What is the best place to live for expats?

@Donald Sawatzki

Hello and welcome !

Please note that I have created this new thread on the Vietnam forum so that members can share their insights with you.

All the best

Bhavna

Hello thinking about moving to Vietnam. What is the best place to live for expats? I make $4000 a month. I’m retired disabled veteran. - @Donald Sawatzki

Hi there, Donald Sawatzki. Allow me to second Bhavna's welcome to you. Nice to have you with us.

Without knowing a little more about you, it will be difficult for members to make a recommendation.

What sort of activities interest you? Is beach/ocean-front proximity important to you? Have you visited Vietnam before? When you say you are disabled, will this mean you'll need regular access to health facilities? Are you ambulatory?

Once again, welcome to the forum. Hope to hear back from you soon.

Hello thinking about moving to Vietnam. What is the best place to live for expats? I make $4000 a month. I’m retired disabled veteran. - @Donald Sawatzki

Hi Donald,

With that financial figure, I'm guessing you are 100% VA rated disabled (like me)?

I moved back here in 2018 (I was first here in 1972) and I lived in a lot of locations while I was single. Now I'm living in areas that are fine but are not necessarily my first choice.

My Vietnamese wife and I have talked about it a lot, and once My twin bonus daughters graduate from East Asia University up here in Central Vietnam, we will almost certainly relocate down around Vũng Tàu, The beach community that is about 2 hours away from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.

Number one reason, the weather. There are monsoon seasons in all of Vietnam, but because the monsoon there starts in about May and extends through the summer it's warmer and much less miserable and the weather isn't quite as violent as it is up here in Đà Nẵng, which gets a winter monsoon that can be absolutely miserable.

You may be hearing wonderful things about this city but one thing that people aren't telling you is that we are getting a lot of impoverished and itinerant visitors here who behave quite badly..

Down in Vũng Tàu you'll find a lot of English speaking expats from the US, UK and Australia, although up until recently it's been an older group, and maybe you will want to find younger neighbors?

Anyway for a lot of reasons including the proximity to the beach as well as a reasonable Transit time to go to the main SGN airport in HCMC, I would definitely pick that for the first place to live.

After you've been there for 6 months to a year you might want to look at places like Nha Trang or Phú Quốc island, but I think VT is a good landing place to start your residence here.

If you have other questions that relate to your specific situation as a US veteran coming here, please feel free to start other new threads in the forum on the specific subject..

I've gotten to the point where I'm not very responsive to private messages so I probably won't be able to answer any of your questions in that manner.

Good luck 🙏

PS: Open a Charles Schwab account immediately and get your check direct deposited there.

I've already written about this countless times but you will want to have that ATM debit card when you move here to save you at least $600 a year in fees and currency exchange costs

Hi @Donald Sawatzki, I am living in Ho Chi Minh City.

You don't say what the level of disability you're living with, so like Aidan in HCMC I can't give you maybe the exact piece of information you're looking for.

I am in my third year of living in Ho Chi Minh City. Some say, and it's arguably true, that HCMC is the most expensive place to live in Vietnam. That said, my income is about 75% of what yours is, I am not disabled, and I love living here. For me, the city is the place. I go to concerts, museums, libraries, bookstores, and lots of restaurants serving Japanese, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian food -- I love that urban variety. I often save 1/3rd of my income in a month.

A friend of mine just came back from 2 weeks in Vung Tau and said he could have "done" it in two days. Vung Tau is a beach town and has almost none of the urban amenities I listed in the previous paragraph. After sitting on a chair looking out at the water for a week, I'm ready to do something different. But that's just me. Many folks just love being by the ocean.

What do you want? I made a list of things I wanted in a *city* where I would move in retirement, mostly the kinds of communities I wanted to have around me (check ✅) and another list in what I wanted in an *apartment* (nice view, 2 beds, 2 baths, as central a location as I could afford [location, location, location], and not too noisy [a consideration in Vietnam!] (check ✅)). I live in District 1 HCMC and I pay rent of $500 a month, about half what I was paying in California not long ago. I lived here before in 2015 - 2017, to explain "in my third year here."

I also love walking and walk around the city quite a bit, even in the rain. I also have a bicycle which I love riding, even in heavy traffic - but not in the rain. Almost everything I need or want is found in District 1, an easy bike ride away.

This city is far from great for people with mobility issues. If you're in a wheelchair, forget it! There are steps up and down everywhere and the sidewalks are NOT wheelchair friendly. I do see locals in wheelchairs occasionally.

@Lennerd

We live in My Tho, family in Nha Trang and Dai Lanh, wonder why none on this forum bring up the devastations happening in Nha Trang right now.

mAC 

@Lennerd
We live in My Tho, family in Nha Trang and Dai Lanh, wonder why none on this forum bring up the devastations happening in Nha Trang right now.
mAC - @Mac68

You obviously missed my reply to the thread about meeting expats in Nha Trang

@Mac68 There are multiple stories on VN Express about terrifying flooding, storm related.

Ít is widely acknowledged that the typhoons that rake Philippines often go on to hit the mainland of Central and Northern Vietnam and Southern China including Hong Kong.

My friend in Quoy Nhon sent me photos of the lobby of his building — all the glass blown out of the frames and lying broken on the floor. And that was about 2 weeks ago. The storms just keep coming.

@Lennerd
We live in My Tho, family in Nha Trang and Dai Lanh, wonder why none on this forum bring up the devastations happening in Nha Trang right now.
mAC - @Mac68

Best updated video I've seen of all the flooding

https://youtu.be/9WJorUaRSQc?si=3D4Sm9Azi_lWcICG

...we will almost certainly relocate down around Vũng Tàu, The beach community that is about 2 hours away from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.

Number one reason, the weather. There are monsoon seasons in all of Vietnam, but because the monsoon there starts in about May and extends through the summer it's warmer and much less miserable and the weather isn't quite as violent as it is up here in Đà Nẵng, which gets a winter monsoon that can be absolutely miserable.

You may be hearing wonderful things about this city but one thing that people aren't telling you is that we are getting a lot of impoverished and itinerant visitors here who behave quite badly..

Down in Vũng Tàu you'll find a lot of English speaking expats from the US, UK and Australia, although up until recently it's been an older group, and maybe you will want to find younger neighbors?

Anyway for a lot of reasons including the proximity to the beach as well as a reasonable Transit time to go to the main SGN airport in HCMC, I would definitely pick that for the first place to live.

After you've been there for 6 months to a year you might want to look at places like Nha Trang or Phú Quốc island, but I think VT is a good landing place to start your residence here.

- @OceanBeach92107

Although I cannot wholeheartedly recommend Vietnam as a place to live, there’s really no perfect place, so it is at least worth considering if you are interested in Southeast Asia. Compared to most of the neighboring countries, Vietnam is currently doing fairly well in terms of the economy and development.

As OceanBeach mentions above, Vũng Tàu is a pretty good option. I’ll second that opinion, basically for the reasons he gives:

-    unique coastal location on a peninsula (some will argue that it’s an island) but far enough south that tropical storms/typhoons very rarely have much effect on the town.

-    well-established expat community, which means that some western amenities (restaurants, shops, bars, etc.) are available and in general, people are more used to dealing with foreigners, for example, at the bank.

-    proximity to HCMC, including US consulate. Regarding the airport, the new one currently under construction is located about halfway between HCMC and Vũng Tàu, so that’s going to be sweet.

At the same time, what Lennerd says is also true. It’s a relatively small city with the area limited by the sea so things can quickly get repetitive. However, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys having a daily routine,  it might suit you well.

At the same time, what Lennerd says is also true. It’s a relatively small city with the area limited by the sea so things can quickly get repetitive. However, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys having a daily routine, it might suit you well. - @jayrozzetti23

It helped me to make some friends such as yourself, J.R. 😊👍

It definitely was a "repetitive" lifestyle there for me, prior to meeting my future wife, but the opportunity to meet with you and Ciambella and others for B-L-D-coffee-whatever made life in VT much more interesting and enjoyable.

The general question of what's best here in Vietnam really does ultimately come down to personal preference.

I would have a therapist come to my place at about 4:15 in the morning and after a good therapy session I was ready to go walking at the beach and around town starting at about 5:00 AM.

For me, experiencing the sunrise in the morning was essential.

That long morning walk and time at the beach really became the core of my day.