I live in Ho Chi Minh City and have spent five Tets here. Tet, or Tết Nguyên Đán, is the Lunar New Year and the most important holiday of the year in Vietnam. People travel back to their home provinces, spend the first days with relatives, and a city of millions goes quiet.
I'll be honest from the start: Tet is not the best time for a sightseeing trip. A lot is closed, prices go up, and moving between cities takes planning. But if your dates are fixed, or you want to see the country celebrate, this guide covers what to expect in 2027 and how to plan around it.
When Is Tet 2027?
Tet follows the lunar calendar, so the date changes every year. In 2027, the first day of the Year of the Goat (Đinh Mùi) falls on Saturday, February 6.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has set a seven-day holiday for public employees, from Thursday, February 4, to Wednesday, February 10. That covers the 28th day of the last lunar month to the 5th day of Tet. Private companies don't have to follow the same dates, so some businesses close for longer and some for less.
One detail for 2027: the last lunar month has only 29 days, so New Year's Eve falls on the 29th, not the 30th. If someone talks about "30 Tet," in 2027 they mean Friday, February 5.
| Date | Lunar date | What happens | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Jan 30 | 23rd day, 12th month | Kitchen Gods' Day (Ông Công Ông Táo). Tet preparations start in earnest. | Markets and roads get busier every day from here. |
| Mon, Feb 1 – Wed, Feb 3 | 25th–27th days | Last working days. Shopping for food, flowers and gifts. People start leaving for their home provinces. | Buses and flights out of the big cities are at their fullest. Don't plan an intercity trip on these days without a ticket. |
| Thu, Feb 4 | 28th day | Official holiday begins. | The exodus peaks. In 2026, the Nguyen Hue flower street opened on the evening of the 28th day. |
| Fri, Feb 5 | 29th day | New Year's Eve (Giao thừa). Family dinners, fireworks at midnight. | Many places close early. Buy what you need by the afternoon. |
| Sat, Feb 6 | 1st day of Tet | New Year's Day. Families stay home or visit close relatives and pagodas. | The quietest day of the year. Expect most shops and restaurants to be closed. |
| Sun, Feb 7 – Mon, Feb 8 | 2nd–3rd days | Visiting relatives, friends and teachers. | Cities stay quiet. Beach and mountain resorts fill up. |
| Tue, Feb 9 – Wed, Feb 10 | 4th–5th days | More businesses reopen. Return travel begins. | Buses and flights back to the cities get busy again. |
| Thu, Feb 11 | 6th day | Offices and government services reopen. | Most of the city is working again, though some family-run places reopen later. |
| Sat, Feb 20 | 15th day, 1st month | First full moon of the year (Rằm tháng Giêng). | Pagodas are busy. For most visitors, normal travel conditions are back. |
The dates before February 4 and after February 11 are worked out from the lunar calendar. They are traditional dates, not public holidays.
What's Open and Closed During Tet
The short version: the closer you are to New Year's Day, the less is open. Here's what to expect in each category.
Restaurants and Street Food
Street stalls and small family restaurants are usually the first to close, because the people who run them go home to their families. Chains, hotel restaurants and places that depend on foreign visitors have more reason to stay open, but don't count on your favorite spot. Check its hours on Google Maps or message ahead.
Many places that do open add a Tet surcharge. In my experience it's usually 10–20%, depending on the day.
Markets
Markets are packed in the days before Tet, when everyone is shopping for the holiday. Over the first days of the new year, many stalls close. If you want to see the buying of flowers, kumquat trees and gifts, go in the last week before New Year's Eve.
Shops, Supermarkets and Malls
This is the part that catches people out. In my experience, grocery stores and big shopping malls can close completely for two or three days. Stock up on groceries before New Year's Eve: water, snacks, and anything you need for breakfast. If you're in an apartment rather than a hotel, plan meals for the first days of Tet.
Museums and Attractions
Opening hours change over Tet, and each place sets its own. Some big museums have stayed open in past years, but don't build a day around one attraction without checking its official page or Google Maps listing for the 2027 holiday hours.
Banks and ATMs
Bank branches close for the holiday. The State Bank of Vietnam instructs banks to keep ATMs stocked and working over Tet, but with the whole country withdrawing cash at once, I'd take out what you need before New Year's Eve rather than rely on the nearest machine.
Government Offices
Government offices, including immigration offices, are closed for the whole official holiday, February 4–10. Don't plan any paperwork for that week.
Tourist Areas
Hotels and resorts keep running, and tourist areas are usually more open than residential neighborhoods. District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ham Tien beach strip in Mui Ne and central Da Lat all stay lively. In the beach and mountain towns, that's because Vietnamese families go there on holiday.
Transport Before and After Tet
Tet is the biggest travel rush of the year. Millions of people leave the big cities in the days before the holiday and come back after the 5th or 6th day. If your trip includes intercity travel between late January and mid-February, book it as early as you can.
Trains
Vietnam Railways started selling Tet 2027 tickets on September 5, 2026. The Tet timetable runs from January 23 to February 25, 2027, and includes the Saigon–Phan Thiet train, which is the rail option for Mui Ne. A few rules worth knowing:
- One person can buy up to 10 tickets per direction.
- Buying early gets a discount of 5–20%.
- On some peak-period trains between January 29 and February 17, changing or returning a ticket costs 30% of the fare.
Buy from the official Vietnam Railways website or at the station.
Flights
Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet have put about 6.8 million Tet seats on sale between them, more than last year, including many late-night and early-morning flights. By late October 2026, fares on many routes had already risen compared with when sales opened, so waiting for a last-minute deal is a gamble.
If you're flying into Ho Chi Minh City, check the airport code on your ticket: Long Thanh (LTH) is planned to start commercial flights on December 24, 2026, alongside Tan Son Nhat (SGN). My Ho Chi Minh City airport transfer guide covers both.
Buses
Intercity buses are where Tet hits hardest. Seats on the busiest days fill up early: by February 6, 2026, eleven days before that year's Tet, the city's bus stations had already sold about 60% of their Tet tickets. Fares go up too. For Tet 2026, the city's main bus stations said fares should rise by no more than 40–60% over normal prices, depending on the route and date. Some operators charged far more and were inspected and fined.
Book directly with the bus company or through the bus station, keep your ticket confirmation, and check the price against the operator's own listing. For the routes I cover, see:
Or compare all transport guides between cities.
Grab and Taxis
Grab keeps running over Tet, but finding a car takes a bit longer because many drivers have gone home to their families too. Grab also adds a holiday surcharge. In 2026, it was 15,000 ₫ per GrabCar ride and 5,000 ₫ per GrabBike ride, charged from New Year's Eve to the 4th day of Tet between 6:00 AM and 9:59 PM. On the short rides I take around the city, that works out to roughly 10–20% more than usual.
The upside: with so many people gone, the roads are almost empty, and getting across the city is faster than at any other time of year.
Prices During Tet
| What | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Cafes and restaurants | A Tet surcharge of about 10–20% at many places that stay open, in my experience. Da Lat reported similar 10–20% rises at food stalls during Tet 2026. |
| Grab | A flat surcharge per ride (15,000 ₫ by car, 5,000 ₫ by bike in 2026), plus longer waits. |
| Intercity buses | Up to 40–60% above normal fares on the busiest days (2026 bus station guidance). |
| Trains and flights | Tet fares, which rise as seats sell. Booking early is the only reliable way to save. |
| Hotels in Mui Ne and Da Lat | Higher rates and very little choice. In 2026, average hotel occupancy in Lam Dong province, which now includes both, was around 80–85%, and 85–95% at 3- to 5-star hotels. |
Shops and restaurants must post their prices, and they can't charge more than the posted price. If a surcharge is on the menu or a sign at the door, it's legitimate. If it shows up only on the bill, ask about it.
Prices checked: November 2026. Surcharges for Tet 2027 haven't been announced yet. I'll update this section when they are.
Tet in Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City is a city of people from somewhere else, and at Tet most of them go home. For me, this is the strangest and nicest part of the year. The traffic that defines Saigon the rest of the year simply disappears. You can cross a major road without a second thought, and the city feels calm in a way it never otherwise does.
The flip side is what I said above: on the first days of Tet, a lot is closed, including the grocery stores and malls I'd normally rely on. Plan your meals, pick a hotel with a restaurant if you're arriving around New Year's Eve, and leave the busier sightseeing for the days after Tet.
The highlights are the Nguyen Hue flower street and the midnight fireworks, which I cover below. For where to base yourself, see where to stay in Ho Chi Minh City. And if you're deciding on trip length, Tet is the one time of year when I think two days in the city is genuinely enough. More on that in how many days you need in Ho Chi Minh City. Everything else is in my Ho Chi Minh City travel guide.
Tet in Mui Ne
I spend Tet in Ho Chi Minh City, so this section isn't based on official sources or my own experience. It's based on what friends who live in Mui Ne have shared with me.
Mui Ne works the opposite way to Saigon: it's where Vietnamese families go on holiday. Expect the beaches and the best-known hotels to be busy, especially from the 2nd to the 6th day of Tet.
If you're going, book your room and transport early. My guide to where to stay in Mui Ne compares the areas, and the Mui Ne travel guide covers the rest.
Tet in Da Lat
As with Mui Ne, I don't spend Tet in Da Lat. This section isn't based on official sources, but on what friends who live in Da Lat have shared with me.
Da Lat's cool weather makes it one of the most popular Tet destinations for families from the south. Expect crowds in the first week of Tet, and higher prices for food and rooms than usual.
February is otherwise one of Da Lat's best months for weather, which is exactly why Tet is so busy there. My guide to the best time to visit Da Lat suggests quieter alternatives, and where to stay in Da Lat helps you choose an area. For everything else, start with the Da Lat travel guide.
What to See During Tet
The Nguyen Hue Flower Street
Every year, Ho Chi Minh City turns Nguyen Hue walking street in District 1 into a flower street for Tet. In 2026, it opened at 7:00 PM on the 28th day of the last lunar month and stayed open until 9:00 PM on the 6th day of Tet. For the first time, it also had flower displays at two other sites in the city.
My advice is to go in the evening, when the sun is lower and the lights are on. In the middle of the day it's hot, with very little shade.
The city hasn't announced the 2027 dates yet. If it follows the same pattern, the flower street would open on the evening of Thursday, February 4. I'll update this when the official schedule is out.
New Year's Eve Fireworks
At midnight on New Year's Eve, Ho Chi Minh City sets off fireworks across the city. In 2026, there were 17 fireworks sites, four of them with high-altitude fireworks, and the show lasted 15 minutes. The biggest crowds gather around Nguyen Hue and the Saigon riverside, so arrive early and keep your phone and wallet close. The 2027 locations will be announced closer to Tet.
Pagodas
On the first days of the new year, many Vietnamese visit pagodas to pray for luck. They're busy, smoky with incense and full of families in their best clothes. Visitors are welcome, as long as you dress modestly and stay out of the way of people praying.
Tet Etiquette for Visitors
- Say "Happy New Year." In Vietnamese, it's Chúc mừng năm mới. People will be delighted you tried.
- Li xi is a family thing. Lucky money in red envelopes is given mainly to children and older relatives. I give it to my relatives. Nobody expects li xi from a tourist, but if you're a regular somewhere and want to give a small envelope to the staff's children, it's a kind gesture. Use new, crisp notes.
- Don't drop in on New Year's Day. The first visitor of the year is believed to bring the household its luck for the year ahead, so families often choose that person on purpose. If Vietnamese friends invite you, go; otherwise, save your visit for later in the week.
- Be patient. The people working over Tet are giving up time with their families. A smile and a little patience go a long way.
Should You Travel to Vietnam During Tet?
My honest answer: for most first-time visitors, no. It's the country's biggest celebration, so a lot is closed, prices go up, and transport between cities is at its hardest. That said, it can be a good trip if you plan around it.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You see the country's biggest celebration: flower markets, decorations, fireworks | Many restaurants, shops, markets and some attractions close for several days |
| Ho Chi Minh City is calm, with almost no traffic | Grocery stores and malls can close for two or three days |
| Good weather in the south and in Da Lat | Surcharges in cafes, on Grab and on buses |
| A relaxed, festive mood once you've stocked up | Mui Ne and Da Lat are packed, and intercity buses, trains and flights fill up early |
Tet suits you if you want to see the holiday itself, you're happy to stay in one or two places, you've booked transport and rooms early, or you have Vietnamese friends to celebrate with.
Choose other dates if this is your first trip and you want to see as much as possible, you're on a tight budget, or you like to decide your next stop as you go. Coming after the first full moon of the year, from late February 2027, or in March gives you similar weather without the closures.
Visas and Tet
Vietnam's e-visa is officially processed in about three working days, and weekends and public holidays don't count. In 2027, the official holiday runs from Thursday, February 4, to Wednesday, February 10, so there are seven days in a row with no processing.
If you're arriving between late January and mid-February, apply by mid-January at the latest. Immigration offices are also closed during the holiday, so don't plan to sort out any visa problem in person that week. My Vietnam visa guide explains how to apply and who can enter without a visa.
