Essential Apps for Traveling to Vietnam
How to find a vegan restaurant if you are on a vegan diet or how to find your way around the place once you arrive? Traveling to Vietnam is not that hard if you get some essential apps installed on your mobile phone.
Essential apps for traveling to Vietnam keep your itinerary organized and give you great suggestions for where to go next. They can also help you overcome language barriers and travel in style like any Vietnamese. Take a look at the following travel apps right down below to start your amazing adventure in Vietnam without fear.
Vietnam Travel Guide
This app offers updated guides for major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and many other destinations in Vietnam. You also get access to the latest recommendations of over 3,000 sites including tourist spots, restaurants, and hotels. There’s plenty of background information which is available offline and no roaming charge. Just bring your phone and a travel guide to get to the place you want.
Download Vietnam Travel Guide free on App Store and Google Play
Coc Coc Maps
People around the world have been too familiar with Google Maps but why not try a local-friendly map to find your destinations more easily? Coc Coc Maps is a great Vietnamese substitute for Google Maps. This app features POIs (point of interest) in cities across Vietnam. Apart from well-known spots, Coc Coc Maps helps you locate coffee shops, petrol stations, and ATMs instantly.
» Download Coc Coc Maps for free on App Store and Google Play
Airbnb
This app is for booking homestays instead of ordinary hotels. You can search the Airbnb app by entering details such as where and when you would like to stay, and refine search by room type, price, size, host language, and keywords if you are looking for something specific, such as “riverview” or “pet-friendly”. The best part? You can stretch your dollars far with an Airbnb rental in comparison to a hotel room.
» Download Airbnb for free on App Store and Google Play
Google Translate
If you’ve read some Vietnam travel tips, you would know that some Vietnamese locals can even give you directions in English fairly well. But in some cases, you will realize they can just give you a warm smile as they don’t understand what you want. Google Translate will be a fantastic interpreter to convey your message to the locals.
In case you visit a Vietnamese street food stall and find it impossible to understand the menu then simply take a photo and Google Translate will translate text in photos you’ve already taken. That means you can translate Vietnamese signs and handwritten notes with this app, in addition to text and voice inputs.
» Download Google Translate for free on App Store and Google Play
TripAdvisor
With over 700 million traveler reviews of accommodations, things to do, restaurants and hotels, TripAdvisor helps you find and book places and services at your fingertips. Trips from TripAdvisor also saves and organizes your favorite travel ideas, and you can easily access your saves while you’re on vacation. You are capable of reaching nearby places recommended by TripAdvisor and access mobile tickets for booked tours and activities.
» Download TripAdvisor for free on App Store and Google Play
Grab
Traveling around the cities in Vietnam will be much easier if you have downloaded Grab, a local transport. Apart from car, you can experience local “xe om” and food delivery services with Grab. This app is also good for its spread in other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. You can opt to pay with cash, card or your virtual wallet with GrabPay by Mocca.
» Download Grab for free on App Store and Google Play
Read more on Getting around Vietnam: Easy Ways to Travel in this S-shaped Country
CamScanner
An important travel tip for your next trip is to scan copies of all important documents. This will help when you unluckily end up losing your passport as it’s going to be much easier to get it replaced. You just need to open this app, and your phone will immediately turn into a scanner. Simply take a photo of your ID card, passport, receipts and CamScanner will automatically converts them into PDF files for saves or email.
Download CamScanner free on App Store and Google Play
TripIt
Relieve stress for your trip by getting proper information at the proper time without printing or checking your print screens. TripIt helps organize your travel plans and create a single itinerary for every trip. This essential app is where you can find all your needed information including flights, hotels, restaurants, and transportations. You can also see your distance traveled, trips taken, countries visited and more. TripIt is free with limited functions, and you can upgrade to TripIt Pro if your company uses SAP Concur.
Download TripIt free on App Store and Google Play
Travel Buddy
Travel Buddy makes you never be alone on your trip. The idea here is that you can make friends worldwide, visit your desired destinations and find a local partner to travel with. Travel Buddy connects users with similar itineraries, organizes meetups, travel community events etc. Whatever your trip is, from backpacking, caving, trekking to business trip, you are free to ask questions and get useful travel tips from the locals.
Download Travel Buddy free on App Store and Google Play
HappyCow
Vegan or vegetarian food lovers will never worry about food again with HappyCow. You can search for suitable restaurants based on vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and cuisine types. This app also provides reviews, photos and recipes, allows you to message your friends instantly for a meal at any vegan restaurant.
Download paid version on App Store and paid and free version on Google Play
Foody
If you have no special needs for your meals, you can try Foody – a local app that helps you search and review food locations in almost all cities in Vietnam. You can easily choose where to eat or get the food delivered to you in the blink of an eye.
Download paid version on App Store and paid and free version on Google Play
Read more on Vietnam in 14 Days: Traveling from South to North Vietnam
You don’t have to be very tech-savvy to know how to use these essential apps when traveling to Vietnam. They are all user-friendly and you will have fun getting around Vietnam with these virtual assistants. Traveling now is only a tap away!
© Maika Tours
Written by Trinh Tran
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