Travelling to Vietnam from the UK

Vietnam is a 1,650-kilometre country shaped like a stretched ‘S’, and that single fact decides almost everything about a good trip. The instinct is to book two weeks, take the famous train from top to bottom, and tick off every city; the reality is that the train eats two whole days, the climate means it’s raining in one region while another is glorious, and the UK passport in your pocket already gets you in visa-free. This guide is built around those honest calls — pick a direction, fly the long hops, time it for the right region — plus the UK-specific details competitor pages skim: the visa you probably don’t need, the GHIC that does nothing, and the price of it all in pounds.

Entry requirements for UK travellers

Most UK visitors need no visa at all: a 45-day visa-free stay covers the vast majority of trips, with immigration simply stamping your entry and exit dates on arrival. You only need the 90-day e-visa — applied for online before you travel, about £18 single-entry or £37 multiple-entry — if you’re staying longer than 45 days or want to hop in and out of neighbouring countries. Your passport must be valid for six months beyond arrival, hold two blank pages, and be undamaged: British nationals have been refused entry over a damaged passport. Everything below is taken from the GOV.UK foreign travel advice for Vietnam; rules can change, so confirm on GOV.UK before you travel.

The pre-departure work that genuinely matters here isn’t the visa — it’s your medicines and your insurance. It is illegal to carry more than seven days of prescribed medicine, so bring your prescription and a doctor’s letter in English (name, medication, dosage, signature), and check that nothing you take falls under Vietnam’s restricted ‘addictive’ or ‘psychotropic’ list. Note too that vapes are banned outright — you can neither buy them in Vietnam nor bring them in.

Why insurance, not your GHIC, is the one to get right

Buy it the same day you book the flights, before the dates blur into the holiday. One Vietnam-specific catch: many policies exclude motorbike riding, even as a passenger on the back of a Grab bike — so if you plan to ride at all, check that’s covered, because GOV.UK is blunt that motorbike accidents are common and have killed and injured British nationals.

Flights from the UK

Vietnam Airlines flies nonstop from Heathrow Terminal 4 on the Boeing 787-9 — roughly three times a week to Hanoi and twice a week to Ho Chi Minh City on the 2026 schedule — with a block time of about 12 hours to Hanoi and 12h45 to the south. Return economy fares start around £790. From Manchester, Edinburgh and other regional airports you connect through a Gulf or Asian hub such as Doha, Dubai, Singapore or Bangkok, which adds a few hours but often costs less than the direct fare. Wherever you can, book an open-jaw ticket — into one end of the country and out of the other — so you never backtrack the length of Vietnam to catch your flight home.

When to go

This is the question that decides your trip, and the honest answer is that there is no single best time, because the north, centre and south are on different weather clocks. When Hanoi is grey and drizzly, the south can be glorious; when central Vietnam floods in autumn, the south is just warming up. The one window that works country-wide is March and April, when all three regions are reliably dry and warm at once. If you’re focusing on one area, the north is best October to April, central Vietnam February to May, and the south December to April — and everyone should avoid Tet, the Vietnamese New Year around mid-February 2026, when much of the country shuts and prices spike.

What it costs

Everything here is priced in pounds at roughly ₫35,000 to £1 (June 2026). Direct return flights from Heathrow start around £790, and a mid-range 14-night north-to-south trip for two — flights, hotels, food, two internal flights and tours — comes to around £3,450–£3,650, or about £1,750 each before shopping. On the ground, Vietnam is one of the best-value countries you’ll ever visit: a bowl of pho from a street stall is around a pound, a local beer under a quid, and a 15-minute Grab car a couple of pounds.

A realistic first-trip itinerary

Vietnam is too long to 'see it all' in two weeks, and the climate makes a single sweep risky anyway — when the north is grey and drizzly the south can be glorious, and vice versa. Pick a direction (north-to-south or south-to-north) so you never backtrack, and fly the long hops rather than grinding out 30-hour trains. This is a 14-day north-to-south skeleton — trim to 10 days by cutting either the far north (Sapa) or the Mekong Delta.

Where to base yourself

In Hanoi, the Old Quarter is the atmospheric default — street food and cruise pickups on the doorstep — but ask for a room off the street if motorbike noise will keep you up, or shift a few blocks south to the calmer French Quarter. Hoi An is central Vietnam’s highlight, and the place most people wish they’d given an extra night, whether you stay in the lantern-lit old town or out by An Bang beach. In Ho Chi Minh City, District 1 puts the museums, markets and rooftop bars within walking distance, while leafier District 3 suits a longer or quieter stay.

Getting around — and why you should fly, not take the famous train

The Reunification Express is the romantic mistake. End to end it’s 32 to 35 hours Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh for roughly £30–£55 in a sleeper — and a genuine experience for one short, scenic leg, with the Da Nang–Hue coastal run the standout. But doing the whole length burns two days you don’t have, when an internal Vietjet or Vietnam Airlines flight covers the same distance in about an hour for £35–£60, often no more than the train berth. So fly the long jumps and save the rails for one pretty stretch. Inside the cities, use the Grab or Xanh SM apps rather than flagging a street taxi — they’re metered, cashless and, as GOV.UK advises, the safer way to avoid unlicensed cabs.

Staying connected

UK roaming to Vietnam is expensive — Vietnam sits outside the inclusive EU-style zones, so the networks charge around £5–£7.50 a day, far more than the ~£2.25 you’re used to in Europe. Over a fortnight that’s £50–£100+. A travel eSIM at £5–£15 for the whole trip is the obvious value move, and you’ll lean on the data constantly — Grab, maps and Google Translate’s camera mode for Vietnamese-only menus. Install it before you fly and activate on landing onto Vietnam’s fast, cheap 4G and 5G.

Money: cash, cards and counting the zeros

Vietnam is still a cash-first country once you leave hotels and chain shops — street food, markets, small cafes and most Grab motorbike rides expect dong. Cards work in mid-range and upmarket hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, but don't rely on them for day-to-day spending. The practical kit: one Visa or Mastercard for big payments, the Grab app linked to your card for transport, and a daily wad of small dong notes for everything else. Two things trip UK visitors up. First, the zeros: ₫500,000 (~£14) and ₫50,000 (~£1.40) look alike, so count the noughts every time. Second, only change money at official counters with clear signage — GOV.UK advises against changing money anywhere else. Withdraw from ATMs attached to major banks (they cap withdrawals low, around ₫2–3 million, and charge a per-transaction fee, so take out the maximum each time), and when a terminal asks whether to charge in GBP or dong, always choose dong to avoid the 3–5% dynamic-currency-conversion markup.

Before you fly

Two small UK-specific jobs round out the trip: pre-book your airport parking, which is almost always cheaper booked ahead than on the day, and double-check the essentials before you fly — insurance, your medicine letter, your visa-free dates — so nothing slips through in the last 48 hours.

How we know this

Vietnam FAQs for UK travellers