Last week of December 2025 /January 2026. We absolutely loved our time in Vietnam. Beautiful, fascinating people, country and culture. Big variation in terrains and temperatures. We learned a lot from our different tour guides.

 

Vietnam is communist because the people can’t vote, and socialist because people purchase most things with money, and the government encourages private companies and international investment. Technically citizens don’t fully own their property. They have typically indefinite Land Use Rights to build whatever they want, BUT if the government needs the land, they can force people out, and will compensate them. Foreigners can have agreements to lease the land for a maximum of 50 years, while owning the buildings.

 

We went south to north. Warm to cold. Not sure the order matters. We went this way based on flight costs.

 

• HCMC - big city, more spread out, important war education. We were told there are two seasons -hot and frickin hot. We loved our food tour on scooters, and walking tour across the different neighborhoods. Cu Chi tunnels were good, but if you are short on time, would skip due to long drive. Important to make time for War Remembrance Museum. Tough to see the effects of the “American War”.

• Hoi An - We loved our bike ride in the countryside to the beach, cooking class, wandering around the now sprawling town, getting custom made clothes. Still small town feel, but much expanded from what we recall 20+ years ago. Found a rooftop bar to watch the sun go down and lanterns turn on. Best place to get clothes made. Best food. Restaurants had more ambiance than other cities. Very nice people.  Lots and lots of tourists.

• Hue - Temple and imperial city. Nice drive between Hoi An and Hue with stops at Marble Mountain, Lady Buddah and the beach.

• Hanoi - Really grew on us. Enjoyed just watching life in this bustling capital tourist city. Nicely established by the French influence. Loved our open jeep tour, Train Street, coffee class and ring making class.

• Sapa - Nature, country side, villages / tribe life. Sapa town is unfortunately terribly commercialized in the middle of dramatic natural beauty.

• Ha Giang - Spectacular scenery even in the fog. Highly recommend doing a 3 day easy rider motorcycle loop. Our guide said best time to do the loop is end of October/ November. Very glad we had purchased our $15 “North Face” down jackets in Hanoi.

• Bai Tu Long Bay - less crowded than Ha Long Bay. Peaceful, beautiful floating spires for miles. Enjoyed tai chi at sunrise and kayaking.

• Nihn Binh / Trang An - comfortably small. Ha Long Bay on land. Loved biking to sights, restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Trang An boating to temples and long tight caves (be prepared to duck). The panoramic view from Mau Cave dragon hill summit was worth the sweaty climb.

 

 

Planning:

• Time we spent in each location felt right except for Sapa, which we could have easily done in 1-2 days less. Maybe 3 nights instead of 4 nights in Trang An due to cold weather. Extra day would have been great to relax, if warm weather.

• All of our travel and transfers went smoothly. They take care to ensure you get handed off.

• Visa purchased on line......

• We booked our own accommodations through booking.com and own tours through Airbnb experiences, Viator, and Get Your Guide. Lots of local travel guides/agencies so probably could have booked directly through them as well.

• We did use a travel agent (Joyful Travel) to book our Sapa / Ha Giang leg. As the transportation, home stays, trekking and motorcycling seemed too complicated to book on our own. We booked our own hotels to lower the cost. Everyone was super easy to work with, and really listened to what we wanted to do. We also booked our cruise thru them as too many choices, and easier to have them work in transfers on front and back end. We learned if you want nicer accommodations instead of “homestays” you want to request “ecolodges”. We ended up in some quite budget accommodations.

 

Weather:

• Tank tops and shorts - HCMC, Hoi An, Hue. Couple of down pours that we avoided by ducking into a cafe. One rooftop bar was impressively quick to pull over a retractable rain cover before the downpour.

• Hanoi was cold, particularly earlier and later in the day. Started to wear our light down jackets and pants.

• Sapa got really cold. Definitely layers and needed our down jackets. Lows close to freezing.

• Ha Giang with the wind when motorcycling definitely needed long johns. A scarf would have been helpful.

• Trang An we hit unseasonably cold weather, so back to our down jackets and long johns.

 

Money:

• Definitely need cash as not all establishments take credit card.

• Those that do take credit cards may charge a 3+ percent fee. In Northern Vietnam some establishments were charging 5% fees.

• We found some ATMs didn’t work for us for unknown reasons. Many limited the maximum amount much lower than typical in big western cities.

 

Accommodations:

• Fantastic value.

• Bountiful breakfast buffets often included.

• Very friendly staff. Address you by your first name. Staff push, but not very hard, tours and transportation through hotel. We found other cheaper options outside of hotel.

• Accommodations were all clean and comfortable.

• Look for ecolodges rather than homestays. Have charm and are nicer than a homestay

 

Food:

• Wonderful, fresh, very flavorful. Compared to US prices, food and alcohol was very inexpensive. Big Hanoi beer for $1 in some places.

• Lots of vegetables and fruit.

• Each city has their specialities that should be tried.

• Loved the iced coffees - became a daily obsession. Salt or coconut.

• Favorite foods - spring rolls, Vietnamese pancakes.

• We stuck to bottled water and had ice (cylindrical cubes with holes meant filtered water), and ate everything with minimal stomach issues. Even locals don’t drink tap water.

• Wine was not so great. Hit and miss cocktails. Beer readily available and inexpensive.

• Can’t customize orders. Maybe it’s just too confusing with language issues.

 

Traffic:

• Wow! Flowing chaos. Amazing there aren’t regular accidents. Minimal traffic lights with many uncontrolled confused intersections. No particular rules, except keep honking.

• Best method to initially cross the street is to shadow a local. If you need to do it on your own - scooters seem to go around you so keep moving with confidence… cars not so much so do yield to them.

• Scooters go everywhere, including narrowest walking paths, and on the sidewalks (favorite place to park).

 

Transportation:

• Grab is Uber of Vietnam (download the app). It is easy and cheapest option (e.g., Paid $13 for a taxi from airport to hotel in HCMC, while Grab back to airport was $3).

• When you use a Grab to a more remote location they will offer to stay and take you back. Agree on price upfront.

• Did some cycling, which was a nice way to cover more distance and get a bit off the main roads (helmets were not provided)

• Had the opportunity to ride on the back of a scooter (helmets provided). Exhilarating experience, even though we’re sure they went easier with us.

• Sometimes we needed to transfer from car to bus or train and then car again. Somehow they know who you are and where you need to go. All of our transfers were seamless.

 

Shopping:

• Shops and markets everywhere

• Tons of options - clothes, shoes, jackets, jewelry, pottery, art, etc. -cheap prices and quality seems good.

• Bargaining is a given

• If you are going to have clothes made ensure you have plenty of time to go back for fittings, but they do turn things quickly.

• If you are going to Hoi An and have clothes you love, but don’t wear because they need alterations, bring them here. Very inexpensive and skilled tailors.

 

People:

• Friendly, helpful, patient (except when driving). They love talking to you, waving and having you take their pictures.

• Some vendors are way too persistent for our liking

• They seem to tolerate the crowds and congestion with relative grace

• No one is overweight

• English hasn’t been a problem. Although in smaller towns on several occasions needed to use google translate.