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Junks and tour boats on the green water between the limestone islands of Ha Long Bay.

Southeast Asia

Vietnam

One country, three climates

Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Best time November – April overall; the three regions peak in different months
From Delhi ≈5 h Delhi–Hanoi, direct
Visa e-Visa online in advance, open to every nationality — we prepare and submit the file
Currency Vietnamese dong (VND)
Language Vietnamese; English in hotels and in Hoi An

Vietnam runs sixteen hundred kilometres north to south and the weather does not agree with itself along the way. When Hanoi is cold and grey the delta is perfect; when the south is at its wettest the centre is dry. Almost every disappointing Vietnam trip is a good itinerary run in the wrong direction.

The shape we like is north to south with two anchors: Hanoi and the bay at one end, Hoi An in the middle for the food and the tailoring, and Saigon and the Mekong at the other. Ten nights does it without a single 5 a.m. transfer.

Where you will go

Where you will go

The places this country is actually about, and what each one is for.

A shophouse street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi at night, scooters passing stalls hung with decorations.

Hanoi

Old Quarter mornings, a coffee culture with its own vocabulary, and the best street food in the country.

The wooded islands of Lan Ha Bay seen from a hilltop on Cát Bà.

Ha Long & Lan Ha Bay

Sleep on the water, but on the Lan Ha side where the fleet is smaller.

A yellow corner shophouse hung with lanterns in the ancient town of Hội An.

Hoi An

Lantern-lit shophouses, a beach twenty minutes away, and a tailor who needs two fittings, not one.

A timber pavilion with an ornamented ridge and tiled roofs inside the imperial citadel at Huế.

Huế

The citadel and the royal tombs along the Perfume River. Half a day, properly guided.

The lit towers of Ho Chi Minh City above the Saigon river at blue hour, a boat crossing below.

Ho Chi Minh City & the Mekong

A city that never slowed down, and a delta that never sped up, two hours apart.

Know before you go

  • The three regions have different seasons. A north-to-south route in January and a south-to-north one in July are not the same trip.
  • Tết — the lunar new year — closes family businesses for a week and fills every domestic flight. It is either the reason to go or the reason not to.
  • Tailoring in Hoi An needs two nights minimum. One night is how people end up with a suit they never wear.

Gallery — Vietnam

Journeys

Journeys in Vietnam

All 15 journeys ↗︎
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