Just finished a trip to Nha Trang via Cam Ranh airport. (March 2019)

On arrival, Cam Ranh airport's Vietnam customs confiscated my DJI Mavic Pro drone, verbally citing the need for a permit to fly a drone or flying camera. (This is slightly different to the previous rule where only commercial or large drones require a permit)

The Cam Ranh airport customs team then proceeded to ask for a "storage fee" of USD10 per day, which is fine if there is a clear sign or guideline on this. Upon further questioning by me, there isn't a guideline for this storage fee anywhere in the airport/customs area, nor will they provide any receipt of payment or acknowledgement of payment.

Not wishing to waste my time, I paid the total storage fee and the Vietnam customs took it and put it straight into their pockets - perhaps it's not a scam but it sure feels like it. I was able to collect the drone when flying out of Cam Ranh without any more payments, so that's the silver lining.

My recommendation is to not bring a drone into Vietnam unless you applied for a permit, which apparently is a pretty slow process, but can be done online.

Hope this is helpful.

Hello and good day mrjonathanlam. Thank you for sharing you experience in traveling to Vietnam. In addition to these information I will be posting a link where in you can check areas in Vietnam to fly your drone freely and if a certain area is a no fly zone ( NFZ ). Thank you.

https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map

Hi, just wanted to share my experience.

I just flew into Nha Trang from Hong Kong and successfully brought in my DJI Mavic Mini combo pack. They scanned my bags upon exiting the airport but took no action.