Vietnam Visit First Time Advices Welcome

[tomdfc]

Booked with Brit wife to fly to Da Nang and have hotel booked in Hoi An.  (Or An Hoi?)  Have UK and Thai debit and credit cards, and currency to exchange for the Vietnamese dong.  I assume local cirrency would be needed for bars, restaurants, taxis.  etc.  But maybe dollars or baht would be more accetable?  Any pointers gartefully received on this and any other general advice.  Thanks in advance.

[underthesky]

Two really nice places there. Take dollars and exchange them for Vietnam dong when you get there. It's rare to see dollars being used for day-to-day purchases, and won't always be possible. You can't spend Thai baht in VN.

[Mac Mickmanus]

Do not exchange money at the airport in Danang at the exchange booths "No fees , No commission" but at an exchange rate that is about 30 % lower than the going rate , can make an ATM withdrawal at the airport though , and its difficult to find somewhere to change money in Danang/Hoi an  

[howlee101]

The wife and I visited Da Nang back in October.  I used the ATM (with US debit card) without any issues.  Advise to make a conversion cheat sheet because you will have a few million viet dong in your wallet and the mental math drove me crazy.  Current exchange is approx 23600 to $1.  If I recall correctly, some vendors will drop the last three zeros when giving you the price.  I thought the prices for food, beer, tours were reasonably cheap...even at our hotel lounge.  IMO, a must see when visiting Da Nang is the Ba Na Hills (suggest a Google search).  I'm sure your hotel Guest Relations person can arrange everything to include a driver.  It's an all day trip and you will do plenty of walking once you get to the top (you take a long cable car ride to the top of the mountain).  Again, the prices for food and drinks were quiet cheap inside the park.  Although our hotel advise against it, we ate seafood platter at the night market (the tail end of the Dragon Bridge)...lobsters, shellfish, etc and 4 beers for about $35 .  We didn't have any issues (we often eat street food in Chiang Mai) but if you have a sensitive digestion system, you may reconsider. Good luck and safe travels

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

On 12/18/2022 at 6:10 PM, underthesky said:

Two really nice places there. Take dollars and exchange them for Vietnam dong when you get there. It's rare to see dollars being used for day-to-day purchases, and won't always be possible. You can't spend Thai baht in VN.

Correct. It's actually illegal to trade in anything other than Viet dong. Technically speaking. All price signs will be in dong. 

 

To the OP. ATMs give out a maximum of 2 million VND. Not much spending money. Stupid rule. But there is the odd bank that will give out 5 million << I think it's BIDV and Sacombank. But I haven't been in VN since early 2020 so might be out of date.