VIETNAM

Arrival: Welcome to the capital of Vietnam! Hanoi is a bustling city full of charm and chaos. Between meandering through the Old Quarter and attempting to cross any street with scooters whizzing by, you are sure to have sensory overload while also falling in love with this city. 

There is not a large metro system in Hanoi, and while there are bus routes, the traffic can be heavy and the buses quite crowded, so for the most part, you will be exploring on foot or using Grabs to get around the city. But, if you have taken our advice, you will be staying in the Old Quarter, and already close to many of the sites.

City/Food Tour or Jeep Tour: We will start with this one as it is easily the best way to see many of the sites in a fun way! (Usually included: Long Bien Bridge, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and Hanoi Train Street) Do this on one of your first days to minimize the amount of neighborhood hopping you will need to do throughout the rest of your stay. There are plenty of companies that offer these tours and each one will vary slightly on what sites and foods you try, but by the end of the 4-5 hours, you will have seen at least a few of our must see sites listed to the right and enjoyed local delicacies. Talk with your hotel or locals for recommendations, search for them online, or you can check out this option here.    

Old Quarter: The Old Quarter in Hanoi is the main neighborhood, filled with bars and restaurants scattered throughout the French inspired buildings. Here you will find a majority of the shopping for popular brands, major sites such as Hoan Kiem Lake and St. Joseph's Cathedral, and of course plenty of street food. Make sure to check out the famous night market if you are visiting during the weekend and make a stop at beer corner, any night of the week, where you can take a seat on a small plastic chair at one of the four corners and drink beer for around $1 while enjoying various street performers and people watching. 

Long Bien Bridge: This steel masterpiece, built by the French over 100 years ago, spans across the red river and connects the two sides of Hanoi. It is only accessible by motorbike, so if you wish to cross it or stop for a photo on the train tracks running through the middle of the bridge, you will need a guide to take you across. We were able to to this during our city food tour, but you may be able to ask a Grab or local motorbike taxi to take you across.

Hoa Lo Prison: This POW compound is a great way to build your knowledge about the Vietnam War and other aspects of the history of Vietnam. The prison was originally built by the French to hold the Vietnamese who were rebelling against their colonization. It was later used by the Vietnamese to house American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The difference in treatment and conditions that the prisoners experienced is quite fascinating and you can easily spend a few hours reading all the information. The museum is open from 8:00am until 5:00pm and costs 30,000VND to enter.  

Arrival: Hoi An is an adorable town along the coast in central Vietnam and was our favorite stop during our trip. It's charm will suck you in and it will be difficult to leave, but you can easily see what you would like to in 2 days. 

Old Quarter: The main reason to visit, and biggest attraction in Hoi An, is of course their Old Quarter. Streets lined with shops, tailors, bars and restaurants with hundreds of Japanese Lanterns strung overhead, what more could you want for a magical experience. Of course that is until you see the town at night, when boats with lanterns float tourists up and down the river, and hundreds of lotus flower candles are lit and placed in the water. There are plenty of women along the river selling these candles for about $0.25 so you can take part in this ancient tradition.  

Old Quarter entrance tickets. When entering the Old Quarter, you will see stands selling these tickets, which cost 120,000 VND, are good for 24 hours and allow you into 5 historic sites of your choosing, including the Japanese Covered Bridge. They say that these tickets are mandatory for tourists and they could possibly be checked, however we were not asked to present them except for when we went to one of the historical sites. It is also commonly known that as long as you purchase 1 ticket, even if you are staying more than 24 hours, you will be fine. At the end of the day, its about $5 that goes to preserving the beautiful city. 

An Hoi Islet: After a day and evening strolling through the Old Quarter, you may want to cross back over the An Hoi Bridge and onto An Hoi Islet. Here you will find the night market with plenty of shopping and street food to enjoy, and you will also find the nightlife area of the town! All along the street, facing the river, you will find plenty of bars offering everything from live music, happy hours, and karaoke, to party the night away. 

Tailor Shops: If there is one thing that Hoi An is known for, it is their plethora of tailor shops where you can get suits, dresses, shoes, bags, etc. made to order for a very reasonable price! If you are coming to this town and want to have something special made for you, make sure that you make this a priority on day one. It will usually take 2-3 days for a suit to be completed (sometimes faster if you pay a rush fee), so don't leave it to the last minute and miss out. Just walking down the different streets, you will be overwhelmed by the number of tailor shops that you see, so take your time, compare prices and fabrics, keep in mind that if you see something you like in any store, they can almost always make it for you in your size and material of your choice, and remember you get what you pay for. Two of the more famous shops for suits, include A Dong Silk and Bao Khanh Silk, but their prices will reflect their popularity. It is not uncommon to be approached by people "poaching" customers for their shops. They will come up to you, sometimes on scooters, and start with complimenting you and asking where you are from. This will then turn into "come and see my shop, we do tailoring, etc." You will come to know pretty quick if they are trying to draw you in to their shop, so if you aren't interested, simply say so and they will often move along to their next potential customer. 

Cooking Tours: One of our favorite activities while in Hoi An was the cooking class/tour that we took. The 4.5 hour tour included hotel pick up, walking through the local market to learn about the ingredients you would be using, a stop at the river to enjoy a traditional basket boat ride, a little crab fishing (I was so close to catching one!!!) and lastly cooking up multiple Vietnamese dishes that you would then get to enjoy for either lunch or dinner! It was the perfect way to learn more about the local area, cuisine, and of course get to try delicious food! There are many tours to choose from throughout the city, but we loved our experience with Cam Thanh Family Tours and highly recommend. You can book your $25pp tour here.     

Arrival: Welcome to the largest city in Vietnam! Formally known as Saigon, and once the capital of Southern Vietnam, this giant city is a combination of historical and modern architecture and a wonderful place to visit.  

Ben Thanh Market: Here you will find hundreds of stalls selling name-brand items in one building, including food stalls and souvenir shops. This is convenient for transportation purposes, but it also means that it will be very crowded and slow to navigate, so depending on how much shopping you plan on doing, you may be here for a while. Also don't forget to barter, with that many stalls selling the same items, you can often knock off 25-50% of the original asking price. 

War Remnants Museum: If there is one museum we highly recommend going to while in Vietnam, this would be it. Full disclosure, it is not an easy experience, with many of the photos being tough to see and some not suitable for children, but it provides so much history and context about the Vietnam War and the effects that it had on the local people. The museum is open from 7:30A to 5:30P and only costs 40,000VND. Either on your way there or after, head a few blocks over to Notre Dame Cathedral and the Central Office, which is a historical landmark and still a functioning post office, if you wish to send a postcard back home.

Cu Chi Tunnels: One tour option while visiting Ho Chi Minh, is the Cu Chi Tunnel tour. The tours are usually a half day experience and they will take you 2 hours outside of the city, to the area where the Viet Cong used tunnels to fight during the Vietnam War (you can explore different tour options here). The tour itself is a commercialized "touristy" experience, where you will stop at a craft shop along the way for a break and they will try to get you to purchase local goods, so just know that going into it. Once to the tunnels, your guide will take you through the forest, showing you the tunnels, the traps that were used, an old gun range (where you can pay extra to fire some of the guns), and you will have an opportunity to climb through a portion of the tunnels, if you are brave enough to face the claustrophobia. It is overall a unique and interesting experience and will provide additional history about the Vietnam War. 

Nightlife: The most famous nightlife area in Ho Chi Minh is Bo Bui Vien Walking Street. Here you will find the street lined with bars and clubs all offering loud music, cheap drinks and plenty of people watching. It is quite the spectacle to be sure. If you find a bar with plastic chairs outside, try to make sure you are sitting at one on the sidewalk and not in the street, as it is technically illegal for alcohol to be served out there and when the police do a drive by, the employees rush to pick everything up and move it, and you, onto the sidewalk. It doesn't happen all the time, but having it happen to us made us quickly start requesting sidewalk seats to avoid a frenzy and spilled beer. The other main walking street in the city is Nguyen Hue, where on one end will be the Ho Chi Minh City Hall and on the other, the Sai Gon River. This street is more family oriented, with buildings lit up and entertainment along the streets. There are very few restaurants or bars, and the ones there are commercialized, so we don't recommend planning on having a meal here, but it is pretty to stroll along and check out.