I am travelling in Vietnam for about 3 weeks soon and want to use my iPad to occasionally browse the Internet. My iPad is wifi only (no sim) and I have an iPhone which I can use and tether the iPad to via personal hotspot.
What is the most cost efficient way of accessing the web? Should I get a sim, data only type, when I arrive in Vietnam?
To be honest, I am clue-less and a novice overseas traveller. Please help me!
Wifi access in Vietnam
LLuckyCJ on 23/07/2015 - 09:34
Comments
Not only in the hotels, but in the bars and restaurants too.
Even the cheapish places ones will have wifi.
Not the street carts though :PJust ask them for the password and you're good.
Yes, we stayed at 4 different hotels (4 cities)in Vietnam early this year, all hotels has free wifi (one even came with its own laptop!).
If you do want to get a prepaid data SIM for any country, check out this wiki which is an excellent source of information:
http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Prepaid_SIM_with…
/unrelated. If you are clue-less and a novice overseas traveler, you might want to go with someone else who isn't. That will save you from a lot of troubles.
Most (if not all) Cafe shops in major cities in Vietnam have free wifi access. Just ask.
If you're travelling with others, be sure to get a local sim to keep in contact with them. Internet is best avoided while travelling. Enjoy!
As a first timer in Forums I am really impressed and most appreciative of the constructive advice OB'ers have provided. Thanks heaps!!
Lesser starred hotels will not have Wifi, and some hotels which have wifi will have weak signals. For these, camping by the room door/hotel hallways will be the only way to get decent reception.
That said, a local sim is not very expensive and will let u have data on the go.
Just get yourself a prepaid sim for your phone and hotspot it everywhere. That's what I did. From memory it was only about $20 at the airport. While wifi is everywhere, it's handy to not really have to worry about it.
Get a local SIM. It's relatively cheap and the 3G is SO FAST there.
Much better than anything we have in Australia!! I think it's because their network is new and their country is smaller.
You'll need to do some texting to set up the plan though, read the wiki linked by the dude in the comments above
Agree with pretty much everyone. Free Wi-Fi is available at most hotels, cafes etc.
I also got a prepaid Viettel SIM from the airport in Hanoi (Make sure your iPhone is unlocked).
The SIM was handy to check things when out on the road.Where laptops are provided for use, I would only use them for standard web browsing, certainly not for any banking, personal email etc. Use your iPad / iPhone for this.
Yeah the amount of internet access was absurd. I could get it anywhere, except in fancy hotels where they charge for it. Most 4star places will give it to you for free. Some of them literally just had unsecured networks so I did all my TV show watching through that as well!
And yes, get a local sim. It was easy (the doorman went down the road and got me one) and worked instantly
Just remember the english skills aren't amazing, so be specific about what you need
You should defiantly get a local sim for your iPhone.
Not sure about Vietnam but in the US it was so useful having google maps and even google in general to look things up. Your hotel will have wifi but having it out and about should be useful.
I imagine in a non English speaking country it'll be really useful.
Still not a bad idea to note down a few key phrases in your phone notes
The phrases I usually learn when I'm in a foreign country are:
"Hi My name is …"
"Excuse me"
" I am lost"
"Where are the toilets?"
"I don't speak <native language>"/ My <native language> is not very good"
"Do you speak English?"
"Does anyone here speak English"
I usually also try and learn a few basic restaurant phrases
"The bill please"
"Can I see a menu?"
There are free wifi at hotels and cafes everywhere in Vietnam. You can buy a sim card for your iPhone and use the internet that way. Its not too expensive from what I can remember, much cheaper than Australia. I would recommend buying the sim card from a retail store in one of the shopping centres, they'll be able to help you set everything up and should be able to communicate in English.
I spend 10 days there in May and found the wifi to be plentiful . Most places that don't even have a public toilet seem to have wifi. With the exception of SGN Airport the speeds where enough to browse.
Local sims are really cheap and also a good idea if you must have internet access and don't want to chance the next wifi place.
Unlike Australia, in most places in the world your hotel will have free Wifi. From memory, most if not all the places I stayed in Vietnam had wifi in the hotels.
Have a great trip!