Vietnam Apps: The Apps You Need for Your Vietnam Holiday

Heading to Vietnam soon? A handful of apps will make your trip through this incredible country a breeze, whether that's locking in a fair price for a taxi, translating a menu in a back-alley pho joint, or messaging your hotel before you land. This guide covers the apps you need for a trip to Vietnam and how to set each one up. 

Must-Have Apps for Travelling in Vietnam

Without any fluff, let’s dive straight in. Here’s the full list of Vietnam apps you need for your trip, every one of them free to download. Between them, you’ll have getting around, staying connected, and booking things to see and do all covered. 

Vietnam Apps | Grab

You’ve likely already heard of Grab, the ride-hailing app that covers most of Southeast Asia and a must-download for a trip to Vietnam. It works exactly like all the other ride-hailing apps: enter your destination, agree to a fare beforehand, and pay through a linked card. There’s no haggling, no meter games, and you can also use it for food delivery to your hotel with GrabFood.

If you’ve been to Vietnam before, you’ll know that motorbikes and scooters are by far the easiest way to weave in and out of the city traffic. The first time I went to Ho Chi Minh, I was amazed by the sea of bikes and scooters. Grab has that covered, too; GrabBike puts you on the back of a motorbike, offering faster journeys at a cheaper price. 

Vietnam Apps | Green SM

Green SM is Vietnam's homegrown electric taxi service, a sustainable and cool way to get around in the country. The brand has been so successful that they’re going global, rebranding from their Vietnamese name Xanh SM to Green SM (xanh means green in Vietnamese). The app is now listed in the app stores as Green SM, but the taxis on the street still say Xanh SM. 

The company operates a huge fleet of electric cars and scooters, quietly whizzing around the cities. The vehicles are newer than your average Grab car, and often, the fares are cheaper. The app accepts international phone numbers so you can register with your Aussie sim card, but accepting international cards as payment isn’t reliable. Make sure to select ‘cash’ and you’ll pay the driver at the end of your journey. 

Vietnam Apps | Be

The final app for the getting around portion of this article is Be, a local favourite ride-sharing app. Plenty of Vietnamese locals will tell you rides using this service come in cheaper than the bigger ride-sharing companies, especially for shorter motorbike trips. It’s pretty much the same as Grab: BeBike matches GrabBike, BeCar matches Grab Car, and both apps use surge pricing when demand is spiking. 

I’d recommend having all three apps installed so you can compare fares for any trip and take the cheapest. I know that in the end it won’t be that much cheaper, but taking the cheapest fares in the end keeps prices more affordable across the board.

Vietnam Apps | Google Maps

The app that by far gets the most use on my phone whenever I’m travelling is Google Maps. It works in Vietnam as much as it does in Australia, the US, or in Europe, with accurate live traffic in the big cities, well-maintained listings, and plentiful reviews when you’re looking for somewhere to slurp down a bowl of pho. 

As always when travelling, I’d always recommend you download the offline maps of the areas you’re visiting while at home or on the hotel Wi-Fi. Outside of the cities, reception can get patchy, so if you’re relying on it to navigate yourself, you want to be sure it won’t drop out mid-journey. 

Vietnam Apps | Zalo

Australia uses Messenger, Europe is on WhatsApp, and in Vietnam, the app you want to have installed for messaging is Zalo. The whole country runs on this messaging app, and will come in handy to get in touch with locals, your hotel, or if you’ve got a go-to taxi driver for day trips out of the city. 

You won’t have any trouble setting it up on your Australian number, the app is free, and it only takes a couple of minutes of setup before you can message away. Like I said before, if you’re booking with local guides, organising a driver, or visiting a motorbike rental shop, Zalo is the app to have. Hotels and tour operators sometimes will also use WhatsApp. 

Vietnam Apps | Trip.com

The Trip.com app rounds out the list as the booking side of your Vietnam kit. From the app you’ll be able to book your flights from Australia, find the best hotels everywhere from Hanoi to Phu Quoc (and book them with a discount), and browse a range of top-rated tours, from Ha Long Bay cruises to trips to the Cu Chi Tunnels. 

For Vietnam in particular, it’s a great tool for comparing the prices of tours against what the travel agents on the street quote you, ensuring that you’re paying the best price. 

Vietnam Apps | ShopeeFood 

It’s a joy eating out in Vietnam, with what is, in my opinion, some of the best food in the world. But some nights you just want it brought to you rather than heading out for it again, especially if you’ve put in some serious steps exploring. That’s where ShopeeFood comes along. We’ve already mentioned GrabFood above, but this is the other food delivery app that Vietnam runs on. 

It covers everything from local restaurants to the bubble tea shop around the corner. Sometimes, while on holiday, you just need a good meal in your bed. Set up is straightforward, with Aussies able to register with their international phone numbers, and you simply drop a pin on your hotel. Payments can be made with card through the app or just in cash to the driver.

Vietnam Apps | Google Translate

My first ever meal in Vietnam as a solo traveller, I say down, looked perplexed at a menu in Vietnamese, and blindly pointed at something. In the end I got lucky with some rice paper rolls that I could fill with a huge variety of ingredients, but it drove home that Vietnamese isn’t a language you’ll be able to wing. Outside of the tourist hubs, English is also less widespread than you’d imagine. Nowadays though, we all have access to language translations on our phone thanks to Google Translate (or similar translation apps). 

I’d recommend downloading the Vietnamese language pack for offline translations before you fly. I also recommend using the camera mode to translate things, when you can point your phone at a menu, a street sign, or a bottle label and watch the words morph into English in real time. Conversation mode also does a decent job when you’re haggling over prices with a market vendor. 

Vietnam Apps | XE Currency 

I travelled to Vietnam first when I was just a kid; you can imagine how overjoyed I was when I became a millionaire upon landing, with millions of Vietnamese dong to spend. It takes some getting used to. At time of writing, $1 AUD is roughly 18,000 Vietnamese Dong. A bowl of pho might be 50,000; your hotel will be something in the millions. 

The huge numbers can sound a bit alarming, especially for first timers in the country. That’s where a currency conversion app like XE Currency comes in handy, immediately bringing those soaring prices back down to the Australian dollar.

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