The three things to plan
| Issue | |
|---|---|
| Traffic | The real risk, and advisories highlight motorbike deaths |
| Crossing a road | Walk steadily, do not stop or run |
| Tap water | Not drinkable untreated, for anyone |
| Distance | 1,650 km north to south |
| Better shape | Two bases with day trips |
| Climate | Three regions with different wet seasons |
| Phu Quoc | 30 days visa free arriving directly from outside Vietnam |
| Laundry | Widely available, so pack light |
Disclosure: VietSIM sells prepaid eSIMs for Vietnam. We sell no tours, no accommodation and nothing aimed at families.
Attitude is not the problem
Visitors are often surprised by how children are treated. They are not tolerated in restaurants, they are included, and a family walking into a small place will usually be met rather than seated. That part needs no planning.
What needs planning is physical: traffic, heat, water and distance. All four are manageable, and none of them improve by being discovered on day two.
Roads first
Australia’s travel advice for Vietnam highlights motorbike deaths, and this is the one area where a visiting adult’s instincts are actively wrong. Crossing a road in a Vietnamese city means walking at a steady, predictable pace so that traffic flows around you. Stopping suddenly or running is what causes collisions, because it breaks the prediction other road users are making.
With children that becomes a rule: hold hands, cross as a single unit, and do not let a child dart. Practise it once on a quiet street before you need it on a busy one.
The wider safety picture is in is Vietnam safe.
Water, for everybody
Tap water is not safe to drink untreated, and households boil it or buy bottled. That is not a children’s rule, it is the rule, and the full explanation is in can you drink the tap water. With small children it is worth being stricter than you would be alone about teeth and about fruit rinsed in tap water.
Commercially made ice is from treated water and is used everywhere.
Shape the trip around fewer moves
Vietnam is 1,650 kilometres north to south across three climate regions. Every hop between regions costs a day, and with children it costs more than a day because it costs sleep.
Two bases with day trips almost always beats five stops, and it is also cheaper, which is the point made in what a trip to Vietnam costs. Which month suits which coast is in when to go to Vietnam.
The paperwork shortcut
Phu Quoc allows 30 days visa free to all foreign visitors arriving directly by air or sea from outside Vietnam. For a family whose trip is mostly a beach week, that removes a step. The rest of the entry rules are in visa on arrival.
Keeping in touch
Two phones that work, rather than one, is the version of this that matters with children, along with maps that load when you are lost with a tired four year old. Sizing is in how much mobile data for Vietnam and the plans are in the Vietnam eSIM store.