Vietnam Travel Guide
Vietnam is an attractive destination with diverse culture, natural beauty, and friendly people. We can say the tourist attraction points to Vietnam due to everything are quite natural and much unexplored. Tourism generally not affects the life of the Vietnamese people. Only in the major cities and popular tourist spots, everything was rolled by modern life. But the Life in the highland areas still hold natural life, there are attractive destinations for tourists. Besides the natural destination, you can not ignore the most beautiful landscapes in Vietnam and on the world, Ha Long Bay.
Before traveling Vietnam you should read some Vietnam travel advice below
Vietnam travel advice
The most attractive destinations in Vietnam
In the North: Ha long Bay, Sapa Vietnam, Trang An (Ninh Binh Province), Hanoi Old quarter, Mai Chau valley (know more about Ethnic Cultures).
Middle of Vietnam: Hue citadel, Hoi An ancient town, Heaven cave (Quang Binh province), Nha Trang beach, Mui Ne beach, Da Lat city.
South of Vietnam: Phu Quoc Island, Mekong delta, Ho Chi Minh City.
The best time to visit Vietnam
You should go to Vietnam from September to April. This is the excellent time for your trip in Vietnam. Why? Because that is time when the most favorable weather, having no rain and nice sunny. From May to September is the Rainy Season period, it will disadvantage for you.
When can you do a Sea travel in Vietnam? You can swim, sunbathe on the beaches in all months of the year (all time in the South, and from May to September in the North). Vietnam is a country in equatorial climate areas, so always have sunshine all year round.
The festival time: the period from February to March is spring time in Vietnam; there are many festivals at this time. It is also an attractive point to Vietnam. The festival usually takes place in the village, in the great temple.
The Harvest time: from mid-September to mid-October, the time when all rice fields was covered in a gold color. If you love photography and want to have beautiful photos, you should go at this time. You can go to Sapa, or Mu Cang Chai to get paddy-fields beautiful photos.
How long for Vietnam travel
A trip to Vietnam should from 5 to 15 days, Depend on your planning. Many tourists have plan for an Indochina trip (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). I recommend that you spend most of time in Vietnam, about 10 days, 5 days in Laos and 5 days in Cambodia.
If you are a photography enthusiast, you should spend most of their time in the northern region of Vietnam. Where there are many beautiful natural landscapes. Halong Bay is a combination of sea and mountain, Limestone Mountains standing sentinel above the sea, forming a complex magic and magnificence. With Sapa is terraced rice fields, the Hmong village, where you can record images very natural about people and landscapes. With Ninh Binh, this is the land represents of Red River Delta. In Ninh Binh also quite beautiful, a combination of limestone caves and rice fields, mountains.
Things to do in Vietnam
Vietnam Travel has many options for you. Because of Vietnam is a country converged all tourism resources. Please give some tourist activities you can participate:
- Beach breaks: year-round activity in the southern region, with beautiful beaches such as Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Da Nang, Phu Quoc
- Heritage Travel: Hoi An ancient town, Hue Citadel, the ancient citadel of Hanoi.
- Discover local life: you can choose a Hanoi city tour to explore the city people’s lives. Take a trip up the mountain; eating and staying in Home-stay in Sapa villages or Mai Chau town (explore the lives of ethnic minorities).
- The beautiful landscape: Ha Long Bay is the most attractive destinations in Vietnam today. Besides, there is Da Lat, Ninh Binh, Sapa and many other scenic points.
- You love nature and want to explore the natural: conquest and climbing the highest mountain in Vietnam in Fansipan tours Mountain (near Sapa). Or make the Motorcycle trips through ethnic villages in northwestern Vietnam (refer to the motorcycle trip of Vietnam Motorbike tours).
- Discover the history of the Vietnam War: choosing a trip to the DMZ in the middle of Vietnam, or visit the Cu Chi Tunnels (near Ho Chi Minh city). Or learn about the Dien Bien Phu battle at Dien Bien province (near the border with Laos).
Also many other tourist activities, you can have more information in each destination articles: Destination guides
Transport in Vietnam
Traffic in Vietnam is very bad. The travel between destinations will take more time. Normally you would take 4 hours for 180km by car. The movement between the North, South, Central, you can select a plane or train, or sleeping bus.
Duration Flights
Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh city: By air plane is 2.5 hours, by train is 32 hours (express)
Hanoi – Da Nang: 1.5 hour by airplane; 15.5 hours by train
Ho Chi Minh city – Da Nang: airplane is 1.5 hours, by train is about 17 hours
In big cities you should choose the form of transportation are taxi or motorbike taxi. Some good quality taxi companies such as Mai Linh Taxi, Taxi group (in Hanoi), Vinasun taxi (in Ho Chi Minh City). You will pay exactly money on meter. You also should remember the colors and logos of each company to avoid the fake taxi.
Value of money
The Money in Vietnam is Dong. A conversion 1 usd to be about 21,000 VND. For example, the price for a traditional noodle breakfast, you will pay 30,000 VND, about 1.5 usd.
Tip Culture in Vietnam. Many foreign tourists think Vietnam do not have tip culture. They were wrong, if you go into a restaurant, after the end of the meal, you should tip the waitress staff about $5. The tip for driver after a long way is from 5 – $10. The tour guide should be from $20 – $100. If you feel that service quality is not good, you can denied tip for them.
Banking and payments
Vietnam People like to pay everything by cash. Because that, with all payment you should pay by cash. ATM points have anywhere in city, you can easily withdraw cash from the ATM. Payment by Visa or Master Card only be applied in the supermarket, shopping mall, booking or famous restaurants. American dollar is popular in Vietnam, so that payment in U.S. dollars is completely easy in every city.
Cuisine and Restaurant
When to travel in Vietnam, you should be familiar with Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnam cuisine is very delicious and rich dishes. Each domain has a culinary culture different. The northern likes cooking with fish sauce, in the middle people like to eat the peppers, Southerners prefer sweet foods. Some famous dishes that you should eat: Pho, Bun Cha, Cha Ca La Vong, Hu Tieu Saigon, Bun Ca, and etc.
If you want to try the delicious cuisine of Vietnam, you should go to QUAN AN NGON restaurants. This chain restaurant in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.