typical

The Techcom Bank ATMs used to give 200k notes pretty reliably. Wonder if they still do?

The 200k is a really useful note in Vietnam but used to be quite hard to get hold of.

5khours

MaiLinh and VinaSun are extremely reliable. Better than taxis in most cities in the U.S. You can get them anywhere in the city easily. Other taxis - watch out!

Uber is a little cheaper than a Taxi, but IME compared to MaiLinh and VinaSun, cars are not quite as nice and drivers are a little less experienced and reliable.

Better to break a 500k note ahead of time.

I generally am pretty generous with tips. I think it re-enforces good behaviour.

invisible

So currently their booth is outside of International Arrivals on far left side, right?

Regarding SIM card - I've heard that buying it at the airport would cost 3-4 times more comparing to the city. Is this the case?

Firemansam

Myself and local girlfriend used the vinasun in HCMC and Nha Trang quite a few times, great taxi, always were offered the change, when you get some Dong at the airport just change some of it to small notes at the exchange.

hxhbk

I just arrived HCMC about 3 hours ago from Narita. At least 15 cabs lined up on the left as you exit the airport onto the sidewalk at 11pm. Fare to downtown District 1 is VND 125,000 plus VND 10,000 for parking fee that the driver paid when he exited the airport.

Jay71

We landed at HCMC last Tuesday during the early afternoon and yes all the taxis were on the far left hand side (as you walk out of int arrivals). It was a bit confusing though in that we were expecting a rank or booth of some sort and weren't sure if we were going to be forced to take the next taxi in line.

Instead, we saw about half dozen or so different taxis along the curb of different companies. After we identified a Mai Linh one, we walked over to it and a Mai Linh coordinator guy trots (driver was already there) over to give us a slip with the cab info which I read is used for reference for any complaints. We verified with him and the driver and was reassured that it was going to be metered instead of some crazy flat rate. Our final meter read 128000VND (pre-tip) I think. We didn't pay for any parking.

Walking to the taxi area and while trying to ID a Mai Linh or Vinasun one, we were not approached at all by any touts even though we were expecting it based on the wikitravel info; it was pretty tame.

On the way back to the airport, there was usually a Vinasun cab parked in front of our hotel in District 1 every morning along with a coordinator. I think the coordinator served the set of hotels along our part of the block. I think we ended up paying 150000VND (including tip) for that trip as we seemed to be caught in morning traffic.

invisible

Arrived at Saigon and managed to get Mai Linh taxi from the airport to the hotel and used the same company's taxis when we've been on tour around the city with our guide.

However, I am still not quite sure how metering the taxi rides work - i've noticed that different taxis from Mai Linh have different fares printed on the dashboard. A trip from the airport to the hotel was 80k, yet when we went to see flower market the meter showed 180k, even when it took twice less time to get there from hotel. And return trip to the hotel was 120k, including two stopovers 5 min each. Overall we spent around 900k (or $45) on seven trips.

5khours

I've never had meter issues with MaiLinh. Used them 100+ times.

IAN-UK

Hey! I'm really pleased to see you are dipping your toes into "riskier" waters - and I hope you enjoyed Saigon.

The hotel run from the airport looks cheap at 80K - though, of course, that rather depends where your hotel was ....

CO-PLAT

We had a similar experience 3 weeks ago. There are metal guides suggesting you get in the que, but we waited until a Mai Linh cab pulled up to the curb and approached it. It was so cheap to our district 1 hotel I can't even remember the exact figure. Something equivalent to about US$7-8.

5khours

It's not a fixed price. Just a book of 10,000 dong coupons that you use instead if cash. It just lets you jump the queue which saves about 5 minutes. The counter is not open at night. IMHO, it's easier to just walk out go the left and ask one of the Mai Linh Taxi reps for a cab. Mai Linh is not at all dodgy. Vinasun is good too.

IceTrojan

There are different prices for the vans vs. cars. Also, you could have gotten a taxi from a different region that decided to stay in the city to make a few bucks before going home.

chelmkamp

Mailinh and Vinasun are both very reliable. There is no rhyme or reason to the taxi queue- some days you just have to jump to the end of the curb and flag a VS or ML taxi from the parking lot (especially very early morning arrivals). Like many things in Vietnam, sometimes chaotic and not clear what's going on, but usually works out just fine in the end.

Uber works quite well in Saigon as well - if a car is near, they will pick you up at the airport but you may have to schlepp over to the parking lot to meet it.

hxhbk

For awareness, Uber taxis are being stopped by inspectors from the HCMC Traffic and Transportation Department for compliance paperworks checking.
See attached news report in Vietnamese with pictures.
According to the article, there were 5 instances of drivers not able to provide the proper documentation on 28-Nov 2014.

http://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/thoi-su...r-3113653.html