5 ESSENTIAL APPS FOR A TRIP TO VIETNAM 🔥
You'll save yourself a lot of hours and nerves if you sort this out right now. These apps will make both your holiday and your life more comfortable, if you're coming for a long stay:
📱Zalo
This is the local messenger, similar to WhatsApp, that's on every Vietnamese person's phone. That's its big advantage. For example, if you need to rent a place, you'll get far more offers and choice if you leave your Zalo. If you need to use some local service or shop without going in person — say, to find something out and save yourself the trip — you can do that through this messenger too.
You can link any number, but a Vietnamese one is better. You can set one up quickly at any offline branch of any mobile operator, or use a tourist eSIM.
🏍️ Grab
With this app you'll get taken anywhere within the city, plus you'll never go hungry, since in a couple of taps you can order any food and it'll be with you within 30–40 minutes.
Taxi prices in this app are the highest, but! Even so, taxis in Vietnam are very cheap. For example, travelling the 25 kilometres from Da Nang to Hoi An costs $12, and you can cut that by almost half, I'll tell you how below, keep reading.
Foreign bank cards link up in the app without any trouble. There's a bonus system for every food delivery or taxi ride.
🚕 InDrive and Green SM
These are 2 more taxi apps. I recommend installing them, they'll help you find a car faster during rain or some big concert or event. During the fireworks championship, for instance, getting away from there was tricky even with three apps.
It's InDrive specifically that lets you save even more and do the 25 kilometres described above for $6–7. Note that this app doesn't let you link cards. You can only pay in cash or to the driver by QR code. But further down I'll share a lifehack for how to pay if cash is inconvenient for you and you're not planning to open a Vietnamese account.
Green SM has food delivery too, at the same prices as Grab.
🪪 LocalPay
Even if you don't actively use crypto but have dabbled with it, I highly recommend installing this app. You can't pay by card everywhere in Vietnam, and where you can, there's often a 3-8% surcharge on the transaction. Meaning they ring up a separate receipt where you overpay that amount.
To pay in small shops without overpaying, and to use InDrive taxis, this app will be a big help in sending money to the seller by QR code.
🤖 Claude
Probably the most accurate AI for travel out there right now. A helper that sits in your pocket, ready to answer any confusing situation correctly, is worth a lot. Especially if you don't know English and struggle to make yourself understood with locals.
In travel there are a lot of moments you run into for the first time, and sometimes it's enough to grasp the general direction of a solution to deal with it quickly. If you're used to a different AI, use whichever one you like, as long as you've got it to hand.
🏝️ And of course, Trip.com. Being without this app when travelling these days is like being without your phone. I'd have put it in 1st place, but if you're reading this, it means you've already got it installed. Don't delete it and above all, use it.
You can often find tickets to various events here at low prices, rent accommodation very conveniently and cheaply, book a transfer… in short, over the last 3 months I've switched to it completely and use it to handle everything to do with my travel, both between countries and within any particular one.
P.S. Writing about Google Maps is probably odd. But if for some reason you don't have it, just install it. You'll definitely be opening it 10 times a day.
📌 Save the post so you don't lose it and get everything installed in time.
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