Vietnam food safety tips and recommendations

[mummarunner]

Can anyone who has been to Vietnam reassure me on food safety please? We are taking DC (12 and 14) in the Easter holidays and have a wonderful holiday planned out. It’s a bucket list destination for us and I know we are incredibly lucky to be going. However, I suffer with terrible holiday anxiety, and I am starting to worry irrationally about food poisoning/travellers diaorrhea. All the travel blogs I’m reading are so negative I am beginning to wonder if anyone has ever been to Vietnam and NOT suffered a dodgy tummy?!

I know all the precautions to take (look for busy places where locals eat, wipe cutlery, hand washing etc) but it seems that despite all this we will all end up on the Imodium at some point. And don’t get me started on worrying about us eating something dodgy the night before a 13 hour flight home 😱

Am I worrying unnecessarily? If anyone has any recommendations of places they’ve eaten that would be amazing. We are travelling north to south: Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Ha Long Bay 2 night cruise, Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An. I honestly can’t wait but need to shift this fear otherwise I’m going to ruin the experience for everyone else. Thank you ☺️

I got food poisoning in Vietnam quite early on in our trip - it really affected my food choices after that. I just couldn’t stomach the food.

If you get stuck 4Ps pizza is amazing. it’s a Vietnamese small chain.

I’ve been twice and loved it. No problems whatsoever personally and when I went with the kids (then c9,10,15) not one of them fell ill either. They absolutely loved the food!!! We ate plenty of street food too, so not just restaurants

sometimes people can get diarrhoea just from the change in environment rather than being ill per se, so it’s not always a disaster

vietnam have some dishes made out of things like fresh duck’s blood. Do not eat under any circumstances as they’re a source of things like liver flukes

I was about to say the same. We went to India last year and amazingly no Delhi belly! My friend who goes a lot said to stick to vegetarian which OH is anyway.

I loved the egg coffee, the huge rice pancakes, pho, yum yum.

Thank you for your honest response and sorry that happened to you. I have heard 4Ps pizza recommended before - good to know if we need it.

So excited to try egg coffee!

Good to hear stories of kids coping well with the food too, thank you I appreciate you mentioning that. And of course you’re right, travellers diarrhoea doesn’t necessarily just come from food. I need to relax! I think I’d naturally steer clear of anything made with fresh ducks blood in any case but thanks for the warning - I hadn’t heard this so good to know.

I have heard the more locals eating at a place the better

Found it. This place was AMAZING in Hanoi. We ended up going back as we wanted to try other dishes too. Go early though as it rammed with locals.

Last pic is a recommendation for a food tour and that was also out of this world and such a great experience. On the scooters it felt safe but full on crazy too.

There last summer. Eat everything in restaurants, street food, salads, fresh fruit, the lot. Not one dodgy tummy - and DP gets dodgy tummies often when abroad, and he was totally fine.

Drink plenty of water, and I mean plenty. We were there in July/ August and the humidity was incredible. Could literally see myself sweating.

I took my daughter who was 20 at the time in September 2023. No dodgy tummies, we ate on the street but also in restaurants.

We took a 4 year old and I had similar concerns. DP had a dodgy tummy for a few days but took some Imodium and and powered through. He gets a dodgy tummy everywhere to be honest :) Me and 4 year old were fine! We ate anything and everything. Lots of fruit and ice that we should have probably avoided! Definitely need bottled water though. It was all fab. Enjoy!!

Also agree you should do a food tour in Hanoi!

Three of us went (Hoi An and Hue) - we ate in smart restaurants, hotel buffets, markets, beach cafes, scruffy looking places, and none of us had any issues at all.

Places do look scruffy sometimes but serve amazing food and are not unhygienic.

I’ve just pinned this on my google maps - thanks for the rec, it looks fabulous!

Yes, to your last point I think you are right. We will use common sense wherever we go I think.

Will totally look into this

I went to Hoi An it was amazing, the food was incredible! I had a bit of tummy trouble one night but I had been drinking the homemade 20p a litre beer that was being poured out of old sprite bottles so maybe avoid that 😂😂
Enjoy your trip!!

😂 top tip noted, thank you! Good to hear you had an amazing time otherwise.

Food is food. Hot food should be hot, cold food should be cold.

As aboves said, do not worry about it so much and enjoy your trip.

Yes, don't worry. Went for 3 weeks. A lot of Vietnamese food is fairly pedestrian, not even that spicy - noodles pho etc. ( I had just come from 3 weeks in Malaysia where the food was livelier). Never had a problem, drank bottled water rather than from a tap, ate in popular busy places, and chose innocuous stuff, leaving the chicken feet etc. to those more adventurous. Also ate in McD and fast food places when it suited (we don't all have to be a slave to the "authentic food moment") Avoided buffets (tepid food). IRO drinks and ice, tried not to have ice, but you are more OK if the ice has a hole in, but most establishments are too busy to be doing anything other than buying ice in. I avoided shellfish on a Halong Bay boat tour, but other than that, did not do anything, and was absolutely fine. Defo not an issue I'd say.

Take some Imodium and electrolytes just in case. Hopefully you won’t need them.

As a travel nurse we always advised not to eat street food. To be honest this is what puts me off travelling. I’d come back a rake because I just wouldn’t eat. I’d live on packaged food like crisps and chocolate and bottled water.

Was in Vietnam years ago, spent a couple of weeks in Hue and Hanoi, the food was amazing, I never got sick. It is very freshly prepared on the whole.