Getting Eyeglasses in Vietnam as a Tourist (My Experience)

I really needed new glasses. My current pair was actually about 5 years old, and they were really getting worn out. The stems were so loose that I was seriously worried they’d fall off my face, and the lenses were so scratched that I felt a bit embarrassed to be wearing them.

Luckily, Da Nang is a great place for tourists and expats to get their healthcare done. I found a recommendation for an eyeglasses shop on a Facebook group! I messaged them on Facebook to make an appointment and took a Grab over from my apartment in Son Tra.

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Shop: Quang Optics

• Location: 84 Đ. Nguyễn Văn Linh, Nam Dương, Hải Châu, Đà Nẵng 550000, Vietnam
• Hours: 8:00am-8:00pm
• Facebook: Click here

Kudos to the staff for inviting me to come one day earlier than my original appointment, to avoid the tropical storm that was going to hit our area.

Eye Exam

It was a very basic exam. They checked for my prescription, and that’s it. Usually the exams in the US are a combo eye health exam and prescription exam, but here I think you have to go to a different eye doctor(?) for that.

The exam was very easy. First the doctor “read” my eyesight with a that machine that looks like a big pair of binoculars, which shows you a little hot air balloon image in each eye. The machine automatically adjust to my prescription and the hot air balloon went from looking like a blurry mess to a real image.

Then she used the big overhead lens thing while I read out letters on the wall chart. The letters were the normal Latin ones, as is standard. And finally, she had me read out some text (in English) off a paper to test my eyesight from close-up. Since it wasn’t an eye health exam, she didn’t do the air puff thing or dilate my eyes.

The whole exam took maybe 15 minutes, and the doctor was very professional about the whole thing. I’ve had bad experiences with optometrists in the past where they kept going on and on about my strong prescription, to the point where it felt shaming, but there was none of that here.

Luckily for me, my prescription was the same even after 5 years! (Yes, it really was that long since my last exam.)

Picking Out Frames

After the exam, the assistants and I took a look around the different frame options and I told them that I’d prefer something similar to my old frames, in a few certain colors. They found some really good options for me, but I fell in love with a purple pair for about $40 USD.

The frames were much lighter than I was expecting, and to be honest I was a little concerned that they’d be so cheap they’d break after a few years. They DID have sturdier frames available (for about double the price), but not in a color I liked, so I just went with the purple pair. I guess we’ll just see how they hold up, eh?

An assistant measured my pupillary distance using a kind of iPad-looking thing, and then the doctor and I discussed lens options. All the things that cost extra in the US are just standard here: rolling and polishing, anti-glare, and anti-scratch.

Final Cost + Payment

I decided to get the highest index lenses I could, which cost about $40 more than the “standard” index. My prescription is like -13, so my lenses are always more expensive and thicker than people with lighter prescriptions. With the frames at $40, the lenses cost $260, and the total was just under $300 USD. The exam was free!

I put a deposit down for my glasses (with credit card) and gave them my Whatsapp number. I was told it’d take about 5 days, and it indeed took that long. I got a message the following Monday that my glasses were ready for pickup, and off I went to get them.

Picking Up Completed Glasses

This was so fast! They were expecting me and were able to see me right away. My new glasses fit perfectly, and with the lenses in they don’t feel cheap at all, luckily.

I paid the rest of my bill, got a copy of my prescription (on a laminated card, even!) and off I went!

Final Thoughts

Overall I had a very good experience getting my glasses in Vietnam.

To compare it to what I paid for the same things in the US: without vision insurance, I typically paid $500-700 for my glasses NOT including the exam (which was usually another $50 or so). Here, I paid only $300 and got something of a similar (or better) quality. The staff were also very nice and the shop had an enormous amount of frames to choose from, way more than I typically see in the US.