Tet 2027 in Vietnam: dates, closures and when to book

Tet 2025 caught plenty of visitors out. Balin Blondes, an Australian traveler, told VnExpress International she'd been looking forward to Hoi An's tailors, then reached the old town on New Year's Eve to find rows of tailor shops shut and many local restaurants closed too; locals told her most businesses had stopped for the holiday. On the first day of the year one of the few famous names still open, Phuong banh mi, had a long line of mostly foreign tourists, and she waited more than a quarter of an hour for her sandwich. Getting back out of town was harder: she couldn't hail a taxi to the outskirts, and a local stepped in to give her and her travel companion a ride. In Hanoi, Ashir Azeem from Pakistan arrived the day before the new year and found many shops already closed by six in the evening. His friends' advice was to enjoy the city's rare quiet streets.

Tet 2027 dates

Tet (Tết Nguyên Đán, the Lunar New Year) is set by the Ministry of Home Affairs, this time in notice 11483/TB-BNV of 9 October 2026. It binds state offices; private employers choose one of three five-day options around the same days, so a shop or tour company can close for any of these spells.

The three splits are one day before the new year and four after, two and three, or three and two. That's why one café is open on the third day and its neighbour isn't.

What closes and what stays open

State offices keep duty staff only, so don't plan a visa extension or any other paperwork that week. In VnExpress's 2025 report, shut tailors and local restaurants were what caught visitors out, and the few famous places still open drew queues.

Sights vary, so check each one before you go:

The streets are where Tet stays open. Ho Chi Minh City opened its flower street on the Nguyen Hue walking street on the evening of 15 February 2026, the 28th day of the last lunar month, and for the first time it ran two versions: flowers by day and a light festival with projection mapping by night. State broadcaster VTV's news round-up walks it; the commentary is in Vietnamese, but the pictures carry it.

Fares and when to book

Book now. Vietnam Airlines Group opened almost 3.7 million Tet seats on 25 August, Vietjet released about 3.1 million, and both carriers' Tet schedules run from 22 January to 20 February. Vietnam Railways put roughly 300,000 Tet tickets on sale on 5 September, with extra trains from Saigon to Da Nang, Tam Ky, Dieu Tri and Nha Trang, and from Hanoi to Vinh.

Fares are already climbing. In late September, a Ho Chi Minh City ticket agency quoted by Dân Trí put many domestic Tet fares 10 to 20 percent above late August. Its example was a one-way Vietjet seat from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi on 4 February 2027: about VND 3.3 million, up from about VND 2.8 million a month before. Tuoi Tre's reading of the larger fleet is that fares on the busiest Tet routes are unlikely to drop much.

Direction matters as much as timing. In the same check, the steepest fares were on flights out of Ho Chi Minh City toward home provinces further north, such as Vinh and Thanh Hoa, a few days before the new year. Travel against that flow where you can. The Hanoi to Hue train and the airport list by destination help you find a route that doesn't follow the crowd.

Steps

1. Decide which side of Tet you want. Arrive before the 4th for the run-up to the new year, settle somewhere from the 5th to the 8th, and move on from the 9th.

2. Book long-distance transport first. Use the railway's own site, dsvn.vn, or the airline sites. Tet seats have been on sale since late summer.

3. Book a base for the first three days. Pick a hotel that serves breakfast in a walkable centre, so a closed restaurant or a missing taxi doesn't cost you the day, as it nearly did Blondes in Hoi An.

4. Check each sight's own notice in late January. Museums publish Tet hours separately, and private tour operators pick their own days off.

5. Sort entry and paperwork before 4 February. The entry checklist covers the documents; state offices won't help again until 11 February.

February weather by region

February is one of the drier months almost everywhere. Averages for the month from the national building climate standard (QCVN 02:2022/BXD):

The north is grey and cool, with rain on about two days in five, but light. Sa Pa is cold and often damp, so read Sa Pa in winter before you go up. The centre has dried out by February, and the south is warm and almost rainless, which makes Phu Quoc or the Mekong an easy place to sit out the quiet days. If you arrive in January, before the holiday, our January weather guide covers that month.

Our take

We'd spend Tet in one place rather than on the road: Hoi An or Hanoi if you want the atmosphere, Phu Quoc if you'd rather have a beach while the country is at home. Travel before 4 February or after the 9th, and book those journeys this autumn. Skip anything that depends on a tailor between the 5th and the 8th, or on a government office between the 4th and the 10th.

How we checked this

• 21 October 2026: read notice 11483/TB-BNV on the Ministry of Home Affairs website and matched it against Tiền Phong; worked out the lunar dates from the notice and the railway's Tet plan.
• Seat counts and sale dates from Vietnam Airlines Group and Vietjet as reported by Báo Cần Thơ and Dân Trí; railway figures from Báo Lạng Sơn's report of the Vietnam Railways plan.
• Museum rules from each museum's own page or notice, as checked for our sight pages between 9 and 13 October 2026.
• February averages read from the QCVN 02:2022/BXD tables and matched against the PDF on 21 October 2026.

What we could not confirm

• Fares are a ticket agency's quotes from 22 September 2026, not airline price lists; they'll have moved since.
• Which private businesses close on which days: each employer chooses its own split, and nobody publishes a list.
• Tet 2027 hours for the National Museum of Vietnamese History, which it posts separately nearer the date.

Photo (cover): Riadchikova / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0