 Vietnam is such a beautiful country. It's easy to plan. It's budget friendly. Yet I feel that a lot of people shy away from visiting Vietnam. If Vietnam has been on your mind then this video is going to be a complete travel guide just for you. My name is Shachi and welcome back to my channel. So in the last one year I visited Vietnam twice. The first time I went to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Danang and Hoi An and the second time I went down south to Ho Chi Minh city. Having traveled the country extensively this video is going to be a no-bullshit step-by-step guide to planning your Vietnam trip. This is going to be a pretty extensive guide and by the end of it you will have all the information that you will need to plan your trip. So before we start a quick geography lesson and this is because Vietnam is a pretty big country so it helps to know where everything is. So starting from the top up north you have Hanoi and Halong Bay and this northern part of Vietnam is generally the more touristy, the more popular and the more visited part of Vietnam. In the center you have Danang and Hoi An and right down in the south you have Ho Chi Minh city. So if you want to cover entire Vietnam you can either start from the north that is start from Hanoi and make your way down to the south or even to the reverse start from Ho Chi Minh and make your way to the top. Of course you can also cover Vietnam in two separate trips or just do one part of it at a time just like I did. So now that we have a basic idea about Vietnam and where everything is let's get down to planning our trip. The first thing that we're going to cover is how many days, how many days of Chutty do you need to cover Vietnam. Now if you want to cover entire Vietnam from north to south plan for at least 12 days, 12 to 15 days is required. If you want to cover just the northern part of Vietnam which like I mentioned is the more popular thing to do and the northern part basically you will go to Hanoi, you will see Hanoi way, you'll probably see Ninh bin and then come down the center and see Danang and Hoi An. Plan for about 8 to 9 days and if you want to cover just the south that is just places in and around Ho Chi Minh city then don't do that, don't plan such a trip. It's not going to be worth to come all the way to Vietnam and just see Ho Chi Minh city. In the description box below I have listed my complete travel itinerary from both my trips and this is my day plan of everything that I did during my visit to Vietnam. If you're interested you can check out that travel itinerary. Next question is visa. Now getting a visa to Vietnam is extremely easy. First of all it's an e- visa so it's an online process there is no hassle of collecting documents visiting the embassy none of that. So it's a very simple process you go to the government e- visa website fill out a very simple form pay a fee of 25 US dollars and your visa comes on your mail in about three working days. Now just keep in mind that when you search for Vietnam visa you will see a lot of agent websites as well and they actually look very similar to the government side but it's always better to use the official site so stick to that. In the description box below I will leave the link for the official government website for getting the e- visa. You can check that out and use that. So now that we have our visa let's get down to booking our flights. Now both the times I travel to Vietnam I booked my flights pretty last minute less than one week and both the times I pay about 10,000 rupees for one week. Now these flights were from Bangalore to Hanoi and from Bangalore to Ho Chi Minh city and I travel with Air Asia they were not direct flights they were one stop flights which with stopover either in Kuala Lumpur or in Bangkok. So both the times like I mentioned it cost me about 10,000. Now if you book your tickets in advance maybe you can get it for cheaper but on an average you can expect the flights to cost between 10 to 12,000 rupees per head one week and depending upon your travel plans you might also have to take flights within Vietnam. So I took a flight from Danang to Hanoi and I use their local airline Viet Jet and it cost me about 3,000 rupees. There are also trains which are available but I think flights are the most convenient way to move within Vietnam and Viet Jet has very good connectivity so that would be the best option. So now that we have our visa and our flight next let's get down to booking the hotel. Now all the three main areas of Vietnam that's Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh city have tongue of good hotels so you should not face any problem in finding a good one. The easiest way is to sort it by area and next I'm going to list the main areas which you can look for in Vietnam. So if you're visiting Hanoi then look for hotels or service apartments in old quarter in Hoi An look for a place to stay in the old town and in Ho Chi Minh city stick to either district one or maximum district two. Now all these areas have hotels which are you know in from the budget to the luxury segment and a good three star hotel in Vietnam will cost you about 3,000 rupees per night. These hotels and the hotels that are generally spacious they are clean and many of them even have a small kitchen. So with a budget of about 3 to 4,000 rupees per night you will be able to find a very comfortable accommodation in a good area which is close to the center of everything. In the description box below I have put the links of the places that I stayed in Hanoi, in Danang, in Hoi An and also in Ho Chi Minh city so check that out if you're interested. Next let's talk about the currency. Now the Vietnamese currency is called the Vietnamese dong and 100k Vietnamese dong is approximately 300 rupees. Now in India it's actually tricky to find dong and I didn't actually the exchange guy that I went to didn't have any Vietnamese dong. So if that's the problem that you also face what you can do is to carry US dollars and then exchange it once you reach Vietnam. Other option is to just withdraw it from the ATM once you land in Vietnam. They are ATMs almost in every street in Vietnam so that wouldn't be a problem at all. Now coming to how much currency you need to take. So once your flight and your hotel is done the expenses that you will have there are food, your transport and all the tools that you need to cook. Now let's start with the food. So each dish in Vietnam can cost you anywhere between 30k Vietnamese dong to about 200 or 250 Vietnamese dong depending on where you eat and transport for transport the easiest way to move around Vietnam is to use grab. So grab cars and grab bikes are easily available and they're also budget friendly. Each ride in a grab car or a bike can cost anywhere between again 50 to about 200k Vietnamese dong. And third thing are the tours. So some of the tours that are worth doing or you must do when you're in Vietnam are Halong Bay, Ninh Binh and the Mekong Delta. And these tours can be booked from a lot of travel agents who are you know basically present in all the main areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. And these tours cost anywhere between 25 US Dollars to about 200 to 250 US Dollars. So these are the expenses and you know the approximate amount that you need and this should give you an idea about how much currency you need to carry with you. So now that we have the basics in place let's move on to the must sees in Vietnam and here are my top three. So the first one is Halong Bay. Now Halong Bay is a must see. It's a magical place but please don't plan a day trip to Halong Bay. It's going to be really tiring and you will not be able to appreciate the beauty of it. Make sure that when you book a cruise you book at least a one night cruise and if you have time then even do a two night cruise. It's totally worth it. The second one is Hoi An. Hoi An is without doubt the most beautiful part of Vietnam. It's an ancient town and you must visit Hoi An and if possible stay one night there in the old town. And third is the night markets. Now Vietnam has one of the most incredible night markets in Southeast Asia and these night markets are like amazing. They are next level. Now these night markets can get super crowded like super super crowded but it's worth braving out the crowd. All the shopping that I did from Hanoi was from these night markets and the quality of everything clothes accessories etc was amazing. So make sure that you keep a couple of nights just to see these night markets especially in Hanoi. So if you have stuck around till now then I have two bonus tips for you. The first is the Vietnamese coffee. Now Vietnamese coffee is delicious. It's incredible. It's a must try and there are tons of coffee shops all over Vietnam but there is one place that you need to visit and it is called Con Cafe. So make sure that you go to Con Cafe and try their coconut coffee. It's incredible and the cafe itself is so beautiful, so quirky. Con Cafe is both in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City so make sure that you don't mess it. The second tip is for the ladies. So Vietnam has some incredible nail salons. The prices are extremely low. The service is incredible and it's such a nice relaxing experience. So make sure that you have some time to make at least one trip to a nail salon. So guys this was my super detailed step by step guide to planning trip to Vietnam. I hope this helps you out. If you have more questions then feel free to leave them in the comment section below. Let's chat and I'll be happy to answer them. I have shot a ton of other videos on Vietnam so I will leave them on the screen right here. Make sure to check them out as well. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to subscribe and hit the like button and tap the bell icon so that you are notified of my next Vietnam video. And that's all for today. Signing off for now. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.