Cities in Vietnam: Guiding you on a 1-month journey

Vietnam, a country just shy of 100 million people and spanning just about the distance from New York City to Florida is now becoming one of the top travel destinations in Southeast Asia — and for all the right reasons. With its incredible and rugged terrain, freshly prepared and world-renowned cuisine, insane and intense cities, and cheap costs have brought backpackers and travelers from all over the world.

We’ve now traveled to many cities in Vietnam twice, one time south to north and then other north to south. While Inna even lived in the north teaching English for 6 months!  This country holds a special place in our hearts as it was the place where we fell in love with one another and a place in which we got to explore solo before we even met. 

In this article, we’ll share with you the places we just can’t get enough of and some of the places you can avoid if you’re on a time crunch.  Regardless, Vietnam can offer an experience for all sorts of travelers whether you’re budgeting, living comfortably, or you’re out to ball out and have the best 2 weeks of your lives!

With a little homework, you too can find the places that will bring you all the joy you so seek and also find the places that you should avoid.  Let’s face it, the speed in which tourism is evolving makes it very easy to fall into tourist traps, waste your money, and leave the country upset and with a bad taste in your mouth.

First things first!

Where is Vietnam

Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia with its northern border shared with China, southern border with Cambodia, and to the west in the mountains to Laos!  With the tourism boom over the past few years, Vietnam has seen a spike of 900% since the early 2000s in tourism with everyone trying to see this vast country before it’s “too late” and overrun with tourism.    

Don’t be fooled when you’re looking at a map and seeing the size of the country. It’s massive and mountainous, with elevations changing every city you go to! What looks on a map like a one-day motorcycle adventure, may, in reality, be a 2-3 journey!

Getting a Visa in Vietnam

Yes, it is very simple to get a Visa to Vietnam, but at the same time, it can turn complex very quickly.  With the internet flooded with sites claiming to be the “real” one, you must be careful when selecting. 

We recommend using https://www.myvietnamvisa.com/ as we’ve used it multiple times, the price is right, and everything has worked out perfectly!

Currency in Vietnam

The currency used in Vietnam goes by the name of “dong”.  Currently at the writing of this is $1USD = 23,600VND.  The best way to go about exchanging your money would be for when you arrive at the airport only exchange at most $100USD until you arrive in the city center. There you’ll find plenty of different places to exchange your money, some requiring you to show your passport while some may not.

Routing yourself

This can and will be the most important part of your trip!  Without doing a proper route you’ll be left with crazy and impossible time constraints limiting you to what you can and cannot see.  Vietnam isn’t really a country you’d want to spend less than a month in all honesty, but if given only two weeks we’ll try to break it down into simple format for you as well. 

I can promise you the first question you’ll hear whenever you meet new people along the way is “are you headed north? Or are you headed south?”  As you’ll end up meeting up with these people again most likely if you’re headed in the same direction.

• 1-month route visiting cities in Vietnam North to South

  • Hanoi -> Sapa -> Ha Giang -> Ha Long Bay -> Cat Ba Island -> Ninh Binh -> Phong Nha -> Hue -> Hoi An -> Da Nang -> Da Lat -> Ho Chi Minh 

• 1-month route visiting cities in Vietnam South to North

  • Ho Chi Minh -> Da Lat -> Da Nang -> Hoi An -> Hue -> Phong Nha -> Ninh Binh -> Cat Ba Island -> Ha Long Bay -> Ha Giang -> Sapa -> Hanoi 

Cities in Vietnam

As we’ve shown you the preferred routes above, here we’ll break it down into a simple format for you to understand what you’ll be able to get out of each location.

Hanoi

We consider this to be a crucial starting point if it’s your first time to Vietnam or if it’s your first place in South East Asia.  Here you’re able to slowly adjust your pace to understand the way of life and not be thrust into what we call “culture shock”! 

It’s the perfect city in Vietnam that blends eastern and western culture and will leave you with Americanized fast-food chains if you do hit that wall. That being said, Hanoi is a perfect place to try Vietnamese cuisine from the North.

All in all, we would suggest spending 3 days in Hanoi as you’ll have so much to see and do.

Sapa

In the northwest corner of Vietnam, very close to the border with China, Sapa is an absolute treasure. Sapa lies among the beautiful rolling mountains of Vietnam and is surrounded by the unmissable green terraced rice fields if you visit during the right time of year!  While the scenery is breathtaking, Sapa is known for its various cultural makeup.

The small villages lining the hillsides are home to a diverse combination of ethnic minorities, each with their own customs and culture.  While its location does make it a pain in the ass to reach, it should be noted that it’s 100% worth it. While driving can be especially challenging, it’s always a safe choice to take a Bus From Hanoi To Sapa.

Ha Giang (loop)

One of the most overlooked cities in Vietnam lies in the northern part of the country.  A city that has always been put second to Sa Pa is now beginning to rise in the rankings, to be one of the most sought-after places in Vietnam! 

Riding along the Ha Giang Loop was at the top of our list for the most exhilarating things we’ve done to date.  What used to be almost impossible to reach due to the lack of infrastructure, is easily accessible today! 

The city of Ha Giang is small and with little to see and do, but it makes for the perfect stopover before and after you start the loop.

Ha Long Bay

While a lot of people make the mistake, we are here to remind you not to confuse Ha Long Bay with Ha Long City!  People come to the area and only visit the city and get upset when not understanding what everyone is raving about! 

Ha Long Bay is about 600 sq. miles with about 2,000 islets, so yes this will require you to get on a ferry, speedboat, or a houseboat in order to see it properly!

Cat Ba Island

The biggest surprise of our whole entire trip to say the least!  We went with the intention of having a quiet and relaxing time for Christmas and new years, only to spend 16 days relaxing and making friends with the tight-knit group of locals on the island! 

Spend the day out on a boat tour around Cat Ba Island seeing all the surrounding area while snorkeling, kayaking, and photographing its beauty.  At night time eat the locally caught fish and indulge in some live karaoke with the acoustic group downtown in front of hundreds of other travelers.

Ninh Binh

2 hours south of Hanoi is where you’ll find this wonderful retreat that makes you feel like it’s Halong Bay on land.  With its karst formations and winding rivers you’ll have your days packs with canoe, boat, and bike rides trying to see everything you possibly can. 

While staying downtown in Ninh Binh may be the best option when it comes to food and prices, it may be more worthwhile if you book accommodation in Tam Coc – the area where you’ll be visiting all of the attractions.

Phong Nha

By far one of our favorite cities in Vietnam. What other places can you find that allows you to go caving during the day, eat a wonderfully cooked local meal for dinner, and go out to party at night?  This was our 2nd time to the adventure capital of Vietnam – Phong Nha. The first time was for 3 nights and this time for 1 month! 

We did pretty much everything there is to do from visiting 10 different caves to trying every restaurant, cafe, and bar in town to seeing every attraction possible!  We also found ourselves indulging in some of the nicest accommodations available in Vietnam like Phong Nha Farmstay and Victory Road Villas. Phong Nha makes for a relaxing destination in an otherwise fast and furious country.

Hue

Hue is a city that holds a lot of history in it whether it being the former Imperial capital or the father of Vietnamese cuisine.  However, this was our second time visiting and we still think of it as a stopover city. 

You can see almost every noteworthy thing in about 2 days and the standards for Vietnamese food around the country have been raised substantially over the last few years, so it leaves Hue in our opinion on the back burner.  

Hoi An

We loved spending time strolling along the river, making new friends, walking through the extremely narrow streets of the Ancient Town strung with its colorful lights and lanterns, eating some of the best Vietnamese food and drinking cheap beer.

The city is packed with delightful pagodas, historical homes, and cafes.  Hoi An is one of the most popular places for buying handmade clothing specifically leather and is one of the main reasons why people come here.

The clothing industry is the city’s main industry when it comes to income aside from just tourism. You can get anything you want to be made here – leather boots or bags, custom made suits, dresses, sneakers you name it.  The tailor shops will mail all your goods home to you if you’re in a rush or if you want to order stuff in the future they’ll keep your measurements on file.  

So, which one should you visit – Hoi An or Da Nang?

Da Nang

A city in Central Vietnam that offers picturesque mountain views, white sandy beaches, and an abundance of activities to keep adults and kids going for hours!

You’ll need at least 2 days in the city of Da Nang to explore all of the highlights, and even more to spend time relaxing at the beach or by your hotel pool.  Still to this day visiting the mud spa in Da Nang had to be one of the most interesting, refreshing, and affordable things we’ve done. 

One of the major draws to Da Nang as well, is the fact that it’s home to the 3rd largest airport in the country, so if you must bounce around to accommodate your schedule this city may be of great value!

Da Lat

A city located in Southern Vietnam that sits almost a mile above sea level is the biggest producer of fresh fruits, vegetables, and coffee.  Each day shipments of all the fresh produce are sent out across the country, feeding millions of Vietnamese. 

Da Lat has such a stated of the art system in play when it comes to agriculture in South East Asia, and you can see it all for yourself.  Stroll the downtown area with a fresh cup of coffee and enjoy streets that are well maintained and litter-free!

Ho Chi Minh

Easily the most chaotic city in all of Vietnam!  When trying to cross the street in the downtown area, you can be assured that at a stoplight you’ll see hundreds of motorbike only a few feet away from one another. 

But don’t let that sight scare you away from the amazingness that this bustling city has to offer you.  From taking in the history crawling through spider holes, visiting pagodas, shopping the local markets, or taking a tour of the Heineken factory atop the highest building – Ho Chi Minh has it all! 

This last time around we mainly focused on finding all the cafes you can work at that have reliable internet, minimal foot traffic, and great coffee.  The city didn’t disappoint whatsoever!

Save all of the hassle of traveling the country with all the gifts you want to get for people and opt to buy all of your Vietnamese souvenirs in Ho Chi Minh!

Budgeting your trip

Always the first topic people want to know when discussing any country you want to visit.  As a general rule of thumb when visiting Southeast Asia, we like to say $50 a day will comfortably get you a time you’ll never forget.   Now, that doesn’t mean you should go spend $50 a day, we’re saying in some places it’ll less and in some places, it’ll be more.  Here’s the way we look at expenses:

• Private Accommodation ($15 a day)

• Monthly Motorbike Rental ($10 a day)

• Meals ($10 a day)

• Attractions ($5 a day)

*Optional - Beer ($5 a day)

All of these can, of course, be done for less such as meals, you can easily find Pho for $1 as well as fried rice.   You can find places where you can sleep on a bunk bed for $5 and you can also choose to walk everywhere you visit.  We were only stating the $50 a day as a way to live comfortably and gauge what kind of spending will be necessary. Let’s face it...no one wants to run out of money while abroad!

These cities in Vietnam are not the only good places to visit in the country.  This was a bias comprehensive list put together by us and a few fellow travelers narrowing down the cities in Vietnam for you to plan your trip!   Please feel free to click the message button on the bottom right of the screen if you’ve any questions about any other places you may be looking to visit.

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