Nha Trang Visa Run Bus: departure times, pickup points, and 2026 ticket prices

The Nha Trang visa run bus is a sleeper coach that does the whole Moc Bai loop in a day. You board near your hotel in the early hours, the bus climbs over Khanh Le Pass while the coast is still dark, and you are back in Nha Trang the same evening with a fresh entry stamp in your passport.

There are two ways to ride it. The day bus runs the dawn sweep from about 02:30 to 05:00 across Nha Trang, Cam Lam, and Cam Ranh, reaches the border between 10:00 and 12:00, and drops you back home between 20:00 and 21:00. The night sleeper leaves Nha Trang at 21:00, rolls into the border area around 09:00 the next morning, and gets you back the same evening. Same border, same fixer, same three stamps. The difference is when you sleep.

A transport-only ticket starts at 1.5M VND. That is the ride, nothing else. Most first-timers take the Standard bundle at 5M VND, which adds the Cambodia visa at Bavet and the 90-day Vietnam e-visa, so the whole reset is handled in one booking.

Here is what this page covers: the departure times for both buses, the pickup points and how the sweep works, the 2026 ticket prices, and what the ride itself is actually like. If you just need the short version: book online or on WhatsApp, confirm your pickup by 20:00 the night before, be at the lobby ten minutes early, and let the driver handle the rest.

The bus on this route is a sleeper coach, not a day bus. The seats recline nearly flat, which matters more than you would expect, because the drive to Moc Bai is roughly five to seven hours each way. Nobody wants to sit upright through that twice in one day, and the sleeper layout is also why the night departure works at all.

Each row has a bunk-style seat with a small footwell, a curtain for a little privacy, and a reading light. The coach is air conditioned and the driver keeps it cool all day, so bring something with long sleeves even in summer. There is underfloor storage for bags, one checked bag per person on the day bus, and small hand luggage stays with you in the bunk.

This is a visa run convoy, not a public route bus. The coach runs with the same fixer team that handles the border counters, and the group travels together so nobody gets left at a station. The schedule is set around the Moc Bai border, not around a departure board. The convoy also leaves before the big public sleeper buses arrive, which means your queue at the exit counter stays short. That detail saves you an hour at the border on most days.

The bus carries the whole service: the transport-only riders who already hold a valid visa and just need the stamps, and the Standard bundle riders whose visas are filed the moment the exit stamp lands. Everyone rides together and everyone returns together. It is a long day, but it is a shared one.

The day bus runs a rolling pickup sweep, not a single fixed departure. The sweep starts in Nha Trang center around 02:30 to 03:00 and works its way outward, so your exact pickup time depends on where you sit in the order.

Door to door, that is about 16 hours. The border arrival time moves a little with truck traffic on the highlands road and the number of pickup stops that morning, but the shape of the day never changes.

The night sleeper is the second departure. It leaves Nha Trang at 21:00, reaches the border area around 09:00 the next morning, and returns you to Nha Trang around 21:00 the same evening. You sleep through the drive instead of leaving before dawn, which suits anyone who cannot face a 3 a.m. wakeup, or who lands in Nha Trang late and needs the run the next day without an overnight hotel.

Which one should you pick? The day bus if you want the whole thing finished in daylight and you do not mind an early start. The night sleeper if you would rather sleep on the road, or if your visa expiry is so close that you need every hour before the run. Both run 365 days a year, weekends and Tet included.

There is no bus station in this picture. The visa run bus picks you up at your door, or as close to it as the coach can get. That is the whole point of the sweep: the driver collects riders across the bay before heading inland, so the ticket is really a door-to-door ride.

The pickup areas, in sweep order:

• Nha Trang center first, from about 02:30 to 03:00. Tran Phu and the beachfront hotels, the streets behind the night market, anywhere a car can stop.
• An Vien, Vinh Hoa, and the northern and western districts next, as the bus fills.
• Cam Lam and the Cam Ranh Bay resorts after that, usually between 04:00 and 05:00. Resorts on the peninsula and the bayside hotels are on the regular route.
• Tuy Hoa and Van Phong when the roster allows. These are bus-sweep stops, not guaranteed ones, so ask at booking rather than assuming.

When you book, you give your exact address: the hotel or building name, plus any gate or alley detail a driver would need at 3 a.m. Dispatch confirms your pickup time to the minute the night before, and that confirmation is the number to trust, not the range on this page.

Be ready ten minutes early. Wait at reception or the lobby, keep your phone on you, and watch for the coach. Drivers do not wait long at a stop, because every minute of delay pushes the border arrival toward noon and the return toward 21:00. If you miss the sweep, message the WhatsApp line immediately; the convoy runs daily, so you can usually shift to the next departure.

The 20:00 rule covers every booking: confirm by 20:00 the evening before via WhatsApp at +84 369 308 237, or by replying to the dispatch message. Have your address, traveler count, and bundle choice ready. Dispatch confirms within one business hour, so by bedtime you have a pickup time, a vehicle, and a driver name or plate.

Prices below are in VND and USD at the common 2026 rate. You pay on arrival, in cash or by bank transfer, so there is no prepayment to chase.

The e-visa add-on has its own tiers. Four-day processing starts at 65 USD, and the rush tiers, one hour, two hours, and four hours, go up to 165 USD. The rush tiers run Monday to Friday only; the slower tiers process on weekends too. A weekend run works fine if you can wait a day or two for the new e-visa.

What the ticket does not include: food and drinks on the road (the convoy stops for coffee and lunch, you pay for your own), and the Cambodia visa if you booked transport only. Everything else, the ride, the border escort, the drop-off, is in the price.

Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before departure. Because the convoy runs every day, a cancelled booking usually just shifts to the next departure. Same-day changes are handled case by case over WhatsApp.

For the full line-item breakdown in both currencies, see the 2026 cost page.

Once the sweep is done, the convoy heads inland over QL27C and Khanh Le Pass, then through the highlands on QL14 toward Tay Ninh. It is about 500 km each way. The bus makes two coffee and fuel stops and a photo break near Pleiku, so the drive is broken up and nobody rides six hours straight.

The border window at Moc Bai runs roughly 11:00 to 19:00. The fixer queues passports at all three counters: exit Vietnam at Moc Bai, cross into Bavet in Cambodia, and re-enter Vietnam. If you booked the visa desk, your e-visa is filed the moment your exit stamp lands, so the clock on the new 90 days starts while you are still on the Cambodian side. Lunch happens in Tay Ninh while the paperwork works.

The return drive follows QL13 down to the coast. First drop-offs are in Cam Ranh around 19:00, and the bus finishes in Nha Trang between 20:00 and 21:00. All riders travel together, so the convoy does not leave anyone behind at the border.

What to bring: your passport with six months of validity and two blank pages, a little USD cash for the Cambodia visa if you are transport only, a long-sleeve layer for the air conditioning, and phone battery for the long stretches without charging. The full packing list lives on the Moc Bai route guide.

The day is long, 16 hours door to door, and most of it is on the road. That is the trade for a same-day reset. The alternative, a flight out and back, usually costs three to six million VND and needs an overnight stay to make the stamps line up, so the bus wins on price and on finishing the same day.

The bus is the cheapest way to do the run, and for a solo traveler it is the sensible default. You get the same fixer, the same border service, and the same 16-hour day as the car, for 1.5M VND transport only or 5M with both visas.

The private car costs 9.5M VND, but the moment you split it, the math changes. Two people at 9.5M is about 4.75M each, which beats the 5M Standard bus bundle. Four people is about 2.375M each, cheaper than the bus ticket alone. The car also gives you your door as the only stop, no sweep, no waiting for other riders, and room for one checked bag per person. Couples, families, and anyone with a suitcase usually pick the car.

So the rule of thumb: solo, take the bus. Two or more, price out the car. The full per-head math is on the cheapest visa run page, and the car's own page covers the door-to-door details at private car to Moc Bai.

Whichever you choose, the schedule is the same: confirm by 20:00 the night before, pickup in the dawn window or the 21:00 sleeper, border by noon, home by 21:00. The bus and the car run inside the same day. What changes is the price and the pickup, not the plan.

Still comparing options? The schedule page covers run days and holiday operations, the complete guide walks through every border counter, and the FAQ answers everything from luggage to overstays. Riders comparing other cities can check Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, which run their own schedules and pricing.