Planning a first trip to Vietnam means sorting out visas, cash vs. card, common scams, and how many days to budget per city — details that are easy to get wrong from abroad. These guides cover full destination overviews, sample itineraries, and safety tips, written for travelers coming from the US, Canada, or Australia. Coverage currently spans Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang.
Quy Nhon is a beach city on Vietnam’s south-central coast, roughly halfway between Hoi An and Nha Trang, built around a long crescent bay backed by the Truong Son mountains. It draws a fraction of the tourist traffic that Da Nang or Nha Trang see, which is exactly the appeal: empty coves like Ky Co…
Con Dao and Phu Quoc are Vietnam’s two major island destinations, but they serve almost opposite travel styles. Phu Quoc has an international airport, resort strips, cable cars, and nightlife built for travelers who want an easy, full-service beach holiday. Con Dao has none of that, trading convenience for uncrowded beaches, some of Vietnam’s best…
A Con Dao itinerary works best across three to four days: one day for the prison historic sites and Con Son town, one full day for diving or snorkeling, one day built around a sea turtle tour or a quiet beach like Dam Trau, and an optional fourth day to slow down further or add…
Con Dao is a small Vietnamese archipelago in the South China Sea, reachable only by short flight or ferry, that pairs pristine, uncrowded beaches with one of the country’s most sobering historic sites and one of its most exclusive resorts. Most travelers spend three to four days here for diving, sea turtle watching in season,…
Da Lat and Sapa are Vietnam’s two best-known highland escapes, and both get pitched as the answer to “somewhere cool and different from the coast.” They are not interchangeable. Da Lat is a resort town built around flower farms, coffee, and French colonial architecture, reachable from Ho Chi Minh City in a short flight. Sapa…
Two days covers Da Lat’s essentials, and three days lets you add the flower farms and coffee plantations outside the city without rushing. This itinerary spreads the city center, Crazy House, Langbiang Mountain, and Datanla Waterfall across a comfortable pace, with an optional third day for the countryside. Day 1 City Center & Crazy House…
Da Lat is a hill town in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, sitting at roughly 1,500 meters above sea level, which gives it a cool, spring-like climate found nowhere else in the country. Travelers come for pine forests, flower farms, French colonial architecture left over from its days as a colonial hill station, and a coffee culture…
Sapa and Ha Giang are Vietnam’s two big northern mountain trips, and travelers planning a Vietnam itinerary often have to choose between them rather than fit in both. Sapa is built around trekking and village homestays with real hotel comfort nearby; Ha Giang is built around a multi-day motorbike loop through more dramatic, more remote…
Two full days is enough to ride the Fansipan cable car and complete one real trek between villages; three days lets you add a homestay night or a side trip to the Bac Ha Sunday market. Here is how to structure either version. 2–3 days Recommended length 8–10km Typical trekking day 20 min Fansipan cable…
Sapa is a former French hill station in Vietnam’s far northwest, built around a valley of terraced rice fields and ringed by the Hoang Lien Son mountains, including Fansipan, the highest peak in Indochina. Most visitors come for two or three days of trekking through H’mong, Dao, and Giay villages, a ride up the Fansipan…
