If there is one and only one reason to go to Vietnam – it would be the VIETNAMESE FOOD! With a variety of dishes as you move from the north to the south, Vietnam is definitely a foodie’s paradise. You would have got an idea of how much we loved the food in Hanoi, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City in our other blogs with our detailed city itineraries. If you only want to know what the best foods of Vietnam are and where you can find them, you are at the right place! Without further ado, let’s begin!
Pho: No Vietnamese food journey is complete without Pho! Rice noodles served with beef (sometimes chicken), herbs and delicious broth, it can be had as breakfast, lunch or (and) dinner. We had many versions of Pho – the ones we liked most were differentiated by the depth of flavour in the broth. The best bowl of Pho we had was in Hanoi at Pho Gia Truyen at 49, Bat Dan. This place is forever crowded, so make sure you reach there early in the morning (before 8am). We had to try twice before we got a seat!
Ho Chi Minh City is an excellent base location for one-day trips in South Vietnam. We went for two such trips – Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta.
Day 1 – Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple
We booked this trip online through Get Your Guide. The pickup point was in HCMC District 1 like most day trips from HCMC.
The first stop was the Cao Dai temple where the religion of Caodaism was founded. This religion started in Vietnam as recently as 1926. It combines teachings from some of the major religions of the region – Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Cao Dai Temple – the one where the religion was founded
You can also find Jesus and some Hindu Gods sculpted inside the temple halls.
Ho Chi Minh City, or popularly, Saigon, is the biggest metropolitan city and the financial centre of Vietnam. It was the capital of the erstwhile South Vietnam and was renamed after the unification with North Vietnam. Though things have changed over the last few decades, you can still see how the vastly different political ideologies have shaped the cultures of Vietnam as you move from North to South. We flew in from Da Nang for what would be the third and last part of our Vietnam trip.
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is like most other metropolitan cities and the area of interest for visitors is District 1 (this district is still referred to as Saigon). We had booked an Airbnb studio apartment in the same district (tips on booking places to stay and local travel) for proximity.
The second leg of our trip to Vietnam took us to the central part of the country. We had heard and read a lot about this quaint little town and many called it the best part of their trip! Though we were filled with the anticipation, we were also dreading the weather – Hoi An has storms and even floods in November and the previous year was exceptionally bad (Check out our guide to the best time visit each part of Vietnam here). Our evening flight from Hanoi had to navigate through some really turbulent weather to land us in Da Nang – the largest city of the region. We took a taxi to Hoi An – a 45 min drive – and reached our home-stay.
It had stopped raining by now, but it was quite windy. After a quick check-in, we borrowed an umbrella and headed out to the night market! As we walked around looking at the stalls selling food, souvenirs and lanterns, the rain picked up, leaving the hawkers scrambling. Luckily, we had our big umbrella. The river was swelling and almost starting to overflow – we quickly crossed the bridge into the Old Town heritage area and started looking for a place to eat. The entire town was beautifully decorated with lanterns of all colours – it felt like a dream!
One of the most iconic images of Vietnam is one with a bunch of lush green limestone karst islands in the middle of the sea – this is none other than the Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and lies in the northern coast of Vietnam. It is roughly a 2-hour drive from Hanoi and is a must-visit when in Vietnam. We plugged in this visit as the first leg of our trip (check out the complete itinerary here).
Cruising on the Ha Long Bay
Planning your trip to Ha Long
There are two ways in which you can plan this excursion:
Vietnam is well connected through its international airports at Hanoi (Noi Bai Airport), Ho Chi Minh City (Tan Son Nhat Airport) and Da Nang acting as major hubs. You can explore Vietnam by plane, train or bus. Renting a car is not a recommended option here with a left-hand drive and the not-so-good roads with sign boards in Vietnamese.
Travelling in Vietnam – Plane
Flights are a very good option as it saves you time and if you plan in advance, you can get some really cheap deals – we got Vietjet Air tickets from Hanoi to Da Nang for $30 (INR 2200)! The flight connectivity is superb, and you can easily find a lot of flight options to suit your schedule.
There are a lot of budget flight options – we went for Vietjet (not the one in the pic)
Pro Tip: We always make sure we travel light with 2 small backpacks as cabin luggage and 1 suitcase for check-in. In such cases, we book separate tickets – one at the lowest fare (like the $30 ticket mentioned above which doesn’t include check-in luggage) and the other with the luggage add-on. This helps you save quite a bit if you have flights on multiple legs of your journey.
Travelling in Vietnam – Train
Trains are a good option if time is not a constraint in your itinerary. To give you some context, the train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City takes almost 40 hours vs a 2.5 hr flight journey! That said, it is the best way to see the countryside and have a leisurely trip. You will most certainly take a train if you are planning to visit Sapa in the north. Make sure you book your tickets in advance especially if you are travelling on weekends. These are a couple of recommended websites for booking train tickets in Vietnam 12Go and Baolau.
Travelling in Vietnam – Bus
Buses can be found connecting all towns and cities. Be warned – the roads are not great and the buses not very comfortable. The journeys are long which means it will definitely add on to your days in the itinerary (Check out our itinerary here) – both in terms of travel time as well as recovery time. You can find bus tickets on the websites mentioned above for the trains.
Travelling within the city
The cities we went to were the 3 most tourist friendly cities and have a good public transport system which you can rely on.
In Hanoi, for airport transfers, we used the city-airport bus line – look for bus number 7 or 17 and you can get from the airport to the city centre for less than 1 USD per person. You can find out the routes and timings here. Once you reach the Old Quarter, most tourist spots are accessible by foot.
Ho Chi Minh City also has buses, but we didn’t use them as the routes were longer and prone to traffic jams. We went for “Grab” taxis – convenient and easy on the pocket.
Grab taxis are available in all the major cities – make sure you have the app downloaded. It comes in really handy – don’t worry if you don’t know Vietnamese – the app has a chat translate feature where you can type in English and the driver gets it in Vietnamese (mind=blown!). They also have food delivery on the same app – so if you are feeling too tired to step out, they can “Grab” you a quick meal!
Where to Stay
Hanoi: As close as possible to Hoan Kiem Lake. This is where you will be spending most of your time – whether it is exploring the town or hopping into eateries. We stayed near Ta Hien street which was close enough to the bus stop where you get buses to the airport.
Hoi An: Close to the Old Town as this is the centre of activity. We stayed in an Airbnb on the island which has the night market. It was an amazing homestay with super nice hosts who helped us out with our transfers from Da Nang.
Ho Chi Minh City: District 1 – this is where all the day-tours start. You can also find a lot of good restaurants in this district.
Airbnb’s are very popular in Vietnam and with the right set of filters and locations, you can find some really good places. We booked all our accommodation through Airbnb.
You can check out our other Vietnam blogs here to plan your perfect trip:
Vietnam Voyage – Planning a perfect trip to Vietnam (with Itinerary)
