Vietnam visas?

We are travelling to Ho Chi Minh City in April, staying with our son, who works there. We will be there just Thursday to Tuesday.

I realise we will need visas, but do we get them direct from the Vietnamese Embassy at £54 pp plus postage, or get the letter of approval and then get the passports stamped on arrival, which is cheaper? If the latter, does anyone know of a reputable company to use?

How did you get on with this?

I am also going to Vietnam and looking at the whole embassy visa vs letter of approval.

I am hearing that the letter option means you get a letter with a group of people's passport details on it? i.e. some sort of group letter. Not too keen on this if true....

We went with getting the visa from the Embassy. A little more expensive, but so much easier..

Thanks for the update.

I too have decided that the embassy option sounds best - mainly because I don't want to arrive in Hanoi and find the "visa on arrival" system isn't valid or something...