The right apps turn a trip to Vietnam from stressful to effortless. They are what let you agree a taxi fare before the car moves, read a street food menu you cannot pronounce, message your hotel in the app every Vietnamese business actually uses, and get online the moment you land. This guide covers the 32 apps worth having on your phone in 2026, grouped by what you will actually need them for.
Download the essentials before you fly. Vietnamese app stores, payment verification and phone number requirements are all easier to deal with at home than in an arrivals hall.
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Summary of the Best Apps For Your Vietnam Travel
| App | Best for |
| Traveloka | Book flights, hotels, and activities |
| Agoda | Find and book accommodations |
| Skyscanner | Flight and accommodation search |
| Airbnb | Accommodation booking |
| Booking.com | Find and book accommodations |
| Grab | Ride-hailing and delivery |
| Xanh SM (Green SM) | Electric taxis and ride-hailing |
| Be | Ride-hailing and various services |
| BusMap | Public transportation routes and schedules |
| 12go.asia | Book buses, trains, ferries and transfers |
| Taxi Mai Linh | Metered taxi service |
| Foody | Discover restaurants and street food |
| HappyCow | Locate vegan and vegetarian-friendly restaurants |
| ShopeeFood | Food delivery |
| Google Maps | Navigation, directions, maps |
| Maps.me | Offline maps and navigation |
| TourTeller | Compare tour and activity prices across booking sites |
| Klook | Book discounted tickets, tours, and activities |
| Tripadvisor | Travel recommendations, reviews, and ratings |
| Showaround | Connect with local guides for tours and experiences |
| eSIM apps (Airalo, Saily, Holafly) | Mobile data the moment you land |
| Zalo | Messaging hotels, drivers and restaurants |
| Google Translate | Language translation |
| LacViet Dictionary | Vietnamese-English dictionary |
| Local business pages and travel groups | |
| Vietnamese by Nemo | Language learning, Vietnamese phrases, and vocabulary |
| VNExpress International | News app, information about Vietnam |
| Currency Converter Plus | Currency conversion |
| Toshl Finance | Expense tracker and budgeting |
| Momo (you can switch to English) | Mobile payment app |
| VNPay (you can switch to English) | Mobile payment app |
| Shopee (you can switch to English) | Online shopping platform |
Flights & Accommodations
Traveloka
Traveloka is a Southeast Asia-first travel platform, which makes it noticeably stronger on Vietnamese domestic routes than most global booking sites. If you are hopping between Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, it is usually the first place to check.
With localised services and Vietnamese language support, Traveloka is well equipped to handle the country’s quirks, including domestic carriers that do not always appear on international search engines.
Highlights
- Vietnam-specific search: a dedicated search experience for Vietnam that surfaces flights, hotels and activities inside the country, rather than burying them under global results.
- Localised recommendations: curated travel guides, itineraries and insider tips for Vietnamese destinations.
- Comprehensive booking options: domestic and international flights, accommodation, and activities across Vietnam in one place.
- Promotions and deals: frequent app-only discounts, particularly on domestic flights and hotels.
Agoda
Agoda specialises in accommodation across Asia, and its Vietnam inventory is deep: everything from 200,000 VND hostel beds in the Old Quarter to beach resorts in Phu Quoc. Pricing is often a little sharper here than on Western-first platforms.
Detailed listings with pricing, amenities and guest reviews make it straightforward to judge a property you have never heard of, which is most of them on a first trip.
Highlights
- Extensive hotel selection: budget guesthouses through to luxury resorts, filterable by location, amenities and price.
- User reviews and ratings: feedback from previous guests on quality, service and overall experience.
- Competitive pricing: exclusive deals and member rates are common on Vietnamese properties.
- Booking convenience: search, compare and manage reservations from one account.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is the fastest way to see the whole picture on flights into Vietnam, comparing airlines, dates and routes in one search. Its “whole month” view is genuinely useful here, because fares into Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City swing hard around Vietnamese holidays.
It also covers hotels and car rental, so you can sanity-check prices you have seen elsewhere before committing.
Highlights
- Flight comparison: search across multiple airlines and compare prices, schedules and routes into Vietnam.
- Flexible date search: see a whole month at a glance to find the cheapest departure.
- Hotel and car rental search: compare rates and reviews alongside your flight.
- Price alerts: get notified when fares on your route move.
Airbnb
Airbnb comes into its own in Vietnam for longer stays and for groups. Serviced apartments in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City are plentiful and often cost less per night than a mid-range hotel room, with a kitchen and laundry thrown in.
Hosts are also a practical resource. Many will arrange an airport pickup, recommend the good pho place on their street, or message you the Vietnamese address to show a driver.
Highlights
- Diverse accommodation options: private rooms in family homes through to entire apartments and villas.
- Authentic local experiences: hosts often share recommendations you will not find in a guidebook.
- Cost savings: strong value for groups and stays of a week or longer.
- User reviews and ratings: read previous guests before booking a property sight unseen.
Booking.com
Booking.com is the safe default across Vietnam, from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to coastal Da Nang and Nha Trang. Its free-cancellation inventory is the main reason to use it here: Vietnamese itineraries change more than most, and being able to move a night without losing money is worth a lot.
Highlights
- Extensive accommodation options: hostels, guesthouses, boutique hotels and resorts in every price band.
- User reviews and ratings: a detailed review system that flags cleanliness and location problems before you arrive.
- Instant confirmation and flexibility: immediate booking plus widely available free cancellation.
- Multilingual support: available in English, Vietnamese and many other languages.
Transportation
Grab
If you install one app before flying to Vietnam, make it Grab. It handles car rides, motorbike taxis (locally called xe om), food delivery and parcels, and it is the single biggest thing standing between you and a fare negotiation you are going to lose.
The price is agreed in the app before the car moves. No meter, no haggling, no discussion about the route. For most visitors that certainty matters more than saving a dollar.
Highlights
- Ride-hailing services: GrabCar for comfort and luggage, GrabBike for beating traffic on two wheels.
- Safety and transparency: driver name, photo, vehicle and plate shown in advance, plus live trip tracking and an in-app emergency button.
- Delivery services: GrabFood and GrabExpress for meals, groceries and parcels.
- Cashless payments: link a card or e-wallet, or simply choose cash. Neither requires a Vietnamese bank account.
Xanh SM (Green SM)
Xanh SM is the newest name on this list and one of the most useful. Launched in April 2023 and now operating in 34 provinces and cities, it runs an all-electric fleet of mint-green cars and scooters, both as a conventional taxi you can flag at a rank and as an app-based service. It has taken serious market share from Grab in that time.
One thing that trips people up: the app is now published internationally as Green SM, the company’s unified global brand. Search the App Store or Google Play for “Xanh SM” and you may come up empty. Search “Green SM” instead. The cars on the street in Vietnam are still branded Xanh SM, so you will see both names on the same trip.
For travellers the appeal is twofold: the cars are new and quiet, and the taxi side means you have a trustworthy option even when your phone is dead or you have no data. Fares are broadly comparable to Grab.
Highlights
- Electric fleet: quieter, cleaner rides, and a genuinely lower-emission way to get around Vietnamese cities.
- App or street: book in the app, or take one from a taxi rank at the airport or outside a hotel. The meter is standard and the mint-green livery is unmistakable.
- Bikes as well as cars: an electric motorbike option for short hops through traffic.
- Useful as a backup: when Grab is surging in the rain, it is worth checking the other app before you accept the price.
Be
Be is Vietnam’s home-grown ride-hailing platform, founded in 2018 by Be Group and now a genuine competitor to Grab rather than an also-ran. It offers beBike for motorbike rides and beCar for cars, plus food delivery and courier services.
Fares often come in slightly under Grab, which makes it worth having as a second app to price-check against. The one catch for visitors is that signing up generally requires a Vietnamese phone number, so it suits longer stays more than a short trip.
Highlights
- Motorbike and car options: beBike for short hops through traffic, beCar for longer or wetter journeys.
- Cost-effective: fares are frequently a little cheaper than the international platforms on the same route.
- Driver screening: Be vets and trains its drivers, and shows driver and vehicle details before pickup.
- Beyond rides: food delivery, deliveries and even flight and bus tickets sit inside the same app.
BusMap
Vietnamese city buses are absurdly cheap, often under 10,000 VND a ride, but the network is close to unreadable without help. BusMap is that help: route maps, timetables, fares and live bus tracking for Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other major cities.
Highlights
- Bus route information: maps, schedules and fares for specific lines and stops.
- Real-time tracking: see where your bus actually is instead of guessing at the stop.
- Route planning: enter start and destination and get suggested routes, including transfers.
- Simple interface: usable in English and quick to search, which matters when you are standing on a hot street corner.
12go.asia
12go.asia is the one to use for getting between cities. Vietnam’s long-distance network is a patchwork of sleeper buses, trains, ferries and private operators, most of which have no English website and no way to book from abroad. 12Go aggregates them into a single search with a single checkout.
It is particularly worth it for the routes that catch people out: Hanoi to Sapa, Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne, the Reunification Express down the coast, and the ferries out to Phu Quoc and Cat Ba.
Highlights
- Multiple modes of transport: buses, trains, ferries, private transfers and flights in one search.
- Extensive network coverage: routes between all the major Vietnamese cities plus onward connections into Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
- Book before you arrive: pay by card from home, which is not possible with most local operators.
- Operator reviews: ratings and feedback let you avoid the sleeper bus everyone complains about.
Taxi Mai Linh
Mai Linh is one of Vietnam’s largest and longest-established taxi companies, recognisable by its green and white cars. Its real value to travellers is coverage: ride-hailing apps thin out in smaller towns, but Mai Linh still runs there, and you can call the hotline rather than relying on data.
Highlights
- Extensive coverage: operates in major cities and in many smaller towns where app-based services are patchy.
- Professional drivers: trained drivers with good local knowledge, which helps when an address is vague.
- Metered pricing: the meter runs and is visible, removing the negotiation.
- Works without data: book by app or by phone. Useful before you have a SIM sorted.
Food review & delivery
Foody
Foody is where Vietnamese people actually look up restaurants, which makes it a better guide to street food than any English-language review site. Now part of the Shopee group and closely tied to ShopeeFood, it covers everything from banh mi carts to fine dining.
The interface leans Vietnamese, so expect to lean on Google Translate. That is a fair trade for reviews written by locals rather than by other tourists.
Highlights
- Extensive database: restaurants, cafes and street food vendors across every Vietnamese city.
- Local reviews and ratings: opinions from Vietnamese diners, not just the tourist trail.
- Full listing details: menus, prices, opening hours, contact details and photos.
- Nearby recommendations: location-based suggestions for wherever you happen to be standing.
HappyCow
Vietnam is easier for vegetarians than its reputation suggests, thanks to a strong Buddhist tradition of com chay cooking, but finding those places is hard without local knowledge. HappyCow maps them, along with vegan-friendly restaurants that will adapt a dish.
One caveat worth knowing: fish sauce and shrimp paste appear in a lot of dishes that look plant-based. HappyCow reviews often flag exactly this, which is why it beats guessing.
Highlights
- Vegetarian and vegan directory: an extensive listing of plant-based restaurants across Vietnam, with reviews, hours and menus.
- Vegan-friendly listings: mainstream restaurants with reliable plant-based options, not just dedicated venues.
- Community reviews: first-hand reports from other plant-based travellers, including hidden animal ingredients.
- Global coverage: the same app works for the rest of your trip, not just Vietnam.
ShopeeFood
ShopeeFood is one of the two dominant food delivery services in Vietnam alongside GrabFood, and its restaurant coverage runs deeper into small local kitchens. After a long travel day, being able to order proper bun cha to your hotel room for the price of a coffee at home is a small luxury.
Highlights
- Deep restaurant coverage: thousands of partners including small local kitchens the international apps miss.
- Simple ordering: browse menus, customise orders and track delivery in real time.
- Fast delivery: a dense driver network in the major cities keeps waits short.
- Cashless or cash: pay through ShopeePay or hand over notes at the door.
Maps & navigation
Google Maps
Google Maps is well covered in Vietnam and does the everyday heavy lifting: finding your hotel, working out whether that cafe is still open, and estimating how long the traffic will actually take.
Two habits worth adopting here. Download the offline map for each city before you arrive, and save your hotel with its full Vietnamese address so you can show a driver the screen rather than attempting the pronunciation.
Highlights
- Accurate maps and directions: detailed coverage of Vietnamese cities, roads and landmarks with turn-by-turn navigation.
- Real-time traffic: essential in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where a 5 km trip can take 15 minutes or 50.
- Public transport information: bus routes and estimated arrival times in the major cities.
- Business listings and reviews: opening hours, photos and reviews for restaurants, hotels and attractions.
Maps.me
Maps.me is built on OpenStreetMap data and works entirely offline, which makes it the backup for the places Google gets thin: trekking routes around Sapa and Ha Giang, rural roads in the Mekong Delta, and anywhere your signal disappears.
Worth knowing: much of the original Maps.me team went on to build Organic Maps, an ad-free open-source alternative running on the same underlying data. If Maps.me feels cluttered, try that instead.
Highlights
- Offline maps: download detailed maps of Vietnam, including remote areas, before you lose signal.
- Hiking and trail data: OpenStreetMap footpaths that do not appear on mainstream maps.
- Points of interest: landmarks, attractions, restaurants and accommodation, all available offline.
- Offline navigation: turn-by-turn directions with no data connection required.
Exploring local experiences
TourTeller
Here is the problem with booking tours in Vietnam: the same Ha Long Bay cruise, the same Cu Chi Tunnels day trip and the same Hoi An cooking class are sold on Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook, Civitatis and half a dozen others, frequently at different prices. Checking each site individually is tedious, and most people simply do not.
TourTeller is a meta-search engine for tours and activities. Search once, see the same experience across every major booking platform side by side, and book through whichever comes out cheapest. It is the same idea as Skyscanner, applied to things to do rather than flights.
Highlights
- Cross-platform price comparison: the same tour from multiple booking sites in one view, so you are not guessing whether you overpaid.
- Wide inventory: tours, tickets, day trips and transfers across Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hoi An, Sapa and Ha Long Bay.
- Reviews in context: ratings and review counts shown alongside price, so the cheapest option is not the only signal.
- No account needed: search and compare, then book on the provider’s own site.
Klook
Klook is Asia-focused, which shows in its Vietnam inventory: it carries plenty of local operators that Western platforms never list, and its mobile e-vouchers work smoothly at Vietnamese attractions.
Highlights
- Wide range of activities: city tours, cultural experiences, adventure activities, attraction tickets and food tours.
- Competitive prices: frequent discounts and bundles on popular Vietnamese experiences.
- User reviews and ratings: quality and value feedback before you commit.
- Mobile e-vouchers: scan and go, no printing required.
Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor remains the largest pool of traveller reviews for Vietnamese hotels, restaurants and attractions. Treat the rankings with a pinch of salt, since they skew towards places that cater to tourists, but the forums are genuinely useful for specific logistics questions.
Highlights
- User reviews and ratings: first-hand accounts from travellers who have already been.
- Destination information: opening hours, admission fees, background and nearby amenities.
- Ranked listings: a quick shortlist of well-regarded options in each city.
- Traveller forums: ask a specific question and get an answer from someone who was there last month.
Showaround
Showaround connects you with locals who show you their city on their own terms. In Vietnam that often means a student who wants to practise English taking you to the food streets no tour bus goes near, for a fraction of what a formal tour costs.
Highlights
- Local expertise: guides who live there and can explain what you are looking at.
- Personalised itineraries: agree what you want to see and how long you have, directly with your guide.
- Authentic cultural access: local customs, neighbourhood food and places that never make a guidebook.
- Verified guides: profiles are checked and reviewed by previous travellers.
Communication & connectivity
eSIM apps (Airalo, Saily, Holafly)
This is the one to sort out before you fly, because almost everything else on this list needs data. Grab, Xanh SM, Google Maps, Zalo and translation all stop being useful the moment you are offline, and the arrivals hall is a bad place to be shopping for a SIM.
An eSIM is bought and installed from home in a few minutes and activates when you land. Airalo is the one most travellers end up using: it has a Vietnam-specific plan and a Southeast Asia regional plan, and the whole process takes about five minutes. Saily and Holafly work the same way if you prefer them. Vietnamese data is cheap by global standards, and coverage from the major networks is good even in rural areas.
If your phone does not support eSIM, buy a physical SIM from an official Viettel or Vinaphone counter in the arrivals hall rather than a kiosk outside.
Highlights
- Connected on landing: install before departure and activate as the plane doors open.
- No passport, no queue: none of the registration paperwork that comes with a physical Vietnamese SIM.
- Keep your own number: your home SIM stays active for calls and bank verification codes.
- Regional plans: if Vietnam is one stop on a wider Southeast Asia trip, a regional plan covers the lot.
One limitation to be aware of: most eSIM data plans do not give you a Vietnamese phone number. That is fine for Grab and Google Maps, but apps that require local SMS verification, such as Be, may not work.
Zalo
Zalo is Vietnam’s own messaging app and it is close to universal. Hotels, homestay hosts, tour operators, drivers, tailors in Hoi An and even small restaurants use it as their primary contact channel, often in preference to email or phone.
Most travellers only discover this when a guesthouse replies “please Zalo me” and they have no idea what that means. Install it before you go and a whole layer of communication opens up, including sending your hotel a photo of an address, confirming a pickup time, or asking a driver where he has parked.
Highlights
- How Vietnam actually communicates: the default channel for businesses, guides and accommodation hosts.
- Free messaging and calls: text, voice and video over data, plus photo and location sharing.
- Official business accounts: many hotels and operators respond faster on Zalo than by email.
- English interface available: switch the language in settings after installing.
Google Translate
English is not widely spoken outside tourist areas, and Vietnamese pronunciation is tonal enough that your attempt at a place name may not land. Google Translate bridges that gap well enough for almost every situation a traveller runs into.
The camera function is the standout here. Point it at a menu written entirely in Vietnamese and you get a readable version instantly, which changes what you are willing to order.
Highlights
- Camera translation: point at menus, signs and labels for an instant on-screen translation.
- Conversation mode: real-time two-way speech translation, which works well with drivers and market sellers.
- Text translation: type or paste text and translate both directions.
- Offline Vietnamese: download the language pack before you travel so it works without data.
LacViet Dictionary
Where Google Translate handles whole sentences, LacViet is better for single words, and it includes audio pronunciation with the correct tones. That matters in Vietnamese, where the same syllable said six different ways means six different things.
Highlights
- Comprehensive dictionary: words, phrases and idioms in both directions, with definitions and examples.
- Pronunciation guide: audio for individual words, including the tone.
- Bilingual support: Vietnamese to English and English to Vietnamese.
- Fast lookup: quicker than a full translation app when you only need one word.
Facebook plays a different role in Vietnam than it does at home. A great many small businesses, from cafes to motorbike rental shops to tour operators, run their entire online presence on a Facebook page rather than a website. If you cannot find opening hours anywhere, the Facebook page usually has them.
Highlights
- Business pages as websites: hours, menus, prices and current photos for places with no site of their own.
- Messenger contact: message a business directly and usually get a reply within the hour.
- Expat and traveller groups: active local groups with current, practical answers.
- Event discovery: festivals, night markets and one-off events posted nowhere else.
Vietnamese by Nemo
You will not learn Vietnamese in a two-week trip, but you can learn twenty phrases, and the difference that makes to how you are treated is out of all proportion to the effort. Nemo focuses on exactly that: the practical phrases, with native audio you can imitate.
Highlights
- Practical vocabulary: greetings, directions, numbers, ordering food and other travel situations.
- Pronunciation practice: native speaker audio you can record yourself against.
- Flashcards and quizzes: short repetition sessions that fit into a taxi ride.
- Offline access: download lessons and audio for use without data.
VNExpress International
The English edition of one of Vietnam’s biggest news sites, and the most reliable way to know what is going on while you are there: typhoon warnings in the north, holiday closures, visa rule changes and transport disruption all surface here first in English.
Highlights
- Weather and disruption alerts: typhoon and flooding coverage that affects travel in central and northern Vietnam.
- Visa and entry updates: rule changes reported in English as they happen.
- Travel features: destination coverage written from a Vietnamese perspective.
- Local context: culture and etiquette pieces that help you read situations correctly.
Mobile banking & finance
Currency Converter Plus
Vietnamese dong comes with a lot of zeros, and the 500,000 and 20,000 notes are similar enough in colour that visitors mix them up regularly. A converter you can check in a second is a genuine defence against overpaying by a factor of ten.
Highlights
- Live exchange rates: current VND rates against your home currency.
- Multi-currency support: useful on a multi-country Southeast Asia trip.
- Offline mode: saved rates work without a connection.
- Fast to use: designed for a two-second check at a market stall.
Toshl Finance
Vietnam is cheap enough that costs are easy to lose track of. A 30,000 VND coffee here and a 50,000 VND banh mi there barely register individually, and then you wonder where the week’s cash went. Toshl logs it in the local currency and converts automatically.
Highlights
- Expense tracking: log spending as you go, categorised, with notes and receipt photos.
- Budgeting tools: set limits per category and see where you stand against them.
- Currency conversion: enter amounts in dong and read totals in your own currency.
- Reports: visual summaries of where the money actually went.
Momo
Momo is Vietnam’s most widely used e-wallet, accepted everywhere from convenience stores to street-side coffee shops with a QR code taped to the counter. Vietnam has gone cashless faster than most visitors expect.
Be aware of the limitation: full setup normally requires a Vietnamese phone number and, for higher limits, a local bank account. It is more realistic for a long stay than a two-week holiday, where cash and card will cover you fine.
Highlights
- QR payments everywhere: scan and pay at shops, restaurants, transport and market stalls.
- Wide acceptance: the most commonly displayed wallet logo in Vietnam.
- Fast and secure: transactions clear in seconds with encryption and user verification.
- More than payments: bills, mobile top-ups, transfers and ticket purchases.
VNPay
VNPay is the other major QR payment network, and it is built into the mobile banking apps of most Vietnamese banks. In practice you will see VNPay QR codes at merchants that do not take Momo, so between the two you are covered almost anywhere.
Highlights
- Multiple payment options: QR codes, online payments and mobile banking integration.
- Wide acceptance: merchants, restaurants, hotels and service providers nationwide.
- Secure transactions: bank-grade encryption and authentication.
- Additional services: transfers, bills and mobile top-ups in the same app.
Online shopping
Shopee
Shopee is Vietnam’s dominant e-commerce platform, and it is genuinely useful mid-trip: a rain poncho before the Ha Giang loop, a phone charger you left at the last hotel, a bigger bag for the souvenirs. Delivery in the main cities is often same-day or next-day to your accommodation.
Highlights
- Enormous selection: travel essentials, electronics, clothing and local souvenirs.
- Low prices and vouchers: constant promotions, often well below shop prices.
- Fast local delivery: same-day or next-day to your hotel in the major cities.
- Cash on delivery: no Vietnamese bank account or card required.
Final thoughts
You do not need all 32 of these. If you install four before you fly, make them an eSIM plan, Grab, Google Maps and Zalo. Between them you will land connected, get into the city at a fair price, find your way around, and be able to message the people you need to reach.
Everything else on this list solves a more specific problem, and you can add them as they come up. Have a great trip.
