A decade ago, traveling here meant a paper map, a guidebook, and a notebook of phone numbers just in case. None of that's really necessary anymore. I've spent years guiding trips around Vietnam, and this is the actual stack of apps I rely on and recommend to the groups I take out, some for getting around, some for staying connected, a couple that have nothing to do with Vietnam specifically but earn their place on any trip.
TL:DR
The ones I actually used: planning (My Maps, AllTrails, What3words), transport (Xanh SM, Vexere), bookings (Agoda, Klook, GetYourGuide), money (Splitwise, currency converter), and daily life (Translate, Facebook, VPN).
I'll go first:
My Maps (inside Google Maps)
lets me drop colour coded pins and stack them into separate layers, one for food, one for sights, one for whatever. I spent one evening before the trip turning mine into something that looked like a heist crew's planning board, then just followed the dots once I was actually there instead of standing on a corner scrolling.
A map I drew myself during the Cao Bang Loop journey.
AllTrails
Trekking routes through Sapa, Ha Giang, Cao Bang existed on the ground long before they existed on Google Maps, which either skipped mine entirely or drew a straight line through what turned out to be three hours of switchbacks. AllTrails actually had the real route, walked and GPS logged by someone who'd been up there, elevation chart included. I trust the app that's actually been on the mountain over the one guessing from satellite photos.
What3words
Splits the entire planet into 3 metre squares and gives each one its own three-word address. Lost my friends in a market with no street signs? I just send them "lantern.otter.plum" instead of trying to describe which stall I'm standing nearby.
Agoda
Beats Booking.com for me here, every time. Booking's version of Southeast Asia is hotels and resorts, Agoda's version also has the homestay down an alley with three rooms and a dog. There's a new promo code basically every day too, so the price I see first is never the price I actually pay.
Xanh SM E-transport (Bike, Food, Car)
Within an hour of landing, every group already has this open. The fare's fixed and shown before you accept the ride, so nobody's standing on a curb negotiating with a xe om driver over hand signals for "too expensive." Xanh SM Food fills the gap on nights nobody wants to leave the hotel, and the pin drop feature finds addresses that make sense to nobody but the person who lives there.
Vexere
The one nobody thinks to book until they're standing at a bus station wondering why none of the signs are in English. It's basically the Skyscanner of Vietnamese intercity buses, sleeper buses, and shuttle vans, every operator and route side by side with seat maps included. I always tell people heading somewhere like Sapa or Ninh Binh to book this a day ahead instead of just showing up and hoping.
Klook
I buy my SIM card, theme park tickets, anything with a queue attached, before I land instead of after. Vinwonders, Sun World, airport SIM pickup, all cheaper booked ahead than paid at the counter. Skips the guy waving fifteen SIM cards at me in arrivals.
GetYourGuide
This is where I go once I want an actual human explaining things, not just a ticket in my hand. Cooking classes, small group walks, the food tour down the one alley nobody else finds, all guide led instead of self serve. Klook gets me in the door, this gets me someone who knows what I'm looking at.
Splitwise
Technically we could all just keep a running mental tally, we just don't. It logs whoever paid for what across the whole trip and works out who owes who at the end, collapsed down to the fewest possible payments. One of us books the flights, another keeps grabbing the taxis, someone else covers every round at dinner, and it sorts out who actually owes what without anyone doing math on the last night.
Xe Currency Converter
I watch someone do panicked mental math almost every trip, the second a menu says 350,000 VND for a bowl of pho. Setting your home currency once turns every number on screen into something that actually means something, instead of chasing an exchange rate through however many zeros VND likes to throw at you. Not exciting, just the app I tell people to open before they even land.
VPN
I sort this before I land, not after. A chunk of foreign news sites and some Wikipedia pages go dark the second I'm on a Vietnamese network. The free Cloudflare app, 1.1.1.1, gets around it fine on both my phone and laptop, no need to pay for anything heavier just to read the news.
Facebook
Going to be honest, it feels like a relic everywhere else I check my phone, but it's still one of the most used apps in the country, full stop. The part that actually helps a traveler is the group culture, search something like "Vietnam backpacker" or "[city] travel tips" and you land in a group of real people answering in real time, not a three year old thread on Rick Steves or Fodor's forum. Fun fact for you: Vietnam is one of the most chat driven shopping economies on the planet, a huge amount of buying and selling here happens straight through Messenger
Google Translate
Obviously, but it's the offline pack and the camera translation doing the actual work for me. English gets me through the Old Quarter just fine, it evaporates completely an hour outside any city.
