Israel to Vietnam Direct Flight, Visa and Costs in Shekels

Tel Aviv now has a direct flight to Vietnam. Arkia started flying Ben Gurion to Hanoi on 5 January 2026, and EL AL adds a second direct service from 24 October 2026. The flight runs about eleven and a half hours eastbound. Israelis need an e-visa, which costs 25 USD and takes three working days. Two weeks costs roughly 4,300 to 8,000 shekels per person.

Before January 2026 the trip meant a connection through Istanbul, Dubai or Bangkok and a door-to-door time closer to twenty hours. Around 50,000 Israelis went to Vietnam last year, and searches from Israel for flights there rose 160% over twelve months.

Flights from Tel Aviv

Arkia quotes about 11 hours 35 minutes outbound and 12 hours 30 minutes on the return, with two meals and checked baggage in the fare. One-way fares have started around 699 USD. Return fares on the direct services have been running roughly 800 to 1,150 USD, which is 2,400 to 3,500 shekels.

The direct Tel Aviv route removed a whole day in each direction. Two weeks in Vietnam is now a fortnight in Vietnam rather than twelve days and two airports.

There is no direct flight to Ho Chi Minh City yet. Arkia has applied for the route, but nothing is on sale. For the south, connect through a Gulf hub or fly into Hanoi and take an internal flight down, which costs 40 to 80 USD booked three or four weeks ahead. Vietnam runs five hours ahead of Israel in winter and four in summer, which is a short enough gap that jet lag mostly sorts itself out in a day.

Both direct services land in Hanoi, which shapes the whole trip. Start north, work south, and fly home from Hanoi or take the Da Nang to Hanoi sleeper train back up at the end. Ten days is the shortest trip that is worth the flight, fourteen is where most people land, and under a week the transfers eat the holiday.

Most Israeli itineraries now run north to south, because that is where the flight puts you.

The Vietnam e-visa for Israeli passports

Israel is not on Vietnam's visa-exemption list, so every Israeli passport holder needs a visa before travelling. The e-visa is the route almost everyone uses.

• Validity: up to 90 days, single or multiple entry
• Cost: 25 USD single entry, 50 USD multiple entry, paid to the government portal
• Processing: three working days officially, longer around Tet and Vietnamese public holidays
• Passport: valid at least six months beyond arrival, with two blank pages
• Where it works: all approved international airports, seaports and land crossings

Apply through the official government portal at evisa.gov.vn and nowhere else. Agency sites charge 40 to 90 USD on top of the same government fee for filling in the same form. Print the approval letter and carry it; immigration at Noi Bai asks for it on paper more often than not.

Both direct services land at Noi Bai. Print the e-visa approval before you fly, because the desk asks for it.

Apply two to three weeks out, not two days. Applications that need manual review sit for a week and there is no phone number to chase them.

Is Vietnam safe for Israeli travellers

Vietnam and Israel have had full diplomatic relations since July 1993 and Israel has kept a resident embassy in Hanoi since that December. An Israeli passport with a valid e-visa is processed at the border like any other, and the passport itself is not a problem at hotels, airports or checkpoints.

The risks worth preparing for are the ordinary ones. Traffic is the first: crossing a road in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City means walking at a steady pace and letting the motorbikes flow around you, which feels wrong for about a day. Renting a motorbike without a licence that Vietnam recognises voids most travel insurance, and that catches more visitors than crime does. Petty theft happens in the tourist districts of the two big cities and almost never in Phong Nha or the countryside. Bag snatching from a moving motorbike is the common version, so carry a bag on the pavement side.

Scams are low level rather than dangerous: taxi meters that run fast, money changers who count short, and tour desks selling a cheaper version of a trip than the one described. Use Grab instead of hailing a taxi, change money at a bank or a gold shop, and book activities with the operator directly.

Security advisories change, so read the current one from Israel's National Security Council before you fly rather than relying on a travel article.

When to visit Vietnam from Israel

Vietnam is 1,650km long and has three separate climates running on different schedules, so there is no single answer. There is a good answer for each break.

Central Vietnam's wet season runs opposite to the north's.

Passover is the best all-country window and it is the one week Israeli families can most easily take. Sukkot is the trap: it lands squarely in central Vietnam's flood season, when river caves and multi-day treks are suspended. If your only fortnight is Sukkot, weight the trip north and south and treat the centre as two days rather than five. The full picture is in the guide to the best time to visit Vietnam.

What two weeks in Vietnam costs in shekels

At September 2026 rates, one shekel buys about 8,570 dong and one US dollar about 26,000 dong. Prices checked September 2026.

Behind those figures: a dorm bed runs 155,000 to 470,000 dong, a bowl of pho 26,000 to 52,000 dong, a restaurant main 91,000 to 221,000 dong, an overnight sleeper bus 250,000 to 650,000 dong. A draft bia hoi in Hanoi is under two shekels.

One shekel bought about 8,570 dong in September 2026, which makes mental arithmetic awkward.

A two-week shape that works from Hanoi

Landing in Hanoi makes the route obvious: north to south, then fly or train back. Four nights in and around Hanoi covers the Old Quarter and either Halong Bay or Sapa. The Hanoi to Halong Bay run takes about two and a half hours on the expressway, and things to do in Sapa fill two days properly.

Then come south. Hanoi to Phong Nha is an overnight sleeper bus or train, or a short flight into Dong Hoi. Three nights in Phong Nha buys the caves, which is the part of Vietnam that looks least like anywhere else and the part most Israeli itineraries skip entirely because it is not on the Hanoi to Hoi An bus route people copy from each other.

Phong Nha holds the largest cave passages on earth, and the ones open to a day visit are the small ones. Three nights covers a show cave, a river cave and a jungle trek, which is the combination most people work out one day too late: Phong Nha cave tours compared by price and difficulty.

Hoi An and Hue take four nights between them, and things to do in Hoi An will absorb more time than you plan. Finish in Ho Chi Minh City, or loop back to Hanoi for the direct flight home. A fuller version is in the two week Vietnam itinerary.

Eating in Vietnam if you keep kosher or eat vegetarian

There is a Chabad house in Hanoi, one in Ho Chi Minh City, one in Hoi An and one in Nha Trang, and they serve meals. Outside those four cities, keeping strictly kosher means self-catering, and there is no kosher certification in the country to fall back on.

Vegetarian is much easier than most people expect. Look for the word chay, which means vegetarian, on a restaurant sign. Buddhist vegetarian restaurants are common and cheap, and they fill up on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month when observant Vietnamese eat meat-free. There are vegetarian restaurants in Hanoi in most districts.

The thing that catches people out is fish sauce. Nuoc mam goes into dipping sauces, broths and marinades by default, including in dishes that contain no visible meat. Say tôi ăn chay, meaning "I eat vegetarian", and it will usually be understood to exclude fish sauce in a chay restaurant and usually not be understood that way anywhere else. On guided treks, tell the operator when you book rather than on the morning, because food is carried in.

The word chay on a sign is the single most useful piece of Vietnamese for a vegetarian traveller.