maverick17

For perspective, just remember Uber will save you only a few dollars, as taxis are pretty cheap already. Grab, the local SE Asian competition to Uber, is a bit more expensive than Uber, but usually has more cars available. You pay cash for that usually, few drivers want credit payments.

For a sim card, look for Viettel or Mobifone, and once you get it, you then can add value with small fill-up codes. Any small housefront market will sell you the top-ups, and any shop that has phones for sale will sell you the sim. Do not let them take your phone into the back room though, just to be safe. If you're comfortable spending a few extra bucks, just get it at the airport.

I don't know about Viettel, but with Mobifone if you get your value over 50k, then send a message to phone number 999, you get 450 mb of data valid for thirty days.

For food, Nha Hang Ngon (Restaraunt Delicious) on Pasteur street is very famous and the food is ok. it's in an old French Colonial type place, and is a good gentle start to enter into the local food scene.

My second favorite Pho place, and one that is open 24 hours I believe and has a good mix of locals and foreigners late at night, is Pho Quynh, on the corner of Pham Ngu Lao and Do Quang Dau in the backpacker area. In that general Pham Ngu Lao area there are many restaurants you can try, but it's average quality to the best of my knowledge other than Pho Quynh.

I always take guests to a little alley on Le Thi Rieng street, for rice flour wraps (I don't recall the Vietnamese name for them). It's called Quan Nuong Giay Bac, it's a bit hard to find but Google maps is accurate for it. You order whatever meats you want, they bring an endless supply of the wraps as you go, make your own at your table. And they have excellent fish sauce, some of the best I've had.

caverunner17

​​​​​​the two biggest things for me were not having to tell them a location (since it was already on the Uber app) and that I couldn't get cheated out of money. The taxi I took from the airport claimed he didn't have change for my 500,000 VND i got from the ATM and at 1am when my flight got in,there wasn't much I was willing to do. With Uber since everything is digital, I never had that issue.

Vietnamese sim cards are cheap - I think mine was 200k VND and I got 2.5Gb of data on viettel. What was even more amazing was the coverage. Even in rural areas, I almost always had 3/5-4/5 bars of coverage.

vh_bu98

I agree that the best thing about Uber was that I didn't have to pay them in cash. The way I make sure that I don't get cheated with taxis is that I would actually use Google Map and directed them.

To give people an idea of what rates were like, I was staying in Saigon D1 and had to go to Binh Duong almost daily. It's about 26 kilometers (16 miles) one way and an hour long. Uber was about 211,000 d - 243,000 d ($9.36 USD - $10.78 USD) while a taxi cost me about 400,000 d ($17.75 USD). An extra $16 a day isn't going to break the bank for me, but it does add up after a few days.

I heard that LTE is finally coming to Vietnam next year, so that will be nice.

maverick17

I don't think this is a good assumption at all. When I first visited here a few times I was like this and worried about being cheated. But in living here for years and taking hundreds of taxis, I've never been cheated once. I realized after I knew the city super well from driving myself all the time with motorbikes that if they go an indirect route, 99 times out of 100 it's to avoid traffic. The one time my driver took forever because he didn't know where we were going, he offered to take no money from me cuz we went about 5 minutes longer than necessary.

I'm sure there are some bad drivers out there, but it is few and far between when it comes to making long trips on purpose to run up the meter. Maybe that's due to GPS tracking by the company, or complaints with the gov't, or something, but no matter the reason, I believe that you're making some assumptions that you know the best route and they are cheating drivers in your post.

The issue of them claiming "no change" and/or wanting to decide how much you should tip them is a much bigger issue.

vh_bu98

It's a habit of mine to map out the directions on my phone beforehand to my destination. It's not just Vietnam, but everywhere I go in the world including the US and be it a taxi, Uber, Lyft, or any car service. To me, I just want to know my surroundings and assist when the driver does make a mistake.

My biggest issues with Vietnamese taxi is when they won't accept my credit card. Sometimes they will say that the machine is broken or that they don't know how to use it. As for not having change, I just got into the habit of carrying all denominations which I hate because it makes my wallet big.

Vancouver Guy

Thanks for the tips. Currently in country.

Note to fellow travelers: the Binh Tay market in Cho Lon is closed for renovations, although there is still a lot of activity in immediate vicinity. Tons of construction over there (subway?)

I found Ben Thanh Market very touristy.

Enjoyed walking through District 1 and 3.

Lots of upscale cafés and the like in District 3 by river side. Very pleasant.

Dinner at street side sea food restaurant on Nguyen Thuong Hien Street was great and cheap (<$9 including 2 beers) lots of choice.

Thanks again.

Vancouver Guy

If you have a working mobile, use Uber. Taxi from airport and was immediately ripped off, paid 5x what I should have Saigontourist brand. It was late and hadn't slept. 😩

craz

never had that problem to or from SGN. did you use Mai Linh (green) or Vinsun (white) and make sure of the spelling so its the real company and not a knock off?

AndrewAC

You can get book a 3G mini-wifi router delivered to your hotel on Klook. $5 per day for data. Might save you the hassle of haggling at the airport.

vh_bu98

The airport has free wi-fi so I would use that to connect with Uber if a Vietnamese SIM isn't available.

maverick17

Saigon Tourist is also lower level brand of taxi, sounds like the OP used that. 5x though on the normal 120-200 would mean 600-1 million, depending on hotel and time of day, so that's pretty unfortunate.

Annalisa12

We once stayed at the Hotel Majestic near the river and their breakfast area was outside and not air conditioned. I hated it. I was hot and sweaty before we headed out for the day. Although we had breakfast included in our suite rate we went down the road and ate like a king too for hardly any money.

abraxis

Links? That's the tour that I'd like to do on my visit!

vh_bu98

Most likely they were referring to this.

https://xotours.vn/

dinhoecotour

You can do Cu Chi tunnels tour & Saigon city tour and A day trip to Mekong Delta. For an evening, Agree with above (XO FOODIE TOUR).