Travel tips for your trip to Vietnam

Choose your destination depend on time of year you want to travel to Vietnam

Stretching over 2500 km along the coast, weather in Vietnam varies from the North to the South. Travelling between November and February is the great time to visit all the places along the country as it is winter in Vietnam. During this time, the weather in the North is colder than the rest of the year, with the temperature similar to autumn in the Western countries while dry season with warm sunshine starts in the South. In addition, there are many special festivals and celebrations during this time such as Christmas, Lunar New Year and others interesting folk activities which add more color and excitement to the cities. However, the festival time also means that the price of transportation tickets, hotels, and others services at this time often go up dramatically. Southern Vietnam, in the opposite side, does not have winter. This part of the country enjoys a warm climate all year around, with temperature ranging from 22 to 34 Celsius Degrees. From March to June, you had better choose to visit Vietnam beaches in the Centre and South Vietnam to enjoy the clear sky, shining sunshine and gentle sea wave. Storm season in the Centre and rainy season in Mekong Delta starts in July and last until October. Be prepared for heavy rain and flood if you are planning to travel during this time.

Prepare Vietnam visa prior to the trip

There is no visa on arrival to Vietnam. You need to apply from Vietnamese Embassy in your country or contact with authorized online agent to get “letter of approval” before taking the flight to Vietnam. With the first option, you need to go to the nearest Embassy or Consulate or send your passport by post to them. The process may take a month and if approved, visa will be stamped on your passport. The advantage of this option is that you do not have to queue at their VOA counter when arriving airports. The disadvantages for me are the inconvenience of travelling to the Vietnamese Embassy which located in capital and the fear of losing my passport when it is sent by post. The second option is to use service of a travel agent in Vietnam, fill some forms and get the approval letter in one or two days. With this letter, you need to queue and present it to VOA counter and they will stamp Vietnam visa on your passport. I find this option is safer and easier for me as every step I can do online, no worrisome of losing my passport and shorter time to get my visa. I use and get what I want. The only annoying thing is the long queue at the custom window. My advice is that depend on your situation; choose the option that better suit you.

Consider whether you want to travel alone or book a tour

With the boom of tourist stream to Vietnam in the last 10 years, there are hundreds of travel companies in Vietnam. My advice to first-time travelers is to travel as part of a tour to avoid common tourist traps, such as being scammed, being overcharged, or even getting lost. A realizable travel agent also can help you arrange your flights, accommodations and tell you the history/ specialties of the place you visit. Do not choose randomly. Contact a number of tour providers, read reviews on travel websites about them, and rely on the speed and helpfulness of their replies to evaluate standard of their service quality. “Better safe than sorry”!

If you decide to travel alone, make a detail plan before you go. Vietnam is a safe country, however, like everywhere in the world, tourists are vulnerable to pickpocket, rip off, … Just keep important things (wallet, passport, travelling tickets,… ) close to you like you do at home and accept that most of the time, you will have to pay higher price than the local. Sometimes the difference will be nominal, other times it will not. Before using any service, ask for price first and try to bargain. It is your right, your choice! Be prepared that things will go wrong. Vietnam is not a developed country like ours. Trains and planes normally never depart and arrive on time. Traffics are crazy. But come on, isn’t it what you expect when visiting an Asian country? Come there with a smile and an open mind, it will be ok at the end.

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.