any official statement on when the borders will reopen.
• As of 12:00 pm on March 15, Vietnam suspended all visas and will deny entry to travelers from the UK and the 26 Schengen countries; this includes travelers that have visited or transited through these countries in the past 14 days. This will be effective for 30 days.
• From March 7, all travelers coming to Vietnam will be required to submit a health declaration upon arrival. Passengers can fill out this declaration at the airport or submit it online via this link  (picture below).
• Do not travel if you are sick; those that travel while sick, risk being quarantined, and undergo tests.
• Additional restrictions are possible for travelers when they return to their country of origin, including entry restrictions and quarantine.

The Vietnamese government officially declared COVID-19 as an epidemic on February 1, with authorities taking swift and strict measures to contain the virus.

Several Vietnamese businesses, residential complexes, and restaurants have installed their own preventative measures to keep customers safe.

Due to the epidemic, travelers should monitor restrictions and comply with advisories issued by the local and national authorities.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health is updating about the epidemic here , while the Tourism Ministry has also listed travel updates here .

In addition, basic precautions one can take to reduce their risk to the coronavirus as advised by the  World Health Organization  (WHO) are:

• Wash hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub;
• Cover nose and mouth with tissues or inside of elbow when coughing or sneezing;
• Avoid close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms;
• Thoroughly cook meat and eggs; and
• Avoid unprotected contact with live wild or farm animals.

Health declaration form sample:

Note: This article was first published on March 9 and has been updated to include the latest developments.

Vietnam Briefing  is produced by  Dezan Shira & Associates . The firm assists foreign investors throughout Asia from offices  across the world , including in  Hanoi ,  Ho Chi Minh City , and  Da Nang .  Readers may write to  [email protected]  for more support on doing business in Vietnam.

We also maintain offices or have alliance partners assisting foreign investors in  Indonesia ,  India ,  Singapore ,  The Philippines ,  Malaysia ,  Thailand ,  Italy ,  Germany , and the  United States , in addition to practices in  Bangladesh  and  Russia .

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Vietnam scraps quarantine, other travel restrictions for tourists as COVID cases climb

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam on Wednesday scrapped quarantine and other travel restrictions for foreign visitors in an effort to fully reopen its border after two years of pandemic-related closure, the government said.

Visitors entering the Southeast Asian country only need to show a negative COVID-19 test prior to arrival, according to the Health Ministry, which said the new measures were effective immediately.

Visitors must monitor their own health during the first 10 days of their stay and notify medical professionals in Vietnam if they experience any COVID-19-like symptoms .

Vietnam also reinstated visa exemptions and the issuance of visas on arrival similar to their pre-pandemic status.

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Vietnam closed its border and stopped issuing tourist visas in March 2020 to contain the spread of the coronavirus. It partially reopened to international tourism last November for visitors traveling in strict bubbles.

In Hanoi’s Old Quarter, where streets were bustling before the pandemic, many shops have closed due to a lack of tourists. The few that remain open are struggling.

“It has been very hard. Business is so slow because there are no foreign tourists,” said Tuyet Lien, the owner of a shop selling silk and other souvenir products.

“I’m very excited the country is reopening completely. The tourists will come back soon and business will thrive again,” Lien added.

The tourism industry comprised nearly 10% of the country’s economy before the pandemic.

“We believe Vietnam is quickly changing to be better aligned with other global destinations that have reopened for tourism. We remain positive that inbound travel volume will gradually rise,” said Mathieu Le Besq, general manager of Accor hotels in Vung Tau, a beach resort city in southern Vietnam.

The reopening comes as Vietnam reports record numbers of new COVID-19 infections , with a daily average of nearly 200,000 cases over the past two weeks.

The CDC and State Department have advised Americans to " avoid travel to Vietnam " due it "very high" levels of COVID.

Despite the high infection rate, the Health Ministry says the majority of patients have mild symptoms from the omicron variant and do not require hospitalization.

Vietnam has administered over 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, covering 80% of the country's 98 million people, according to the Health Ministry.

Vietnam travel requirements 2024: What travelers need to know

We aim to keep this post updated about Vietnam travel in 2024 with official Vietnam travel restrictions, requirements, and health and safety guidance. Our goal is to help you make informed decisions so you can travel confidently, safely, and responsibly in this new post-pandemic world of ours.

Vietnam is a destination close to our hearts. We returned to visit Vietnam in 2023 and 2024.

As restrictions can vary based on the traveler’s citizenship, we will focus primarily on rules affecting U.S. citizens.

* Get our free Post-Pandemic Travel Checklist *  

April 2024 – “During our 3-month stay in Central Vietnam, we took a short trip out of the country. We brought our printed e-visa , which was examined by the agent that checked us into our flight from Hong Kong back to Vietnam and again at immigration in Da Nang. Proof of onward travel was not requested this time. The Hanoi airport international check in was as crowded as ever in April. Budget airlines like VietJet use buses instead of jetways for boarding and deplaning, so it’s impossible to avoid close contact with crowds. I’d say less than 1/4 of travelers are still wearing masks. Masks are more commonly worn outside on motorbikes in Vietnam.”

January 2024 – “We flew back to Hanoi, this time with a 3-month evisa we applied for online well in advance. Besides valid passports, we were asked for proof of onward travel from Vietnam while checking into our flight in the US. We were asked to name our travel insurance provider on the visa application and brought documentation of the policy from Safety Wing , however, we weren’t asked to show it at any point. We were not asked any questions at immigration, only provided our passport and black/white print out of the visa.”

At the end of the post, we share more on-the-ground perspectives from local residents and travelers to Vietnam so you can get a true sense of what things are like.

Table of Contents

Is Vietnam open for travel? Can I travel to Vietnam right now?

Vietnam is now open to foreign travelers. Vietnam officially reopened its borders to all international visitors on March 2022, after two years of being closed.

Travelers can apply for an e-visa online. See our Vietnam evisa tips here.

Foreign travelers are not required to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test or show proof of vaccination prior to arrival. The health declaration form requirement has been removed. 

Travel insurance that covers Covid-19 treatment with a minimum coverage of $10,000 has been required. There is a declaration that you’ll have insurance on the evisa application. It’s unclear if this is still being enforced anywhere. (We use Safety Wing for travel insurance in Vietnam.)

What Vietnam tourist visas are available right now?

E -visas are available to Americans, Canadians, and all other nationalities.

Effective August 2023, e-visa validity has been extended to 90 days. You can choose between single entry or multiple entries.

Travelers can apply for an e-visa at the e-visa web portal of the Vietnam Immigration Department.

Be sure to review our Vietnam evisa tips here , as there are some quirks and important things to know to avoid having to reapply.

In our experience, processing the evisa can take at least 3 days. We also had to redo one application because one of our credit cards wouldn’t allow the online charge. It’s best to apply for Vietnam e-visas several weeks in advance, just in case.

What about Vietnam Visas On Arrival?

We’re not clear on the availability of Visas On Arrival – technically it’s a Landing Approval Letter, which we used before the pandemic. We saw no desk for VOAs in the immigration hall at Ho Chi Minh City airport when we arrived at the end of 2022. In early 2024, there was a “Visa Application” desk in Hanoi, but it didn’t seem to be active.

In cases where you’re ineligible or have trouble with the e-visa process, you may be able to apply for a Landing Approval Letter through an agent in Vietnam, print out the letter, and proceed to the visa counter at the airport to receive your actual visa sticker, which is another $25 USD.

Can Vietnam e-Visas be extended?

E-visas cannot be extended , meaning visitors have to leave or do a border run and reapply. There is no official limit that we can find as to how many times tourists will be approved for e-visas back to back.

Vietnamese embassies and consulates are telling callers that nothing can be done about visas there, as all applications are currently online.

Quarantine rules in Vietnam: What happens if I get Covid?

Travelers entering Vietnam are not required to quarantine upon arrival.

Foreign tourists experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or those concerned they have been exposed to COVID-19 while in Vietnam can call Vietnam’s health hotline at 19009095 (Press 1 for English).

Foreign tourists who  test positive for Covid while in Vietnam may need to isolate for treatment. Thankfully, isolation no longer needs to take place in government facilities.

Medical treatment should be covered by the visitor’s travel insurance. Some of our acquaintances tried getting Paxlovid via a local doctor while in Vietnam but were not successful.

How has the Coronavirus impacted Vietnam?

Apart from suspending foreign travel, the impact of Covid in Vietnam was relatively minimal in the first year. The country’s quick reaction became one of the most effective in the world at first. Lock downs were for a few short weeks and then daily life resumed as usual for several months until new cases popped up.

Vietnam had 99 days without any cases of community transmission and no deaths in Spring 2020. However, in late summer 2021, the infection rate in Vietnam skyrocketed as the Delta variant spread and vaccination rates were low. In December 2021, Vietnam detected the first case of the Omicron variant in Hanoi.

Strict lock down zones were implemented throughout 2021. Vietnam’s tourism and manufacturing sectors have been especially hit hard.

In March 2021, vaccinations began but very slowly. Now, over three quarters of the population are fully vaccinated.

In January 2022, Vietnam reopened international flights from select locations. A limited number of tourists were accepted through package tours and a trial vaccine passport program until full reopening in late Spring 2022.

International tourism recovery was slow in 2022, though domestic tourism was strengthened. Vietnam’s tourism in 2023 was still lower than pre-pandemic levels.

For the current situation in Vietnam, including: total COVID-19 positive cases; total cases in Vietnam; and COVID-19 testing in Vietnam, please see the Vietnam Ministry of Health site .

Can I travel to Vietnam this Spring 2024?

Travel to Vietnam this Spring is open . Read on for details and check back for updates.

What is it like to fly to Vietnam HAN Hanoi, DAD Da Nang, or SGN Ho Chi Minh City International Airport right now?

Vietnam airports seemed very busy to us, and crowds are difficult to avoid. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City airports can get exceptionally crowded. Masks are no longer required.

Do I have to quarantine when traveling to Vietnam? No. See details above.

Does Vietnam check COVID-19 symptoms of incoming travelers? No.

Does Vietnam require a proof of negative Covid 19 test result for travelers? No. As of April 2022, a negative test is no longer required for entry into Vietnam. 

Does Vietnam require a proof of Coronavirus vaccine for travelers? No. Proof of vaccination is currently not required to enter Vietnam. 

Do I still need to provide a negative Covid test or quarantine if I have been vaccinated? At this time, there is no special allowance for vaccinated travelers in Vietnam. However, a Covid test and quarantine is no longer required to enter Vietnam.

Is a booster shot required for travel to Vietnam? At this time, booster shots are not required in Vietnam. There is currently no expiration period set for the validity of vaccinations.

What healthcare options are available to travelers in Vietnam who get the virus? Hospitals and clinics are open in Vietnam. Foreigners must pay for any medical treatment out of pocket.  

Government quarantine locations may only have rudimentary facilities.

Persons experiencing symptoms of the COVID-19 virus should call the health hotline at 19009095 (Press 1 for English). Availability of treatments may differ from your home country.

If a foreign visitor is required to be tested for Coronavirus, they can get tested at designated laboratories in Vietnam. The test may be free if they test negative. If the test is positive, the visitor will be required to pay for it.

For travel insurance that covers Covid, check out Nomad Insurance by Safety Wing >

What service businesses and restaurants are open in Vietnam? Businesses and activities have fully reopened. Select cities and provinces have imposed temporary lock downs or closed certain non-essential businesses when outbreaks of the virus are detected in the area. 

Are face masks required in Vietnam? Vietnam has relaxed mask rules in pubic places. You’ll still see many people wearing face masks, especially while driving, as this was common practice even before the pandemic.

Are buses and trains running in Vietnam? Domestic airline and railway transportation are running on normal schedules. More daily flights within Vietnam are now available. Public and passenger transportation has resumed.

Will Vietnam impose new Covid restrictions? What’s next is difficult to predict. Vietnam no longer follows a “zero Covid” policy so shut downs are less likely than they were before vaccines were available. Historically, most countries impose COVID-19 restrictions when strains on the health care system become unsustainable.

What should you pack for safely traveling in Vietnam?

😷 Face Masks – Face coverings are required in some public places and commonly used throughout Vietnam. Find N95 masks at Bona Fide > or designer options at Vida >

🧴 Hand sanitizer   Shop hand sanitizer >

💊 Medicine – Bring enough prescription and over-the-counter medication for your entire trip to avoid trips to the clinic.

💳 Vaccine Card Holder – Protect that paper CDC card when traveling abroad (if your country doesn’t offer a digital version). Get a simple plastic protector > or Vegan leather clippable > or Leather passport + card combo holder >

👃 Covid self-test – The most studied rapid antigen self-test with FDA emergency authorization.  NOT valid to enter countries. Use for your own peace of mind. Order from CVS > or Walmart >

💧 Sealed water bottle – Make sure your reusable water bottle has a lid that’s not exposed to the air. We use one of each of the following: Shop insulated water bottles with protective lid > Shop water bottles with purification filter and protective lid >

✈️ Travel insurance that covers Covid – We’ve started using Nomad Insurance by Safety Wing for affordable evacuation, international medical, and trip coverage.

What do Vietnamese locals and recent travelers say about visiting Vietnam now?

What is it like to visit Vietnam right now? It’s our goal to provide regular updates here from real people on the ground, to help potential visitors know what to expect. The following are subjective opinions only. Official travel guidance can be found above.

October 2023 – Peta and Jonas of Exit45 Travels , Australian travelers: “We are travelling around the north of Vietnam for 1 month from mid-September to mid-October 2023. We are nearing the end of the wet season here in the north of Vietnam which is traditionally low season. There are some tourists travelling around but in general, it is fairly quiet.

There are no travel restrictions in place here in Vietnam and there is no shortage of restaurant, accommodation and medical care facilities available. As the seasons are changing here at the moment, many locals and travellers are sick with head colds. This has been most obvious in restaurants where the cooks and waiters have been coughing and sneezing freely without covering their mouths or wearing face masks. It feels as though covid never really happened, and no lessons have been learnt about general hygiene. This may have been the case pre-covid too, and maybe we just didn’t notice then, but we have certainly had a heightened awareness of it this time.

The new e-Visa application process can be quite a challenge and whilst they say to allow 3 to 5 business days for approval, we would highly recommend applying approximately 1 month before you plan on arriving in Vietnam. If you then have any problems with the application, you will have time to reapply.

The biggest problem people are encountering is once approved, the information on your approval is incorrect i.e. middle name is missing, D.O.B. has the day / month in the wrong format, incorrect entry port etc.”

September 2023 – Ros & Alan Cuthbertson of StepIntoVietnam , Australian Digital Nomads:  “We visited Vietnam frequently prior to Covid and have returned three times since the country reopened post Covid.

Everything is back to normal, masks are not required but you will find many locals still wearing them. Very few tourists can be seen wearing masks. There is no Covid or health testing required for travel within the country.

Tourists are beginning to flock to Vietnam and are rediscovering the wonders of this fascinating country. Popular destinations such as Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City are busy with tourists and prebooking travel and tours is advised. For example we tried to book a two berth train cabin from Hanoi to Hue but they had been booked out months in advance and we had to get a four berth cabin instead.”

March 2023 – Michelle, Intentional Travelers, U.S. nomad: “We thoroughly enjoyed returning to visit Vietnam and would have stayed longer if we could. Our Vietnamese friends tell us that Covid is no longer a major concern in Vietnam. Tourists have few restrictions to worry about.

There are still fewer tourists than pre-pandemic times, so I think now is a great time to visit. It still gets crowded in Hoi An Ancient Town at night, and the Hanoi airport departures area seemed exceptionally crowded.”

February 28, 2023 – Michelle, Intentional Travelers, U.S. nomad: “We arrived back in Vietnam, flying from Thailand to DAD, for our second stay on the 30-day tourist visa. The evisa application took 3-4 days this time and we made sure to print it out. Air Asia checked the evisa at check in, as did the agent at immigration when we arrived.

Filling out an immigration form when arriving in Vietnam is no longer required unless you have something to declare (bring in significant money or goods into the country). Wait time for immigration was no longer than the wait for our bags to show up at luggage claim, and customs just asked us to scan our two carry on bags.

As our flight came in, AirAsia announced that there was a mask requirement for arriving in Vietnam. However, we did not see masks enforced and even a few of the airport employees weren’t wearing masks.” 

January 27, 2023 – Michelle, Intentional Travelers, U.S. nomad: “Unlike our flight into Vietnam, masks were not required on our outgoing flight but a majority of passengers and all the crew were wearing face coverings. Da Nang airport is spacious and only crowded at certain times when many flights are scheduled.”

January 2, 2023 – Michelle, Intentional Travelers, U.S. nomad:  “The Ho Chi Minh City airport was very busy and had quite a few delayed domestic flights early in the year. More than half of passengers were wearing masks though they’re not required.”

December 2022 – Michelle, Intentional Travelers, U.S. nomad: “We flew to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from the US via Singapore. We applied for the 30-day evisa about one week before traveling. There was an issue with Chase not allowing the credit card charge online, so we had to redo one of our applications. It was processed in 2-3 days and I printed the one-page documents for our trip. We also printed our Safety Wing travel insurance coverage letter but didn’t end up needing to show it.

Upon check-in with Singapore Airlines in Seattle, we were only asked for our passports and visa paperwork. Arriving in Vietnam, there was a 40+ minute wait for immigration. We had to show our passport, boarding pass, and evisa printout. We were never asked for onward flight booking or Covid documents.

Masks were required on our flight into Vietnam. Many locals wore masks before the pandemic (partly due to air pollution), so mask-wearing out in public is still very common but by no means universal in Vietnam.”

July 1 2022 – M.T. Expat in Ho Chi Minh City: “Covid is very much an afterthought for most people now – official national case numbers have been under 1,000 per day for a while (with basically no testing going on), and mask use is far from universal anymore. I’ve even seen people in airports and on planes without a mask… But health officials are starting to sound some (mild) alarm bells [regarding the Omicron BA.5 variant]. Given how normal daily life has become (and the incredible surge in domestic travel, which is seeing holiday-level airport traffic daily), conditions are ripe for Covid to spread rapidly.”

May 2022 – Karla of Colorful Journeys , expat in Vietnam: “Every day, an increasing number of tourists travel within Vietnam. Many local tour operators have reopened for business and are now easily bookable. Transportation options are widely available and simple to book. 

Despite the fact that there are no longer any travel restrictions in Vietnam, the majority of people still wear masks. This is particularly true in larger cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. There is also a lot of local testing accessible in major cities. Because many hotels and attractions are permanently closed, it’s a good practice to call the business beforehand.”

March 25, 2022 – Phu, Vietnamese tour guide:  “Vietnam now is reopening for tourists but the tourists come to Vietnam very little at the moment. Not so many, still quiet here. In Hoi An all the shops and restaurants are open, and more domestic tourists come to Hoi An. The local people we are really happy welcome the tourists. And me I open my motorbike tours again, but in 1 month I have only one tour booking. I will be offering a discount price to welcome tourists booking this is the year.”

We highly recommend a motorbike day tour or overnight tour with our friend, Phu! Contact him at Hoianmotorbiketouradventures@ gmail.com .

January 2022 – Isabelle of Move to Vietnam , Vietnamese resident: “At the moment, domestic travel is possible as long as you are fully vaccinated. Tourists are only allowed in Vietnam under specific requirements. Unless you want to spend $1500 and up for 7-14 days of holiday, it’s better to wait for a few more months.

June 2022 is the government’s target to reopen. However, these policies change very often.

Vietnam has a pretty good system when it comes to contact tracing. Most places of business require everyone to check-in using a QR code or sign up sheet. If that place detects a positive case, people who were there at the same time will be contacted to be tested and self-isolated for a number of days. There’s very little anti-vaccination sentiment here. 

Tourists attractions are normally open. If you need to be hospitalised, you will have an option to go to a private hospital or a more affordable local hospital (you might have to bring a local or a translator).”

December 2021 – Huong Nguyen (Hanna), Vietnamese nomad CoXplore :  “After the lifting of strict COVID-19 restrictions, the government is still strict with the 5K rule: ‘Khau trang’ (facemask), ‘Khu khuan’ (disinfection), ‘Khoang cach’ (distance), ‘Khong tu tap’ (no gathering), and ‘Khai bao y te’ (health declaration) to help citizens get used to living safely with the COVID-19 pandemic in ‘new normal’ state; and citizens are generally active to follow. 

Recovering from COVID-19, Vietnam is now encouraging domestic travelling within the country, and is prepared to welcome international visitors who have met all the vaccination requirements. Residents must receive at least a dose of COVID-19 vaccine and obtain a QR code through mandated health apps for movement within the city.”

September 2021 – Phu, Central Vietnam Resident: “Vietnam now is lock down. Covid delta so fast in Vietnam now. Kill 14000 people already. My area we are staying home, still safe at the moment.”

January 2021 – Jackie & Justin, Life Of Doing , Expats in Ho Chi Minh City:  “Vietnam does not currently allow tourists to enter the country. Tourist cities rely on locals and long term residents visiting.  Currently, there aren’t any restrictions for traveling within the country for locals and long term residents. Everyone traveling must wear masks at public places and may have a temperature check before entering a building or vehicle. Many of the tourist cities have been impacted by fewer tourists and have closed restaurants and tourist attractions. Luckily, Vietnam’s government is proactive when it comes to finding the source of confirmed cases that have tested positive for the virus and trace the contacts of confirmed cases immediately.” 

Adela, Spanish/Digital Nomad. July 2020 ~ “The only tourists in Vietnam at the moment are either those who were already in the country or Vietnamese nationals doing internal tourism. At the moment, the relationship of the locals with foreigners is back to normal, however during the months of March and April there was a sudden “fear” of foreigners, especially Westerners, and in some places (restaurants, hotels, bars, etc) we were denied entrance. Although at the moment everyone is as friendly and welcoming as it can be, the kids that live in our street still laugh and cover their faces when they see us. Many businesses have chosen to close due to the lack of tourists, but most touristic attractions are open and …less crowded than they will ever be!”

Tasha , American Digital Nomad. July 2020 ~ “Despite having a third the population of the U.S. and sharing a border with China, thanks to common sense, early action, and preventative measures, Vietnam has vanquished coronavirus. Cases peaked at less than 400, and now the virus is completely contained — there is no community spread. Borders remain closed to keep the virus out. Vietnam has done an excellent job with testing and contact tracing. The virus is completely gone from the general population, so we are living life as normal, going to restaurants and cafes.”

Even if you can’t go to Vietnam right now, you can still get started planning your Vietnam trip for the future.

Check out our other Vietnam travel resources: – Suggested Vietnam Itineraries: 10+ Days in Vietnam – A budget guide to Hoi An Vietnam – A budget guide to Ninh Binh – A budget guide to Hue – A budget guide to Hanoi – A budget guide to Mai Chau Vietnam – Central Vietnam Destinations and Itinerary

* Get our free Vietnam Travel Destinations e-guide *

If you have questions or updates about travel to Vietnam during the Coronavirus crisis or post-pandemic, please let us know in the comments below.

~ Pin this post for later or share with friends ~

Disclaimer: Please note, travel restrictions change frequently. Readers must take responsibility for verifying information through official sources like the State Department and CDC, in respect to their specific situations. No responsibility can be accepted by Intentional Travelers for action or inaction as a result of information provided through IntentionalTravelers.com. Any information provided here is issued as general information only.

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• COVID-19 travel restrictions: Vietnam
• < Travel restrictions

Travel restrictions

By Kiwi.com March 28, 2022

By Kiwi.com | March 28, 2022

This article was published on March 28, 2022, and all the information in the article is correct as of this time. Before you book your trip, we highly recommend that you also check official sources for the most up-to-date travel requirements, as they are subject to constant change.

Can I enter Vietnam?

You can enter Vietnam. Due to COVID-19, several entry requirements are currently in place to stop the illness from spreading.

Please be aware that the first thing you have to do when traveling to Vietnam is complete a Health Declaration . The next steps vary depending on your vaccination status.

Can I enter Vietnam if I am vaccinated? 

You can enter Vietnam if you are vaccinated. You can be considered fully vaccinated at least 14 days after administration of the second dose for vaccines with a two-dose schedule, or at least 21 days after administration of the vaccine with a single dose schedule. 

As of February 2022, Vietnam accepts vaccine certificates from 78 countries:

• Brunei Darussalam
• Chinese Taipei
• Commonwealth of Australia
• Czech Republic
• Islamic Republic of Iran
• New Zealand
• Philippines
• Republic of Iraq
• Republic of Korea
• Republic of Maldives
• Republic of South Africa
• Republic of Zimbabwe
• Saudi Arabia
• Switzerland
• The Netherlands
• Timor Leste
• Turkmenistan
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States

Travel documents if you are vaccinated

If you are fully vaccinated, present these documents:

• A vaccination certificate 
• A negative PCR test result obtained no more than 72 hours before departure
• Insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment with a minimum of $50,000 cover
• Booking with an approved package tour program of a travel agency (if you’re traveling for tourism)

Children under the age of two are exempt from getting tested. 

Can I enter Vietnam if I am unvaccinated?

You can enter Vietnam if you are unvaccinated. 

Travel documents if you are unvaccinated

If you are unvaccinated, please present the following documents:

• A negative PCR test result no older than 72 hours
• Booking with an approved package tour program of a travel agency (if you travel for tourism)

If you have recovered from COVID-19, you can present the certificate of recovery. However, a PCR test is still required.

Can I leave Vietnam?

There are no COVID-19 restrictions for leaving Vietnam. Please check the requirements of the destination country to make sure you are allowed to travel there.

Can I leave Vietnam if I am vaccinated?

Vaccinated travelers can leave Vietnam.

Vaccinated travelers must have one of the following documents to leave Vietnam:

• A document confirming vaccination 

In addition, check the requirements for the COVID-19 test regulations in your destination country. 

Can I leave Vietnam if I am unvaccinated?

There are no restrictions for unvaccinated travelers on leaving Vietnam.

Unvaccinated travelers have to present one of the following documents: 

• Documentation of recovery from COVID-19 (stating that the visitor has been infected no more than 180 days before the day of crossing the border of a particular country)
• A negative COVID-19 test result (the relevant period and kind of test may vary, please check the requirements of the destination country)

Nevertheless, COVID-19 tests can be required for recovered travelers as well. Please check it in advance.

COVID-19 situation in Vietnam currently

Presently, the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam is becoming safer due to the increasing rate of the vaccinated population.

Is it safe to travel to Vietnam right now?

International travel to Vietnam is safe if travelers abide by basic regulations:

• Wearing masks indoors
• Keeping social distance
• Washing your hands regularly 

Is Hanoi open for travel?

Hanoi is open for travel now. As with the whole country, the capital has the same basic COVID-19 rules. 

Do I have to quarantine if I go to Vietnam?

At the moment, foreign travelers are not required to self-isolate upon arrival in Vietnam .

How do I get a health pass to travel to Vietnam?

At present, all foreign arrivals are required to download two mobile applications:

Your COVID-19-related data will be digitized in these applications.

What are the biggest international airports in Vietnam?

These are the top three biggest international airports in Vietnam: 

• Tan Son Nhat International airport (SGN)
• Noi Bai International airport (HAN)
• Da Nang International airport (DAD)

Useful links:

• Vietnam travel advisory
• Health Declaration form

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Filed under:

• Vietnam defied the experts and sealed its border to keep Covid-19 out. It worked.

How the country has kept coronavirus deaths to just 35, and grew its economy in 2020.

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This story is one in our six-part series The Pandemic Playbook. Explore all the stories here .

Every January or February, Le The Linh and his wife pack their children into their car and drive 80 miles to visit family in Haiphong, a port city east of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, for Lunar New Year. But this time, as they reached the last stretch of the Hanoi-Haiphong Highway, a police officer approached and pointed them toward a group of guards in face masks under a makeshift tent. It was one of 16 checkpoints erected around Haiphong to control travel into and out of the city ahead of the Tet Festival holiday.

They joined a lineup of other travelers, nervously waiting for their turn in the rain. When they reached the front, the officials asked for proof of their travel plans, residency, and Covid-19 status.

“Don’t worry!” Linh exclaimed tensely. He could show, with his identity card, that they lived in an area that had no coronavirus cases recently.

The family was among the lucky ones let through. Travelers from areas near Haiphong that had recently recorded Covid-19 cases got turned away; a group of young people on motorbikes who tried to circumvent the checkpoint were arrested ; still others chose not to travel at all, opting to meet family over FaceTime or Zalo (Vietnam’s answer to WhatsApp).

As the pandemic took hold last year, travel restrictions quickly proliferated — they were the second-most-common policy governments adopted to combat Covid-19. According to one review , never in recorded history has global travel been curbed in “such an extreme manner”: a reduction of approximately 65 percent in the first half of 2020. More than a year later, as countries experiment with vaccine passports , travel bubbles , and a new round of measures to keep virus variants at bay , a maze of confusing, ever-changing restrictions remains firmly in place.

But few countries have gone as far as Vietnam, a one-party communist state with a GDP per capita of $2,700 . The Haiphong checkpoints timed for Tet were the equivalent of closing off Los Angeles to Americans ahead of Thanksgiving — within a country that was already nearly hermetically sealed. Last March, the government canceled all inbound commercial flights for months on end, making it almost impossible to fly in, even for Vietnamese residents.

Today, flights are limited to select groups, like businesspeople or experts, from a few low-risk countries. Everybody who enters needs special government permission and must complete up to 21 days of state-monitored quarantine with PCR tests. (Positive cases are immediately isolated in hospitals, regardless of disease severity.)

This strict approach to travel, global health experts say, is directly connected to Vietnam’s seeming defeat of Covid-19. Thirty-five people have reportedly died in total, and a little more than 2,700 have been infected with the virus during three small waves that have all been quickly quashed. Even on the worst days of the pandemic, the country of 97 million has never recorded more than 110 new cases — a tiny fraction of the 68,000 daily case high in the United Kingdom, which has a population one-third smaller than Vietnam, or the record 300,000-plus cases per day only the US and India managed to tally.

Last year, Vietnam’s economy even grew 2.9 percent , defying economists’ predictions and beating China to become the top performer in Asia .

In this series, the Pandemic Playbook , Vox is exploring the Covid-19 strategies used by six nations. Vietnam’s travel restrictions — supported by other measures, including enforced quarantining and contact tracing — help explain the country’s apparent mastery over the virus. And while the political leverage of a single-party government might have helped Vietnam respond faster and more unilaterally than others, “I don’t think this is simply about totalitarianism versus Western democracies,” said Kelley Lee, a Simon Fraser University global health professor who has been studying the impact of travel restrictions .

That’s why Vietnam is now among a few countries upending the global health community’s “almost religious belief that travel restrictions are bad,” said Lawrence Gostin , a Georgetown University global health law professor who helped write the international law governing how countries should deal with outbreaks.

“I have now realized,” Gostin added, “that our belief about travel restrictions was just that — a belief. It was evidence-free.”

Covid-19 changed the thinking about travel restrictions in a pandemic

At a time when people still thought diseases originated with imbalances in the “four humors” and doctors routinely used treatments like bloodletting, governments tried to manage travel to prevent outbreaks. In 1377 , quarantine measures were introduced in Dubrovnik , on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, to keep out sailors potentially carrying the bubonic plague .

The law stipulated that anyone from “plague-infested areas shall not enter [Dubrovnik] or its district unless they spend a month on the islet of Mrkan ... for the purpose of disinfection.” For land travelers , the disinfection period lasted even longer — 40 days.

But in the age of mass travel and globalization, it seemed virtually impossible — counterproductive, even — for cities or countries to isolate themselves. The mantra in global health became “ diseases know no borders .” Just before the pandemic, 2019 was a record year for tourist arrivals. The travel and tourism sector had generated a tenth, or US $8.9 trillion , of global GDP. “It [was like] the cat’s out of the bag,” Gostin said.

Many of the measures countries tried in recent years, after the first SARS virus emerged in 2002 — including banning flights or visas for particular cities or countries, and screening for disease at airports — didn’t seem to deliver much protection.

Research on SARS , Ebola , and the seasonal flu found these targeted restrictions merely delayed infections and carried a slew of social and economic costs. They unfairly punished the economies of places that were unlucky enough to be plagued by disease, interfered with the global flows of people and goods, drove infections underground, and made it hard for aid workers and supplies to reach those who urgently needed them.

I knew these costs intimately. I grew up in Toronto, where a rare travel advisory imposed on the city by the World Health Organization in the wake of the first SARS outbreak cratered tourism to the entire province — so much so that the Rolling Stones eventually intervened with a charity concert (dubbed “SARSStock”). The measures also failed to avert outbreaks. According to a Canadian government report , putting arriving passengers through health assessments and thermal scanners didn’t root out a single case.

During the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic and early in the Covid-19 pandemic, I co-wrote popular stories detailing this evidence and arguing against the use of such restrictions. And I wasn’t alone.

Bill Gates pointed out that then-President Donald Trump’s approach to Covid-19 travel bans probably made the US epidemic worse. The WHO’s International Health Regulations , an international law governing 196 countries’ responses to outbreaks, says countries should “avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade” and follow the WHO’s expert advice. With every global health emergency declared after SARS, the WHO has not recommended travel restrictions .

. @WHO doesn’t recommend limiting trade & movement. Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing & medical supply chains & harming economies. We urge countries & companies to make evidence-based, consistent decisions. https://t.co/ksxOV6sbDN — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 31, 2020

At the same time, speaking out against travel bans had become synonymous with opposing nationalism and wall-building, said Lee. “There were these progressive, human rights values that were upheld by not using travel measures.”

But it’s now clear that the well-meaning advice and previous research findings didn’t match up with the situation the world was facing in early 2020. The new virus was different — more contagious and harder to stop. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted prior to the onset of symptoms, if they ever occur — while with SARS and Ebola, for example, people are only contagious when they are very ill or symptomatic.

The new coronavirus contagion inspired drastic measures. After China locked down Wuhan in January 2020, a move many called “ draconian ,” countries around the world scrambled and experimented with their own travel restrictions.

Only a few, though, did something that “seemed unfathomable” prior to the pandemic, said University of Hong Kong public health professor Karen Grépin: They completely closed their borders. It was an approach experts had no evidence for. “No one [had] modeled out a scenario in which borders would be shut,” she said, and stay shut.

Yet that’s essentially what happened in Vietnam — and in a few states or regions, mostly islands including Taiwan and New Zealand, that have virtually eliminated the virus.

The Pandemic Playbook

Vox explores the successes — and setbacks — in six nations as they fought Covid-19. Our reporting is supported by a grant from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund .

• South Korea’s Covid-19 success story started with failure
• Germany contained Covid-19. Politics brought it back.
• How the UK found the first effective Covid-19 treatment — and saved a million lives
• How Senegal stretched its health care system to stop Covid-19
• How the US won the economic recovery

Vietnam started building a “wall” to the world in January

Early last year, when the US and European countries still focused on keeping out travelers from places with known Covid-19 cases, Vietnam closed its borders to the world.

It was the culmination of months of escalating travel restrictions. On January 3, the same day China reported a mysterious cluster of viral pneumonia cases to the WHO, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health issued a directive to increase disease control measures on the border with China . By the end of January, Vietnam’s then-Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc banned all flights to and from Wuhan and other areas where the virus was spreading in China and shut off every transport link between the two countries, making it the first place in Southeast Asia to close out Chinese travelers.

By mid-March, Vietnam suspended visas for all foreigners and then stopped all commercial flights. Only diplomats, citizens, and other officials could get in or out on repatriation flights, and they needed authorization from the government to enter.

Limited air travel has now resumed with other low-risk neighbors — such as South Korea , Taiwan, and Japan — but only for Vietnamese people and foreign businesspeople and experts. And while Vietnamese nationals can cross land borders from Laos or Cambodia , everybody who does get into the country — by air, land, or sea — has to submit to PCR tests and wait out a mandatory 14- to 21-day quarantine period under state supervision in a military-run facility or designated hotel.

So where Western countries introduced travel restrictions late, targeted their measures at countries with confirmed Covid-19 cases (or variants now), made quarantine optional or didn’t enforce it, and allowed loopholes (like excluding certain groups from travel restrictions, or letting people arriving over land avoid quarantine), Vietnam walled itself in. While Western countries continue to roll measures back whenever case counts come down , Vietnam has kept its wall up — even during periods when the country recorded zero new coronavirus cases.

“This is the lesson about border measures that’s changed,” Grépin said. “The value of border restrictions goes up the fewer cases you have.”

The restrictions also appear to work best if they’re implemented when they most seem like overkill, said London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine epidemiologist Mark Jit . That is, before (or after) community transmission takes place, he added.

“The natural thing is to think, ‘When we have a big problem, there are many Covid cases, that’s the point when we need to start doing a lot of things.’ But for travel restrictions — these are the solution to stop the problem from happening in the first place,” Jit explained. “It seems obvious in retrospect, but it’s very paradoxical.”

Vietnam saw China’s epidemic as a threat right away

So why did Vietnam take this early and comprehensive approach when so many other countries didn’t? The short answer: The country’s fraught relationship and porous border with China — which put it at higher risk for outbreaks — may have been its savior.

“[The] two countries taking the quickest action are Taiwan and Vietnam — they shared the same reasons: geographical proximity to and distrust in China,” explained Nguyen Xuan Thanh, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Group, which is composed of experts who counsel the government on economic development strategy and policy. (Vietnam may have had information that other countries didn’t early on: A cybersecurity firm, FireEye , has said that since at least January , Vietnamese hackers spied on the Chinese government to collect intelligence about Covid-19 — reports the government has denied.)

Whatever the reason, officials in Vietnam didn’t entertain the possibility that the coronavirus was just like the seasonal flu, nor did they consider herd immunity. When China locked down Wuhan last January and bought other countries time to react, Vietnam was one of only a handful of countries that used that time wisely.

“Outside of the Asia-Pacific region, most of the world did very little to prepare for the real possibility that this virus was about to spread globally,” Grépin said. In January, the Vietnamese government set up a national task force specialized in handling Covid-19, headed by the deputy prime minister, and defined a “double goal” of combating the virus and growing the economy.

The country’s officials and Communist Party made battling Covid-19 a patriotic act. “Fighting this epidemic is like fighting the enemy,” the prime minister said in a government meeting last January.

They transmitted health messages to the public using creative tactics , like texts to mobile phones or a viral pop song about hand-washing. They ramped up testing (starting in January 2020) and shortly thereafter began checking even asymptomatic people for the virus. By the end of last year, Vietnam was processing 1,000 tests per Covid-19 case , compared to 12.8 in the US or 21.7 in the UK.

Contact tracing became so widespread that the population now speaks the language of epidemiologists: It’s not unusual to hear Vietnamese people refer to the “F1” through “F5” system — how contact tracers denote a person’s proximity to an “F0,” or index case. (And, yes, where Western governments largely abandoned contact tracing or didn’t even seriously attempt it, Vietnam continues to ferret out potential cases by testing all F1s — a patient zero’s immediate contacts — and quarantining them in a state facility, while also asking F2s to quarantine at home.)

When a single person tests positive, it can trigger a targeted lockdown , “isolating a large area when the fire is big, isolating a small area when the fire is small,” Mai Tien Dung, the chair of the Office of the Government, said.

In practice, this meant that last February, just as Lunar New Year travel and Vietnam’s third wave was picking up, a Hanoi apartment block, where more than 1,000 people live, closed down one evening after a woman tested positive for the virus. The entrances were barricaded and guarded by police as hundreds of residents spilled out, masked and social distancing, waiting for a free Covid-19 test.

Only those who tested negative were allowed to leave, and results took at least six hours to come in — a fact that frustrated those who weren’t prepared to spend the night, like gym staff members. By the next morning, everyone who had been tested got a negative result, and the barricades were removed — but everybody living on the two floors around the index patient was asked to quarantine for two weeks.

Vietnam also bet that the early overreaction, including closing down international borders, might save the domestic economy and prevent the health system from becoming overwhelmed, Thanh said. Just before SARS-CoV-2 started spreading in China, Vietnam ranked 73 out of 195 countries on epidemic response and mitigation, according to the Global Health Security Index from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (The US, meanwhile, ranked No. 2 after the UK; the top 10 included the Netherlands and Brazil.)

Vietnam had another vulnerability to contend with. “The reality [is] that Vietnam does not have enough budget to sacrifice the economy and support businesses and individuals who had to cease operation,” Thanh said.

More than a year later, Vietnam’s success with keeping case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths low laid bare the arrogance and faulty assumptions that went into determining which countries would win or lose in their battles with the virus. With the exception of short-lived, targeted lockdowns, life in Vietnam today largely resembles the Before Times in a way many Westerners can only envy. People go to bars, share drinks with friends, and enjoy live music. Restaurants and cafes are open. Children attend school and see their grandparents in person.

The population never experienced the disorientation, economic pain, and mental health toll of rolling national lockdowns. Hospitals never buckled under the strain of masses of coronavirus patients. Kids didn’t miss a year of school. (There was a brief nationwide social distancing order last April when all schools were shut for three weeks.)

Vietnam is also one of a handful of countries whose economies grew in 2020 — the same year the country introduced three trade deals and saw per capita income rise. “At the beginning of the crisis, if you asked an economist what would happen here, most of us were pessimistic because of the [cutting off of] connections to the rest of the world,” said Jacques Morisset, the World Bank’s lead economist for Vietnam.

But because the virus was quickly contained internally, the domestic economy rebounded, just as Thanh and his colleagues had hoped. Manufacturing continued, and exports grew by 6.5 percent — not far off from the usual export turnover increase of 8 percent, according to Thanh.

That growth more than made up for losses in the shrinking tourism and transport sectors. The successes also helped foster public support for the anti-virus measures. Whenever the tourism or travel industries lobbied for open borders, the economic pressure didn’t crack the borders open. According to a survey released in December by the UN Development Program and the Mekong Development Research Institute, 89 percent of Vietnamese respondents said they supported the government’s approach — higher than the global average of 67 percent.

“Politicians make decisions based on the pressure from the society and inner political system,” Thanh said. “Vietnam had no such pressure. Vietnamese people supported the government to continue having strict measures.”

Vietnam’s state security apparatus bolstered its public health response

In a one-party system like Vietnam’s, there are few avenues to voice opposition. This political context has arguably strengthened certain anti-virus measures, like the country’s extensive contact tracing program. The Communist Party has for decades employed “surveillance, physical monitoring, and censorship to manage the population,” Foreign Policy reported in May last year . These “tools of Communist Party control ... have now been repurposed in the service of health protection.”

Local officials and busybody neighbors also exert social pressure on others to conform, said Carl Thayer , a Southeast Asia specialist and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales. “Vietnam has block wardens, village wardens, household registration, and inquisitive locals that intrude on people’s lives. They have a society where people report people.”

The government can and does share details with the public about positive cases (including the age, gender, and neighborhood where the person lives, as well as a flight number for travelers), sometimes leaking additional information for use as cautionary tales.

Perhaps the most infamous example: Vietnam’s case number 17 , a socialite who traveled to Italy without disclosing it at the border and faced severe public shaming. Her Covid-19 experience was the subject of government press conferences, and social media users tracked her down. Her story scared people who didn’t want to be responsible for others’ infections, said Hanoi-based American health economist Sarah Bales. “Everybody knows her,” she said. “She was notorious, and people hated her.”

This heavy-handedness would not be tolerated in many Western countries, where concerns about personal freedom and privacy have often trumped public health throughout the pandemic, Thayer said. The Foreign Policy authors also pointed out that the country’s human rights violations have repeatedly been overlooked in examinations of Vietnam’s Covid-19 response: “While the international community has criticized Vietnam’s security apparatus in the past for violating its citizens’ rights, the country has received near-unanimous praise for its successful handling of the current pandemic. But the tools used are the same.”

Yet to reduce Vietnam’s Covid-19 success to its system of authoritarian governance is a mistake, Lee said, pointing out that democracies, like South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand, have employed similar tactics as Vietnam. And analysts have repeatedly struggled to link a country’s political system to its Covid-19 success .

Vietnam’s is “a very scientific approach and has merit on its own no matter which regime chooses to apply these types of measures,” said Bales, who has lived and worked in Vietnam since 1992. “They did extensive contact tracing. ... They did massive testing. They closed down the provinces so if there was transmission, it would stay local. Most people are living a normal life, and the few people who have been exposed or infected have to bear the brunt of quarantine, testing, and isolation.”

Watching the pandemic unfold in the US and Europe, Bales was among several Vietnam-based Westerners who told Vox they believe the privacy and personal liberty costs during the pandemic were worth the benefits of living a relatively free life.

“You don’t have to worry and be afraid like you do in the West — where every time you go out, it must be stressful [wondering] about if you’re exposed, and if you’re exposed, will you have long Covid or die,” Bales said. “On a day-to-day basis, I don’t worry.”

When Vietnam’s wall comes down

One morning in early March, a taxicab pulled up to the international terminal at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport . The last time the driver took someone there was half a year ago, he said, when a Vietnamese customer wanted to fly to Taiwan for work. Today, though, a repatriation flight had just landed — one of 16 arriving in Vietnam so far this year.

Inside, the airport is a skeleton of its former self. There are no crowds waiting to greet friends and family. Cafes and restaurants are closed, and the terminal halls are quiet and dark. A group of the newly arrived passengers waiting at the luggage conveyer belt look distinctly like they’ve come from a biosafety hazard lab: wearing blue full-body protection suits and masks, provided by Vietnam Airlines staff when they boarded their flight in Paris.

The only loud noise echoing across the terminal is a voice broadcasting instructions for what the passengers need to do next: Everybody will be transported to state-supervised quarantine facilities. One by one, their names and year of birth are called out before they walk to buses to be ferried off. When they arrive, they’ll be tested for Covid-19 — and, if positive, forwarded directly to the hospital for isolation and treatment.

“We will try our best to organize so that families, parents, and children can stay together,” the voice on the speaker says, “but with friends, we may not be able to do so. We are sorry for that.”

This scene feels unimaginable in Western cities like New York or Paris — but so did ubiquitous mask-wearing and lockdowns over a year ago. With travel set to boom as the pandemic eases, and the next outbreaks on the horizon, I wondered what the rest of the world should take away from Vietnam.

Lee — and the other global health researchers I spoke to — advised caution. This pandemic showed travel restrictions can be helpful, but we should not make the same mistake we did in the past and assume what worked for the coronavirus will work for other health threats. “We don’t want countries to automatically control borders whenever a cluster of atypical pneumonia occurs,” Lee said. “Not all outbreaks require borders to be closed.”

Shutting borders comes with costs — all the people who lost travel and tourism jobs in Vietnam over the past year, or those who have been stranded far from home. Because of the very limited access to repatriation flights , thousands are waiting for their applications to get approved, and a black market for repatriation flight access sprang up. The wealthy agree to pay as much as $10,000 US for seats, while some have been scammed .

“Even if we conclude that travel restrictions and trade restrictions and migration restrictions — under certain targeted circumstances — can be an effective part of the package,” Gostin said, “we still have to take into account the fact that by implementing [them], you’re causing harms in other regards.”

Grépin also warned that the border closures countries like Vietnam put in place were “very extreme,” and pointed out that less intensive measures might prevent cases and carry fewer costs. Places like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, for example, have shown that “if you quarantine incoming travelers you can limit public health risk without border closure,” she said. But she also noted the approach isn’t foolproof. Hong Kong, for example, is currently struggling with the virus because of its travel links with India: A single April 4 flight from New Delhi has led to more than 50 Covid-19 cases .

This raises another challenge: Travel restrictions are difficult to calibrate correctly, said Steven Hoffman , a global health professor and the director of York University’s Global Strategy Lab. “If we are going to make use of [total border closures,] we need to [acknowledge] the fact that it might be implemented for events that don’t go pandemic,” he said. “And there’s something like 200 events every year that could go pandemic.”

For now, as Vietnam weighs the benefits of Covid-19 vaccine passports and how to resume international travel , one thing is certain: The walls the country has built up will come down. People will hop on trains, planes, and buses, bringing their germs with them. The world will get smaller again, and proximity will be “more determined on the basis of the quantity of travel connections than kilometers,” Hoffman added.

Vietnam’s early, quick response to Covid-19 was inspired, in part, by the country’s shared border with China. But what other countries need to learn is that, in a globalized world, they share borders with China, too.

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Exploring The Current Travel Restrictions For Vietnam: What You Need To Know

• Last updated Nov 05, 2023
• Difficulty Beginner

• Category United States

Have you ever dreamt of visiting the breathtaking landscapes of Vietnam, exploring its rich history and immersing yourself in its vibrant culture? Well, before you reach for your passport and start packing your bags, it’s important to understand the current travel restrictions in place for Vietnam. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, navigating the requirements for entry into this captivating country can be a bit more complicated than simply booking a flight. So, let’s dive into the details and discover what you need to know before embarking on your Vietnamese adventure.

What You'll Learn

What are the current travel restrictions in vietnam due to the covid-19 pandemic, are there any exceptions to the travel restrictions for specific categories of travelers, such as essential workers or family members of vietnamese citizens, are there any specific quarantine or testing requirements for travelers entering vietnam, how often are the travel restrictions and requirements updated in vietnam, are there any travel restrictions within vietnam, such as restrictions on traveling between different regions or provinces.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact countries around the world, travel restrictions have become a common measure to control the spread of the virus. Vietnam, like many other countries, has implemented travel restrictions to protect its population and prevent the further spread of the virus.

Currently, Vietnam has imposed entry restrictions for foreign travelers. Only Vietnamese citizens, their family members, and certain exceptional cases are allowed to enter the country. Foreigners entering Vietnam must have a valid visa and must go through a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. This quarantine period is conducted in government-designated facilities, and individuals are required to bear the cost of their stay and medical examinations during this period.

In addition to entry restrictions, Vietnam has also suspended international flights to and from many countries. This means that it is difficult for foreigners to enter or leave Vietnam at this time. Vietnamese airlines are only operating limited flights for repatriation purposes. Therefore, it is important for travelers to check the latest information from airlines and relevant authorities before planning any travel to Vietnam.

Within Vietnam, domestic travel is allowed, but certain restrictions and safety measures are in place. Local authorities have implemented different measures based on the level of risk in each area. For example, some provinces and cities have imposed travel restrictions within their boundaries, requiring individuals to obtain permission to travel. Public transportation services such as buses and trains may also have reduced schedules or limited capacities to ensure social distancing.

In terms of public health measures, wearing face masks in public places is mandatory in Vietnam. Social distancing rules and frequent hand hygiene are also strongly encouraged. Temperature checks and health declarations are conducted at public places, including airports and train stations. These measures are essential in ensuring the safety of the population and preventing the further spread of the virus.

It is worth noting that the situation regarding travel restrictions in Vietnam is constantly evolving. The government regularly updates and adjusts its policies based on the current situation and the advice of health authorities. Therefore, it is important for travelers to stay informed and check the latest information before planning any travel to or within Vietnam.

To summarize, the current travel restrictions in Vietnam due to the COVID-19 pandemic include entry restrictions for foreign travelers, suspension of international flights, and domestic travel restrictions within certain areas. It is important for travelers to stay informed and follow the guidelines and regulations set by the Vietnamese government and health authorities to ensure their safety and the safety of others.

Navigating Current Big Island Travel Restrictions: What You Need to Know

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused travel restrictions in many countries, including Vietnam. These restrictions are put in place to prevent the spread of the virus and protect public health. However, there are some exceptions to these travel restrictions for specific categories of travelers, such as essential workers or family members of Vietnamese citizens.

Firstly, essential workers are one of the exceptions to the travel restrictions in Vietnam. Essential workers are those who are involved in critical sectors such as healthcare, transportation, or food supply. These workers play a crucial role in maintaining the functioning of society during the pandemic. To ensure the continuity of essential services, they are allowed to travel to and from Vietnam, even during the travel restrictions. However, they are required to follow strict protocols and guidelines to minimize the risk of spreading the virus. This may include mandatory quarantine, testing, and adherence to social distancing measures.

Secondly, family members of Vietnamese citizens are also exempted from the travel restrictions. The Vietnamese government recognizes the importance of family unity and understands the need for families to be together during these challenging times. Therefore, immediate family members of Vietnamese citizens, such as spouses, children, or parents, are allowed to travel to Vietnam. However, they are also subject to strict protocols and guidelines to ensure the safety of the public. This may include mandatory quarantine upon arrival and testing for COVID-19.

It is important to note that these exceptions apply to specific categories of travelers and are subject to change depending on the evolving situation of the pandemic. The Vietnamese government constantly updates its travel policies and guidelines based on the advice of health experts and the current situation. It is advisable for travelers to stay updated with the latest information and guidelines issued by the relevant authorities to avoid any inconvenience or complications during their travel.

In conclusion, there are exceptions to the travel restrictions in Vietnam for specific categories of travelers. Essential workers and family members of Vietnamese citizens are among those exempted from these restrictions. However, they are required to follow strict protocols and guidelines to ensure public health and safety. Travelers should stay informed about the latest travel policies and guidelines to ensure a smooth and hassle-free travel experience.

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As the world continues to grapple with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have implemented strict measures to control the spread of the virus. Vietnam is no exception, and travelers entering the country are subject to certain quarantine and testing requirements.

Quarantine Requirements:

Upon arrival in Vietnam, all travelers, regardless of their nationality or vaccination status, are required to undergo quarantine. The duration of quarantine may vary depending on the traveler's situation.

For fully vaccinated travelers:

If you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you are still required to undergo quarantine upon arrival in Vietnam. However, the duration of quarantine may be shorter compared to those who are not vaccinated.

For non-vaccinated travelers:

Non-vaccinated travelers are currently required to undergo a 14-day quarantine in a designated quarantine facility. During this period, travelers are required to follow the quarantine facility's rules and regulations, including staying in their designated room and strictly adhering to social distancing measures.

Testing Requirements:

In addition to quarantine, all travelers entering Vietnam are also required to undergo COVID-19 testing. The specific testing requirements may vary depending on the traveler's situation.

Pre-departure testing:

Most travelers are required to provide a negative RT-PCR test result taken within 72 hours of departure. This test must be conducted at an accredited laboratory or testing facility, and the result must be presented upon arrival in Vietnam.

Testing upon arrival:

Upon arrival in Vietnam, travelers may be subject to additional testing, such as rapid antigen testing or PCR testing. The specific testing requirements may be determined based on the traveler's risk category, vaccination status, and other factors.

It is important to note that the quarantine and testing requirements may be subject to change at any time, depending on the prevailing COVID-19 situation in Vietnam and global developments.

Enforcement of Quarantine and Testing Requirements:

The Vietnamese government takes the enforcement of quarantine and testing requirements seriously to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Failure or refusal to comply with these requirements may result in penalties or deportation.

Examples of Quarantine and Testing Procedures:

To illustrate the quarantine and testing procedures for travelers entering Vietnam, let's consider the following hypothetical scenario:

John, a non-vaccinated traveler, arrives in Vietnam. He is directed to a designated quarantine facility, where he undergoes a 14-day quarantine. During this period, he must stay in his designated room, wear a mask when interacting with others, and follow the facility's rules and regulations.

Upon arrival, John also undergoes a rapid antigen test to determine if he is currently infected with COVID-19. If the test result is positive, he may be transferred to a medical facility for further evaluation and treatment. If the test result is negative, he continues with the quarantine period until the end of the 14 days.

At the end of the quarantine period, John undergoes another PCR test to ensure he is no longer infected with COVID-19. If the test result is negative, he is allowed to leave the quarantine facility and continue with his activities in Vietnam. However, he is still required to adhere to other COVID-19 preventive measures, such as wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and following local health guidelines.

In conclusion, travelers entering Vietnam are subject to specific quarantine and testing requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These requirements may vary depending on the traveler's vaccination status and risk category. It is important for travelers to stay informed about the latest guidelines and comply with the measures in place to ensure the safety of themselves and the community.

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Travel restrictions and requirements in Vietnam are continuously updated in response to the evolving COVID-19 situation. The government closely monitors the global and local situation to ensure the safety and well-being of its citizens and visitors. Updates can occur frequently and may vary depending on the current risk level and transmission rates.

The updates are based on scientific evidence and guidance from global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These organizations provide data and recommendations on travel restrictions and requirements to help countries manage the spread of the virus.

The process of updating travel restrictions and requirements in Vietnam involves several steps. First, the government assesses the global and domestic COVID-19 situation, taking into account factors such as the number of cases, transmission rates, and the presence of new variants. They also consider the vaccination rates and effectiveness of preventive measures.

Based on this assessment, the government determines the risk level and implements appropriate measures. These measures may include travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, testing protocols, and vaccination requirements. The government aims to strike a balance between protecting public health and facilitating essential travel and economic activities.

Updates to travel restrictions and requirements are communicated to the public through official channels such as government websites, press releases, and announcements by relevant authorities. It is essential for travelers to stay informed and regularly check for updates before planning their trips to Vietnam.

Here are a few examples of travel restrictions and requirements that have been updated in Vietnam in response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Entry restrictions: Vietnam has implemented entry restrictions for travelers from certain countries or regions with high COVID-19 transmission rates. These restrictions may change based on the current risk level in each country or region.
• Quarantine requirements: Travelers entering Vietnam may be subject to mandatory quarantine, depending on their vaccination status and the risk level of their departure location. The duration of quarantine may vary and can range from 7 to 21 days.
• Testing protocols: Travelers may be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test result before entering Vietnam. The type of test and the timeframe for taking the test may be specified by the authorities. Additionally, travelers may be required to take additional tests during their stay, especially if they develop symptoms or come into contact with a confirmed case.
• Vaccination requirements: Vietnam has started to accept travelers who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. These travelers may still be subject to testing and quarantine requirements, depending on the risk level of their departure location.

It is important to note that travel restrictions and requirements can change rapidly, sometimes with little notice. Therefore, it is crucial for travelers to stay updated on the latest information and comply with the regulations set by the government to ensure a safe and smooth travel experience.

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Travel restrictions within Vietnam, such as restrictions on traveling between different regions or provinces, have been implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. These restrictions have been put in place by the Vietnamese government with the aim of controlling and preventing the further transmission of the virus.

The travel restrictions in Vietnam have varied over time, depending on the current situation and level of infection. At the height of the pandemic, strict lockdown measures were imposed, which included limitations on domestic travel. However, as the situation has improved and the number of cases reduced, some of these restrictions have been eased.

Currently, there are still some travel restrictions in place within Vietnam, but they are not as stringent as during the peak of the pandemic. People are generally allowed to travel within their own province or region, but there may be certain areas or localities that have stricter restrictions due to higher levels of infection or other COVID-19 related concerns. These restrictions are typically announced and enforced by local authorities, so it is important for travelers to stay updated on the latest regulations before embarking on any trips.

In terms of interprovincial travel, there may be additional requirements and restrictions in place. For example, travelers may be required to show a negative COVID-19 test result, undergo health screenings, or obtain travel permits before crossing provincial borders. These measures are in place to monitor and limit the movement of people and to ensure that travelers are not carrying the virus from one area to another.

It is important for travelers to check the specific requirements and restrictions for each province or region they plan to visit before making any travel arrangements. This can be done by checking official government websites, contacting local authorities or travel agencies, or seeking guidance from reputable online sources.

To illustrate the impact of these travel restrictions, let's consider an example. Suppose someone from Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, wants to travel to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. Before making the trip, they would need to check if there are any specific requirements or restrictions for interprovincial travel between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. They may need to undergo a COVID-19 test, provide proof of vaccination, or obtain a travel permit. By adhering to these restrictions and following the necessary procedures, travelers can ensure their own safety and the safety of others.

In conclusion, travel restrictions within Vietnam, including restrictions on traveling between different regions or provinces, are in place to curb the spread of COVID-19. These restrictions may vary depending on the current situation and local conditions. Travelers should stay informed about the latest regulations and requirements for their intended destinations to ensure a smooth and safe journey. By adhering to these guidelines, we can all contribute to the containment of the virus and protect the health and well-being of ourselves and others.

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Frequently asked questions.

Yes, there are travel restrictions in place for Vietnam. The country has temporarily suspended entry for all foreign nationals, with few exceptions. This measure is being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

There are a few categories of people who are exempted from the travel restrictions in Vietnam. These include diplomats, officials, foreign investors, skilled workers, and experts who are essential for economic activities in the country. However, even these individuals must undergo mandatory quarantine upon arrival.

If you have a valid visa for Vietnam, you may still be subject to the travel restrictions. The Vietnamese government has temporarily suspended the issuance of new visas, and existing visas may not be valid for entry at this time. It is advisable to check with your nearest Vietnamese embassy or consulate for the latest information on entry requirements.

There are currently no domestic travel restrictions within Vietnam. Flights and train services are operating regularly, and hotels and tourist attractions are open to domestic visitors. However, it is important to follow any local guidelines and regulations in place regarding mask-wearing, social distancing, and hygiene practices.

The duration of the travel restrictions in Vietnam is continually being re-evaluated based on the evolving COVID-19 situation. The government regularly reviews and updates its travel policies and restrictions. It is advisable to stay updated with the latest information from official sources such as the Vietnamese government or your nearest embassy or consulate.

• Naim Haliti Author Editor Reviewer Traveller

• Annie Rangel Author Editor Reviewer

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COVID-19: travel health notice for all travellers

Vietnam travel advice

Latest updates: The Health section was updated - travel health information (Public Health Agency of Canada)

Last updated: April 18, 2024 07:54 ET

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Safety and security, entry and exit requirements, laws and culture, natural disasters and climate, vietnam - exercise a high degree of caution.

Exercise a high degree of caution in Vietnam due to high rate of petty crime.

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Petty crime

Petty crime, such as pickpocketing and purse snatching, occurs frequently. It’s most prevalent in larger cities and may increase during major public holidays, such as Tet (Lunar New Year).

Criminals work alone or in groups and may use various techniques to distract you and steal your belongings. They may try to grab your bag and other valuables while passing on a motorbike or slash your bag in crowded streets and markets. 

Theft is frequent:  

• in popular tourist areas
• in markets, shopping centres and commercial streets
• on public transportation including sleeper trains
• in transportation hubs such as airports and train stations
• in restaurants, including patios and outdoor cafés
• at beaches and seaside destinations

While travelling:

• ensure that your belongings, including your passport and other travel documents, are secure at all times
• keep a digital copy of your identity and travel documents
• avoid showing signs of affluence or wearing expensive jewellery 
• avoid carrying large sums of cash
• avoid isolated areas, especially at night
• pay attention to your surroundings, particularly in crowded and tourist areas
• be extra cautious when withdrawing cash from ATMs

Violent crime

Although violent crimes targeting foreigners are rarer, they may occur. In some cases, criminals have used weapons such as knives and razors. Threats of physical injury related to personal disputes also occasionally occur.

• If you are involved in a dispute, contact the police as soon as possible
• If you are threatened by robbers, don’t resist

Residential break-ins

Residential break-ins occur, especially in large cities and may increase before and during the Tet holiday (Lunar New Year). Burglars may target houses or apartments rented or owned by tourists and foreigners.

• Stay in accommodations with adequate security measures  
• Make sure you lock doors and windows at night and when you’re away

Women’s safety

Women travelling alone may be subject to some forms of harassment and verbal abuse. Sexual assault and harassment do occur, including:

• in beach destinations
• in bars, nightclubs and entertainment districts
• on taxis and public transportation

Local authorities may not always respond adequately to reports of sexual violence and harassment. If you are a victim of sexual assault:

• seek immediate medical assistance, whether or not you appear to have been physically harmed
• contact the local police and ensure they file a report
• inform consular officials at the nearest Canadian embassy or consulate

Advice for women travellers

Credit card and ATM fraud

Credit and debit card as well as ATM fraud occurs frequently.

• Avoid using your credit card in small establishments
• Consider using a card with a small credit limit
• Cover the keypad with one hand when entering your PIN
• Pay careful attention when others are handling your cards
• Avoid using card readers with an irregular or unusual feature
• Use ATMs located in public areas or inside a bank or business
• Check for any unauthorized transactions on your account statements

Cybercrime occurs. Perpetrators may compromise public Wi-Fi networks to steal credit card or personal information.

• Avoid using unsecured public Wi-Fi networks
• Avoid making purchases on unencrypted websites
• Be cautious when posting information on social media
• Be especially vigilant if you decide to meet someone you met online
• Don’t click a suspicious link in an email or text message asking for your credit card details

At the airport

Criminals posing as taxi drivers have targeted foreign visitors at Nội Bài International Airport in Hanoi and robbed them by forcing them to withdraw money from ATMs.

Travellers have also been robbed by drivers who greeted them upon arrival with a placard showing their name.

• Arrange your pickup with your hotel before arrival, or use authorized airport taxis
• Confirm the driver’s identity and the licence plate before getting in the car

Gambling scams

Tourists have been victims of gambling scams in Hanoi, as well as in Ho Chi Minh City, particularly in the Pham Ngu Lao neighbourhood.

The scam consists of a friendly invitation sent to the victim to go to someone’s home in order to meet a relative interested in visiting Canada. While waiting for the relative, the scammers suggest a casual game of cards involving an initial small wager. Some victims have lost thousands of dollars over the course of an evening.

Be wary of unsolicited proposals from strangers.

If you’ve been scammed:

• get to a safe location immediately
• take note, as soon as possible, of the name and address of the facility where you were held
• notify the police and obtain a report
• if a bank card was involved, report the scam to your banking company, which will likely request a copy of the police report to cancel the transaction

Overseas fraud

Spiked food and drinks

Snacks, beverages, gum and cigarettes may contain drugs that could put you at risk of sexual assault and robbery.

• Be wary of accepting these items from new acquaintances
• Never leave food or drinks unattended or in the care of strangers

Unregulated alcohol

Some people died after consuming unregulated and adulterated rice wine due to high levels of methanol.

• Be cautious if you choose to drink alcohol
• Only consume reputable alcohol brands
• Avoid buying alcohol from individuals or street vendors
• Seek medical assistance if you begin to feel sick

Alcohol, drugs and travel

Demonstrations

Current situation in dak lak.

An increased police presence in Dak Lak continues, after organized attacks on a police station in June 2023.

If you are in the area, do not photograph security forces.

Public demonstrations are rare since local authorities don’t usually authorize them. Demonstrating without authorization can lead to heavy consequences, including lengthy prison sentences.

• Avoid areas where demonstrations and large gatherings are taking place
• Don’t photograph demonstrations
• Follow the instructions of local authorities
• Monitor local media for information on ongoing demonstrations

Mass gatherings (large-scale events)

Internet censorship and surveillance

Within the Vietnamese territory, local authorities block access to several:

• social media
• search engines
• online services

You shouldn’t expect internet privacy.

Local authorities may monitor your communications at any time. They may review the content stored or consulted on your electronic devices. They may also place certain foreigners under electronic surveillance. They can search your home or hotel room without your knowledge or consent.

Cyber security while travelling

Foreign journalists and other media workers in Vietnam may face considerable restrictions in the context of their work. The Vietnamese government may employ measures such as:

• physical and electronic surveillance
• delaying or refusing renewals of press cards and visas
• intimidation and harassment

Be particularly vigilant if researching or reporting on subjects critical of or sensitive to the government.

Landmines and war remnants

Landmines and unexploded ordnance still pose a serious risk in several areas, particularly:

• in the province of Quảng Trị
• along the border with Laos
• in North and Central Vietnam

Unmarked minefields are common. If you plan travelling outside of major tourist destinations:

• pay attention to signs indicating the possible presence of landmines
• remain on paved roads
• avoid open fields, roadside ditches, shoulders and unmarked trails
• report any suspicious items to local authorities

Adventure tourism

Outdoor activities, such as trekking, zip-lining, rock climbing, speleology, or parasailing and other adventure activities can be dangerous if unprepared. Trails are not always marked, and weather conditions can change rapidly, especially during the rainy season.

Tour operators may not always adhere to international safety standards.

If you intend to practice adventure tourism:

• never do so alone, and do not part with your expedition companions
• consider hiring an experienced guide from a reputable company 
• obtain detailed information on your activity and on the environment in which you will be setting out  
• buy travel insurance that includes helicopter rescue and medical evacuation   
• ensure that your physical condition is good enough to meet the challenges of your activity  
• avoid venturing off marked trails  
• ensure that you’re adequately equipped and bring sufficient water   
• stay informed about weather and other conditions that may pose a hazard  
• refrain from using facilities or equipment if you have doubts on their safety  
• inform a family member or friend of your itinerary  

Water activities

Tidal changes and strong winds can cause hazardous currents and riptides.

Swimming and diving

Beaches are not always supervised.

Corals, sea urchins, jellyfish and other aquatic life found along reefs may be poisonous. A sting to the touch can cause poisoning or infection.

If you plan to dive:

• choose a reputable company 
• always respect warning flags advising of dangerous conditions
• ask about the presence of dangerous species
• seek immediate medical attention in case of injury
• wear swimming shoes to protect yourself from reefs, rocks, corals or sea urchins
• keep a safe distance from boats and restricted areas
• avoid beaches or coastal areas during periods of severe weather warnings
• avoid diving into unknown waters, as hidden rocks or shallow depths can cause serious injury or death
• follow the advice of the local authorities

Boat accidents have occurred due to the overloading and poor maintenance of some vessels, including in Ha Long Bay.

• Choose a reputable boating company
• Ensure that your tour operator follows up-to-date safety regulations
• Don’t board vessels that appear overloaded or unseaworthy

Water safety abroad

Although rare in Vietnam, pirates commit attacks and armed robbery against ships in coastal waters.

Live piracy report  - International Maritime Bureau

Road safety

Road safety is poor throughout the country. 

Fatal accidents are frequent. They frequently involve motorcycle and pedestrians are commonly victims.

Always use elevated walkways or pedestrian bridges when available.

Road conditions

Road conditions are poor throughout the country.

Driving can be dangerous due to:  

• poorly maintained roads and vehicles
• traffic jams and heavy traffic, especially in urban areas
• potholes 
• slippery roads during the rainy season

Driving habits

Drivers don’t always respect traffic laws.  

Some vehicles, especially motorcycles, drive against the flow of traffic and on the sidewalks.

If you plan to travel by car in Vietnam, you should consider hiring a driver.

If you choose to drive:

• always drive defensively
• avoid travelling after dark or during adverse weather conditions
• avoid driving a motorcycle
• Make sure you have proper insurance and a valid licence

Public transportation

Official taxis are generally safe.

Motorcycle taxis (known as “xe oms”) are not safe.

• Avoid motorcycle taxis
• Use only official taxis or a trusted ridesharing app
• Negotiate the fare in advance, or insist that the driver use the meter
• Never share a taxi with a stranger
• Be familiar with your hotel’s address and the neighbourhood to avoid being brought to a wrong location

Bus and coach accidents are common.

Trains are generally reliable.

Thefts have been reported on certain train lines, including sleeper trains.

Ticket stub is required to exit the train station. Passengers without a ticket stub will be required to pay the fare again.

Retain your ticket stub when travelling by train.

Ferry accidents have occurred due to the overloading and poor maintenance of some vessels, particularly on the line connecting Ho Chi Minh City to Vung Tau.

Don’t board vessels that appear overloaded or unseaworthy.

Transport within Vietnam - Vietnam Tourism

We do not make assessments on the compliance of foreign domestic airlines with international safety standards.

Information about foreign domestic airlines

Every country or territory decides who can enter or exit through its borders. The Government of Canada cannot intervene on your behalf if you do not meet your destination’s entry or exit requirements.

We have obtained the information on this page from the Vietnamese authorities. It can, however, change at any time.

Verify this information with the  Foreign Representatives in Canada .

Entry requirements vary depending on the type of passport you use for travel.

Before you travel, check with your transportation company about passport requirements. Its rules on passport validity may be more stringent than the country’s entry rules.

Regular Canadian passport

Your passport must be valid at least 6 months beyond the date you expect to leave Vietnam.

Passport for official travel

Different entry rules may apply.

Official travel

Passport with “X” gender identifier

While the Government of Canada issues passports with an “X” gender identifier, it cannot guarantee your entry or transit through other countries. You might face entry restrictions in countries that do not recognize the “X” gender identifier. Before you leave, check with the closest foreign representative for your destination.

Other travel documents

Different entry rules may apply when travelling with a temporary passport or an emergency travel document. Before you leave, check with the closest foreign representative for your destination.

Useful links

• Foreign Representatives in Canada
• Canadian passports

Tourist visa: required Business visa: required Student visa: required Work visa: required

E-visa authorization

If you have a valid Canadian passport, you may be eligible to apply online for an e-visa. This can be a single-entry or multiple-entry electronic tourist visa, valid for a maximum of 90 days. It allows you to enter Vietnam via the port of entry indicated in the visa approval notice only. Some restrictions apply.

For visits longer than 90 days, you must get a visa from the nearest Vietnamese embassy before departure.

Apply for an e-visa  - Immigration Department of Vietnam

Visa exemptions

Canadian spouses or children of Vietnamese citizens may be eligible for a visa exemption certificate.

Contact the Embassy of Vietnam in Canada for more information on this process.

Visa extension

You must have a visa to enter Vietnam.

If required, you can request a visa extension at:

• the Vietnam Immigration Department in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City
• certain local travel agencies and tour companies

Vietnamese visas in expired Canadian passports are not valid. The visa needs to be transferred to the new passport.

Overstaying your Vietnamese visa or having the wrong type of visa is a serious matter. You may be delayed from onward travel until a fine is paid.

Check the visa validity and conditions carefully.

Registration

You must report your presence to local authorities upon arrival.

Commercial accommodations will generally file the declaration on your behalf. If you're staying in a non-commercial accommodation, you must do so with the nearest police station.

Make sure you request the return of your passport once it has been registered by hotel staff.

The hotel staff may ask to see your passport at check-in. They may make copies of it. They may also insist on holding your passport until you leave. There is no legal reason for this.

• Never leave your passport or any other ID document with anyone
• Ask for your documents to be returned to you as soon as check-in is complete

Travel restrictions

Travel near military facilities is restricted:

• in some parts of the central highlands
• in some border area

If you wish to visit a village, commune or ward that is close to the border, you must obtain permission from the provincial police department.

Contact the relevant local authority to confirm these requirements.

Health screening

Upon entry, you may be subject to a body temperature check.

Vietnamese authorities may place an exit ban on certain individuals to prevent them from leaving the country.

An exit ban can relate to investigations into:

• an individual, their family or an employer
• criminal and civil matters, such as business disputes or motor vehicle accidents
• employment without a valid work permit
• unpaid financial debts

It is difficult to obtain information on bans from Vietnamese authorities. An exit ban can be requested by people involved in any of these circumstances. You may not be aware that authorities have placed an exit ban on you until you try to leave the country. Your passport may be seized until the case is fully investigated and settled.

If you're unable to leave the country because of an exit ban, consult a lawyer and contact the closest office of the Government of Canada.

Children and travel

Learn more about travelling with children .

Yellow fever

Learn about potential entry requirements related to yellow fever (vaccines section).

Relevant Travel Health Notices

• Global Measles Notice - 13 March, 2024
• Zika virus: Advice for travellers - 31 August, 2023
• COVID-19 and International Travel - 13 March, 2024

This section contains information on possible health risks and restrictions regularly found or ongoing in the destination. Follow this advice to lower your risk of becoming ill while travelling. Not all risks are listed below.

Consult a health care professional or visit a travel health clinic preferably 6 weeks before you travel to get personalized health advice and recommendations.

Routine vaccines

Be sure that your  routine vaccinations , as per your province or territory , are up-to-date before travelling, regardless of your destination.

Some of these vaccinations include measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, varicella (chickenpox), influenza and others.

Pre-travel vaccines and medications

You may be at risk for preventable diseases while travelling in this destination. Talk to a travel health professional about which medications or vaccines may be right for you, based on your destination and itinerary. 

Yellow fever is a disease caused by a flavivirus from the bite of an infected mosquito.

Travellers get vaccinated either because it is required to enter a country or because it is recommended for their protection.

• There is no risk of yellow fever in this country.

Country Entry Requirement*

• Proof of vaccination is not required to enter this country.

Recommendation

• Vaccination is not recommended.

* It is important to note that country entry requirements may not reflect your risk of yellow fever at your destination. It is recommended that you contact the nearest diplomatic or consular office of the destination(s) you will be visiting to verify any additional entry requirements.

About Yellow Fever

Yellow Fever Vaccination Centres in Canada

There is a risk of hepatitis A in this destination. It is a disease of the liver. People can get hepatitis A if they ingest contaminated food or water, eat foods prepared by an infectious person, or if they have close physical contact (such as oral-anal sex) with an infectious person, although casual contact among people does not spread the virus.

Practise  safe food and water precautions and wash your hands often. Vaccination is recommended for all travellers to areas where hepatitis A is present.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease. It can spread quickly from person to person by direct contact and through droplets in the air.

Anyone who is not protected against measles is at risk of being infected with it when travelling internationally.

Regardless of where you are going, talk to a health care professional before travelling to make sure you are fully protected against measles.

Japanese encephalitis is a viral infection that can cause swelling of the brain.  It is spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. Risk is very low for most travellers. Travellers at relatively higher risk may want to consider vaccination for JE prior to travelling.

Travellers are at higher risk if they will be:

• travelling long term (e.g. more than 30 days)
• making multiple trips to endemic areas
• staying for extended periods in rural areas
• visiting an area suffering a JE outbreak
• engaging in activities involving high contact with mosquitos (e.g., entomologists)

  Hepatitis B is a risk in every destination. It is a viral liver disease that is easily transmitted from one person to another through exposure to blood and body fluids containing the hepatitis B virus.  Travellers who may be exposed to blood or other bodily fluids (e.g., through sexual contact, medical treatment, sharing needles, tattooing, acupuncture or occupational exposure) are at higher risk of getting hepatitis B.

Hepatitis B vaccination is recommended for all travellers. Prevent hepatitis B infection by practicing safe sex, only using new and sterile drug equipment, and only getting tattoos and piercings in settings that follow public health regulations and standards.

Malaria  is a serious and sometimes fatal disease that is caused by parasites spread through the bites of mosquitoes.   There is a risk of malaria in certain areas and/or during a certain time of year in this destination. 

Antimalarial medication may be recommended depending on your itinerary and the time of year you are travelling. Consult a health care professional or visit a travel health clinic before travelling to discuss your options. It is recommended to do this 6 weeks before travel, however, it is still a good idea any time before leaving.    Protect yourself from mosquito bites at all times:  • Cover your skin and use an approved insect repellent on uncovered skin.  • Exclude mosquitoes from your living area with screening and/or closed, well-sealed doors and windows. • Use insecticide-treated bed nets if mosquitoes cannot be excluded from your living area.  • Wear permethrin-treated clothing.    If you develop symptoms similar to malaria when you are travelling or up to a year after you return home, see a health care professional immediately. Tell them where you have been travelling or living. 

In this destination, rabies is carried by dogs and some wildlife, including bats. Rabies is a deadly disease that spreads to humans primarily through bites or scratches from an infected animal. While travelling, take precautions , including keeping your distance from animals (including free-roaming dogs), and closely supervising children.

If you are bitten or scratched by an animal while travelling, immediately wash the wound with soap and clean water and see a health care professional. Rabies treatment is often available in this destination. 

Before travel, discuss rabies vaccination with a health care professional. It may be recommended for travellers who are at high risk of exposure (e.g., occupational risk such as veterinarians and wildlife workers, children, adventure travellers and spelunkers, and others in close contact with animals). 

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious viral disease. It can spread from person to person by direct contact and through droplets in the air.

It is recommended that all eligible travellers complete a COVID-19 vaccine series along with any additional recommended doses in Canada before travelling. Evidence shows that vaccines are very effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. While vaccination provides better protection against serious illness, you may still be at risk of infection from the virus that causes COVID-19. Anyone who has not completed a vaccine series is at increased risk of being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 and is at greater risk for severe disease when travelling internationally.

Before travelling, verify your destination’s COVID-19 vaccination entry/exit requirements. Regardless of where you are going, talk to a health care professional before travelling to make sure you are adequately protected against COVID-19.

Safe food and water precautions

Many illnesses can be caused by eating food or drinking beverages contaminated by bacteria, parasites, toxins, or viruses, or by swimming or bathing in contaminated water.

• Learn more about food and water precautions to take to avoid getting sick by visiting our eat and drink safely abroad page. Remember: Boil it, cook it, peel it, or leave it!
• Avoid getting water into your eyes, mouth or nose when swimming or participating in activities in freshwater (streams, canals, lakes), particularly after flooding or heavy rain. Water may look clean but could still be polluted or contaminated.
• Avoid inhaling or swallowing water while bathing, showering, or swimming in pools or hot tubs. 

Travellers' diarrhea is the most common illness affecting travellers. It is spread from eating or drinking contaminated food or water.

Risk of developing travellers' diarrhea increases when travelling in regions with poor standards of hygiene and sanitation. Practise safe food and water precautions.

The most important treatment for travellers' diarrhea is rehydration (drinking lots of fluids). Carry oral rehydration salts when travelling.

Typhoid   is a bacterial infection spread by contaminated food or water. Risk is higher among children, travellers going to rural areas, travellers visiting friends and relatives or those travelling for a long period of time.

Travellers visiting regions with a risk of typhoid, especially those exposed to places with poor sanitation, should speak to a health care professional about vaccination.  

Insect bite prevention

Many diseases are spread by the bites of infected insects such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas or flies. When travelling to areas where infected insects may be present:

• Use insect repellent (bug spray) on exposed skin
• Cover up with light-coloured, loose clothes made of tightly woven materials such as nylon or polyester
• Minimize exposure to insects
• Use mosquito netting when sleeping outdoors or in buildings that are not fully enclosed

To learn more about how you can reduce your risk of infection and disease caused by bites, both at home and abroad, visit our insect bite prevention page.

Find out what types of insects are present where you’re travelling, when they’re most active, and the symptoms of the diseases they spread.

There is a risk of chikungunya in this country.  The risk may vary between regions of a country.  Chikungunya is a virus spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Chikungunya can cause a viral disease that typically causes fever and pain in the joints. In some cases, the joint pain can be severe and last for months or years.

Protect yourself from mosquito bites at all times. There is no vaccine available for chikungunya.

• In this country,   dengue  is a risk to travellers. It is a viral disease spread to humans by mosquito bites.
• Dengue can cause flu-like symptoms. In some cases, it can lead to severe dengue, which can be fatal.
• The level of risk of dengue changes seasonally, and varies from year to year. The level of risk also varies between regions in a country and can depend on the elevation in the region.
• Mosquitoes carrying dengue typically bite during the daytime, particularly around sunrise and sunset.
• Protect yourself from mosquito bites . There is no vaccine or medication that protects against dengue.

Animal precautions

Some infections, such as rabies and influenza, can be shared between humans and animals. Certain types of activities may increase your chance of contact with animals, such as travelling in rural or forested areas, camping, hiking, and visiting wet markets (places where live animals are slaughtered and sold) or caves.

Travellers are cautioned to avoid contact with animals, including dogs, livestock (pigs, cows), monkeys, snakes, rodents, birds, and bats, and to avoid eating undercooked wild game.

Closely supervise children, as they are more likely to come in contact with animals.

Human cases of avian influenza have been reported in this destination. Avian influenza   is a viral infection that can spread quickly and easily among birds and in rare cases it can infect mammals, including people. The risk is low for most travellers.

Avoid contact with birds, including wild, farm, and backyard birds (alive or dead) and surfaces that may have bird droppings on them. Ensure all poultry dishes, including eggs and wild game, are properly cooked.

Travellers with a higher risk of exposure include those: 

• visiting live bird/animal markets or poultry farms
• working with poultry (such as chickens, turkeys, domestic ducks)
• hunting, de-feathering, field dressing and butchering wild birds and wild mammals
• working with wild birds for activities such as research, conservation, or rehabilitation
• working with wild mammals, especially those that eat wild birds (e.g., foxes)

All eligible people are encouraged to get the seasonal influenza shot, which will protect them against human influenza viruses. While the seasonal influenza shot does not prevent infection with avian influenza, it can reduce the chance of getting sick with human and avian influenza viruses at the same time.

Person-to-person infections

Stay home if you’re sick and practise proper cough and sneeze etiquette , which includes coughing or sneezing into a tissue or the bend of your arm, not your hand. Reduce your risk of colds, the flu and other illnesses by:

•   washing your hands often
• avoiding or limiting the amount of time spent in closed spaces, crowded places, or at large-scale events (concerts, sporting events, rallies)
• avoiding close physical contact with people who may be showing symptoms of illness 

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) , HIV , and mpox are spread through blood and bodily fluids; use condoms, practise safe sex, and limit your number of sexual partners. Check with your local public health authority pre-travel to determine your eligibility for mpox vaccine.  

Tuberculosis is an infection caused by bacteria and usually affects the lungs.

For most travellers the risk of tuberculosis is low.

Travellers who may be at high risk while travelling in regions with risk of tuberculosis should discuss pre- and post-travel options with a health care professional.

High-risk travellers include those visiting or working in prisons, refugee camps, homeless shelters, or hospitals, or travellers visiting friends and relatives.

Medical services and facilities

Good health care is limited. The quality of care varies greatly throughout the country.

Both medical facilities and supplies are limited outside of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Private clinics and hospitals are usually better equipped. Services can be expensive, but they usually have qualified medical staff who speak English or French well.  Emergency and ambulance services response times may be slow du to traffic congestion. In case of emergency, you may consider taking a taxi or private vehicle to go to the hospital rather than wait for an ambulance.

Medical evacuation is very expensive. You may need it to neighbouring countries in case of serious illness or injury.

Make sure you get travel insurance that includes coverage for medical evacuation and hospital stays.

Travel health and safety

If you take prescription medication, you’re responsible for determining their legality in Vietnam.

• Bring sufficient quantities of your medication with you
• Always keep your medication in the original container
• Pack your medication in your carry-on luggage
• Carry a copy of your prescriptions

You must abide by local laws.

Learn about what you should do and how we can help if you are arrested or detained abroad .

No transfer of offenders treaty exists between Canada and Vietnam. If you’re convicted of a serious crime, you must serve your jail sentence in Vietnam. You may also have to remain in Vietnam for a parole period after your release.

Penalties for possession, use, production or trafficking of drugs, including cannabis, are severe. Convicted offenders can expect heavy fines, jail sentences or the death penalty.

Drugs, alcohol and travel

Identification

Local authorities may request to see your ID at any time.

• Carry valid identification or a photocopy of it at all times
• Keep a photocopy of your passport in a safe place in case it’s lost or seized
• Keep a digital copy of your ID and travel documents

Gambling outside of licensed casinos is illegal in Vietnam.

You must hold of a foreign passport to gamble in these licensed establishments.

Political activities

There are severe restrictions on political activities, including:

• participating in public protests
• publishing messages critical of the government on social media

If you engage in political activities you may face detention, deportation and travel ban to Vietnam in the future.

Photography

Photography of sensitive installations is prohibited. This includes:

• military sites
• border crossings

These sensitive areas are not always identified.

• Refrain from photographing military installations or personnel even if no sign is posted
• Comply with all requests from local authorities

Religious activities

There are restrictions on certain religious activities, such as preaching, distributing literature and associating with unapproved religious groups.

Sexual and intimate activities

As a foreigner, you are not allowed to invite Vietnamese nationals of the opposite sex into your hotel room to stay overnight unless you are married.

You are allowed to stay with a Vietnamese family only if you have obtained permission from local authorities.

Importation, possession and distribution of pornographic material is illegal.

Exportation of antiques

Vietnamese law restricts the export of antiques, but these laws are vague and unevenly enforced. If you purchase items that may be considered as antiques:

• keep receipts and all paperwork provided by the seller
• ensure you have the proper exportation permits from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam General Department of Customs

If you can't present the required paperwork, the items may be confiscated.

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam  (in Vietnamese)

Dress and behaviour

The Vietnamese society is conservative.

When visiting religious and culturally places to avoid offending local sensitivities:

• dress conservatively
• behave discreetly
• respect religious and social traditions
• seek permission from locals before photographing them

Tet celebrations

The lunar new year is celebrated between the end of January and the end of February. Theses celebrations usually last several days and can have an impact on the availability and provision of essential services such as:

• banking services
• public services including healthcare
• food distribution

Plan your trip accordingly if you travel to Vietnam during this period.

Dual citizenship

Dual citizenship is not legally recognized in Vietnam.

If local authorities consider you a citizen of Vietnam, they may refuse to grant you access to Canadian consular services. This will prevent us from providing you with those services.

Travellers with dual citizenship

Mandatory military service

Canadians with Vietnamese citizenship may be subject to mandatory military service and other national obligations.

Confirm this requirement before travelling to Vietnam.

International Child Abduction

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international treaty. It can help parents with the return of children who have been removed to or retained in certain countries in violation of custody rights. It does not apply between Canada and Vietnam.

If your child was wrongfully taken to, or is being held in Vietnam by an abducting parent:

• act as quickly as you can
• consult a lawyer in Canada and in Vietnam to explore all the legal options for the return of your child
• report the situation to the nearest Canadian government office abroad or to the Vulnerable Children’s Consular Unit at Global Affairs Canada by calling the Emergency Watch and Response Centre.

If your child was removed from a country other than Canada, consult a lawyer to determine if The Hague Convention applies.

Be aware that Canadian consular officials cannot interfere in private legal matters or in another country’s judicial affairs.

• International Child Abduction: A Guidebook for Left-Behind Parents
• Travelling with children
• Canadian embassies and consulates by destination
• Emergency Watch and Response Centre

Doing business in Vietnam

Disputes related to business agreements or arrangements are costly and take time to resolve. You may be subject to a travel ban restricting you from leaving the country until matters are resolved.

If you plan on doing business in Vietnam:

• seek legal advice in Canada and in Vietnam before making commitments
• choose your own lawyer
• ensure that all documents are translated so that conditions, terms and limitations are well understood

There are many teaching opportunities in Vietnam. However, make sure you are well informed before signing a contract.

• Consult a local lawyer or professional
• Ensure that the contract specifies the maximum number of classroom hours per day and per week, maximum workdays per week, and vacation periods
• Confirm the living arrangements if any are included
• Ensure that you possess the right visa for the activities you will perform
• Ensure you understand any liabilities linked to early termination of a contract

You must hold a valid Vietnamese driver's licence to drive a vehicle with an engine of 50CC or more. This includes most motorcycles. Motorcycle drivers and passengers must wear a helmet.

The country has a zero-tolerance policy for drinking and driving or cycling. Penalties for drinking and driving or cycling include:

• licence suspension
• heavy fines

If you are involved in a traffic accident as a driver, you may:

• face criminal charges as a driver
• have to pay compensation to the victims
• face a travel ban preventing you from leaving the country until compensation is paid

There are restrictions on vehicles crossing from and into neighbouring countries.

Contact the Department of Transport in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City for information on for licences or restrictions.

Department of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City (in Vietnamese)

The currency of Vietnam is the Vietnamese dong (VND).

Cash declarations

Upon arrival, you must declare if you have:

• more than 15 million Vietnamese dong, more than US$5,000, or the equivalent in any other currency, in cash
• more than 300 grams of gold, including jewellery, gold bar and raw gold

Upon departure, you must:

• declare if you have more than 15 million Vietnamese dong, more than US$5,000, or the equivalent in any other currency, in cash
• present a written approval to carry foreign currency or Vietnamese dong in cash abroad, issued by an authorized Vietnamese credit institution in accordance with the laws on foreign exchange control or the State Bank of Vietnam

Rainy season

The rainy season extends:

• from June to September in the north and south
• from October to December in central Vietnam

Seasonal flooding occurs in October and November in central Vietnam. It’s also common:

• in and around Hanoi, particularly along the Red River
• in the Mekong River Delta regions in the south

Seasonal flooding can hamper overland travel and reduce the provision of essential services. Roads may become impassable due to mudslides and landslides. Bridges, buildings, and infrastructure may be damaged.

• Remain vigilant, especially in areas around major rivers
• Stay away from flooded areas
• Monitor weather reports
• Monitor local media for the latest updates, including those on road conditions
• Follow the instructions of local authorities, including evacuation orders
• Mekong Flood and Drought Forecasting  - Mekong River Commission
• Forecasting  - National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting

Typhoons usually occur from June and December. During this period, even small tropical storms can quickly develop into major typhoons.

These severe storms can put you at risk and hamper the provision of essential services.

If you decide to travel to Vietnam during this period:

• know that you may expose yourself to serious safety risks
• be prepared to change your travel plans on short notice, including cutting short or cancelling your trip
• stay informed of the latest regional weather forecasts
• carry emergency contact information for your airline or tour operator
• follow the advice and instructions of local authorities
• Tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons and monsoons
• Large-scale emergencies abroad

Humidity and heat may be severe, particularly during the rainy season.

Know the symptoms of dehydration and heatstroke, which can both be fatal.

Forest fires may occur.

The air quality in areas near active fires may deteriorate due to heavy smoke.

In case of a major fire:

• stay away from affected areas, particularly if you suffer from respiratory ailments
• follow the instructions of local emergency services personnel
• monitor local media to stay informed on the evolving situation

Air pollution

Smog and other types of air pollution can be hazardous in urban areas. Air quality can also be affected in rural areas due to agricultural burning.

Air pollution levels can change quickly.

During periods of high pollution:

• limit your outdoor activities, especially if you suffer from respiratory ailments or have pre-existing medical conditions
• monitor local media
• follow the instructions of local authorities
• Air pollution in Hanoi  - World Air Quality Index
• Air pollution in Ho Chi Minh City  - World Air Quality Index

Local services

In case of emergency, dial:

• police: 113
• medical assistance: 115
• firefighters: 114

Consular assistance

For emergency consular assistance, call the Embassy of Canada to Vietnam, in Hanoi, or the Consulate General of Canada to Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City, and follow the instructions. At any time, you may also contact the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa.

The decision to travel is your choice and you are responsible for your personal safety abroad. We take the safety and security of Canadians abroad very seriously and provide credible and timely information in our Travel Advice to enable you to make well-informed decisions regarding your travel abroad.

The content on this page is provided for information only. While we make every effort to give you correct information, it is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied. The Government of Canada does not assume responsibility and will not be liable for any damages in connection to the information provided.

If you need consular assistance while abroad, we will make every effort to help you. However, there may be constraints that will limit the ability of the Government of Canada to provide services.

Learn more about consular services .

Risk Levels

  take normal security precautions.

Take similar precautions to those you would take in Canada.

  Exercise a high degree of caution

There are certain safety and security concerns or the situation could change quickly. Be very cautious at all times, monitor local media and follow the instructions of local authorities.

IMPORTANT: The two levels below are official Government of Canada Travel Advisories and are issued when the safety and security of Canadians travelling or living in the country or region may be at risk.

  Avoid non-essential travel

Your safety and security could be at risk. You should think about your need to travel to this country, territory or region based on family or business requirements, knowledge of or familiarity with the region, and other factors. If you are already there, think about whether you really need to be there. If you do not need to be there, you should think about leaving.

  Avoid all travel

You should not travel to this country, territory or region. Your personal safety and security are at great risk. If you are already there, you should think about leaving if it is safe to do so.

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• Passports, travel and living abroad
• Travel abroad
• Foreign travel advice

Warnings and insurance

Before you travel.

No travel can be guaranteed safe. Read all the advice in this guide and any specific travel advice that applies to you: 

• women travellers  
• disabled travellers  
• LGBT+ travellers  
• solo and independent travel  
• volunteering and adventure travel

Travel insurance

If you choose to travel, research your destinations and get appropriate travel insurance . Insurance should cover your itinerary, planned activities and expenses in an emergency.

About FCDO travel advice

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office ( FCDO ) provides advice about risks of travel to help British nationals make informed decisions. Find out more about FCDO travel advice .

Follow and contact FCDO travel on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram . You can also sign up to get email notifications when this advice is updated.

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