It is recommended that you book your flight through your travel agent. Please note that you have to book your approaching flight to Hanoi and the return flight from Ho Chi Minh City. If at all possible, the approaching flight should land before noon on the arrival day. The return flight should in no case take off before 20.00 hours. The earlier a flight is booked the better the chances to find a reasonably priced ticket. Please let your travel agent inform you what is best in your specific case.

In order to enter Vietnam, foreigners need a passport valid for at least 6 months and a valid visa to be obtained from the Vietnamese embassy. The following documents must be submitted either in person or by mail: passport (original document, not a copy!), completed application form, current passport photograph  (4 x 6 cm), visa fee as a non-negotiable cheque or in cash, and a sufficiently prepaid envelope for registered mail. Please take into account that the processing   takes ca. 2 weeks. Please contact the Vietnamese embassy or foreign office in your home country for exact information.

There are no absolutely required inoculations for Vietnam. The institutes for tropical diseases, however, recommend a vaccination against hepatitis A and under certain circumstances also against typhoid. Since some of these inoculations have to be repeated, you should plan these in plenty of time. A sufficient tetanus protection as well as an inoculation against polio and diphtheria (single vaccination, so-called three-way combination) should also be guaranteed. A prophylactic malaria treatment is not absolutely necessary. We recommend that you see your family doctor or a doctor for tropical diseases at least two months before the trip in order to get the necessary advice.