8 Destinations in Vietnam You Should Go

The Cu Chi Tunnel, Mekong Delta region, Phu Quoc, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Sapa are seen as favourite destination for foreign tourists coming to Vietnam, according to the world’s travel search engine.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi tunnels built in 1948 were used by Vietnam soldiers during the reistance struggles against French colonists and American imperialists. They are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of HCM City.

Mekong Delta region

Floating market is the highlight of the Mekong Delta region. Visitors can experience diverse activities like rowing through mango forests, trekking, visiting fish and snake farms, and riding along tracks.

Sapa

Sa Pa is a town in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains of northwest Vietnam. Popular with trekkers, it overlooks the terraced rice fields of the Muong Hoa Valley, and is near the 3,143m-tall Fan Si Pan peak, climbable via a steep, multiday guided walk. H’mong, Tay and Dao hill tribes make up much of the local population.

Phu Quoc

Phu Quoc is the biggest island in Vietnam, which is famous for beautiful beaches. This peaceful tropical paradise, floats in the warm turquoise waters in the Gulf of Thailand, 50kms from the Vietnamese mainland and a 50 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City 

Hoi An ancient city

Hoi An is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Hoi An Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique heritage site.

Mui Ne

With a long, palm-lined beach, Mui Ne has steady wind conditions (in the dry season) that make it a top destination for windsurfing, kitesurfing, sailing and other water sports. It’s also a popular weekend getaway from Saigon with a busy strip of hotels, restaurants and shops.

Nha Trang

Nha Trang is a coastal resort city in southern Vietnam known for its beaches, scuba diving and offshore islands. Its main beach is a long, curving stretch along Tran Phu Street backed by a promenade, hotels and seafood restaurants. Cable cars cross over to Hon Tre island and the Vinpearl Resort, with a golf course, water park and fairground.

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination in Quang Ninh province. It features thousands of limestone karstsand isles in various sizes and shapes.

5 Things must do While you're in Hoi An

Formerly a happening trading port in post-modern South East Asia, Hoi An is now famous for being an exotic tourist attraction in the South Central Vietnam. This UNESCO World Heritage site offers its guesses a peaceful ambiance. Most of the time, tourists prefer to visit Hoi An’s classic architecture and religious sites as well as to purchase traditional souvenirs and bespoke clothing from the town’s renowned tailor shops.

However, Hoi An also offers a wide range of service for recreation and adventure, aside from sightseeing and shopping. With rustic paddle fields, bucolic villages, beautiful river, gorgeous beach and undamaged coral reef, Hoi An is the place for you to try out new things. Below are the 5 most interesting activities to do in Hoi An, proposed by foreign tourists and backpackers.

1. Joining a cooking tour

Probably not for daring adventurers but a brilliant idea for families, the tour is a daytrip to Thuan Tinh Island on Thu Bon River. It will take place from morning until noon and transportation will be provided by the tour organizer.

The first destination is a local wet market, where you will see how Vietnamese normally sell and purchase their food. All the ingredients there are organic though it is advisable to ask your guides on how to choose the freshest and tastiest if you want to purchase. Next, it will take you 40 minutes of relaxation and sight-seeing along Thu Bon River on a ferry to Thuan Tinh Island. Here you will have another 30-minute-row-boat ride under coconut glove to discover the local village. From time to time, you will get to rest and enjoy tropical fruits and juice.

The cooking class is outdoor and open to fresh air. Both the chef and the guide are knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. You will be instructed on how to cook the most famous Vietnamese dishes, namely Pho Bo (Beef Pho ), Nem Cuon (Spring Roll), Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancake), etc. Believe it or not, Vietnamese food are inherently good and easy to cook so don’t have worry much about your own cooking experience. The fun is to try your self-made dishes and gauge your own cooking ability.

The price is $35 per pax, not extremely inexpensive but definitely worthwhile, given all the transportation along with the food and fun that you will get to enjoy. Contact us for more information about the tour and booking.

2. Rent a bike and discover the countryside

Hoi An has been well known for its old houses, temples, pagodas and bridges. However, outside this small town is a totally different landscape with rice field, fisher villages, river and beach that you certainly do not want to miss.

The ideal transport for this expedition is bicycle. Bicycle renting service is ubiquitous in Hoi An. Paying about $2-3 and you will have that bicycle for a whole day, riding anywhere as you wish. Some hotels like Ha An even lend their bikes to their residents without any extra charge.

Cycling slowly through narrow paths along vast paddy fields, discovering how locals live their daily life and relaxing on the unspoiled beach of Cua Dai, you will find the peace of life that hardly other places in Vietnam can offer. The cordial villagers will help if you happen to get lost. On the beach, you can sunbathe, swim and eat: the seafood here is the freshest in the region as fisher village is just nearby. The price of renting a sun lounger for one day is as cheap as buying a water bottle. A good news for bingers is that restaurants and bars are open until night.

Though thrilling and adventurous, especially when you ride in group, travelling on your own in an unfamiliar area may be quite challenging for some. One alternative is to have a guided tour. There is a range of service, from half day to overnight homestay. Riding on robust sport bikes, you will be guided to visit the best places near the old town. Prices ranging from $24 (for half-day tour) to $89 (for overnight homestay).

3. Scuba diving and snorkelling

The sport has just been around for 4 years in the sea area surrounding Cu Lao Cham Island, which is 25 nautical miles from the coast of Cua Dai. Therefore, this is a relatively new diving site. You will not be annoyed by so many divers and boats and have more chance to experience the unspoiled beauty of Cu Lao Cham’s seabed and coral reef.

The best time in year to dive in Cu Lao Cham is from April to October when the water is warm and calm and underwater vision is clear. There are suitable times during other months too but chances are you will be disappointed by gloomy weather. Currently, Cu Lao Cham has three major commercial diving sites: Hon Dai, Hon Tai and Hon Mo. You can opt for either snorkeling or scuba-diving. Snorkeling is wearing a snorkel tube and floating underwater near the surface. You need to hold your breath when diving this way and thus cannot go too deep. But the good thing is that you do not need any experience to snorkel. Scuba-diving, on the other hand, requires some skills and knowledge. With gas tank and tight diving suit, you can venture 5-7 meters deep into the water, take some picture and play with the fish.

If you are new to diving but too enthusiastic about discovering the seabed then there is one company called Blue Coral Diving. This is a 5-star PADI dive center which offers courses in scuba diving. The instructors are experienced Vietnamese and foreign divers. There are three levels of course, ranging from Beginner and Advanced to Professional. The price starts from $250 and you will get discount if you come in group. For Beginners and Advanced levels, the course only lasts for 2 to 4 days. Another PADI-certified company is Cham Island Diving, which offers both course and tour. The price for one diving session is not too expensive, ranging from $42 to $80 per pax.

4. Become a one-day farmer in Tra Que Village

Fed up with luxury and want to experience some frugality? Just take a ride to Tra Que Village, put your conical leaf hat on and start hoeing, plowing and watering like a real farmer.

Located 3 kilometers to the northeast of Hoi An’s old town, Tra Que is a typical Vietnamese village with green gardens and fields. Being instructed by local farmers, you will have one morning working under the sun to understand how the tasty dishes that you enjoy in Hoi An comes about. You will also gain great insight into traditional Vietnamese farming method. The trip will prove instructive to those home gardeners as you will acquire some very helpful tips about growing and tending plants from the local professionals. After a morning of hard physical work, lunchtime is when you will be taken care of. Foot message is often included in some of these “farmer” tours. Professional staff will help you get rid of stress and tension in your body and mind. Another reward is food and drink made of organic food grown in the village.

Most of these day trips are cycle-tour as you will get to the village by bikes. Along the way, you will have the chance to discover Hoi An’s fishing village and observe farmers catching fish by nets from their row boats. The price is about $30 per pax, quite reasonable given the insight, hand-on skills and good food you will get.

5. Relax at a Spa (finally)

We have been through cooking, cycling, diving and farming, which are all in authentic Hoi An and Vietnamese style. Alas, after all of these adventures and physical activities, our last recommendation for your fulfilling experience in Hoi An is all about relaxation and invigoration.

Although there are many spas in Hoi An, Palmarosa Spa is the first one that uses only pure natural products and ingredients in their therapies. This, combined with professional staffs and service, makes it the number one in Hoi An. You will feel relaxed and peaceful from the very first moment walking into Palmarosa. The staffs just couldn’t do enough to help you. They are always ready to welcome you with herbal teas and foot soak, even before you choose your treatments. Facilities are new and clean, and the spa is artistically decorated in East Asian style. Once inside Palmarosa, with soft glowing light and cool refreshing air surrounding, all you want to do is to pull over and take a nap, especially if you have just come back from a hectic day trip or lengthy tiresome flight.

But wait, you still need to order your service! Palmarosa Spa has a variety of therapies and treatments to offer you: the thirty-minute Indian head therapy, the sixty-five-minute foot reflexology, the seventy-five-minute Basalt Hot Stone body therapy, etc. And don’t forget to try the ninety-minute Palmarosa Spa Signature (which sounds like something really special!). The prices range from $11 to $43, slightly more expensive than other local spas but don’t bother since the money will go with quality!

Palmarosa Spa is on 90 Ba Trieu Street, just 9 minutes walking from the town’s center. The spa is open from 10am to 9pm and last booking is at 8pm. So if you are in staying in Hoi An, don’t hesitate, come to the place and have a relaxing experience!

The best suggestion for perfect trip to Vietnam

From the island-studded seas of the north to the meandering waterways of the south, Vietnam is a country defined by the diversity of its land and the resilience and generosity of its people. Amity Smile Travel shows you how to take the perfect trip to Vietnam.

1. Hanoi: best for city life

                                  Fruit seller heading to market.

It’s rush hour in Hanoi, and the streets of the city’s Old Quarter throng with hundreds of scooters. The pavement and the central reservation are fair game in the chaos; zebra crossings exist more as a personal challenge than a guarantee of safe passage. Hanoi is a city that refuses to grow old gracefully – a millennium-old capital of crumbling pagodas and labyrinthine streets, now undergoing a werewolf-like transformation into a 21st-century Asian metropolis. In the Old Quarter, ancient temples now neighbour karaoke joints, and dynasties of artisans ply their trade next to shops selling cuddly toys the size of grizzly bears.

2. Halong Bay: best for coast

The mystical landscape of Halong Bay, where over 2000 limestone islets rise from the Gulf of Tonkin.

Once upon a time, a friendly dragon lived in the heavens above Halong Bay. With invaders from the seas threatening Vietnam, the gods asked the dragon to create a natural barrier to protect its people. The dragon kindly obliged, performing a spectacular crash landing along the coast – digging up chunks of rock with its flailing tail and spitting out pearls – before grinding to a halt. This scene of devastation is now known as Halong Bay – Halong literally translates as ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’.

Less exciting explanations of this landscape involve eons of erosion by winds and waves – but nobody disputes the splendor of the end result. Rising from the shallows of the Gulf of Tonkinare thousands of limestone islands – towering monoliths lined up like dominoes, some teetering at worrying angles. The islands’ names testify to the overactive  imaginations of sailors who’ve spent too long at sea – Fighting Cock Island, Finger Island, Virgin Grotto. Having largely resisted human settlement, the islands have become home to other creatures. From above, sea eagles swoop down to pluck fish from the waters, carrying their prey – still flapping – high into the air, and squawking congratulations to each other from their nests

3. Sapa: best for walking

                                           Ripening paddies near Sapa

An evening fog hangs over Sapa. Clouds sporadically open up a bit to reveal a village, a chunk of a mountain, a patch of jungle, before obscuring them from view again, like stage scenery sliding into the wings. Eventually the clouds lift, and the Hoang Lien mountain range emerges. It is a landscape of extraordinary beauty – the Asian highlands half-remembered from childhood picture books and martial-arts films. Above are peaks thick to their summits with greenery. Below, rice terraces run down the hillsides at right angles, as neatly as the folds in origami paper.

Sapa is a town where the weather seems to operate on random rotation – switching between brilliant sunshine, thick fog, driving rain and occasionally a dusting of snow, before coming full circle to brilliant sunshine, often all within the space of a few minutes. A hill station settled by Vietnam’s French colonists, Sapa now serves as a trailhead for hikers happy to run the meteorological lottery of a walk in these mountains. 

4. Hoi An: best for food

                                            A demonstration Cooking Class

Hoi An is a small town that likes a big breakfast. As dawn musters strength on the horizon, a small army of chefs sets to work on Thai Phien street – firing up gas cookers and arranging plastic furniture on the pavements. Soon, the city awakes to sweet porridges; coffee that sends a lightning bolt of caffeine to sleepy heads; sizzling steaks; broths that swim with turmeric, chilli and ginger. In Vietnam, street food is a serious business – a single dish prepared day after day by the same cook, perfected and honed by a lifetime’s craft.

‘Food in Hoi An is about yin and yang,’ explains Le Hanh, a young female chef scrutinising vegetables at the morning market. ‘It’s about balancing hot with cool, sweet with sour, salty with spicy.’ True to Hanh’s philosophy, cooking in Hoi An goes big on contrasting flavours; food that plays good cop/bad cop with the palate. The sharpness of fish sauce blends with the subtlety of fresh herbs; cool lemongrass makes way for the eye-watering panic of accidentally chomping on a red chilli.

5 Mekong Delta: best for river life

             Watermelons being offloaded at Cai Rang floating market.

A heavy rain is falling on the Mekong Delta, flooding the footpaths, swilling in the gutters, turning riverbank mud from light tan to a rich coffee colour. A tangled network of rivers, tributaries and canals, the waters of the delta criss-cross the lowlands of southern Vietnam, before emptying out into the South China Sea through mighty, yawning estuaries. For centuries, life here has ebbed and flowed in tandem with the current of the Mekong – an all-in-one launderette, bathtub, highway, toilet, dishwasher, larder, social club and workplace for the communities surrounded by its waters.

‘If you live on a river island with twenty other people you have to learn to get along with everyone,’ explains Mrs Nguyen, beckoning strangers to shelter in her bungalow beside the Cai Chanh canal. ‘That’s the reason why people in the Mekong are so friendly!’ A 77-year-old who attributes her longevity to a lifetime avoiding doctors, Mrs Nguyen wistfully reflects on the delta of old – in days when the only artificial light came from peanut oil lamps dotted along the riverbanks; an age long before roads had reached the villages. Times have changed. However, human life still instinctively congregates on the water’s edge. Lining the riverbank nearby are grocers’ shops, cafés, a gym, a billiards club and a blacksmith’s. Floating markets, too, are still held every morning at nearby Cai Rang – with creaking barges from across the delta bashing into each other as they offload cargoes of watermelons, pineapples and turnips.