Visa on Arrival for Vietnam by AIR at Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi or Da Nang airport

 
 At Beijing Airport, the Vietnam airlines do check to see if you have the Visa Approval letter. You can get this letter either through your hotel or a travel agent which cost about $14-20 and it takes about 2 weeks by email. I got mine with Golden Sun hotel in Hanoi and I brought printed copy of the visa approval.


I arrived at Hanoi airport early in the evening and I was pleased I had all the visa documents ready

   I had downloaded the visa on arrival form, filled it and attached it with my passport picture. I also kept $25 handy for the visas with the printed visas approval form. The whole process took 5-10 minutes at Hanoi airport, but there have been stories of people waiting long time at HCMC airport for VOA. 
 
You can download the visa on arrival form from this website.

 http://www.myvietnamvisa.com/form-on-arrival.pdf
 
 
  China, Vietnam and Cambodia, all use a full page of your passport for the visas stamp.
 
For more details on VOA check this link out. 
 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g293921-c148049/Vietnam:Faq.Visa.On.Arrival.Voa..html

Planning the trip 

You can look at Travel fish website for ideas to plan your trip. The local tours are very reasonable so you can take day tours when you reach Vietnam. Make sure the tours are well recommended. 

 http://www.travelfish.org/

Also you can contact the Hanoikids for free sightseeing. You only pay for their transport and lunch/ dinners. They do the tours so they can practise their English. They have very good reputation but you must book them early as they get booked quickly.
 
 http://hanoikids.org/