Travel Tips and Big Changes - Vietnam 2026.

If you're planning to visit Vietnam this year, there's a lot of recent changes that can seriously affect your trip. So in this video, I'm going to talk about the big news and events that are happening in Vietnam in 2026. We'll talk about what's changed, what's coming, what's the most important stuff you need to worry about before you get here. My name is Travis. I've lived in Vietnam almost seven years. I try to help foreigners have a better experience when you come to visit. Let's start with the biggest holiday of the year, which is the celebration of the lunar new year. It's called Tet holiday. The dates change every single year, but this year will be February 14th to the 22nd. It's a great time to be in Vietnam, but a lot of the country shuts down during this time. So I've got a couple of tips in case you're traveling then. Domestic travel will be absolutely rammed. You want to make sure you have everything booked in advance. Flights, buses, trains, everything will eventually sell out because all the locals are traveling back and forth between the big cities and their hometowns. You're much better off if you choose one place to settle down throughout the holiday. Just enjoy the celebrations. Everyone decorates. There'll be big festivals. It's hard to explain everything that Tet holiday entails, but it's a great vibe. Also keep in mind that the visa office is closed for the entire holiday. So you won't be able to apply for visas or do visa runs during this time. Make sure you got everything processed before the Now let's talk about a couple of new laws that have just gone into place. This first one should make everyone happy, but another one might be a bummer for some of you. So the first is a ban on noise pollution. This refers to people singing karaoke late at night, clubs that blast music late into the morning. It's even common for local businesses to have giant speakers outside playing advertisements throughout the day. So this law isn't limited just to nighttime. It can be enforced anytime throughout the day for unreasonable levels of noise. This is something that foreigners always complain about in Vietnam. To be honest, if you live here long enough, you barely notice it, but apparently the government has noticed and they're going to try to manage it. Now how strongly they decide to crack down is going to be another question, but it's going to be interesting to see what happens. The next law is a ban on e-cigs and vaping. So these have been illegal for a while, but they've added new fines for using them in public. So it's not just about importing and selling them. Again, who knows how seriously they're going to crack down, but I would probably avoid using vapes in public places like coffee shops and restaurants. You for sure will not be able to bring them into the country. They'll be confiscated at the airport and they're probably going to be pretty hard to buy in town. I'm definitely not recommending smoking cigarettes, but if you are a smoker, Vietnam's probably the best place to do it. A pack of cigarettes here is about 50 cents. Just a quick interruption, but don't worry, this is not an ad. I just wanted to talk about one more piece of news that I've just heard about. It's not a huge development, but it's pretty interesting. Vietnam has just introduced a new law that will put a ban on unskippable ads on social media and streaming sites. Before now, if you're watching YouTube, for example, you could get multiple 30 second unskippable ads within a single video. The new law will limit this to five seconds before you can skip. So if you watch a lot of YouTube like I do, it was really annoying. You almost had to upgrade to premium so you could avoid the ads. As a YouTuber, part of my income relies on the ads that you see during videos. So my revenue will definitely go down, but irrelevant ads are annoying for everyone, so I'm all for it. That's it. Let's keep going. I get a lot of questions about visas and the two main things people are worried about. One, are they going to crack down and limit consecutive visa runs for foreigners staying long-term on a tourist visa? And number two, is there ever going to be better visa options like a retirement or golden visa? Well, they did just announce a brand new visa category, but it's nothing to get excited about because it doesn't apply to 99% of us. So first of all, there's no reason to think there's going to be any major changes to the tourist visa situation for now. As it stands, it's legal for foreigners to do consecutive visa runs indefinitely. As long as you don't overstay a visa or break any laws, leave the country every 90 days, you can come back in the same day if you use a visa agent. There's been talks and proposals about a retirement golden visa, but nothing has happened yet and there's no timeline in place. So this new visa is called the UD1 visa. It's granted to foreigners who are high quality human resources in the digital technology field. So it's for foreigners who are going to play a role in promoting economic growth and the development of technology in Vietnam. So it's clear that at least for now, Vietnam is focused on bringing in experts and specialists that are going to help with the development of the country. Some type of retirement visa is probably next on the agenda, but I don't expect any major announcements until probably later in this year. Definitely subscribe to the channel. If anything develops, you'll hear from me first. Let's go get a coffee. So quick update on the weather situation. You may have heard on the news about massive typhoons and flooding that hit central Vietnam back in late October, early November. So a lot of people are asking me if the region has recovered yet and if they should still plan a trip here. The first thing to know is that typhoons and flooding happens every single year in central Vietnam. So the locals know how to respond. There was a lot of damage. Some people did die, mostly in Hoi An and into the countryside going inland from Da Nang. The city of Da Nang itself usually experiences very little flooding. There's no physical danger in Da Nang when a big typhoon hits. It's really windy, heavy rain for a few days. It's nothing to panic about. Even in Hoi An, which got hit very hard, they were fully recovered and welcoming tourists about two weeks after the last major typhoons. I don't mean to downplay it. Some people lost their lives. A lot of Vietnamese lost their homes. But the Vietnamese are resilient. A lot of aid comes in from the government, foreign aid from other countries. Even the local expat community steps up and contributes a lot of food, money, resources to help everyone get back on their feet. So the bottom line is the region is fully recovered. It's totally fine to plan a trip here. We are still in rainy season, but it's been a very mild rainy season up until now. We've had some really great weather through December. There's still going to be a little bit more rain on and off, but come February, March, we should have the best weather of the year. I'm actually a little bit chilly right now. It's about 22 degrees Celsius or about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. That's mostly because I'm a baby and I don't like cold weather. But for most people, it should be pretty nice. The weather is just very hit or miss. We've had a lot of sunny blue skies, but it can also rain for three days at a time. So you just got to hope you get lucky with the weather. So overall tourism continues to develop in Da Nang and around the country. They've got at least 50 major events and festivals planned for 2026. Probably the highlight of the year is going to be the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival. This happens every Saturday night for a six-week stretch in June and July. Two countries take turns putting out a 20-minute firework display. It's really impressive. If you're in Vietnam during this time, you're going to want to try to catch it. I'm American. We do fireworks pretty well, but these are some of the best fireworks I've ever seen in my life. It's also the busiest time of the year in Da Nang, so it's really smart to get your hotels booked way ahead of time in advance. If you can, try to find a hotel with a good river view. It's going to save you trying to scramble last minute to find somewhere to watch the fireworks from. If you're going to be moving to Da Nang soon, check out our expat community we have in town. It's called the Da Nang Social Club. I'll help you with everything you need to know about moving and living in a foreign country. We do a big group meetup every month. For now, you can check out the next video. I talk about why Vietnam is going to be one of the best destinations in the world in 2026. I'll see you over there. Peace!