Ho Chi Minh City Tan Son Nhat Airport (SGN)

Three terminals, and which one is yours

Tan Son Nhat is three buildings, not one. T1 and T2 stand side by side and share a ground-floor concourse, so crossing between domestic and international departures is an ordinary walk. T3 is newer, takes domestic flights only, and sits apart from the pair; a free shuttle loops between all three. Which one you want is decided by the airline rather than the route: the flag carrier and the biggest low-cost operator moved their domestic flying to T3, while smaller carriers kept T1.

Older guides, hotel desks and even some booking confirmations disagree about which airline sits where, so the terminal on your own boarding pass is the only one worth trusting. Give a domestic-to-domestic connection room for a building change, and expect none of the long indoor walks that big hub airports ask for: the site is hemmed in by the city on every side, which is exactly why the airport grew a third terminal instead of a third concourse.

Into the city: a short road that traffic decides

This is one of the few large Asian airports where the built-up city starts at the fence, so the journey in is governed by the road rather than the distance. Metered taxis from the established companies queue at the marked rank outside arrivals, and asking for the meter instead of accepting a quoted price is the local habit. Anyone who offers you a ride inside the hall is not part of that rank, whatever they are wearing.

Ride-hailing apps work well, but the meeting point is not the arrivals kerb: it is signed away into the car park opposite the terminals, and it has been moved more than once, so follow the signs in front of you and the app rather than a remembered spot. Airport buses run into the centre for a fraction of the fare and suit light luggage. The city's metro does not reach the terminals, so nothing on rails does this leg.

Arrivals: the paperwork happens before you fly

Vietnam's entry formalities reward preparation. An e-visa is applied for online and carried as a printout with the passport; a visa on arrival is not a walk-up product but a letter of pre-approval arranged beforehand and handed in at the visa counter in the hall, ahead of immigration and in a queue of its own. Automated passport gates exist here, but the traveller classes they serve on entry are narrower than the signage suggests, so a visiting passport should plan on a staffed desk and a stamp.

A domestic connection here counts as an entry

This catches more travellers than anything else here: an international arrival continuing on a domestic flight enters the country first. You clear immigration, collect the checked bags, walk them through customs and hand them in again at the domestic terminal — and if that terminal is T3, the shuttle goes on top. Only a connection between two international flights stays behind the border, and who may cross it belongs to Vietnam's entry rules. Book accordingly on separate tickets, where a missed leg is yours to solve.

Layovers, night landings and a bed near the runway

Aircraft land here around the clock and the small-hours arrival is routine rather than exceptional: the taxi rank, the app pickup and the hotel cars all work at that time of night. Rooms near the airport are the sensible answer to a pre-dawn departure, because the streets around the perimeter are dense with hotels and the transfer is barely a journey; many of them run their own cars and will time one to a flight.

A long layover is worth leaving the airport for, simply because the centre is so close: coffee, a market, a walk through the old colonial blocks and back. What does not fit is a day trip — the tunnel networks north-west of the city take a morning at minimum, and it is the return traffic that breaks the plan. Landside left luggage makes either version of the layover easier.

Practical: a SIM, cash and cars that come with a driver

An eSIM bought before departure and switched on at landing saves the counter queue and has a ride-hailing app working before you reach the kerb; the terminal wireless is enough to finish the job if you left it late. Cash machines are spread through all three buildings — use a bank-branded one, draw the local currency and decline the screen's offer to convert into your own, which is where money in Vietnam quietly gets expensive.

Self-drive hire is barely a market here: a foreign licence needs converting to be valid, so what the desks sell is a car with a driver, which is also how transfers to the delta and the coast are arranged. Long overland journeys — the railway and the sleeper-bus network — begin downtown, not at the terminal. And the region's international flying is being split in stages with a much larger new airport inland, so read the airport code on your ticket rather than the city name.