Vietnam

Vietnam, in a few days

From Hanoi down to Ho Chi Minh City, by way of Halong Bay and Hoi An: the map, what is worth booking, everything that costs nothing, and where to sleep at three budgets.

Day by day

1

Hanoi

Days 1-2

A capital a thousand years old, with a French colonial layer laid over the top. The old quarter still carries the names of its thirty-six craft guilds, and dinner is eaten on plastic stools at knee height.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Guided street food walk3h · from €25
  Three hours and half a dozen stops through the old quarter, sitting where the neighbourhood sits.
• Water puppet show1h · from €12
  Puppets worked from behind a screen in waist-deep water, a village art of the Red River delta that goes back nine centuries. About an hour.

✦ Free to visit

• The old quarter
• Hoan Kiem lake
• The Temple of Literature
• Train Street

📲 Book things to do in Hanoi on GetYourGuide

2

Halong Bay

Days 3-4 · 🚗 Road 2h30

Roughly 1,600 limestone towers standing straight out of the water, UNESCO-listed since 1994. Junks thread between them, and most stay a night.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Two-day junk cruiseNight on board · from €140
  A night on board among the karst towers, which is the only way to see the bay empty at first light.
• Kayaking into the caves2h · from €20
  Two hours paddling through rock tunnels that open onto lagoons closed in on every side.

✦ Free to visit

• The karst towers
• The floating villages
• Sunrise over the bay

📲 Book things to do in Halong Bay on GetYourGuide

3

Hoi An

Days 5-7 · ✈️ Domestic flight 1h20

A trading port from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, left intact when the river silted up and the ships stopped coming. The old town is lit by lanterns and UNESCO-listed.

🎟️ Worth booking

• Tailoring, made to measureHalf day · from €40
  Hoi An has cut cloth for foreign traders for centuries. Measured in the morning, fitted the same evening.
• Market and cooking classHalf day · from €30
  The market first, then a boat to the kitchen, then the herbs and the rolling done by hand.

✦ Free to visit

• The old town under its lanterns
• The Japanese covered bridge
• An Bang beach
• Cycling out through the rice fields

📲 Book things to do in Hoi An on GetYourGuide

4

Ho Chi Minh City

Days 8-10 · ✈️ Domestic flight 1h20

Saigon until 1975, and the commercial engine of the country since. Ben Thanh market, colonial facades, and the Cu Chi tunnels an hour out of town.

🎟️ Worth booking

• The Cu Chi tunnels, guidedHalf day · from €30
  Two hundred kilometres of tunnels dug by hand during the war. One stretch has been widened so visitors can crawl through it.
• Mekong delta day tripFull day · from €45
  Sampans down the narrow channels, a coconut workshop and a floating market, back in Saigon by evening.

✦ Free to visit

• The central post office and the cathedral
• Ben Thanh market
• Cholon, the Chinese quarter
• A rooftop bar with a view

📲 Book things to do in Ho Chi Minh City on GetYourGuide

Worth sorting before you go

Domestic flights · Hanoi to Da Nang, and Da Nang to Saigon, take about eighty minutes each on VietJet or Bamboo. The sleeper train is the slow way, and the more interesting one.

📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly

🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta

🚗 Car hire
Compare the agencies before you land.
Compare · Booking

💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut

🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer

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Flavours & local habits

🍽️ Worth tasting

• Pho: noodle soup with beef or chicken, eaten at breakfast and not at dinner.
• Banh mi: a baguette filled with pork, pate and pickles, the one thing the French left behind.
• Bun cha: grilled pork, cold noodles and a bowl of herbs. A Hanoi dish.
• Nem and summer rolls: fried or fresh, dipped in fish sauce.
• Coffee beaten with egg yolk, or iced over condensed milk.

⚠️ Best avoided

• Agree the price first, every time: taxi, cyclo, market stall.
• Use Grab, or Mai Linh and Vinasun, rather than an unmarked taxi.
• Cross the road slowly and without stopping. The scooters go around you, and stopping breaks that.
• Do not drink the tap water, and keep small notes: change is often short.

Words that help

English ↔ Vietnamese

✈️ Flight delayed by 3 hours or more, or cancelled? You may be owed up to €600. Check your flight on AirHelp.

The practical page

Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/vietnam

Packing checklist

Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.