This is one of the first big questions everyone asks as soon as they land on their trip to Vietnam. If your usual currency is not the US dollar, it is not really necessary to exchange money before you travel. In Vietnam, you can exchange both euros and dollars without any problems.
As in all cities, when you arrive at the airport you will find several places to exchange money. The exchange rate here is worse than in the city centre, so we recommend waiting until you reach your hotel to avoid losing a lot of money in the process.
What is the best option for exchanging currency?
Once you are in the city centre, you have the option of exchanging at the hotel (which is usually somewhat worse, but good if you are in a hurry and do not want to waste time, as the difference is not very significant); or banks, which have fixed opening hours and offer a better rate than hotels. Lastly, there are exchange offices of dubious legality.
There are two reasons why this last option may be of interest:
The first is that going is quite an experience. You arrive and there are usually people there. You start looking around and, in the small display case, there are gold pieces in different shapes. Some coins. Jade figures that seem to bring them luck. If you come with a lot of money to exchange, whether euros, dollars, Japanese yen, and I think any currency you can think of, you are lucky enough to be taken into the second room. That is where the real business happens. You feel uncomfortable because you are carrying too much, possibly 1,000 or 2,000 euros; you have left some at the hotel so it will not get stolen, and you tell yourself you are safer this way. You go into the room and find a line of eight Vietnamese people sitting on tiny plastic chairs. Lined up against the wall, each with their own banknote-counting machine.
Next to you, a Vietnamese woman arrives wearing sunglasses and squeezed into a black dress with the hem above her knees. From her Chanel bag she takes out a wad of $100 bills—more than we would normally earn in a month. Suddenly all your worries vanish and you hand your ten €200 notes to the Vietnamese man. He shows you, on his full-size Casio calculator, the amount you will receive. You smile at him. You wait sitting on the plastic stools. You feel they are going to split at any moment and everyone will laugh at you—and with good reason. The Vietnamese man comes back with a bundle of Vietnamese dong in his hand. He stands in front of the banknote-counting machine. He shows it to you.
Congratulations, you are now a millionaire. You have millions of Vietnamese dong, so you can begin your trip through Vietnam.
The second is that the exchange rate is better. A little better than at the banks, but the first reason alone has already made it worth coming here.
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