Vietnam from India: Flights, Visa and Vegetarian Food

Vietnam is four to five hours from most Indian metros on a direct flight, return fares run roughly ₹23,000 to ₹34,000, and the visa is a 25 USD e-visa applied for online. Ten days costs about ₹60,000 per person on a budget trip and ₹1,11,600 done comfortably, flights included. The hard part is timing, because the Diwali break falls at the wrong moment for central Vietnam.

India sent nearly 750,000 visitors to Vietnam in 2025 and more than 612,000 in the first eight months of 2026 alone. The routes have followed the demand: Hyderabad and Bengaluru both gained direct services to Ho Chi Minh City, on top of the existing links from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

When to visit Vietnam from India

Diwali falls on 8 November 2026, and the Dussehra to Diwali cluster gives many Indian families their longest continuous break of the year. It is also the second-wettest month in central Vietnam, where averages run 320 to 424mm across 17 to 23 rain days.

Two things follow. If you are travelling at Diwali, run the trip north and south and treat the centre lightly, or come in December instead when the rivers have dropped. If you have any choice at all, March is the month that works from Hanoi to the Mekong at once, and it is far cheaper than the festive cluster. The detail sits in the guide to the best time to visit Vietnam.

Book the Diwali window early. Fares out of Delhi and Mumbai for that fortnight move well before the rest of the year does.

India sent more than 612,000 visitors to Vietnam in the first eight months of 2026.

The Vietnam e-visa for Indian passports

Indian passport holders need a visa. There is no visa-free entry and no tourist visa on arrival without a pre-approval letter.

• What to get: the government e-visa, single or multiple entry, up to 90 days
• Cost: 25 USD single entry, 50 USD multiple entry, about ₹2,380 and ₹4,760
• Processing: three to five working days after the Immigration Department receives it
• Documents: passport with six months' validity and two blank pages, a passport photo, your travel dates and a card that works for international payments
• Where: evisa.gov.vn, and nowhere else

The 30-day and 90-day e-visas are the same price, so take the 90-day one. Agents charge ₹2,000 to ₹6,000 on top of the identical government fee for filling in a form you can fill in yourself in ten minutes. If your card is blocked for international transactions, unblock it before you start, because a failed payment mid-application means starting again.

Operators carry and cook all food on these tours, so dietary requirements go in at booking.

Direct flights from India to Vietnam

Kolkata is the shortest hop into Vietnam from India and it is consistently the cheapest departure point. If you can position there, do. Cheapest recent return fares have run around ₹23,400 from Mumbai, with Delhi to Ho Chi Minh City averaging closer to ₹33,700. Those already run from Vietnam tour packages from Bangalore will find the direct Bengaluru service cheaper than the old Singapore or Bangkok connections.

There is no direct flight from India to Da Nang. For central Vietnam, land in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City and take a domestic leg of about ₹3,800 to ₹7,600 booked three or four weeks ahead.

Vegetarian and Indian food in Vietnam

Vietnam is easier for a vegetarian than Thailand and harder than it looks. The country has its own Buddhist vegetarian tradition, ăn chay, and restaurants signed chay serve nothing but vegetarian food, cheaply, in every city and most towns. On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month they are full, because many Vietnamese eat meat-free on those days. The gap between vegetarian and vegan is the fish sauce, and eating vegan in Vietnam covers the phrases that close it.

Chay restaurants fill up on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month, when many Vietnamese eat meat-free.

The trap is fish sauce. Nước mắm goes by default into broths, dipping sauces and marinades, including in dishes with no visible meat. A bowl of pho with vegetables is not vegetarian. In a chay restaurant this is not an issue. Anywhere else, say tôi ăn chay, meaning "I eat vegetarian", and expect to check twice.

For Jain travellers, the position is narrower but workable. There are more than fifty Indian restaurants across Vietnam's main tourist cities, many Indian-run, and most will cook without onion and garlic if asked in advance. Ho Chi Minh City has the deepest choice, Hanoi the next. Outside the cities, plan on chay food plus what you carry. There are vegetarian restaurants in Hanoi in most districts.

Direct flights from four Indian cities changed the maths on this trip. A ten-day Vietnam holiday now costs less than most domestic weeks in peak season.

On a guided trek or a cave tour, food is carried in and cooked on site, so tell the operator when you book and not on the morning. Every serious operator in Phong Nha handles vegetarian meals as routine. Jain requirements need a week's notice.

The overnight run to Dong Hoi is what most Indian itineraries replace with a flight over Phong Nha.

What ten days in Vietnam costs in rupees

At September 2026 rates one rupee buys about 273 dong. Prices checked September 2026.

The comfortable column assumes two people sharing a three-star double. Ground prices behind it: 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 full-day guided cave tour in Phong Nha from 1,950,000 dong.

Central Vietnam averages 320 to 424mm of rain in November, which is when the Diwali break falls.

A ten-day route that uses the flight you booked

Landing in Hanoi, three nights north covers the Old Quarter, a Hanoi to Halong Bay overnight and a day at Mua Cave in Ninh Binh, which is a two-hour drive and the best-value day trip in the country.

Then take the overnight train or bus south to Dong Hoi for two nights in the national park. The things to do in Phong Nha are the part of the trip that looks like nowhere else in Asia, and most Indian itineraries skip it because it is not on the Hanoi to Hoi An flight path. Continue Phong Nha to Hoi An by road, spend three nights there, and fly home from Da Nang or carry on to Saigon for Nguyen Hue walking street and the Mekong if your return is from the south.

If ten days feels tight, the one week Vietnam itinerary cuts it back honestly rather than by rushing.