For serial tourists, Vietnam stands for the country where beautiful nature, rich history, pleasant experiences and versatile people meet. With reports of so many places to visit, food to eat and amazing sceneries by frequent travelers, it has become the first name on the destination list of many people who are hoping to visit.
Perhaps, you are looking to go on a luxurious tour of Vietnam for the first time, here’s everything you need to know about how to make your trip, and of course your sojourn, stress free.

1.    Settle All Visa Issues
Don’t be among the large people of people who arrive Vietnam with next to no idea on what to do with their Visa. The process may appear long and cumbersome; however, you must do your documentation, present your visa and other travel papers, photos and cash with you at the immigration office, if you would stay out of trouble with immigration officers.

Good enough, there are very legitimate travel agencies like VivuTravel that can give you proper advice on this, and help with your documentation just for a small service charge.

2.    Go Along with Your Medications
To be clear, we mean prescription medications, and not hard drugs.

We recognize that your body system can break down without prior notice, and if this happens while you are away on a tour, it may lead you and/or your tour partners to disarray – not knowing who to call or what hospital to visit.

While we are certainly not encouraging self-medication, we recommend that you bring along your regular painkillers, allergy medications, inhalers and every other item or medication specific for your good health.

There are very good hospitals and pharmacies in Vietnam where you can get good prescriptions, however, you cannot be entirely sure that the medication that would be prescribed will work for you. This is because sometimes, antibodies resistance varies from country to country.

Medications in Vietnam may or may not work for you. Therefore, you should pack along those medications that have always worked for you, and not drugs. The Government of Vietnam have very severe penalties for locals or tourists peddling drugs – ranging from death sentence to life imprisonment.

3.    Have Your Phone Handy
Transportation in Vietnam by bus or cab is usually run by private operators and there are a number of them, from which you can choose from. This is not the interesting thing however. The good news here is that moving around in Vietnam is so seamless that you do not have to book for your transport in advance – you can make an order just about the time you are leaving a place and then still find a driver to pick you up almost immediately.

You can also make use of overnight sleeper buses – especially when it is a long trip across the country. What this offers you is value for your time, as you sleep through the journey to wake up in the other part of the country. Not only that, you get value for your money as travelling in sleeper buses in Vietnam cost very little. When you add to it the fact that you do not have to pay for the night’s accommodation, then you would understand how much stress and funds it has saved you.
Not to worry, they were usually clean, easy to book and quite comfortable for you to get a good sleep.

4.    Plan Your Day
It would be great if you could prepare a mini-schedule even before leaving your home country - know the places you are visiting in Vietnam, calculate the time and distance between trips so you can plan how to sleep or pass time with a book, make an estimate of how much you would spend on junk, bike trips, or taxi rides and so on.

Doing this would save you the headache of getting to Vietnam and then finding yourself unprepared. For instance, if you are travelling between cities that are about 15 hours apart, it means you can make only one of such trips in a day. This would, in the long run, impart on how many places you would be able to visit during your stay – and this is why it is best to plan everything ahead of time.

5.    Familiarise Yourself with Transportation Routes
It is one thing to know where you are going, whereas, it is another to know how to get there. If you take time out to study the maps, streets and corners of your hotel especially during an evening walk, it will save you time and stress locating people or catching buses when they say they are waiting for you at landmark locations.
Vietnam is a relatively big country and it indeed, has big cities. Thus, it is possible to get lost in some of those cities if you do not know the bus system.
Converse with natives, learn the right buses you need to take to get to your hotel, and then you can learn the cabs you need to order to get to other places.

6.    Check Reviews Online
If you would get the best from your luxury tour of the beautiful city of Vietnam, you may have a little do in your evenings. Take time to check reviews online about the next places you are visiting – and read what other tourists are saying about the place.

It is always advisable to speak to travel agents like VivuTravel as they usually have information handy about all the tourist sites in Vietnam. Feel free to ask all your questions and share your concerns about safety, price and so on.

7.    Avoid tap water!
As you already know, avoiding tap water is one of the ways to stay safe while in Vietnam. It is an open secret to every traveler in Asia and interestingly, even locals know it.

In fact, to err on the side of caution, it is best to avoid ice and salads altogether, this is because you don’t know how they’ve been washed. If you are able to do this successfully, you may be able to avoid the stress that comes from food poisonings and stomach upsets.

But you have to drink water, getting bottled water in Vietnam is not only safe, it is also very affordable.

Surely, you would have found answers to some of your questions, however, if you feel there’s something we did not address, you can share in the comment section just below.