Saigon (Ho Chi Minh)The city with economic center of Vietnam. To some it’s a hectic and terribly noisy city, to others the former ‘Paris of the East’ with Vietnam’s best restaurants and cafes and an intense nightlife. Saigon has restored famous hotels like the Majestic, the continental and the Rex and boasts recently opened Asian luxury hotels a la Bangkok or Singapore.
Ho Chi Minh ( Saigon ) never sleeps. Everywhere you look there is color and movement. Vendors engulfed in bright bubbles of balloons or pushing carts heaped with wares; flocks of schoolgirls on bicycles. Their traditional white Ao Dai tunics fluttering in the breeze; cranes spinning high overhead as workers put the It seems that everyone is busy: buying, selling, studying, building… You will find yourself swept up by the city’s enthusiasm, charmed by its youthful exuberance: being back in the business of making money. Not surprisingly, Ho Chi Minh City is a shopper’s paradise, with trendy new boutiques and modern shopping centers just steps away from traditional open-air markets.
The juxtaposition of past and present is more visible here than anywhere else in Vietnam. Gleaming new skyscrapers tower above lavish French colonial villas. Imposing Soviet-style facades stand beside ancient pagodas. Women in traditional dress chat on mobile phones, while old Cyclos jostle for space with brand new BMWs.

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Can ThoThe Mekong River, which begins high in the mountains of Tibet, ends its journey in Vietnam’s southern delta. Before flowing into the sea, the river branches into nine tributaries, known as Cuu Long or the ‘Nine Dragons’. These rivers are the south’s life-blood, nourishing the delta’s paddy fields and fruit orchards. Almost eighty percent of Vietnam population lives in rural areas and no region provide a better glimpse into traditional country life than Mekong Delta.
Take a cruise through the delta’s tiny canals in a riverboat and you will pass stunning tableaus of people hard at work in their paddy fields, water buffaloes, tangled fruit orchards, simple, thatched-roof huts, fishermen, and excited, waving children. In the delta’s towns, the river remains the central focus of life, ferrying travelers and goods to market and linking the delta with the world beyond.
Take a few days to explore the floating market in Can Tho, the islands around My Tho, and the hillside pagodas of Chau Doc. Just a few hours from the Delta unfolds at its own, slow, steady pace. This is Vietnam’s heartland, a place where time is still dictated by the river and the rice harvests.

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Vung Tau my favourite place in Vietnam, it makes for a very quick escape from the city Saigon. With a ticket on the hydrofoil from Ho Chi Minh City (ca. US$10) and taking just over an hour way time.
Despite a slightly seedy reputation its not a bad place to get away when you’re short on time and can’t face the journey to Mui Ne. Once a popular destination for the colonial French the town is overlooked by a huge statue of Jesus on top of a nearby hill, similar to the one that looks out over Brazil.
The town itself looks out onto a pretty harbour full of brightly painted blue fishingboats typical of southern Viet Nam.
To the right of the bay is a road that snakes around the coast beneath Jesus’ feet, leading to a huge long beach bustling with fellow escapees from Saigon, where there are many restaurants, cafes and hotels.
If you follow the road to the right you will find a far quieter bay, with two huge statues on the hill – one of Mary holding Jesus, and further down the coast a huge statue of Buddha.
Food, drink and accomodation in Vung Tau is all pretty cheap and there are some great deals to be had. There is also a wide range of accommodation from high quality hotels to cheap guesthouses and homestays which can be had for under $10 a night.

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Dalat vietnam’s honeymoon town nestles in a moutain valley at an altitude of 500 fl (1500m). The climate is temperate and the cool evenings attract newly weds from all over Vietnam.The area is dotted with lakes, waterfalls, evergreen forests and gardens.
Dalat is in central coast of Vietnam, in the Lang Bian Moutains. Linked by road and rail with the coast at Phan Rang, the city is a market center for locally grow vegetables and for nearby coffee, tea and rubber plantations. It is an upland resort founded in 1920 by a French physician as a therapeutic retreat from the tropical heat of the lowlands. There are pine forests, lakes, and waterfalls on the plateau and a 2135-m (7000-fl) moutain north of the city.
Dalat was once the summer capital and there are many villas in the city, including those of the fomer Emperor Bao Dai, and the governors of Cochin China and Annam. The city has a university and a sanatorium.
The first hotel was built in Dalat around 1907. It was made completely out of wood and was called khach san Ho (Lakeside Hotel – Hotel du Lac). In 1916, work commenced on the Palace hotel. In 1922, the hotel opened to the public. It was the largest and most elegan hotel in this region.
Dalat has many homes built of wood much like the Swiss chalets found in the Alps. It also has many grand villas built by French officials during the early part of the century. Many more villas were built by the South Vietnamese officials in the 60s and 70s.

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Buon Ma Thuot is the capital town of the Dak Lak province, with 75,000 inhabitants. It is the centre of the Rade minority and the most populated region in the highlands. It used to be a hunting ground and an important American base during the war. Nowadays the area is well-known for its flora and fauna. Coffee here is marvelous. Many ethnic groups live here: Rade, Bahnars, Sedang…Visitors can ride elephants through the primitive forests outside the town.
Draysap Waterfall is located 30km from Buon Ma Thuot and means the Fall of Mist in E De language. The fall was named so since the powerful flow of water creates foam and mist as it crashes into the water below. The echo of the falling water can be heard from afar all year round.
Lac Lake, located 56km from Buon Ma Thuot, is in the Southern part of the province, close to National Highway 26. The great body of water hemmed between low mountains has been home to many kinds of wading birds for a long time.
On the lakeside at Lac Lake is a magnificent palace owned by the last Nguyen King, Bao Dai. Standing on the balcony of the second floor, visitors get a panoramic view of the valley and the lake below. The remains of the royal boat which was boarded for short cruises by the owner of the palace, Bao Dai, whenever he stayed there. Near the lake is Jun village – a village of the M’Nong ethnic group. If you stay overnight here, you will have a chance to enjoy Cong Chieng music. The lake views are fantastic.
Buon Don is located Northwest of Da Lat near the Serepok River, close to Cambodian border, approximately 55km from Buon Ma Thuot. Buon Don is well-known throughout Southeast Asia as the land of elephant hunters and trainers. Visitors to Buon Ma Thuot can see big wooden town houses, meticulously chiseled and carved. There are also wooden stilt houses brightly decorated with red paint. The prosperity brought by international trading can be observed at the 13th century Cham towers next to tombs of ancient rich and powerful tribal chiefs whose influence and the wealth spread by word of mounth as far as Myanmar, India and France.

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Pleiku north of Buon Ma Thuot, the road passed rubber plantations, hardwood forests and the corrugated leaves of coffee plants on the way to Pleiku. Pleiku became a combat zone between the North Vietnamese and American armies in February 1965 that elicited the name Rolling Thunder. So little Pleiku was left standing at the end of the war in 1975 that a near-total reconstruction began after the war. There are about 45,000 inhabitants with a large number of ethnic minority people. Riding elephants and trekking are the most popular programs on tours in this region.

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Phan Thiet is the capital of Binh Thuan province, a town best known in Vietnam for its fishing industry and many factories producing a staple of Vienamese cuisine: fish sauce. Bordering the Ca Ty River the town is home to one of Vietnam’s most impressive fishing armadas – a stroll through the busy fish market is an experience for all the senses ! The city is blessed by its proximity to Cape Mui Ne, a 21 kilometre long stretch of fine sandy beach. This quite and beautiful area is home to many lovely hotels, discreetly hidden among the tropical plants and trees, together with relaxed bars and restaurants lining the quiet coast road that runs 500m inland from the sea. Also Ho Chi Minh worked here as teacher.

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Mui Ne is the perfect escape from Saigon when the traffic and the noise all gets too much.
A beautiful beach with an ever-growing strip of resorts lining the coast, Mui Ne strikes a good balance between having sufficient entertainments to justify a long weekend and being overcrowded. The hotels lie between the sea and the road, with many restaurants lining the opposite side of the road.
Fortunately the majority of the resorts are low rise and well covered by plenty of lush green foilage – most have tried hard to create attractive gardens around their bungalows, and the result is that from the beach there is not too much evidence of the booming growth in hotels – it still manages to look secluded and peaceful, without a concrete block in sight.
It has a wide range of restaurants, with the local shacks providing some of the freshest, cheapest and tastiest seafood you will find in Vietnam, as well as many high-class restaurants selling top notch Italian, European, Indian and Thai cuisines.
There’s plenty of bars too, and hot competition means you can often find two cocktails for $2 around sunset – a perfect way to end a gorgeous day. Some, like Jibes and Wax bar, are well connected with the watersports community and often run big beach parties on Saturday nights. The quality of music being played seems to be on the up too and it is one of the few places I have seen expats shrug off their cool and have a good dance.
There are watersports a plenty as Mui Ne has consistently good winds, and it has become the kite surfing capital of Vietnam. There’s plenty of windsurfing too, and for the less adventurous of us it means plenty of visual entertainment as you watch people flying 20-30 ft into the air while sipping a cool cocktail and enjoying the breeze.
No trip to Mui Ne is complete without a trip to the sanddunes, where young children with exceptional English skills encourage you to slide down the dunes at great speed on plastic mats – its great fun but don’t forget to tip the kids – the fishing village of Mui Ne is very deprived.
There’s also a sandstone ‘canyon’ at the back of the dunes to explore, a ‘fairy stream’ to discover and some wild, secluded beaches if you drive up past Mui Ne to the headland, where you can see the fisherman braving the waves in their corracles.

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Hoi An is a charming little riverside town famed for its beautiful old buildings, its narrow, quiet streets and its history as a merchant trading post. As the citizens of the town grew richer from trading with China, Japan and the rest of Southeast Asia, they spent their money on building attractive houses and pagodas.
It is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam, and rightfully so. The architecture in the town is beautiful, the atmosphere relaxed and the food fantastic. There is a long beach not far from the town and plenty of shops and tailors within the town that encourage travellers to stay for a while.
Despite the high numbers of tourists Hoi An manages to retain its charm – perhaps many of them stay hidden away inside the many hotels and resorts that fill the town. The main evidence is the number of shops and tailors lining the central streets, but even this doesn’t detract too much from the atmosphere.
In fact, many people come to Hoi An specifically for the tailors – reknowned throughout Viet Nam for their skill and value for money, they can produce just about any garment to order, be it a suit from $50, a copy of your favourite piece of clothing or a reproduction of a dress from a photo in a magazine.
The tailors are great value but it does pay to look around – examine the quality of the samples in their shop, and try visiting stores a little further away from the main tourist streets.
There are also a number of workshops in Hoi An for people who would like to learn to cook Vietnamese food, or perhaps to make their own silk lantern in the Hoi An style, which you can take home as gifts for friends and families.
Most of all though you can find a lot of pleasure in strolling around the quiet streets (as motorbikes and cars are banned from many of them), sitting quietly by the river, visiting museums and merchants houses and generally taking life at a slower pace than you might elsewhere in the country.

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Hue is the ancient capital of Imperial Vietnam, where the Nguyen Lords based their government during their reign over Vietnam between the 17th and 19th century. It remained the national capital until 1945, when Bao Dai (the collaborator king) escaped into exile and Ho Chi Minh declared independance from France in Hanoi.
As a result the city of Hue and its surroundings are covered with impressive monuments, temples and palaces. Despite suffering from its central position during the Vietnamese/American War it truely deserves its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site, as everywhere you go there are impressive buildings jumping out of the countryside – to say nothing of the imperial palace of Hue itself.
While the city of Hue is developing, the residents of Hue are reknowned for their traditionalism – even the young feel it is their duty to preserve Hue’s customs, traditions and architecture for generations to come. They are known throughout Vietnam for the way they speak Vietnamese, their traditional style of dress and their food, which without a doubt is some of the best Vietnam has to offer.
The emperors used to demand the very best delicacies, and thousands of special dishes were developed to satisfy their tastes. The result is a huge selection of light, delicate and immaculately crafted dishes, designed to allow the emperor to eat at leisure, each one unique, and deliciously individual yet not so heavy as to prevent him trying more dishes.
The city is split by the Perfume River, with the imperial city and markets to the North and the newer buildings of the city of Hue to the South. Hue remains a relatively small town, and getting around is easy enough, whether by bicycle, cyclo or motorbike (though thankfully motorised vehicles are banned from inside the Imperial city).
While the Imperial city is a fantastic place to explore, your visit to Hue would not be complete if you didn’t explore the huge array of tombs, temples and ruins in the countryside. The best way to explore is to hop on the back of a motorbike and let the driver take you to his favourite sights – as you pass through the countryside you will see many more beautiful old building leap out of the paddy fields.
You can also spend a beautiful day taking a boat trip up the river, and while it is possible to see several monuments and pagodas from the water’s side, we highly recommend joining a motorbike driver for a drive once you have made your way up the river, to see more of the scenery. The countryside around Hue is stunning and made all the more magical for the sights you will encounter.

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Ha Long perhaps one of the most iconic features of Vietnam, Ha Long Bay is a breathtaking location like no other. With as many a 2,000 limestone islands and rocks, covered with wildlife and filled with caves and grottoes, its UNESCO world heritage status is well deserved.
A place that must be seen to be seen to be believed, Halong Bay has risen to become one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, and is likely to be voted #1 in the New 7 Wonders Of the World.
Most visitors get a bus to Halong from Hanoi, before embarking on a boat trip of 2-3 days, where they can sleep on a junk boat, swim in the waters and go kayaking or canoeing. The quality of tour does vary (you do get what you pay for!) but even the bargain trips aren’t bad, as you can quite happily spend your day looking at the beautiful scenery and ignoring the less beautiful boat you’re sat on.
Don’t be put off when you first arrive in Halong by the sheer number of tourists – most of the tours set off at the same time and it will appear very crowded, but soon after leaving the docks the boats split up and head off in different directions – it may not seem it at first but it soon becomes a very peaceful journey as its not hard for the boats to hide behind one of the thousands of islands.
One interesting feature of Halong bay is the floating villages you will see nestling in the sheltered bays between the stones. These ingenious construction allow landless people to farm fish – each house will be built on planks bordering nets where they raise fish, crabs and shrimp in the sea water below.
Cruises and Tours of Halong Bay: for most people, taking an organised cruise from Hanoi to Halong Bay is a better option than staying in Halong City, where entertainment is sparse.

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Sapa one of the most famous tourist destinations in Vietnam is the mountain town of Sapa, near the base of mount Fanxipan, the highest mountain in Vietnam / South East Asia. Famed for the beautiful terraced rice fields that cling to the sides of the hills, Sapa is a spectacular place to explore and a great option for those who would like to experience a taste of life in the highlands.
The town itself is perched on the side of the mountain, and many hotels have stunning views out across the valley below. The weather can be unpredictable as clouds roll up the hill, at times shrouding the whole town in fog, but even when cloudy the views can be stunning as you catch glimpses of the landscape as the cloud lifts before it once again vanishes into the fog.
Sapa can get very cold so come prepared – many hotels offer log fires in your room should you wish to warm up after a long days exploring. There are a number of walks you can do from the town unsupervised, allowing you to explore much of the countryside – but should you wish to venture further we recommend recruiting a good guide who can take you through forest paths to locations you would never otherwise find and help you understand a good deal more about the local flora and fauna, as well as preventing you from getting lost!
Treks to the top of Mount Fansipan can be arranged in Sapa itself – this is a fairly tough climb that will normally take 4 days and can be subject to the weather. Many shorter excursions can also be arranged and guides are happy to customise a trek to your wishes and ability.
Sapa is also famous for the unique culture of the H’mong people who live in the hills near the town. Their colourful clothing and handicrafts are a wonderful sight and you may well see produce from Sapa on sale as far away as the Mekong delta. Many of the H’mong will visit Sapa to trade in the market, which is a great place to see their crafts without intruding too much into their village lives.

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Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, is situated on the banks of the Red River. It is a busy city, with tree-linesboulevards, lakes, parks, French colonial buildings, elegant squares. Hanoi is considered to be the cultural centre of Vietnam, where every dynasty has left behind their imprint. Even though some relics have not survived through wars and time, the city still has many interesting cultural and historic monuments for visitors and residents alike.
Hanoi is reknowned for being one of Vietnam’s greenest cities, and as well as being covered with trees the centre is dotted with lakes. One of the most beautiful is Hoan Kiem Lake. It is in the historical center of Hanoi, and one of the major scenic spots in the city and serves as a focal point for its public life. West Lake is the largest lake in the northwest center with a perimeter of 17 km. It is an oxbow lake created from a curved part of the Red River.
A variety of options for entertainment in Hanoi can be found throughout the city. Modern and traditional theaters, cinemas, karaoke bars, dance clubs, bowling alleys, and an abundance of opportunities for shopping provide leisure activity for both locals and tourists.
Unique to Hanoi is the chance to watch ‘Mua roi nuoc’, Vietnamese water puppetry. Múa rối nuá»›c literally means “puppets that dance on water.” The tradition dates back as far as the tenth century when it originated in the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. When the rice fields would flood the villages, villagers would entertain each other using this puppet form. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers to control them. The appearance is of the puppets moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood the villagers, would entertain each other using this puppet form. Eventually, villages would compete against each other with their puppet shows. This led puppet societies to be secretive and exclusive, including an initiation ceremony that involved drinking rooster blood. Only recently were women allowed to join the puppet troupes.

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