Ordered by dependency. Some of these block others, and doing them out of sequence is how people lose a fortnight.
Before you board (day -14 to -1). E-visa applied for and approved — 3-5 business days plus buffer. Onward ticket booked and saved offline. Insurance active from your arrival date, not your landing day plus one. NordVPN installed and tested before you fly, not after: setting up a VPN is easier on a connection you trust, and you will want it for banking and for anything work-related on cafe wifi. Airport transfer pre-booked if you are landing at night — Welcome Pickups is the low-drama option, and the alternative at 1am in a new country is negotiating in a language you do not speak.
Days 1-3: sleep, SIM, cash. Book a hotel or short-stay flat for the first two weeks and no longer. Do not sign a lease from abroad. Get a local SIM at the airport or a phone shop — everything downstream, from viewing flats to ordering food, runs through a local number. Draw cash. Use Wise to move money at a rate you can defend rather than hitting an airport bureau. If you arrive before a long-stay place is sorted and are carrying too much, Bounce and LuggageHero both solve the bag problem for a day.
Days 3-10: walk the neighbourhoods, then lease. This is the step people skip and regret. Spend a week in the area you think you want before committing money to it. In Da Nang that might mean deciding between the beach side and the city side; in Ho Chi Minh City it is a genuinely different life district by district. The local SIM blocks this — most listings are arranged by phone or messaging app. Then negotiate. Deposits and terms vary; get whatever you agree written down in both languages if you can. If you want a second opinion on a contract before you sign, Rocket Lawyer is a cheaper first stop than a local firm.
Days 7-14: workspace and routine. Try the coworking spaces before you buy a month. The budget lines are $80 in Da Lat and Hoi An, $90 in Da Nang and Hanoi, $110 in Ho Chi Minh City. Run a day in each on a day pass. If your home connection is ~90 Mbps and your work is solo writing or code, you may not need a desk at all. If your work is calls, you almost certainly do.
Days 10-20: transport. Rent a motorbike monthly before you consider buying one. Most people who buy in month one sell at a loss in month four. $40/mo is the transport figure on file across all five cities, and renting fits inside it comfortably. Get a proper helmet — not the plastic thing that comes with the rental.
Days 20-30: the exit decision, which is the whole point. Your 90-day block has a hard edge and it does not move because you are busy. By day 30 you should know: am I extending or leaving, am I looking at the DH student route for a renewable year, and what date does my onward ticket say. If a flight you booked for this gets delayed or cancelled, AirHelp is worth a claim — but the real lesson is to build in a few days of slack rather than planning to leave on the last legal day.
What blocks what, in one line: e-visa blocks boarding, SIM blocks flat-hunting, flat blocks routine, routine blocks knowing whether you actually want a second block here.