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Travel and Tourism in Vietnam
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to Vietnam.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions
- Time Difference
- UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
- Currency
- dong (VND)
- Climate
- Vietnam is largely a tropical monsoon country. In the north, a hot rainy season prevails from May to September. The average temperature in Hanoi is about 86°F during this period, with very high humidity. During the cooler, dry season in the north from December to March, the average temperature is 68°F, with overnight minimums sometimes around 40°–42°F. In the south, Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta experience a year-round tropical climate with daily temperatures normally exceeding 88°F. The rainy season in Danang and Hue in the center of the country lasts from October to March.
- Language(s) Spoken
- Vietnamese is the official language. There are distinct northern, central, and southern dialects and accents. The most popular foreign languages taught in schools are English, Russian, and French.
- Ethnic Groups
- Vietnamese 85%-90%, Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, Cham, mountain groups
- National Holiday
- Independence Day (National Day), 2 September (1945)
- Geographic Coordinates
- 16 10 N, 107 50 E
- Location
- Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, as well as China, Laos, and Cambodia
- Airports
- 19
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City, still universally known by its former name of Saigon, is the largest and most economically dynamic city in Vietnam, a metropolis of more than nine million people in the city proper with several million more in the surrounding urban area. It is a city of extraordinary energy, its streets filled at all hours with a density of motorcycle traffic that takes the breath away on first encounter, its markets, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and nightclubs operating around the clock, its skyline changing with the construction of new towers with visible speed. It is also a city of profound historical depth, where the evidence of the American War coexists with a present of such vitality that it seems almost incompatible with that history.
The War Remnants Museum, in the heart of District 3, is the single most confronting and emotionally powerful war museum in the world. Originally named the Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes when it opened in 1975, it has been renamed and its presentation has moderated somewhat over the decades, but it remains an experience of overwhelming moral weight. The museum's outdoor courtyard displays American military hardware including aircraft, helicopters, tanks, and artillery pieces.
Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
Medical facilities in Vietnam do not meet international standards and frequently lack medicines and supplies. Medical personnel in Vietnam, particularly outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, may speak little or no English. Doctors and hospitals expect immediate cash payment for health services. International health clinics in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City can provide acceptable care for minor illnesses and injuries, but more serious problems will often require medical evacuation to Bangkok or Singapore.