Does anyone have experience obtaining a travel visa for Vietnam? A specific company you went through? I live in Guatemala, so it will need to be done online as there is no embassy here. I've been told I can get one in Bangkok prior to traveling to Hanoi, but I would much rather have it taken care of ahead of time.

You can do a visa on arrival. One of the tour companies I booked through made the VOA arrangements for me.

Yes, but it all has to be arranged before arriving in Vietnam, correct? Can someone suggest a dependable agency that does this?

Right, it has to be done beforehand, they'll send you a letter of approval that you give to the VOA desk to get your sticker. I booked my Halong Bay tour through Indochina Junk and they took care of it, I don't know any of the independent agencies that do it.

Got mine through CIBT. Went smooth.

http://cibtvisas.com/

When I was looking into going to Vietnam some time back, I thought the Visa on Arrival was an official Vietnamese webpage where you did not have to go through an agency or 3rd party?

I've done it online twice. Don't remember the first but the second time I used Vietnam-visa.com. I didn't have any issues, just make sure you bring a passport size photo with you.

Thanks for the help! If anyone has suggestions fo Hanoi, HCMC, or Hoi An let me know.

Get a tour from HanoiKids. It's a university group of students that are licensed as tour guides so they can practice their English with native speakers. They don't charge anything, just ask that you cover lunch for them and any taxi fare during your tour.

You can get it on arrival, but you have to go through and get the letter first online. The wife did all of the application stuff ahead of time and it was quite easy.

Once you land you have to go to a special counter where they take your passport to the back and then issue it. Make sure you have Dong beforehand because they don't take dollars.

HCMC is pretty cool. I enjoyed walking around there. The "American Atrocities of War" Museum was a bit biased as you would expect, but there were a lot of good restaurants and hawker stalls to eat at in the area.

They didn't find it very amusing when I asked for the "Military Discount" but I got a chuckle out of it.

Beer is cheap and I mean in some places cheaper than bottled water. District 1 is a good area to stay and seemed pretty safe.

They took USD when I was there in 2012, but it had to be a new-looking uncreased bill.

Also, the currency being named "dong" is never not hilarious. "Do I have enough dong for this?" "Oh, it's too much dong? I hear that a lot"

^^^^ This!!! I always had a pocket full of Dong! Honey, do you want some Dong? I have a bunch

Get some clothes made in Saigon (no one calls it HCMC except for the commies). Freggin cheap and you can't get some pretty sharp lookin stuff.

A buddy of mine loves to go a place called Phatty's. It's his usual watering hole. Apocalypse now bar is fun little tourist trap bar.

Not sure if any one mentioned the Cu Chi tunnels. Lots of anti-american propaganda but interesting to see none the less. We took a boat from Saigon up to Cu Chi, it's a few hours and you get to see a little bit of the country side.