We put this together after actually doing it — a 12-day, five-course golf trip through Da Nang, Hoi An and Hanoi. This is the practical stuff we wish someone had laid out for us before we booked: visas, flights, money, caddies, dress codes, and roughly what it all costs. For the course-by-course reviews, hotel breakdowns and photos, read the full journey.
New Zealand isn't on Vietnam's visa-exemption list, so you'll need a visa regardless of how short the trip is. For almost everyone this means the e-visa: apply online in advance through Vietnam's official immigration portal, valid for up to 90 days, and available as either single or multiple entry. Processing is usually a matter of days, so don't leave it to the last minute, but it's straightforward.
Your passport needs at least 6 months' validity left from your arrival date and a couple of blank pages. Double-check the current fee and processing time on the official government site before you apply — there are a lot of third-party "visa service" sites that rank well on Google and charge well above the official price for the same thing.
There's no direct flight from New Zealand to Vietnam, so you're connecting no matter what. The most common route from Auckland is via Singapore with Singapore Airlines or Air New Zealand's codeshare, landing at either Da Nang or Hanoi depending on your itinerary. Kuala Lumpur is another common connection point. All up, expect somewhere around 16–20 hours of flying and layover time from Auckland, more if you're starting from Wellington or Christchurch and need a domestic or trans-Tasman leg first.
Book your onward domestic flights (Da Nang ↔ Hanoi, if your trip covers both, like ours did) as a separate step once your international flights are locked in — Vietnam Airlines, VietJet and Bamboo Airways all run that route multiple times a day.
Vietnam is long enough, north to south, that the weather isn't the same everywhere at once — which matters a lot if your trip covers both Da Nang and Hanoi like ours did.
| Region | Best golf window | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Da Nang / Hoi An (Central) | February – May | September – December (rainy/typhoon season, worst in Oct–Nov) |
| Hanoi (North) | October – April, with March–April especially good | May – September (hot, humid, regular downpours) |
We travelled in May, which put us on the tail end of Central Vietnam's good window and the start of Hanoi's hotter stretch — workable, but if you've got flexibility, aim for that February-to-April overlap when both regions are near their best. If you're only playing golf in Da Nang and Hoi An, January through August is a wide, reasonably safe window; just build in flexibility if you're travelling in the shoulder months either side of the wet season.
Our trip focused on Central and North Vietnam, which is where we can actually speak from experience:
The currency is the Vietnamese Dong (VND) — notes only, no coins, and a lot of zeros to get used to (a rough trick: drop three zeros, then multiply by about 1.7 to land close to NZD). Cards are widely accepted at hotels, resorts and golf clubhouses, but street food, markets, taxis and caddie tips are cash-only territory. ATMs are everywhere in the cities and accept international cards, though per-transaction withdrawal limits are lower than we're used to at home, so you'll be making more than one withdrawal over a 12-day trip.
One thing worth knowing before you go: if a card terminal asks whether to charge you in VND or NZD/USD, always choose VND. Taking the "convenience" of home-currency billing (Dynamic Currency Conversion) quietly costs you a worse exchange rate.
An eSIM is the easiest option if your phone supports it — set it up before you fly and you've got data the moment you land, no fumbling for a kiosk with jet lag. If you'd rather have a physical SIM and a local number, all three international airports (Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City) have SIM kiosks in arrivals with staff who'll install it for you. Either way, Grab, Google Maps and Google Translate are the three apps worth having ready before you land.
Grab is the dominant ride-hailing and food-delivery app in Vietnam and it's worth downloading and linking a card before you leave New Zealand. It shows you the fare upfront, which sidesteps the negotiation-with-a-stranger part of getting around. If you do flag a street taxi, stick to the well-known metered brands like Mai Linh or Vinasun and confirm the meter's actually running.
Book tee times ahead, especially if you're travelling in the December-to-March high season — 6 to 8 weeks out isn't overkill for the popular Da Nang courses. Most premium courses can arrange this directly or through a local golf agent.
If you don't want to fly with your own set, club hire is available at most premium courses, generally decent-quality gear (think Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist), though it'll add a meaningful amount to your day. Carts/buggies are handled differently course to course — sometimes bundled into the green fee, sometimes an optional extra, occasionally shared between two players. Worth checking when you book rather than finding out on the first tee.
This is one of the genuine highlights of golf in Vietnam, and it's different from home. At virtually every premium course, a caddie is mandatory, not optional, and it's a one-to-one arrangement — your own caddie for the round, not shared across a group. They're almost always local women, extremely good at their job: club selection, reading greens, distances, keeping pace, and generally making the round easier than you deserve.
Tipping your caddie in cash at the end of the round is expected, not just appreciated — it's a real part of how they're paid. Figure on somewhere in the 300,000–500,000 VND range per round (roughly NZD 22–37), more if they've earned it. Bring smaller notes so you're not trying to make change on the 18th green.
Standard international golf-club rules apply: collared shirts, no denim, soft spikes only. Vietnam's heat and humidity make lightweight, breathable gear worth prioritising over anything else in your bag — and a rain jacket is worth packing regardless of season, since afternoon downpours can turn up outside the official wet season too.
We're deliberately not putting a single headline "per person" number here, because it swings hugely depending on which courses you play, what class of hotel you book, and how many rounds you fit into the trip. What we can tell you from doing it: green fees vary a lot course to course (we've broken down what each one actually cost in the individual course reviews), and on top of the green fee you should always budget separately for the caddie tip and, at some courses, a cart fee — treat the advertised green fee as the floor, not the total.
For the real numbers — what we paid at each course, each hotel, and for food along the way — see the full journey, where every chapter has our actual costs, not industry averages. Want a personalised estimate for your own group first? Try our Vietnam Golf Trip Cost Calculator — adjust golfers, nights and travel style for a full NZD breakdown.
Street food and small local restaurants are cheap and, in our experience, often better than the pricier tourist-facing places. Hotel and resort restaurants cost noticeably more, as you'd expect anywhere. We've covered specific meals, restaurants and our convenience-store snack habit in Chapter 08 of The Journey — see the convenience store food chapter for the stuff nobody else writes about.
Vietnam felt like an easy, safe country to travel through as a group of four blokes in our fifties. The main things to actually be alert to: traffic (motorbikes rule the roads and crossing streets takes some nerve at first), petty theft in crowded tourist areas and markets, and the usual scam-taxi stuff covered above. Nothing that should put you off, just normal travel awareness.
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