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When to visit
Attractions in Vietnam
1. Ha Long Bay (Ha Long)
Quick facts: Limestone towers rise from jade-green water, forming over 1,600 islands and islets that hide caves and quiet floating fishing communities. Kayaking between narrow channels offers close-up views of sheer cliffs and stalactite-lit grottoes, while small boats sell fresh seafood at dawn.
Highlights: About 1,969 limestone pillars rise from glossy emerald water, many topped with tiny mangrove crowns, so narrow that paddling a kayak feels like threading a needle through a living cathedral. In sheltered inlets families in places like Cua Van still live on floating houses, running schools, oyster pearl farms, and lantern-lit markets where the smell of grilled squid and the clink of teacups make the whole world feel afloat.
2. Hoan Kiem Lake (Hanoi)
Quick facts: Soft morning light and the hush of tai chi create a peaceful ritual for locals who circle the lake's paths before the city wakes. A beloved local legend about a giant golden turtle returning a magical sword gives the place a mystical reputation, and photographers flock to the tiny island temple for mirror-like reflections at dusk.
Highlights: Legend says 15th-century emperor Lê Lợi handed a magic sword back to a Golden Turtle, and the locals still nod toward a three-tiered stone Turtle Tower that was built in the late 1800s as if the lake can swallow miracles. At 6:00 a.m. dozens of people stretch into slow tai chi on the green banks under the vermilion Huc Bridge to Ngọc Sơn Temple, while vendors steam bowls of phở and the water reflects the city's first pale light like a sheet of hammered silver.
3. Tràng An Scenic Landscape Complex (Ninh Binh)
Quick facts: Glassy limestone towers rise from sinuous rivers, and quiet sampan rides thread through dozens of caves where light and shadow build cathedral-like chambers. Visitors often catch glimpses of herons and kingfishers among reed beds, while cliffside temples and rice terraces tuck cultural surprises into every bend.
Highlights: When you glide in a small sampan pushed by a single boatman, you can hear the wet slap of a bamboo pole and smell limestone in the cool cave air, while narrow tunnels open into sunlit lagoons that look like emerald mirrors. The area was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014, and local boatmen still sing cheo, an old Vietnamese folk song, so sometimes you end up floating through a centuries-old melody under a ceiling of stalactites.
4. Hue Imperial City (Imperial Citadel) (Hue)
Quick facts: A hush falls over visitors at sunrise as mellow orange light slides across crumbling red walls, revealing ornate dragon motifs and lacquered gates that seem to whisper imperial secrets. Wandering the vast, moated courtyards feels like stepping into a living film set, where hundreds of restored buildings and lacquered shrines offer surprising photo opportunities and quiet corners for reflection.
Highlights: At sunrise the orange light pours through the main gate and strikes nine enormous bronze urns cast under Emperor Minh Mang in the 1830s, their surfaces still carved with tiny dragon and turtle reliefs you can trace with your fingertip. On certain full-moon evenings local elders gather in the inner courtyards to chant Nguyen court funeral verses and launch folded paper boats perfumed with incense onto the moat, a ritual that smells of jasmine and burned sandalwood and leaves the cadence of old mandarins in your ears long after you leave.
5. Hội An Ancient Town (Hoi An)
Quick facts: Lanterns float above narrow canals at night, bathing wooden facades in warm orange light and turning every alley into a living postcard. Skilled tailors can stitch a custom outfit in an afternoon, and bustling market stalls offer strong local coffee, fresh herbs, and delicate rice-paper snacks you can try on the spot.
Highlights: On full-moon nights more than 2,000 paper lanterns float down the river, vendors sell tiny folded boats for 5,000 đồng so you can light a candle and make a wish beneath warm, reflected light. Down narrow alleys a 400-year-old covered bridge guarded by carved dog and monkey figures creaks underfoot, while the air carries incense and the smoky, chewy aroma of cao lầu noodles from family kitchens selling bowls for 40,000 to 60,000 đồng.
6. Marble Mountains (Da Nang)
Quick facts: Sun-warmed limestone caves hide intricately carved pagodas and echo with drifting incense, creating a surprising hush amid steep stairways. Sharp coastal views reward the climb, as winding steps reveal tucked-away grottoes, dozens of hand-carved Buddhas, and unexpected mosaic details.
Highlights: Behind a rough limestone mouth you step into Huyen Khong cave, where a shaft of sunlight slants across an incense-filled chamber to spotlight an aged Buddha and make dust motes hang like flecks of gold. At the hills' base the centuries-old stone village of Non Nuoc still chisels marble by hand; you can hear sharp chisels, smell wet stone and lacquer, and watch artisans spend days or even weeks coaxing a single dragon or lotus from translucent white marble.
7. Củ Chi Tunnels (Ho Chi Minh City)
Quick facts: You can crawl through earth-scented, claustrophobic tunnels and suddenly understand how a hidden network stretched over 200 kilometers beneath rural fields. Visitors often spot tiny kitchens, cramped hospitals and cleverly camouflaged trapdoors, details that bring the ingenuity and hardship of those who lived there into sharp focus.
Highlights: Beneath the red earth, a maze of tunnels snakes for more than 120 kilometers, with some crawlspaces barely 60 centimeters high so you feel cool, damp soil brushing your shoulders as you squeeze through. Local guides point out tiny trapdoors and punji-stick booby traps, and show the clever bamboo ventilation and cramped underground kitchens where Viet Cong cooks prepared rice and cassava by oil-lamp light.
8. Cái Răng Floating Market (Can Tho)
Quick facts: Morning light gilds the water as vendors balance fruit-laden poles and trade by shout and gesture, creating a moving mosaic of colors and sounds. Visitors climb aboard small boats to sip hot noodle soup sold from wooden skiffs, and on busy days hundreds of boats crowd the canal, making early hours the best for photos.
Highlights: Wake before sunrise and you'll see more than 500 wooden boats clustered shoulder-to-shoulder on the river, each vendor balancing pyramids of pomelo, bunches of bananas and steaming cups of coffee on their oars while lanterns sway in the mist. Locals still use a quirky pole-and-sample code to haggle, lifting a fruit or a tiny tray on a long pole to signal price and quantity; one vendor named Ba Luan reportedly sold 220 bunches of herbs before 8 a.m., and the air smells of sharp fish sauce, grilled banana and hot coffee.
9. Phú Quốc National Park (Phu Quoc)
Quick facts: Thick evergreen canopy muffles the world, sheltering a surprising array of wildlife from nocturnal civets to colorful hornbills that call at dawn. More than half of the island's remaining lowland rainforest is protected within its bounds, giving hikers unmarked trails, remote beaches, and a living laboratory for endemic plants and rare primates.
Highlights: At dawn you can hike under a canopy of dipterocarp and evergreen trees soaring past 40 meters, and hear the rasping calls of hornbills and the chatter of macaques while the air carries salt and crushed lemongrass. After dark fishermen still smoke tiny anchovies in bamboo racks to make an amber fish sauce whose sweet, smoky scent of caramelized fish and sea salt drifts across tidal mangroves, while bioluminescent plankton sometimes paint the shallows like spilled stars.
10. Fansipan Summit (Sa Pa)
Quick facts: Morning treks can leave you walking above the clouds, with a 3,143-meter summit that rewards every breath with sweeping ridgelines and rare mountain orchids. Cable car riders who skip the climb still get a thrill, ascending past bamboo forests and sheer cliffs that make the final plateau feel like a secret alpine theater.
Highlights: At 3,143 meters above sea level, the summit sits above a rolling sea of clouds so often that on calm mornings you can step from the stone steps into a soft, cottony blanket and watch sunrise paint the karst ridges orange. What used to take two to three days of steep trails and porter stories can now be reached by a 15-minute cable car that deposits you near a cluster of old shrines where climbers still tuck coins and prayer ribbons into crevices for luck.
Popular Cities in Vietnam
Traditional Sweet Dishes
Chè
Chè comes in dozens of regional varieties, from bean soups to coconut jelly, and can be served hot or cold as a street snack or a family dessert.
Bánh chuối
Bánh chuối turns overripe bananas into a caramelized cake that can be steamed or fried, it was born as a resourceful peasant treat that became a popular street sweet.
Bánh da lợn
Bánh da lợn is a chewy, colorful layered cake scented with pandan and mung bean, and its name literally means 'pig skin' despite containing no pork.
Traditional Savory Dishes
Phở
Phở began as a Hanoi street food in the early 20th century and is prized for a broth simmered for hours with bones and spices, the final bowl is finished tableside with fresh herbs.
Bánh mì
Bánh mì is a Franco-Vietnamese invention that uses a light, airy baguette filled with pâté, pickles, cilantro and spicy mayo, it became Vietnam's go-to portable meal after World War II.
Bún chả
Bún chả is a Hanoi specialty of grilled pork patties and slices served with cool rice vermicelli and a tangy fish sauce for dipping, it shot to global fame when a US president ate it in Hanoi with Anthony Bourdain.
Traditional Beverages
Cà phê sữa đá
Cà phê sữa đá is intensely strong Robusta coffee sweetened with condensed milk and poured over ice from a tiny phin filter, it was perfected during colonial times when fresh milk was scarce.
Trà
Trà is more than a drink in Vietnam, it is a gesture of hospitality and can be scented with lotus by stuffing fresh blossoms into tea leaves overnight for a delicate floral aroma.
Rượu gạo
Rượu gạo is a potent, clear rice wine made from fermented sticky rice that is often shared from a communal jar at weddings and festivals, some versions are infused with herbs or fruits for local medicinal uses.
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Day trips
Ninh Binh (Tam Coc/Trang An)
Karst landscapes, river caves and ancient temples.
Google MapsHạ Long Bay (day cruise)
Iconic limestone karsts and short bay cruises.
Google MapsPerfume Pagoda (Chùa Hương)
Pilgrimage complex with scenic riverboat approach.
Google MapsBát Tràng Pottery Village
Traditional ceramics village, hands-on workshops.
Google MapsComments (9)
Cheap, friendly, crazy traffic, at least a week needed to feel the vibe properly.
Expected more beaches, lots of development and rubbish in places, nice people but infrastructure surprised me.
Ho Chi Minh felt chaotic but alive, street food is next level, plan for hot weather and lots of scooters.
If you use trains, book night sleepers early and bring earplugs, the berths are comfy and save a night's hotel.
Carry small bills everywhere, taxis often refuse big notes and getting change in markets is a hassle.
Getting there
Airports
Train stations
Reunification Express (north–south), regional links to Lao Cai
Reunification Express north–south connections
Use airport express bus or Grab taxis; allow 30–60 min to Hanoi center depending on traffic.
Click to get eSim for Vietnam
The easiest and most affordable way to get mobile internet wherever you travel.
Rent a car in Vietnam
Visa & entry
ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand), Japan, South Korea (policies vary)
Most other countries (check e-visa or embassy options)
Check e-visa availability and ensure passport valid ≥6 months before travel.