Germany to Vietnam: 45 Days Visa-Free and How to Use It

Germans do not need a visa for Vietnam. Forty-five days visa-free on arrival, on any German passport, for any purpose, under a rule that runs to 14 March 2028. Frankfurt to Hanoi is about 11 hours 35 minutes direct, return fares run roughly €690 to €900, and three weeks costs €1,450 to €2,870 per person with the visa line at zero.

That forty-five days is longer than most people plan for, and it changes what is worth doing. A fortnight in Vietnam is a rush. Three weeks is comfortable. Four is possible without a single piece of paperwork.

Vietnam visa rules for German passports

Germany sits on Vietnam's unilateral exemption list under Resolution 44/NQ-CP, alongside France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the Nordic countries. The exemption gives 45 days and ran from 15 March 2025 to 14 March 2028.

The clause worth knowing: the old thirty-day gap between visa-free entries has gone. Leave Vietnam and come straight back, and the 45 days resets from zero. A Vietnam to Laos to Vietnam loop, or a fortnight in Cambodia in the middle of a longer trip, no longer costs you anything at the border. Nobody writes about this and it is the most useful thing on this page. The seasonal side of that is covered in the guide to Vietnam and Cambodia together.

Roads like this are why the north takes longer than the map suggests.

Two further details. Phu Quoc has its own 30-day exemption which does not count against the mainland allowance. And if you genuinely want more than 45 days in one go, the 90-day e-visa costs 25 USD at evisa.gov.vn, which is the only site you should use.

Bring a passport with six months' validity. Carry proof of onward travel, because airlines check it at check-in in Frankfurt more often than Vietnamese immigration does.

Flights from Germany

Munich has Vietnam Airlines service; everything else in Germany connects, usually through Frankfurt, Istanbul, Doha or Singapore. There is no direct flight to Da Nang, so central Vietnam means one domestic leg of €38 to €76 booked three or four weeks ahead.

Jungle Boss runs its multi-day expeditions all year, including through the autumn rains.

On price: November is consistently the cheapest month out of Frankfurt, at around €694 return to Hanoi, with May close behind at about €726. The typical return is nearer €826. Condor has advertised Frankfurt to Ho Chi Minh City from €419.99 in economy. Prices checked September 2026.

Ferien against the Vietnamese weather

Vietnam is 1,650km long with three climates that do not agree with each other. The German holiday calendar hits them at awkward angles.

The six-week Sommerferien are the longest window and the worst weather, which is the German traveller's particular problem. If that is the only slot, go north late in it and accept the rain, or put the whole trip in the south and the centre. Osterferien are short and perfect. The Herbstferien work well for a northern trip and badly for a central one. The national picture is in the guide to the best time to visit Vietnam.

A restaurant main runs 91,000 to 221,000 dong, roughly three to seven euros.

One correction to what most German weather pages say about autumn in central Vietnam: the caves do not close. Jungle Boss shuts exactly three tours for September, October and November, Bach Ma Discovery and the two Do Quyen Waterfall trips, and reopens them on 1 December. Everything else, including every multi-day expedition, runs all year. What stops across the park is river caves and swimming, not caving.

Noi Bai is where most German itineraries begin, and the e-visa check happens before this hall.

What three weeks in Vietnam costs in euros

One euro bought about 29,900 dong in September 2026.

Ground prices behind that: a dorm bed is 155,000 to 470,000 dong, a restaurant main 91,000 to 221,000, an overnight sleeper bus 250,000 to 650,000, a soft-berth sleeper train €19 to €42. A Jungle Boss day tour starts at 1,950,000 dong, about €65, and a two-day cave expedition runs 7,900,000 dong, about €264. Affordable Vietnam islands are where the sparsam column stretches furthest.

The Hai Van Pass sits between Hue and Hoi An and is worth the slower route.

Take out an Auslandskrankenversicherung before you go. The European health card is worthless here, and any operator running a multi-day expedition will expect you to be covered independently of the basic accident insurance included in the tour price.

The 45-day visa-free allowance is the one thing German travellers underuse. It is long enough for the whole country at a sensible pace, without a single visa fee.

A three-week Vietnam route from north to south

Five nights in the north covers Hanoi, Ninh Binh and either Halong Bay or the Ha Giang loop, which needs four days of its own and is the best thing in northern Vietnam for anyone comfortable on a motorbike.

Then south. Getting to Phong Nha is an overnight train or bus to Dong Hoi, and four nights there is enough for a day tour, a rest day and a two-day expedition. The best caves in Phong Nha are the reason to give it four rather than two, and Phong Nha town is small enough to be pleasant rather than touristy.

After that it arranges itself: Hue to Hoi An over the Hai Van Pass, four nights in Hoi An, then the Mekong Delta and Saigon. If you would rather loop back north, Phong Nha to Ninh Binh closes the circle. A tested longer version is in the 3 week Vietnam itinerary.

Current security and entry advice is on the Auswärtiges Amt country page, worth a look for the storm season between September and November.