Ticket Types of Vietnam Trains

There are generally five types of tickets: soft sleeper (4 berths in a compartment), hard sleeper (6 berths in a compartment), soft seat, hard seat and VIP berth cabin (only available on tourist trains). The sleeper tickets are recommended and most westerners use this type. The sleeper cabins are spacious and comfortable. Each compartment has a door to separate it with the corridor. The soft sleeper and VIP cabins have charging plug, and offer bottled water to passengers besides the hot drinking water.
 

There are four berths in a soft sleeper compartment. A berth is 185 cm (73 inches) long and 65 cm (25.5 inches) wide, generally enough for a passenger with medium stature. There is a space under the lower berths and a rack above the upper berths, for storing the luggage.

 

Soft Sleeper on Tourist Train: Most of the tourist trains offer soft sleeper berths. The decoration and service on the tourist trains are better than that of the reunification express. Since different tourist companies offer discrepant service, the prices are also different. For the route from Hanoi to Danang, take train SE19 for example, following are the prices of soft sleeper ticket for Reunification Express and two other tourist trains:
 

Train Type	Price for Soft Sleeper (USD)
Reunification Express	58
Lotus Express	63
Laman Express	82

 
There are six berths in a hard sleeper compartment. A berth is 185 cm (73 inches) in length and 66 cm (26 inches) in width. The height between the lower berth and the middle berth, being about 74cm (29 inches), is hard for an adult to sit up straight.  The tourist trains don't offer hard sleeper compartments, so you could only take hard sleeper on the Reunification Expresses.

  

More Soft Sleeper Pictures(28)

More Hard Sleeper Pictures(21)

 
There are only two lower berths in one VIP cabin, and parts of the VIP cabins are converted from Soft Sleepers Cabins, when you book the VIP berth, the staff will fold-up the upper berths and only keep the lower berths. The ticket fare for VIP berth is about twice of the Soft Sleeper.

VIP berths are only available on part of the luxury tourist trains, since the tourist trains don’t serve all the train routes, you could only experience this seat type on certain routes and trains. In Vietnam 90% of the VIP berths are on the route of Hanoi - Sapa, then Laman Express offers VIP berths on another route. Following are the detailed information.
  

Train No.	Tourist Trains with VIP Berths
SP1/SP3	Orient Express, The Pumpkin Express, Fanxipan Express
SP2/SP4	Sapaly Express, King Express, Victoria Express, Chapa Express, Laman Express

  

Train No.	Train Routes with VIP Berths
SE19	Hanoi to Dong Hoi / Hue / Danang Ninh Binh to Dong Hoi / Hue / Danang
SP3	Hanoi to Sapa
SP4	Sapa to Hanoi

  
The soft seats on the Reunification Expresses are a bit like seats on a plane with armrests and fold down tray table. Although the soft seats come in a variety of styles depending on the train, while in most of the carriages, the seats are arranged in 2+2 way, two seaters in one row on each side of the aisle. The back of a chairs could be reclined so that you could take a rest during the trip. A soft seat is the best option for day time travel by train in Vietnam.
 
The cheapest ticket on Vietnam trains are Hard Seat tickets. The seats are wooden benches with no armrests, and the back of a chairs could not be reclined. Normally one bench is shared with 3 people. On busy trains the hard seat carriages could be crowded.

Part of the hard seat carriages are air-conditioned, and most of them are fan cooled with the windows open. Hard seat is not recommended unless the journey is less than 2 hours. While, you could also sit in the restaurant car if you order food or drinks.

 

Hard Seat

Soft Seat