The Best Places To Visit In Vietnam In 2024
Discovering the treasures of the land of the dragons. This article is designed to help maximize your trip to this incredible place.
Table of contents
- Hanoi
- Hanoi to Ha Long Bay
- Ha Long Bay & Cat Ba island (Kayak experience)
- Ha Long Bay & Cat Ba island (Cycling experience)
- Ninh Binh
- Hội An
- Ho Chi Minh City
Day 1: Hanoi
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, and it is a bustling city with more than 8 million people and almost 6 million motorbikes that fill the city like water flowing in a river.
We arrived in the afternoon from London after a long journey. The first impression is to have arrived at a typical Southeast Asian metropolis. Everywhere you can hear the honking and screams of children playing, there is no quiet moment and shops, and restaurants are open at any time, giving a sense of life to a city that never seems to want to sleep.
“Vietnam” combines two Vietnamese words, “Viet” means descendants of a dragon soaring to the sun, and “Nam” means the southern territory.
For someone with an average salary living in London, Vietnam is convenient. For example, for four big dishes plus a cocktail and a beer, you will spend about $25; you can also eat a banh mi for $1, which is a French-Vietnamese hybrid consisting of a baguette.
I then suggest you look for a place to drink coffee, Vietnam is the second world’s coffee production leader. The style of coffee is different from what we are used to; first of all, it is more similar to a filtered coffee, and also they add condensed milk which makes it delicious and sweeter.
Some places worth to sign on your itinerary:
↠ Gau Coffee & Bakery — It is a great place to experience traditional coffee; they accept only cash payments.
↠ Tourists attractions: Tran Quoc Pagoda — Presidential Palace — Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
↠ Hanoi Food Culture —It is a restaurant located in Phat Loc Street-Old Quarter, a secluded food alley housed in a vintage old French villa constructed in 1911.
Day 2: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay
If you are travelling to Vietnam, you cannot miss seeing Ha Long Bay. I recommend to do it with Vega Tour; we did the most expensive tour, which is two nights, including kayaking and hiking on Cat Ba island. It is a complete tour, and you can enjoy the essence and the uniqueness of the UNESCO heritage.
Ha Long means descending dragon, and it has been nominated in the 1994 and 2000 World Natural heritage list for its outstanding aesthetic value with its 1,600 islands.
I was experiencing this surreal mix of dark bluish colours, an accent of diffuse light that allowed the mountains to become a silhouette, like everlasting columns in the centuries. In the distance, you could see a touch of light radiating from the fisherman’s floating houses reflecting on the water, everything completed by the newborn moon.
The food on the boat was incredible, and the rooms were very comfortable. On the first day, we went kayaking around the fisherman’s floating houses; we stopped in a lagoon to swim and coming back, we admired one of the most remarkable sunsets we had seen. The sun’s rays were brushing the small islands in front of us, creating a memorable scene.
Day 3: Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba
When you wake up, around you, everything is gorgeous. A tiny bit of drizzling at the beginning gave the rainbow the confidence to come out and to the green, dressing the islands of the mountain to shine.
We went to Cat Ba island after taking a boat for 30 mins. We reached Trung Trang cave, spread over 300 meters towards the mountain and located in a high spot of the tropical green forest, which gives this place a peaceful atmosphere.
The climb was challenging because the humidity made the rocks wet. There were no noises around you; only the echo of singing birds in the valley. When the guide told us that some of the scenes from the film King Kong were filmed here, I wasn’t surprised. The green of the trees was unreal, and the peace that nature offered was unequalled.
After that, our guide cooked traditional fish before heading to this beautiful Cat Co beach.
What I appreciated about the three days in Ha Long Bay was the time we spent with the other people on the boat just before and after dinner. It was 14 of us, and it was just the correct number that permitted us to socialise and getting to know more about other people’s journey to Vietnam.
Day 4: Back to Hanoi
On this day, you are visiting the other side of Cat Ba island, where we spent the morning cycling around the villages and trying rice wine for the first time.
After that, we packed and headed back to Hanoi, which took approximately 3 hours.
Once we arrived in Hanoi, we ate a Banh Mi at Bánh Mì 25, where with no more than a dollar, you will get to try the famous and delicious bread with meat or vegetables.
After that, tired of our long journey and our three days in Ha Long Bay, we relaxed with a massage at Hanoi Serene Spa.
Day 5: Ninh Bình
During our journey from Hanoi to Ninh Bình, the guide gave us some anecdotes about Vietnam that I think are worth sharing with you:
- When you first see Vietnam, you will notice the narrow houses because housing taxes are calculated based on the facade’s area, so narrowing them down is the best practice to cut costs.
- Foreigners cannot own land in Vietnam. However, you can still purchase other landed properties.
- China is the biggest importer to Vietnam.
- Vietnam is the world’s second-biggest coffee producer, only after Brazil.
- The Vietnamese dong has increasingly moved towards exclusively using banknotes due to the chronic inflation experienced by Vietnam during the 1980s and 1990s. No way you can find coins.
You want to visit Ninh Binh, not for the city itself but mainly for the natural surroundings. If you hike to Hang Mua Cave Viewpoint, you will see an outstanding view, about 500 steps up stone stairs. Once on the top, you will experience this. You can see the Tam Coc river and the rice paddies.
After that you will hire a boat and an old lady will row you through the caves and mountains of the Tam Coc river.
Then head to visit some of the most stunning ancient tiered pagodas nestled into a mountainside, like the Bich Dong Pagoda.
Good to know — Ninh Binh is very close to Hanoi, and seeing the unpredictable weather in the country is a great place to consider if, for example, your trip to Ha Long Bay or Sapa has been postponed due to weather conditions. It is only an hour from Hanoi, so it doesn’t require much effort to organise, and it will take you just a day to visit it. As we did in Cat Ba, we rented a bicycle and decided to cycle through the villages. It is a very peaceful moment that allows you to disconnect from the bustling capital city of Hanoi.
Back in Hanoi, we had a drink at Polite & Co and ate a pizza in this fancy and cool place called Pizza 4P’s.
Day 6 and 7: Hanoi to Hội An
You have many options to travel from Hanoi to Hội An, we decided to get a flight which is the quickest way. There is no direct flight to Hội An, but the nearest airport is just 45 minutes away in Da Nang, and it’s about $35; you don’t need to show your passport on arrival making the whole journey very smooth. If you want to see the fantastic coastal scenery, then the train will be your option, it will take approximately 16 hours, and the ticket will cost you around $40. Everything comes down to how much time you will spend in Vietnam.
Hội An is one of the most charming and photogenic towns in Vietnam. It is very touristy and crowded, especially at night when all the lanterns will light up, creating a fantastic atmosphere. You will also notice that everywhere there is a touch of yellow as the people from this region believe that yellow is the colour of luck, pride and royalty, but also is a colour which lends itself to absorbing less heat, which is very efficient in tropical countries.
I suggest getting lost in the little alley of the city, often the best places to eat are hidden from the main street. The best place where we have eaten in Vietnam is Nữ Eatery; the food here was just something else, and every dish on the menu was delicious. And if you then want to grab a coffee, you can go to The Espresso Station or drink a tea at Hội Quán Bách Việt.
Right before the next flight to Ho Chi Minh City, don’t forget to stop for a foot massage at Five Senses Spa.
Day 8: Hội An to Ho Chi Minh City
Our last stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the blogs recommend starting from here on your trip to Vietnam, and I think it’s because it is the most westernised city, so for someone like us coming from London, it will still feel like you are visiting an enormous modern metropolis. However, we were going to a wedding in Bali, so we opted to travel from north to south.
Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon? Saigon is simply the name of the old city after changing its name to Ho Chi Minh City following the fall of Saigon in 1975.
The war museum is one of the most important buildings to learn about this country’s culture. Google suggests many tours and attractions. They are almost all worth checking. However, the main takeaway from my day in Ho Chi Minh City has been the street food tour and the Mekong Delta, the 12th longest river in the world. An excellent restaurant is Propaganda Vietnamese Bistro.
Some tips to consider before your trip:
- Your passport should be valid for six months from the date you arrive.
- Don’t forget to get your travel insurance. We opted for the entire cover with Allianz, but I am sure there are many other cheaper options like Heymondo.
- Avoid drinking tap water or anything with ice due to the different bacteria in the water (unless the restaurant gets the ice supplied).
- Although I booked almost everything with booking.com, I discovered that the best deals in Asia are on agoda.com.
- The best eSim providers are airalo and nomad.
How much of a tip should I leave?
It depends on how the service provided was; you cannot generalise this. You may find online that you should tip between $2 to $4; however, we often found ourselves leaving more. Remember, wages and salaries in Vietnam are very dissimilar across occupations. One of the guides told us that the average salary is between $200 to $300; follow your ethical instinct when you tip.
Moving around
To check information about buses, ferries, flights and railways in South East Asia, 12go is the best. Taxi tends to be more expensive than Grab, which is a great way to move around the city (it’s the alternative to Uber); the chat service is very responsive in case of necessity.
Good to know — The Grab driver may ask you to pay a supplement for airport taxes; they will likely try to overcharge you. So it’s good to be informed. At Hanoi airport, we paid a tax of 10.000 VND to the driver. At Da Nang airport, we didn’t pay any taxes. At Ho Chi Minh City airport, we paid the airport taxes within the app, so we didn’t need to give extra money to the driver. As this may vary it is good to check with Grab.
Money
We exchanged our pounds in Vietnam and managed to get the exact exchange rate Google gave us. The card we used is Monzo Bank, and I would avoid withdrawing as this will occur in a high fee.
Weather
The high season is July and August, which will dramatically influence your trip. The prices will be higher and seeing the number of tourists you will need to book everything well in advance. We went at the end of November, and we were pleased to experience warm weather. The north is colder than the south, and the prices for the hotel were very reasonable, with an average of $12 for a double bedroom in the city’s centre.
Hopefully, this was informative! Please share it with your friends to help them book their next trip to this beautiful country!
If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out by email.
