Vietnam -first time-thinking about escaping there for Songkran

[how241]

Hello,  does anyone have current info about traveling to Vietnam from Pattaya for 2 weeks, during the Thai Songkran  ???  I am a USA citizen and will travel with my Thai lady . She has a passport already .  I am on a retirement extension visa .   I know I will need a re-entry permit to keep my retirement visa valid.  Does the Thai lady need anything more then her passport ?   How about me ?  I was thinking about flying into Ho Chi Minh city .   Do they accept Thai baht  or should I bring US dollars ?  Has anyone flown from   U-Tapao International Airport (UTP)  , near Pattaya to Vietnam ?  That would be my first choice of airports with my second choice being  BKK( Suvarnabhumi Airport ).    Any suggestions on places to see as I have never been there .  Thanks

[craigt3365]

You'll need a visa for Vietnam.  But your wife won't. 

 

What do you want to do? Explore or stick to a few areas? Beaches?

[how241]

6 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

You'll need a visa for Vietnam.  But your wife won't. 

 

What do you want to do? Explore or stick to a few areas? Beaches?

I am not that interested in beaches but would like to explore around.   I hear they have some nice boat cruises with those big rocks sticking out of the water .  Could use a recommendation on a decent hotel, maybe 3-4 star, to start at after I leave the airport. Thanks

[craigt3365]

I'd highly recommend you get a guide book.  It's worth the $20 you'll spend, maybe less.  There's a lot to see in Vietnam.  I spent a month there and still didn't see everything.  Lonely Planet and Rough Guides are 2 good ones.  Try TripAdvisor also.  These guys have some good info also:

 

https://www.travelfish.org/

 

The books have suggested itineraries that are really good.  I like TA for hotel recommendations.

[Cinderella Man]

Here is really good guide, in Thai though so use G Translator or ask your wife https://clearsunisa.com/vietnam/

 

The "big sticking rocks" is Halong Bay, but you need to spend 5 hours in a bus from Hanoi to get there

 

Hoi An is amazing, cheap as chips and beautiful

[how241]

Thanks  for all the info .  I appreciate everyone's help.

[generealty]

If you come from one a several countries (USA being one of them) you get a free 15 days visa on entry. This has been in since last July I believe. I have a home in Pattaya but work in Vietnam so come and go regularly

[Bredbury Blue]

Your wife can enter for free by showing here passport as both are ASEAN countries.

 

Change your money to Dong on entry. REMEMBER to change on exit (there's an exchange after you pass through immigration on exit).

 

I usually stay at the Norfolk hotel. Prices range, sometimes US$80 sometimes $100. 25 yr old Aussie hotel, very comfortable, very well established, nice steak restaurant, right near all the spots in District 1. Otherwise try one of the older hotels near walking street (Caravel, Continental) or the cheaper hotels near Ben Thanh market.

 

You want to stay District 1. It's about 20 mins walk from one side of D1 to the other D1. Vist the Palace and the War Museum (expect to be shocked at the anti-USA displays) but worth visiting. Walking street at night (find City hall and WS is right in front). The Post Office and the Cathedral opposite. Opera house. Ben Thanh market.

 

Day trip to Chu Chi tunnels worth doing. Having done it be one of the Mekong delta tours is probably also worth doing.

 

Enjoy! It's a very pleasant City to spend days.

[chrissables]

Hanoi will be cooler, stay at the old quarter, easy to walk about from there.

 

Go to Cat Ba Island, wonderful and easy for trips in the bay less crowded than Ha Long Bay :) 

[Mooner]

Fly to Da Nang then head to Hoi An.

 

[12DrinkMore]

On 3/12/2017 at 1:24 PM, Cinderella Man said:

Hoi An is amazing, cheap as chips and beautiful

Nice place.

 

Pity about all the tourists.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

You can also look at Hue if you want to go a little off the normal track. Its got a very nice climate and historic sites. We did a trip a while back. Started in Hanoi then Halong bay (be warned you can get fog that time of year), Hue, HMC, Phu quoc island. This trip can also include Hoi an or Danang or one of the other beach towns between Hue and HMC.

Edited March 14, 2017 by SOUTHERNSTAR
spelling

[4737 Carlin]

Vung Tau is a nice seaside town to the south of Ho Chi Minh City. It takes just over an hour by hydrofoil boat from the city.

[pauleddy]

Hanoi is cooler, and there is a large lake in the middle of it. It is like a large old French town (not built up much, but starting to be). The French jail has a real guillotine! Red wine and french bread are easy to get. Vietnam is famous for its beef soup. In some restaurants or diners you can even order the grade of beef you want in your soup. I have never been to HCM, but I hear it's more built up and modern. I'm an admirer of the guts of the Vietnamese, who kicked the French out and then the Yanks (with help from China, OK). The language is nothing like any other. It sounds like geese honking!

 

[alex8912]

Unless there has been a change 15 day visa exempt entries for USA citizens are NOT available. I'm quite sure one of the above posters is completely wrong because I was going to go last year.  Not only do you have to pay I believe the only choice for USA citizens is a one year multiple entry tourist visa and I think it costs around 5000 baht! You also can't just go to the Vietnam embassy to get it , usually through an agent.  I decided not to go last year or the year before because I would only go about 8/9 days and think 5000 is a complete rip off. Did your girlfriend tell you she doesn't like Sonkran? Or do you not like it?  Why not enjoy the best most fun and interesting holiday Thailand has and get a nice room in BKK and get wet and have fun in Thailand. Better than rip off Vietnam visa for an American. 

[recycler]

You can get the visa approval letter online: http://www.visaforvietnam.org/

When you arrive you have to get the real visa at the airport and pay another 25 or more US$ depending on how long you want to stay and nr of entries, so bring some US$.

 

I've been to Ho Chi Minh, Danang, Hoi An and Hanoi and they are all great to visit. Friendly people, safe, traffic sounds like chaos, but they don't drive as fast as in Thailand.

 

Go for the smaller hotels in cities, they are affordable, the big chains are relatively expensive in Vietnam.

 

There are no flights from UTP, you would have to go from BKK or DMK.

[pauleddy]

Check out the visa thing. In 2015, 15 day entry permits (free and walk thru, no papers except PP) started on 1st July for Brits and some others. They were promising that the same would start for Yanks, Aussies and Canadians on July 1 2016. I keep getting mixed stories about this. The Viet Embassy in BKK are hopeless--nobody picks up the phone. If you cannot get a visa, the agents who charge 80usd to collect visa at Hanoi=good and bad stories. Some people get delayed in a queue, and some are just fine.

[Kabula]

You can get a visa on arrival to Vietnam on line.

 

Great idea about getting away from the water nonsense.

[Mansell]

Been all over the country. Hanoi is really nice with good restaurants and great places to see there. I found hotels charged a lot for tours, but if you go to the backpack places everything was much more affordable. I loved Hue right on the Perfumed River. This is where the old imperial palaces are, and most you have to get to them on the river. We rented bicycles and rode all over the city. Everybody friendly etc, but you should have a GPS to be able to find your hotel again as you cannot read the signs. Danang and Hoi An are nice. But they have removed the jungle from China Beach which has changed the feel of the place. The most fun for me was traveling on the trains. I did Hue to Danang to make a flight. And another time Danang to Natrang (wrong spelling) that was 6am to 6pm. Lots to see with the South China Sea on one side and mountains and jungle on the other. Very cheap. I found people there as friendly as Thailand. Have fun.

[TSF]

We did this last April to escape Songkran. Myself and my Thai wife flew Jetstar to HCMC. Being ASEAN my wife didn't need any visa. I'm on a UK passport so I got 15 days visa free at the airport. In the 15 days there we explored Saigon and went to Vung Tao, Mui Ne, Dalat & Nha Trang. Then back to HCMC and to the Delta. We had a great time and saw a good mix of big city, beach, mountains & the delta scenery. 

 

Later in year we also went to Hanoi and visited Sapa & Halong Bay. But we preferred the South & Saigon to Hanoi.

[malibukid]

Hanoi is very smoggy.  to be avoided. Chiang Mai looks like Palm Springs by comparison.

[terryw]

US citizens cannot get a 15 day entry stamp, they have to get a visa.

 

if you are going for just a few days then Da Nang, Hue and Hoi An are the best places to visit. Saigon is a pretty boring city for tourists and in April the weather in Hanoi might still be cool with a lot of smog.

[Mousehound]

I recently got back from Saigon.  You can see that comments are not on the whole country.  You can get a good hotel for $30US .  See my post.  Hoi and Hanoi would be my bet as well as Ha long Bay.  Sappa looks good as well.  Depends what you are into.  In Saigon I partied every night of the week.  Avoided the  Cho Chi Tunnels and prefer to do the Delta on my own rather than on a day tour but depends on how adventurous you are.  Saigon is really a two day town with a couple of days for out of town tours if that is your thing. Moving between cities is generally a lot harder and less comfortable in Thailand.  The Thai infrastructure is way ahead of Vietnam.  I preferred Thai food but Saigon is sea food oriented and I am not a great fan of sea food.  I had a good time there and will go back ASAP.  Liked the people a lot.  learn a little Vietnamese - even just how to count, "hello" and "I want to go to" as well as "how much" and "that is expensive" gets you a long way there. If you are travelling about just learn the Vietnamese spoken in Hanoi - Saigon locals understand it fine.

 

[orchidlady]

Been going to Vietnam the past 7 years to escape Songkran and usually once more each year. I rotate between North, South, and Central and then go to places within  3 hours or so from there.

They had changed visa policy for Americans last August. I had been there the month before and returning 1 month later had to buy one year for $125. Then in December they switched back to $25 for up to 1 month for Americans.If you are hellbent on going to HCMC, make sure you see water puppets. (they also have two water puppet  theaters in Hanoi).A pleasant escape from the heat of HCMC in the mountains is Dalat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mousehound]

Interestingly I found none of the locals in HCMC called it as such, always referring to it as Saigon.  I got into the same habit as I was trying hard to work on my Saigon accent and local language.

[how241]

6 hours ago, generealty said:

If you come from one a several countries (USA being one of them) you get a free 15 days visa on entry. This has been in since last July I believe. I have a home in Pattaya but work in Vietnam so come and go regularly

Is this free 15 visa due to your working status?   I am from the USA  and from what I have read, it seems like I need to apply in advance for a 30 day visa.  Can you share more info about this...Thanks

[recycler]

15 minutes ago, how241 said:

Is this free 15 visa due to your working status?   I am from the USA  and from what I have read, it seems like I need to apply in advance for a 30 day visa.  Can you share more info about this...Thanks

I visited an American company there and they are applying for advance Visa approvals for their US temporary visitors, so yes, you should apply in advance too. As far as I understand French, UK and German visitors don't need to do this.
I'm from NL and flew in the first time from Jakarta and got in 2 hour shit and needed to pay 150 US$ for an emergency visa after long negotiation between Air Vietnam and immigrations, better be safe and get it before you go, you do also need to passport type pictures of yourself on arrival to attach to the form you need to fill out.

[NewGuy]

We've been to Vietnam about six times. Last year during Songkran it was 44 Celsius in HCMC and the Mekong Delta (much better to go to those terrific places mid- Nov through March).  Same with the whole region, I guess, although Hanoi in mid-April is fine - google it up.  I like side trips to Haiphong but find Cat Ba island a bit of a rip - the karst-formation boat tours out of Halong are great. Energetic types could head off to Sapa, trekking and hill tribe experiences. Be aware that many guest house/hotels in Hanoi don't have elevators and it's no fun getting up to the sixth floor.

 

Air Asia out of Don Meuang is not your only budget choice; VietjetAir out of Sawanapoumi (sp) has equally good prices to Hanoi and HCMC - often a bit better, much more convenient arrival times, a web site that works, and has Vietnam internal fights.

 

We are heat suffering in Cambodia just now but will do the Songkran thing in Hanoi this year and hope for the best.

 

Cheers

 

PS - if it hasn't already been noted, eVisas for Vietnam are easy and not expensive. My wife (Thai) has never needed one because of the ASEAN thing

Edited March 14, 2017 by NewGuy

[how241]

Thank you for all the replies and good info ...

[Nice Boyd]

7 hours ago, alex8912 said:

Unless there has been a change 15 day visa exempt entries for USA citizens are NOT available. I'm quite sure one of the above posters is completely wrong because I was going to go last year.  Not only do you have to pay I believe the only choice for USA citizens is a one year multiple entry tourist visa and I think it costs around 5000 baht! You also can't just go to the Vietnam embassy to get it , usually through an agent.  I decided not to go last year or the year before because I would only go about 8/9 days and think 5000 is a complete rip off. Did your girlfriend tell you she doesn't like Sonkran? Or do you not like it?  Why not enjoy the best most fun and interesting holiday Thailand has and get a nice room in BKK and get wet and have fun in Thailand. Better than rip off Vietnam visa for an American. 

9 days of Hell in Pattaya for Songkran, who needs that crap, who knows where that water comes  from, Disgusting, might be a lil shorter this year cuz of his Majesty