Border crossings are the necessary evil – or a part of the fun – of any overland adventure. There is nothing quite as exhilarating as arriving in a new country. Sometimes the change in countries is so obvious, you wonder how it’s even possible that two towns next to each other can be so different. This is the beauty of travel. And it was no different as we changed countries on our route from Nanning to Hanoi.
If you are deciding on your overland route from China to Vietnam, you’ll be pleased to hear the Nanning to Hanoi border crossing can easily be done by bus. We would highly recommend this as the easier, cheaper and faster route compared to the overnight train. We will show you how in this guide!
in this guide
Should I Take the Nanning to Hanoi Bus?
There are two options to get you from China to Vietnam without flying. You can either take the train or the bus.
The train leaves from Nanning Railway Station at 18:05 and arrives in Hanoi the following day at 5:30. With a total duration of 11 hours and 25 minutes and a long overnight border crossing, we opted for the second option – a daytime bus.
We couldn’t find many traveller accounts of the bus journey. And when we did, they didn’t see all that positive. Stories of passengers being dropped off in the middle of nowhere in the suburbs of Hanoi abounded. With taxi drivers waiting for you, willing to take you to the centre – for a fee, of course.
In the end, we decided to give a go nonetheless!
Buying Tickets
You can buy your bus tickets from several places in Nanning, including the Langdong Bus Station. However, if you arrive at the Nanning Railway Station, the closest place is the International Tourist Distribution Centre. This is also where the busses leave from, with several departures daily. You’ll find an inner courtyard area behind the centre with rows of busses parked up.
As you get to the ticketing counter, you should find an information sheet with timetables in English. We chose the first bus at 7:20, costing 180 yuan in total. In comparison, the train fare is 300 yuan.
We recommend buying your tickets a day before your day of departure just to be on the safe side. The busses do sell out.
The Bus Journey from Nanning to Hanoi
The journey time between Nanning and Hanoi is predominantly dependant on how busy the borders are. According to various reports from travellers, the bus normally takes about 7-9 hours to reach its destination. It took us exactly 7 hours and 40 minutes. But the borders were very quiet and we hardly had any waiting time at the passport checkpoints.
We couldn’t find much information when we arrived at the Nanning International Tourist Distribution Centre in the morning. The staff will only start checking you in about 5 minutes before departure time. Keep an eye out for both full-size coaches and mini-busses. Both types do this route. We had an 8-seater, which was super spacious. It even had a plug socket and a USB charging point next to each seat!
The roads from Nanning to the border were some of the newest and best looking roads we have ever seen. The journey was super comfortable, and the traffic leaving the centre was minimal. There was a 10-minute toilet break around Chongzuo in a large service station.
It took about 2 hours to reach the border in total, where we were told to get off the bus and take our bags.
What Is the Border Crossing Like?
The border crossing on both sides was relatively straightforward.
As you exit the bus on the Chinese side, you might get approached by people offering money exchanges; they seem to be the official staff working the counter inside the waiting area. Soon after, we noticed all the Chinese passengers on our bus exchanging piles of cash with them, so we followed suit as the exchange rate was excellent.
The staff gave us lanyards to indicate which bus to get on next. We waited around half an hour for our next bus to come and pick us up. We then got on an almost identical bus, just with a Vietnamese driver, who took us to the Chinese border, which only took about 5 minutes.
Next, we were taken to the Vietnamese border. A lady took our passports and ushered us all through the border checkpoint without a glance. She returned 5 minutes later with our passports checked and stamped. The entire border crossing took us about an hour and was super easy.
Arriving in Hanoi
We were expecting to have to change busses after the border crossings as we had read online, but instead, out driver took us all the way down to Hanoi.
The roads on the Vietnamese side weren’t bad, but our driver was very keen to get us to our destination as fast as humanly possible. We skirted between and around all the lorries and trucks that were in the way, on a two-lane road, there seemed to be four. Needless to say, we were amused and terrified in equal measure! We were definitely thankful for our 20-minute lunch-break around Huu Lung halfway through our journey.
Judging by the drop-offs of our fellow passengers, you should be able to negotiate a drop-off point with your driver. If you don’t feel confident doing this, we’d recommend just getting off if you are relatively close to your destination.
All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a smoother transit, and highly recommend this route to everyone.
