Taking the train in Vietnam is fairly #Awesome, but there are at least 5 things to know before you take the train the train in Vietnam. Do not though fret, the Street Food Guy is here to help….
You can read about taking the train from Saigon to Da Nang here.
5 Things to know before you take the train in Vietnam
Here’s our top 5 tips….
5) – Not all tickets are created equal
At the bottom of the barrel are hard seats, which are like hell on earth, while the soft-sleepers are pretty decent. In the middle are the 6 birth cabins, which are less fun if you are on the top.
4) – You will most likely be sharing a room
Have romantic ideas of getting a private room? Well unless you are really lucky, or you have 4 people traveling together you will not get a private room. There has been no Trans-Siberian gentrification of Vietnamese Railways.
3) – They take a long time
How long you cab last on a train will depend on you. I have personally regularly done 2-7 days on trains and love it. Not everyone is the same, so it is worth testing the waters a bit.
Top tip – getting on at 7 pm or so and traveling for 15-16 hours, such as Saigon to Da Nang will mean not having to sleep too early, or get up too early.
2) – Its all about the prep!
While you can buy lots of things when you take the train in Vietnam from hot coffee to hot food, should you need something a bit extra like cigarettes, vodka, or lotteria then you need to stock up prior to the journey.
1) – Trains are loud and stop in the night!
I personally sleep like a baby on trains as I have so much experience doing the Beijing – Pyongyang route, but you should note that trains are loud! Thus includes the train itself, as well as people snoring and making other bodily noises.
Trains in Vietnam also move quite a lot, so be prepared for shunting as the train does indeed pull into stops at night.
Want do Vietnam by train? Check out our guide to traversing the country by train.