5 things you should know to travel Vietnam on tet

1. Transportation:

This is one big concern that seems to occur to most holiday travellers. Without doubt, it is quite difficult to plan your trip when air, trains and coach are mostly fully booked. Tet holiday is when domestic travel volume rockets, especially South-North route before Tet and North-South after Tet.

  2. Accommodation:

Vietnamese people have recently trended to travel during Tet because they have a long holiday. Some destinations they usually choose such as: Dalat, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Danang...So it should be better to book hotel in advance in case your rooms will be fulled.

 3. Sightseeing:

The bad news: many museums, mausoleums, indoors exhibition place and art houses will be closed for at least 4 days, from January 22nd to January 26th.

The good news: beach will be empty, cities will be vacant (on the actual date of Tet) - overall a great time for those who enjoy the tranquility.

 4. Food:

 To many's dismay, most restaurants will be closed during Tet, be it local or foreign-owned. Most will be open until late January 22nd (the last day of old Lunar year) and reopened in the 4th or 5th date of lunar January (or January 26th, 27th of solar calendar). Wet markets will still run though vendors are scanty. Thus Tet may not be the best time for culinary tour fans. But Tet is like no other events in the year - there is a great variety of Vietnamese food that is not available elsewhere or else-when such as Banh Chung, Boiled Chicken, Pickled Onions. If you are invited to a Vietnamese family, that would be the ideal case. Otherwise, a visit to Cho Tet - special wet markets selling New Year stuffs, will surely be an amazing experience, whether you are in a big city or rural mountain province. Get your camera ready!

 5. Shopping:

Like restaurants, many shops will be closed for the first few days of the lunar new year. Some market will still be open, with much fewer vendors than you normally see, even in major trading points like Dong Xuan market or Ben Thanh. To your surprise, many products will be sold at a very reasonable price because most sellers want to start a smooth sales year. Try not to haggle or if you do, do so politely or else it will be considered to bring about bad luck for the whole new year.

Source: VNO