Ho Chi Minh City public transport

You need a scooter or a ride-hailing app. Ho Chi Minh City has one metro line, 19.7 km of a planned 612.7 km network, and it opened on 22 December 2024. Everything else moves on 8.5 million motorbikes. A 3 km GrabCar costs VND 35,000–45,000 ($1.35–1.73) as of September 2026.

Current at 9 September 2026. Dollars at VND 26,000 to US$1, the rate of 8 September 2026.

One line runs, and the evening peak crawls at 14.8 km/h

Transport decides more about moving to Ho Chi Minh City than rent does. Congestion runs 46.9% on the TomTom Traffic Index, 2025 edition. Ten kilometres takes 31 minutes 55 seconds. The evening peak averages 14.8 km/h. You lose 127 hours a year to it.

There are 9.5 million vehicles here, 8.5 million of them motorbikes (VnExpress, 9 January 2025). That is the system. Line 1 is a 19.7 km exception to it.

What actually runs, with fares and hours

Line 1 runs Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien: 19.7 km, 14 stations, three underground. Trains go 05:00 to 22:00 at 8 to 12 minute headways. It carried 20,558,990 riders in 2025, about 56,300 a day (Wikipedia, HCMC Metro Line 1, read 10 September 2026).

Service	Fare, September 2026	Notes
Metro single	VND 7,000–20,000 ($0.27–0.77) by distance	6,000–19,000 cashless
Metro passes	Day 40,000 ($1.54), three days 90,000 ($3.46), month 300,000 ($11.54)	Students 150,000
City bus	VND 5,000–7,000 ($0.19–0.27)	2,325 buses, 46.5% electric
Saigon Waterbus	VND 15,000 ($0.58)	Bach Dang–Thanh Da–Linh Dong

Pay the metro by QR in the HURC app, a FeliCa card, or a chip citizen ID. Whether a foreign bank card taps in was not confirmed. CHECK

One line is not a network. It misses Binh Thanh, District 7, Phu Nhuan, Thu Thiem and both airports. Off that corridor the metro is a weekend convenience, so where you live decides whether it is more. Buses reach the rest, on the BusMap app. In April 2026 the city said it will make all buses free, with no date given (Saigoneer, 2 April 2026). CHECK

The pipeline is slow. Line 2 broke ground on 15 January 2026 for service in 2030. Thu Thiem to Long Thanh airport rail started in September 2026.

Ride-hailing is the network you will actually use

Xanh SM overtook Grab. The first-quarter 2026 four-wheel split was 54.5% Xanh SM, 40.9% Grab and 4.6% Be (index.vn, 25 April 2026). Gojek left Vietnam in September 2024.

GrabCar bills VND 25,000 for the first 2 km, then 9,000 a km plus 300 a minute (Grab Vietnam fare page, fetched 10 September 2026). Surge applies. In practice:

3 km: VND 35,000–45,000 ($1.35–1.73)
10 km: VND 100,000–130,000 ($3.85–5.00)
District 1 to Tan Son Nhat: VND 120,000–250,000 ($4.62–9.62)

A GrabBike does 3 km for VND 18,000–25,000 ($0.69–0.96) and 10 km for 45,000–60,000 ($1.73–2.31). Grab publishes no two-wheel tariff, so those are observed fares. CHECK It is the fastest way across this city and the most dangerous.

The taxi meter is the one figure that will not settle

Vinasun and Mai Linh flag at VND 18,750 ($0.72). The per-kilometre rate does not agree with itself. Ho Chi Minh City, honestly records about VND 26,500 a km. Numbeo's August 2026 data, read 10 September 2026, shows VND 16,500 ($0.63). CHECK Expatistan put 8 km at VND 129,000 ($4.96) on 8 September 2026, which fits the lower rate.

Meter refusal is not the norm here. The problem is the airport kerb and unbranded cars. The UK government advises pre-arranged transport or Grab and Xanh SM, "which supply licenced cabs" (gov.uk, read 10 September 2026).

You need a Vietnamese licence, and your insurer will check

Vietnam rewrote its road law on 1 January 2025. Decree 168/2024 multiplied fines and added a 12-point licence. On 1 March 2025 licensing moved to the Ministry of Public Security, under Circular 12/2025.

Your home licence alone is not valid. You must exchange it for the Vietnamese equivalent, unless a treaty says otherwise.

Vietnam is a 1968 Vienna Convention party. A 1968 international driving permit plus your home licence is accepted for visitors, and gov.uk tells British drivers to carry both. 1949 Geneva permits are not recognised. That excludes American, Canadian, Chinese and Malaysian holders. Australian and Japanese status was not confirmed. CHECK

Then comes the wall. Conversion requires a residence card valid at least three months. A 45-day visa-exempt tourist cannot convert. A 90-day e-visa holder should expect refusal. Work-permit and investor card holders convert routinely. Read the Vietnam visa options before you buy a bike.

Ride on the wrong document and your travel or health insurer will void a motorbike claim. That covers no licence at all, and a 1949 permit. Third-party cover is compulsory: gov.uk states that "it is illegal to drive without third-party insurance."

The fines, all from 1 January 2025, are not symbolic. A red light on a motorbike is VND 4M–6M ($154–231), and in a car VND 18M–20M ($692–770). No helmet is VND 400,000–600,000 ($15–23). No licence on a small bike runs VND 2M–4M ($77–154). CHECK The decree text was not re-fetched for that last figure.

In the first week of January 2025 the city collected VND 42.5 billion ($1.63M), seized 4,300 vehicles and revoked 2,100 licences (VnExpress, 9 January 2025).

The book names the four documents in the conversion file, the office that takes them and the fee.

A new scooter is cheap, and you may not be allowed to register it

A new Honda Vision runs VND 31M–37M ($1,192–1,423), an Air Blade VND 42M–57M ($1,615–2,192). A used 110 to 125 cc bike goes for VND 12M–20M ($462–769). List prices were not confirmed from the manufacturer. CHECK

Registering in your own name needs a residence card plus the police residence confirmation. Tourists cannot. Buying under a Vietnamese friend's name means you do not own the bike.

Fuel moves. From 3 September 2026 E10 RON95-III is VND 23,274 a litre ($0.90), per Tuoi Tre. GlobalPetrolPrices showed VND 24,158 ($0.93) on 7 September 2026. CHECK One is the cap on a single grade, the other a national average. RON95 jumped VND 5,100 a litre on 19 March 2026.

Budget VND 1M ($38) a month on GrabBike with a metro pass, VND 2.5M ($96) for daily GrabCar, or VND 5M ($190) with airport runs (September 2026).

Five places are walkable, and the pavement elsewhere is parking

The District 1 and District 3 core, Thao Dien, Thu Thiem and the Phu My Hung boulevards have footpaths you can use end to end. Everywhere else the pavement is motorbike parking and you walk in the road. Nguyen Huu Canh and Thao Dien flood at high tide, which ends walking for the afternoon.

What this page does not cover

The four documents in the licence conversion file, the office that takes them, the VND 135,000 fee and the five working days
The full 1 January 2025 fine schedule for bikes and cars side by side, with the checkpoints that enforce it
Which of Line 1's 14 stations you can realistically live beside, and the five areas the line will not reach before 2030
Tan Son Nhat's two airport bus routes, and what Long Thanh's 1 December 2026 opening changes

All of it is in Ho Chi Minh City, honestly — 21 pages, $29. See what's inside

The eight areas foreigners live in sorts them by rail and rent. Your licence needs a residence card, so read the Vietnam visa options. Compare all ten cities on transit and air.