Where to change money in Vietnam

Where can I change money?

This is one of the first big questions what everyone does alone when they land on their trip to Vietnam. If your common currency is not the US dollar, you don’t really need to change currency before you travel. In Vietnam you can easily change both Euros and Dollars .

As in all cities, when arriving at the airport you will find several places to change money. The change here is worse than in the center of the city , so we recommend that you wait to get to the hotel and avoid losing a lot of money in the process.

What is the best option to change currency?

Once these in the center of the city, you have the option of the hotel (which is usually something worse, but good if you go in a hurry and do not want to waste time because the difference is not very significant either); banks , which are marked by fixed schedules and whose change is better than hotels. Finally, exchange offices of dubious legality.>.

There are two reasons why the latter may be interesting:

The first because going is quite an experience . You arrive and there are always people. You start to observe and in the small show there are gold pieces of different shapes. Some coins. Jade figures that seem to bring them luck. If you come with a lot of money to change, either Euros, Dollars, Japanese Yen and I think that any coin you can think of, you are lucky enough to move to the second room . There where the mejunje is. You are uncomfortable because you have too much on you, possibly 1.000 or 2.000 Euros, you have left part in the hotel so that it is not stolen and so you think that you are safer. You go into the room and find yourself with a row of 8 Vietnamese sitting on miniature plastic chairs. Punished against the wall and each one with their own money counting machine.

At your side comes a Vietnamese woman with sunglasses embedded in a black dress with her skirt above her knees. From her Channel bag she gets a wad of $100 bills which we wouldn’t normally earn in a month. Then all your worries go away and you give your ten 200 Euro bills to the Vietnamese. He shows you in his Casio family size calculator the exchange rate that corresponds to you. You smile at him. You sit on the plastic benches. You think they’re going to leave at any moment and they’re all going to laugh at you with reason. The Vietnamese comes with a wad of Vietnamese dong in hand. It is placed in front of the banknote counting machine. It shows it to you.

Congratulations, you’re a millionaire now. You own millions of Vietnam Dong so you can start your journey through Vietnam.

The second because the change is better . A little bit better than the banks, but for the first reason it has already been worth coming here.

Are you thinking of travelling to Vietnam? Do you want us to organise the trip of your dreams? Have a look at our offers or send us an email.

Did you like the article? Subscribe and don’t forget to join our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ community.

Related tips