Licences and insurance for riding in Vietnam: what actually matters
Which licence is valid in Vietnam, why a 1949 IDP does not work, what your travel insurance really covers on a motorbike, and what to do after an accident.
Fact-checked: August 30, 2026
Live rental prices, and every bike shows whether it needs a licence
Browse bikesThe one thing to understand before you rent
The real risk of riding without a proper licence in Vietnam is not the fine. It is that your travel insurance almost certainly excludes motorbike accidents when you ride unlicensed - so a serious crash means the hospital bills and the evacuation home are yours alone, with no ceiling on them. Rental sites rarely say this, because it costs them rentals. We would rather you know.
And the risk is not only yours. Article 264 of the Criminal Code makes the person who hands over the vehicle liable too: if someone not qualified to ride it causes harm to life, health or property, the one who gave them the bike faces a fine of 10 to 200 million dong, up to three years of non-custodial rehabilitation, or six months to seven years in prison. That is why a rental asks for your licence and holds on to something. It is not greed - the rental is exposed as well.
Bikes with the licence stated up front
Every card below states what licence the bike needs - the question is settled before you send anything, not at the rental counter.
Which licence is valid in Vietnam
For anything over 50cc - which is nearly every rental bike - Vietnam requires a category A motorcycle licence. A foreign national licence works only in combination with an International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention. The IDP is not a licence by itself: it is a translation attached to your home licence, so the motorcycle category must be open at home first.
The catch: two different conventions exist. The 1968 Vienna IDP is recognised in Vietnam. The 1949 Geneva IDP - the one issued in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan - is not. Travellers from those countries have no fully legal way to ride here short of converting to a Vietnamese licence, which requires a residence permit. This is unfair and inconvenient, and it is also the law.
If your country signed the 1968 convention (most of Europe, Russia, Ukraine and many others), get the IDP before the trip. At home it is a cheap document issued in days. Once you are in Vietnam, it cannot be obtained at all.
Fines and what actually happens at a checkpoint
Since 1 January 2025 the fines come from decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP. For riding without a valid licence the amount depends on engine size: up to 125cc it is 2-4 million dong (roughly $80-160), above 125cc it is 6-8 million (roughly $240-320) - article 18, clauses 5 and 6. The police can also impound the bike, and an impounded rental is still your responsibility: you settle both the fine and the rental’s losses. Enforcement varies by city and season; we will not tell you the police are “relaxed”, because a trip built on that bet ends badly often enough.
What travel insurance really covers on a bike
Read your policy for three separate conditions. First: is motorcycle riding covered at all? On many policies it is an exclusion by default and a paid add-on at best, often limited to 50cc or 125cc. Second: the licence clause - cover applies only if you are licensed for the vehicle you ride, both at home and in the country you ride in. Third: the helmet clause. Break any of the three and the insurer has a clean reason to refuse the claim.
What refusal means in practice: the ambulance, the surgery and a medevac flight to Bangkok or home are billed to you personally. A medevac is a chartered flight, not a seat on a plane, and nobody can quote you the total in advance - that unpredictability is the whole risk. Against this, the difference between renting a 150cc bike unlicensed and taking a scooter you are legal on is not a matter of style.
If you crash: a short checklist
People first: check yourself and everyone involved; 115 is the ambulance number. Photograph everything before anything is moved - positions, damage, documents, the street. Message the rental, and if the request went through us, message us too: in a dispute we take the guest’s side, and our leverage is the partner’s place on the platform - up to removing them. Do not sign documents you cannot read, do not hand your passport to anyone at the scene, and do not agree on-the-spot payouts while in shock - numbers said in the first ten minutes are always wrong, in both directions.
The honest summary
Have a motorcycle category and a 1968 IDP - rent whatever suits the trip. Have neither - the honest options are a sub-50cc scooter, a guided tour where the operator provides the bike and the legal framing differs, or simply not betting your health budget on luck. We mark licence requirements on every bike on EastRide so this decision happens before booking, not at a roadside.
Every bike on EastRide shows whether it needs a licence.
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