🇻🇳Vietnam

Discover Vietnam

In-depth guides to help you travel Vietnam like a local — cities, culture, food, and practical tips.

Travel Guides

Thanh Hoa Bridge (Hàm Rồng): history, how to visit and what to see

The Hàm Rồng Bridge over the Mã River is one of the most documented bridges of the 20th century, yet almost no page tells a traveller how to reach it, where to stand, what remains on the hills around it, or whether it is worth a stop between Hanoi and central Vietnam. This guide pairs the history, t

🇻🇳

Hang Mua viewpoint (Mua Caves), Ninh Binh: history, the climb and practical guide

Hang Mua is the classic image of Ninh Binh: a stone dragon on a limestone ridge above the bends of the Ngo Dong River. It is also a crowded, partly theme-park site with a misleading English name and a parking hustle on the approach road. This guide explains what the place is and where its name comes

🇻🇳

Ly Son Island guide: volcanic craters, whale temples and practical tips

Ly Son is not a palm-fringed beach resort. It is a ring of dead volcanoes 30 km off Quang Ngai, planted with garlic, guarded by the military, and tied to Vietnam's claim over the Paracel Islands. What follows explains what is actually there, what it means to the people who live on it, and how to pla

🇻🇳

Po Nagar Cham Towers, Nha Trang: history, visiting guide and honest verdict

Po Nagar is the one Cham sanctuary in Vietnam where you can still watch people pray to the goddess the towers were built for, a thousand years later, in the middle of a beach city. It is also small, partly rebuilt, hot by mid-morning and crowded with tour buses. This guide covers the history and wha

Temples and pagodas in Vietnam: the guide to understanding, choosing and visiting

In Vietnam, a "pagoda" is not a "temple". The famous "Jade Emperor Pagoda" in Ho Chi Minh City is actually a Taoist shrine, and Bai Dinh's records owe more to marketing than to heritage. This guide helps you know what you are visiting, choose sites according to your itinerary and available time, and

Morning Glory restaurant in Hoi An: what to order, prices and how to get a table

Morning Glory on Nguyen Thai Hoc is the restaurant almost every first-time visitor to Hoi An hears about, and the one with the longest evening queue. Is it worth the premium over the street stalls a few blocks away, which of its many dishes should you order, and how do you avoid waiting 45 minutes o

St Joseph's Cathedral Hanoi: history, mass times, opening hours and visiting guide

St Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi is the photograph almost every visitor takes and almost nobody understands. The twin grey towers at the end of Nhà Thờ street, weathered to a mottled charcoal, appear on more postcards than any other building in the Old Quarter. Yet most people arrive at midday, find t

Japanese Covered Bridge in Hoi An: history, tickets and how to visit

Every visitor to Hoi An crosses the Japanese Covered Bridge, and most are across it in under a minute, unsure what they just saw or whether the ticket was worth it. The structure is small: about 18 metres long and 3 metres wide, a covered timber corridor with a shrine bulging out over a creek. Cross

Best time to visit Vietnam and Cambodia: a month-by-month guide for one combined trip

Most guides answer this question with "November to April" and move on. That answer ignores a basic problem. Vietnam's central coast floods in October and November. Hanoi is cold and grey in January. Angkor can hit 38°C in April. A single window cannot cover four different climates at once.

Linh Ung Pagoda and the Lady Buddha, Da Nang: history, what to see and how to visit

From almost anywhere on My Khe Beach, a white figure stands on the green flank of the Son Tra Peninsula. Most visitors photograph her from the sand and never go up. This guide explains what the Lady Buddha and Linh Ung Pagoda really are, what you see on site stop by stop, how to get there and back w

🇻🇳

Bánh bò: Vietnam's honeycomb cake, regional types, where to eat it and what it costs

Search "bánh bò" and you get a wall of recipes. Videos, Pinterest boards, one food blog with a family recipe. Almost nothing tells a traveler which bánh bò is which, where it is sold, what it costs, or why a sweet cake is named after a cow. This guide fills that gap: the steamed, baked and palm suga

Mu Cang Chai rice terraces: the complete guide

Mu Cang Chai is Vietnam's most dramatic terraced landscape, but it sits 6 to 7 hours from Hanoi, the golden window lasts about three weeks a year, and most guides skip the road risks, the timing traps and the 2025 administrative change. This guide explains what the terraces are, where to stand, when

🇻🇳

Bao Lac travel guide 2026: is this Cao Bang stop worth the detour?

Bao Lac sits on the long, tiring stretch between the Dong Van plateau and Cao Bang city, and most travellers either blast through or never hear of it. This guide explains what the town and its surroundings actually offer, how long the roads really take, what it costs, and whether a night here is wor

🇻🇳

Chạo tôm: Vietnamese sugarcane shrimp paste explained

Chạo tôm shows up on banquet menus, wedding tables and street grills across Vietnam, yet almost every page ranking for it is a home recipe written in Vietnamese. Travelers see the words on a menu, order blind and end up chewing a stick of sugarcane wondering what to do with the fibers. This guide co

🇻🇳

Average salary in Vietnam in 2026: what people earn and what it means for your budget

Search results for this topic mix outdated minimum wage tables from 2017, raw statistics pages and forum threads, and none of them explain what a Vietnamese salary means for someone visiting, working remotely or retiring in the country. This guide separates the official average from the figure most

🇻🇳

Congee in Vietnam (cháo): types, how to order, where to eat it and what it costs

Congee is the dish Vietnamese people eat for breakfast, late at night and when they are ill. It is also one of the cheapest and most overlooked meals a visitor can order. This guide explains what cháo is, how it differs from the Chinese, Thai and Korean versions, which regional types are worth seeki

🇻🇳

Shaking beef (bò lúc lắc): what it is, how to eat it in Vietnam and what it costs in 2026

Shaking beef sits on almost every Vietnamese restaurant menu abroad, yet most guides online are home recipes that never explain how the dish is actually served, ordered and priced in Vietnam. This guide covers what bò lúc lắc is, where the name and the dish come from, how it differs from the steak s

Son Tra Peninsula travel guide: what to see, how to get there and what to avoid

Son Tra Peninsula is the green headland that frames Da Nang, and most guides stop at "rent a motorbike and go". This guide covers what travelers actually need: how likely langur sightings really are, what a foreign rider needs legally, which roads and trails are restricted, when the weather shuts th

How to dress for Vietnam in April: a complete packing guide for every region

April in Vietnam is not one climate. Hanoi is warm and drizzly, Sapa has cool nights, Hue and Da Nang are dry and hot, and Ho Chi Minh City is at its hottest of the year just before the rains arrive. Dressing for a national average guarantees discomfort somewhere on the itinerary.

🇻🇳

Where is Vietnam? Location, map, regions and how to get there

Vietnam sits on the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, but a one-line answer does not help much when planning a trip. The country is a thin, 1,650 km strip, and that shape decides how far apart the sights are, when the weather works and how many days a route needs. This guide gives the locatio

🇻🇳

Bò nướng lá lốt: a traveler's guide to Vietnam's grilled beef in wild betel leaves

Small, smoky beef rolls wrapped in a fragrant leaf and dipped in a funky pineapple-anchovy sauce: bò nướng lá lốt turns up on menus across Vietnam, yet few visitors know what it is, how to assemble it or what a fair price looks like. This guide covers the dish itself, the correct way to eat it, how

🇻🇳

Where to stay in Sapa: town centre, Cat Cat, Ta Van or Lao Chai?

Sapa is two different trips depending on where you sleep. One is a busy hill town of hotels, hot pot and cable cars. The other is a valley of rice terraces where the road ends and the footpath begins. This guide goes area by area, covering who each one suits, what a night costs, how your train or bu

What is Vietnam famous for? An honest guide to its food, landscapes, history and culture

Pho, Ha Long Bay, conical hats, motorbikes and the war. Most travelers arrive with these images already loaded, but few know which icons still deliver, which have quietly become tourist traps, and when each one is at its best. This guide covers what Vietnam is genuinely famous for and how to experie

🇻🇳

Hu tieu My Tho: what it is, how to order it and where to eat it in Vietnam

Hu tieu My Tho is the best-known noodle soup of the Mekong Delta, and one of the most misunderstood dishes in Vietnamese food writing. Search for it and you will mostly find restaurant listings in Texas or Georgia, or home recipes that skip the context entirely. This guide covers what makes the My T

🇻🇳

Tiết canh: what raw blood pudding is, how it is eaten and whether to try it in Vietnam

Tiết canh is Vietnam's most polarising dish: raw, freshly set animal blood topped with cooked meat, peanuts and herbs. It is loved at nhậu tables in the north, feared by many visitors, and repeatedly flagged by Vietnamese health authorities. This guide explains what it is, how it is made and eaten,

Dong Ba Market, Hue: history, what to see, eat and buy, and how to visit

Dong Ba is Hue's oldest and largest market. It sits on the Perfume River a short walk from the Imperial City, yet most guides describe it in a few generic lines and disagree on its hours, its dates and even its size. This guide covers its two centuries of history, a walk through the market zone by z

🇻🇳

Sa Đéc travel guide 2026: what to see, how to get there and when to go

Sa Đéc is a small Mekong Delta city known for its flower farms and as the setting of Marguerite Duras's *The Lover*. It is easy to misread. It can be a half-day stop, a two-day slow stay, or a skip. This guide gives the real distances, costs and seasons, and says plainly what is worth the detour and

🇻🇳

Van Hanh Zen Monastery in Da Lat: history, architecture and how to visit

Search for a Zen monastery in Da Lat and most of what comes back describes Truc Lam: the vast lakeside complex on Tuyen Lam Lake, the cable car, the long stone stairway. Van Hanh is a different place entirely. It is smaller, closer to the city, and built around a hilltop statue that you can spot fro

Saigon Opera House: history, shows, tickets and how to visit

Almost every visitor to Ho Chi Minh City photographs the Saigon Opera House. Few know they cannot simply walk in. Fewer still know that this was South Vietnam's parliament for twenty years, that Graham Greene set a bombing here in *The Quiet American*, and that the square in front spent a decade beh

🇻🇳

Thien Hau Temple in Ho Chi Minh City: opening hours, dress code, how to get there and whether it is worth it

Search for "Thien Hau Temple" and most results describe a temple in Los Angeles. The one that matters for a Vietnam trip sits in Cholon, Saigon's Chinatown, and dates from the 18th century. This guide covers what it costs (nothing), when to go, what to wear, how to reach it from District 1, how long

🇻🇳

Hanoi Opera House: tours, tickets and how to see a performance

Most visitors photograph the yellow facade on Trang Tien Street and walk on, unsure whether the building can actually be entered. It can, but only in specific ways and at specific times. This guide explains the tour options, how to find a genuine performance rather than a tourist showcase, what seat

🇻🇳

Using ATMs in Vietnam: fees, withdrawal limits and the banks that charge least

A withdrawal in Vietnam can cost almost nothing or more than 3% of the cash in hand, depending on which bank's machine you use, how much you take out and one button on the screen. This guide breaks down fees and limits bank by bank, shows the real cost of each withdrawal, and explains what to do if

🇻🇳

Yên Tử Mountain guide: cable car or hike, tickets, festival and how to get there

Yên Tử is the birthplace of Vietnam's own Zen school and, since July 2025, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most English-language pages either sell a tour or retell the legend. Few explain the practical questions: which side of the mountain to visit, how much walking remains after the cable car

🇻🇳

Bánh đậu xanh: how to eat Vietnam's mung bean cake, where to buy it and what it costs

Every souvenir shelf in northern Vietnam stacks small gold-foil boxes of bánh đậu xanh, yet most visitors buy them without knowing what is inside, why the cake crumbles to powder, or whether it contains lard. This guide covers what the cake is, how Vietnamese people actually eat it, how the northern

How to dress for Vietnam in September: a complete packing guide for every region

September is the month when Vietnam splits into very different climates: wet and humid in Hanoi, cool and misty in Sapa, storm-exposed on the central coast, showery in the south. A single "hot and humid, pack linen" list fails in at least three of those zones. This guide gives zone-by-zone clothing,

Bun Cha Huong Lien in Hanoi: the Obama bun cha restaurant, menu, prices and opening hours

A decade after Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain sat on plastic stools here over bun cha and Hanoi beer, Bun Cha Huong Lien is still the most visited bun cha restaurant in Hanoi. This guide covers the practical side of a visit: how to find 24 Le Van Huu, when to avoid the queue, what the Combo Obama

Lam Vien Square and Xuan Huong Lake in Da Lat: the complete guide

Lam Vien Square and Xuan Huong Lake are the first things most visitors see in Da Lat, yet most guides reduce them to a photo stop beside a shopping centre. This guide treats them as one visit, in the order a visitor walks it. It covers where the lake came from, what the two glass domes are, what eac

🇻🇳

Bún thịt nướng: the complete guide to Vietnam's grilled pork noodle bowl

Bún thịt nướng appears on nearly every Vietnamese menu worldwide, yet almost every page ranking for it is a recipe. This guide explains what is actually in the bowl, how locals mix and eat it, how it differs from Hanoi's bún chả, where to find a good one in Vietnam, and what it should cost. It also

🇻🇳

Where to exchange money in Hanoi: the best rates around the Old Quarter

You have landed in Hanoi with dollars or euros and need dong for pho, Grab rides and Old Quarter street stalls. Should you use the gold shops of Ha Trung street, a Vietcombank counter, the airport booth or an ATM? This guide compares every option at address level and explains which notes to bring, h

🇻🇳

South Vietnam travel guide: regions, best places, seasons and costs for 2026

"South Vietnam" means two different things: a country that disappeared in 1975 and a travel region that now draws millions of visitors. This guide separates the two, then maps the real south, from Saigon and the Mekong Delta to the southern highlands and the offshore islands, with seasons, transport