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About this tool
Build a prioritised Vietnam etiquette briefing for pagodas, street food, markets and traffic, with the legal red lines flagged.
This guide turns Vietnamese etiquette into a ranked briefing for the places on your itinerary — pagodas, street-food stalls, markets, traffic, homes, the northern highlands — weighted by how much trouble getting each rule wrong actually causes. It is organised around the two ideas that explain most of it: relative age decides how people address each other, because Vietnamese uses kinship terms rather than a neutral word for you, and nobody should be made to lose face in public. Rules with legal consequences, including the compulsory motorbike helmet and the licence needed to ride, are shown whatever you tick.
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The helmet law, riding licences and drone permits are surfaced regardless of your itinerary.
The pronoun rules are treated as etiquette rather than grammar, which is what they are in practice.
Tick what you already know and the weighted percentage shows what is still ahead of you.
Yes to both. Helmets have been compulsory for riders and passengers on all roads since 15 December 2007, including on short xe om rides. Riding anything above 50cc requires a Vietnamese licence or an international permit Vietnam recognises, and police checks are routine. Most travel insurance is void if you were riding without the right licence, which matters far more than the fine.
Do not touch anyone's head, do not point your feet at a person or an altar, and never stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice — that copies the incense burned for the dead at a family altar. Raising your voice in public is the other big one: it makes both sides lose face and guarantees the problem will not be solved.
Step off the kerb at a slow, steady walking pace and keep going in a straight line. Riders read your speed and direction and steer around you, so the dangerous move is stopping suddenly, running, or stepping back halfway. Waiting for a gap in the traffic does not work in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, because the gap never comes.
It is optional but has become normal in tourism. Rounding up a fare, leaving the small change at a casual restaurant, or 5 to 10 per cent where you had proper table service all work, and guides and drivers are usually tipped directly at the end. Check the bill first, as some restaurants already add a 5 per cent service charge on top of VAT.