Originally Posted by
aflo
I’m confused—could you explain this to me? Watching YouTube videos of driving around Phu Quoc, it looks extremely easy, and tourists seem to have no problem renting much more dangerous motorbikes there. This doesn’t make sense to me! I understand that cities like Saigon or Hanoi are entirely different beasts, but Phu Quoc?
So, apologies if you have looked into the legal/license side of things and thus already know the following but in case you haven't: one major issue for tourists is whether they can
legally drive in Vietnam. Assuming said tourist does not have a VN driving license they will need a
valid driving license from their home country PLUS an International Driving Permit (IDP) from the 1968 Vienna Convention. That last part is important since some fairly prominent countries have not ratified the '68 convention:The following countries have not ratified the 1968 Convention, so IDPs issued in these countries are NOT valid in Vietnam:
Australia
Canada
Iceland
India
Ireland
Japan
New Zealand
United States
Citizens of these countries cannot legally drive in Vietnam using just their home license and IDP
A lot of people renting motorbikes in VN are doing so illegally (though I hear this is far less common than it used to be). Of course the big risk there is if you have an accident your troubles will be compounded and you won't be covered by your insurance.
As to why there simply may not be any availability of cars for tourists with all the right documents, I'm not sure, but would guess the locals just don't trust tourists to drive safely, even on Phu Quoc - and you can do a lot more damage in and to a car compared to a motorbike, both in terms of money and injury.