Where to go in Vietnam?

[LucidLucifer]

I've just booked some air tickets to Hanoi for the end of June. The rough plan is travel overland to HCMC, then back to Thailand through Cambodia. Ha Long bay is on the to do list, but I am looking for other suggestions.

I will be travelling with my 4 year old daughter, so as much as possible, I'm looking for nice beach resorts to visit on the journey down south.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

[craigt3365]

Wow...sooooo many cool things to do. You are going to be spending a fair amount of money on this trip, I woild highly recommend you get a guide book. They come in hardback or pdf versions. I am sure u know this, but a lot of great info is there, all in one handy place. They are not perfect, and are not "bibles", but are a great source of info for some $15-20.

Also, trip advisor is good.

Hoi An, Nha Trang are good places to visit. As are Sapa, Dalat, and a tour of the Mekhong delta.

Sent from my GT-N8013 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[seasia]

Hi

Not quite what you`re asking for but if you do stay at HCMC, alongside Pham Ngu Lao Street which is a very busy main road in District 1 there is a large pleasant park, also includes a seperate kid`s play area.

Might be worth an hour or so, I stayed very near there and had a stroll through it everyday.

From HCMC I took a side trip to Vang Tau, a beach side town, found it pleasant and quiet, it`s maybe about 2 hours by bus, all the travel agents in HCMC would sell you tickets.( I stayed there a couple of nights )

Vung Tau overall only seems to get mediocre reviews but I quite liked it.

Jesus Mountain very nice, although a lot of steps to reach the top plus this place seems popular :

http://www.vungtau-city.com/?p=892

[hanno]

Basics first: how much time do you have?

Ha Long can be nice as long as you stay away from the day trips which are a complete waste of time. Splurge and get onto one of those junks.

Hue and Hoi An in the Center are a must.

I'd give Nha Trang a wide berth, getting a little like Pattaya without the gogo bars.

Quy Nhon is very nice and somewhat off the beaten path.

Best beaches are on islands: Phu Quoc and Con Dao.

Worth a visit are the highlands, both in the North and in the Center.

[LucidLucifer]

Thanks to you all for all the useful replies so far, it's appreciated.

Hanno, in terms of time, roughly 3 weeks in Vietnam, plus a week or so coming back through Cambodia. I could go longer, but 5 weeks is about the maximum.

Cheers!

[hanno]

Thanks to you all for all the useful replies so far, it's appreciated.

Hanno, in terms of time, roughly 3 weeks in Vietnam, plus a week or so coming back through Cambodia. I could go longer, but 5 weeks is about the maximum.

Cheers!

Three weeks is plenty.

2 days in Ha Noi

2 days Ha Long

2-3 days Hue and Hoi An

2 days central highlands

2 days HCMC

3 days Delta (do the floating market in Can Tho and spend a couple of days in Chau Doc, one of my favorite places)

Rest of the time beaches or islands.

[craigt3365]

Excellent recommendation Mr. Hanno!

Sent from my GT-N8013 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Basics first: how much time do you have?

Ha Long can be nice as long as you stay away from the day trips which are a complete waste of time. Splurge and get onto one of those junks.

Hue and Hoi An in the Center are a must.

I'd give Nha Trang a wide berth, getting a little like Pattaya without the gogo bars.

Quy Nhon is very nice and somewhat off the beaten path.

Best beaches are on islands: Phu Quoc and Con Dao.

Worth a visit are the highlands, both in the North and in the Center.

Yep. Good list. If you pass up Nha Trang, there's also a nice beach at Mui Ne, south of Nha Trang. Then you can take a train/bus to HCMC.

As someone else notes, stay in the Pham Ngu Lao area of HCMC. Lots of cheap hotels and that nice park mentioned. This is a few years ago now but the Saigon Zoo was very nice, actually, plus there's the War Remnants Museum. Walking around is great in HCMC, because the city has actual useable sidewalks unlike Bangkok or Phnom Penh.

Traveller's tip: If taking a taxi, always take MaiLinh (green/white) or Vinasun (white/red-green lettering) company taxis. Make sure they turn on the meter. Taxis are very cheap except for the unwary. Watch how quickly the meter runs up. If it seems like crazy money for a few blocks. Stop him, get out and pay the meter and walk away. 20,000 dong/$US1. Fare from airport to downtown is 150,000 dong/$7.50.

Last, do your price homework. Try to find out what something costs before needing to buy something. Prices in the tourist areas are often jacked up beyond all belief sometimes. Went to buy a 500 ml water at a riverside kiosk that asked 50,000 dong, only 10 times more than the price at a minimart. I laughed and walked to a Circle K mart. 4500 dong for the same brand, as I knew it would be.

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

duplicate post.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Kaoboi Bebobp

[dddave]

Vietnam has a pretty good rail network. It can be a very good way to work your way down the coast. Lots of good info on www.seat61.com A very good worldwide railroad site. The Vietnam section is worth a careful read. I found it to be very useful.

[rnw]

better travelling around with local vietnamese air con bus services, all meals and water free on the journey. DON;T TAKE VIET CONG COMMUNISTS OPERATED OPEN BUS.

vietnam railway're privatised now, but fares 're very high, mostly booked by travel groups ,not suitable for individual travelllers.

few railway staff can speak english french, as most of railway staff're relatives of communists, by working for railways, they can receive better welfare packages and many chances for corruptions money.ordinary vietnamese graduates without any conections with communists high rankings won;t be able to get jobs in railways.

FROM HANOI , BETTER HEAD TO VIETNAM -CINA BORDER AREA AND LAO BORDER AREAS ,MANY THINHS TO SEE, LESS TOURISTIC.

don'T miss Ha giang province and charming small town -xinman

[pbay]

I would recommend Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Siagon. Hue has the old imperial city which is well worth a look and there are various old tombs to see down the river a bit which you can book a tour to for about £6.00.Hoi An is a lovely small town with a beautiful river front and two beaches as well. Nha Trang has a lovely clean beach but the first two roads parallel to the beach are tourist rip off central, although the hotels are pretty cheap but eating places are not. Head away from those two roads and you can eat cheaply there. Ho chi minh city is great. You can book tours all over Vietnam for little money, go to Cu Chi tunnels,nice half day out there, you can even have a blast on an AK47/M16/M40. When we went we used Sinhtourist to book tours, they were pretty good and cheap. When in Hoi An book a tour to My Son which is an ancient Champa temple site a few hours west.

This is a link for sinhtourist, no need to book online as they have offices in most major towns/cities, they also run buses thru out Vietnam which are also cheap to get around.

https://www.thesinhtourist.vn/

The trains in Vietnam can be slow, it took us 24 hrs to get from Hue to Ho Chi Minh city, there are faster trains but you might need to book up a few days in advance, the more advanced the better to get a good train.

Have good time, Vietnam is a great place and the people are generally very nice.

Hoi An

Edited April 19, 2014 by pbay

[Duxnuts]

Can't recommend Sapa enough. One of the most magical places I've ever visited. Mui Ne is amazing also. The two big cities have an incredible enegry. Fantastic food everywhere. The railroad system works very well, provides comfort and some stunning views. You'll have a great time.

[Spaniel]

You mentioned returning to Thailand via Cambodia. My wife and I flew to Vietnam for a week and returned to Thailand via Cambodia. I guess their are a few ways to do it but what we did was take the bus from HCMC to Phnom Phen and spent a couple of days there then we took another bus to Siem Reap where we stayed three days visiting Angkor. From Siem Reap we took a taxi to the Poipet/Aran border then caught a bus in Aran to Bangkok. Ground transportation costs from HCMC to Bangkok was around $50.00 each. Obviously not the way to go if you're in a hurry.

If you decide to go to Siem Reap and looking for a place to stay check out Golden Temple Villa: www.goldentemplevilla.com It's located in town and within walking distance of about everything you would want to see.