Expats in Vietnam

Vietnam pulls a particular kind of foreigner. Teachers and engineers still arrive on company contracts, but the fastest-growing group is people who already have income and pick the country for the life it buys. Remote employees, freelancers, founders running small online businesses. They land in Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang, sign for a furnished apartment within days, and are back at work by the end of the week.

What separates Vietnam from the obvious comparison, Thailand, is how concentrated foreign life is. Some districts feel used to foreign residents, while the rest of the country stays local. That shapes everything: where you find a coworking desk, which landlords answer messages in English. This page covers the cities, the communities and the practical side.

Where expats live in Vietnam

Foreign residents cluster in a short list of places, and the list has barely changed in a decade. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi hold the salaried crowd: corporate transfers, teachers, embassy staff, anyone who needs an office and an international school nearby. Da Nang and Nha Trang draw the coastal contingent, while Hoi An and Da Lat pull a slower, quieter group.

Inside each city the clustering tightens again. Tay Ho in Hanoi and Thao Dien in Ho Chi Minh City work almost like separate towns: imported groceries, English signage, cafes full of laptops. Living outside them costs less and teaches you more, but you will use a translation app daily.

Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi compared

Ho Chi Minh City is the commercial engine. It moves fast, stays warm all year, and has the deepest job market plus the widest choice of coworking space. District One is the business core, District Three is quieter and still central, and Thao Dien is the long-standing foreign enclave across the river.

Hanoi trades speed for texture: a real winter, a denser old quarter, stronger cafe and arts culture, and a smaller, tighter foreign scene where people recognise each other. Tay Ho, wrapped around the lake, is the usual base. Both cities score well with foreign residents on friendliness and cost, and badly on bureaucracy and getting anything done online.

Da Nang, Hoi An and the coastal cities

Da Nang is the city most remote workers end up recommending. Beach on one side, mountains behind, a compact centre you can cross by motorbike in minutes. The An Thuong area near My Khe beach is where foreign residents and short-stay workers concentrate, in cafes that treat laptop users as normal customers.

Hoi An suits people who want a walkable old town and a slower rhythm, though it leans hard on tourism. Nha Trang has a long-established foreign population, much of it Russian-speaking. The tradeoff along the central coast is weather: storm season runs through the autumn months and flooding happens, which is why plenty of residents travel or head north during that stretch.

Expat communities and how people actually meet

The community here is real but informal. No single organisation holds it together. It runs through neighbourhood cafes, gyms and language exchanges, through Telegram and Facebook groups tied to one city, and through coworking spaces where the same faces reappear every week.

Making local friends is easier here than in most destinations, and foreign residents say they feel welcomed. The harder part is depth. Turnover runs high in the nomad-heavy neighbourhoods, so people cycle through. Those who build something lasting tend to learn enough Vietnamese to be polite and commit to one neighbourhood instead of moving every month. MyNomadWorld members trade exactly these notes, city by city, in the free community chat.

Remote work, internet and coworking

Vietnam works well for remote income and badly for local employment unless you have a sponsor. Connectivity is the strong point: fibre is widespread in the cities, mobile data is cheap, and cafes expect you to sit and work. Coworking has matured in the main cities.

Scheduling matters more than people expect. Vietnam sits in a timezone that overlaps the European morning comfortably and the American workday barely at all. Anyone serving US clients ends up on late-night or early-morning calls, while those working with European or Asian teams get an almost ideal overlap.

Healthcare, safety and getting around

Foreign residents typically use private hospitals and clinics in the major cities, where English-speaking doctors are normal and costs sit far below what Americans and Britons are used to. For complex surgery, people commonly fly to Bangkok or Singapore, which is why cover including medical evacuation is the standard recommendation.

Violent crime is rare and walking around at night is unremarkable in most neighbourhoods. Traffic is the genuine risk. Nearly everyone gets around by motorbike or ride-hailing app, lanes are treated as suggestions, and driving legally means either a Vietnamese licence or an international permit Vietnam recognises. Phone snatching from the back of a bike is the other thing residents warn newcomers about on day one.