Vietnam Travel Guide - Hanoi south down the coast and into the Mekong Delta.
A touring and travel guide starting at Hanoi then visiting Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Dalat, Saigon and into the Mekong Delta - Vinh Long, Can Tho and Chau Doc.
As well as the locations mentioned above there is also information about day trips which are easily achieved from several of these towns - for instance from Hanoi trips to Halong Bay and Tam Coc - and from Hoi An to visit My Son and it's Cham Towers.
Travelling to Vietnam. Visas. Nearly everybody who wishes to enter Vietnam is required to have a Visa which generally speaking you need to have before arriving into the country. In the U.K. just visit the consular website where you can download an application form - which then can be either posted or taken in person to the Vietnamese Consular Section, 12-14 Victoria Road. Postal applications usually take around 5 working days - the fee for a single entry 30 day visa as of January 2010 was UKstg 44 which included handling fee and postage. You do have to specify your date of entry and a 30 day visa starts from that date i.e. you cannot arrive prior to your chosen date and have to leave Vietnm within 30 days of that date. Visas can be extended once you are actually in Vietnam - your hotel travel desk or most travel agencies will assist with this.
Travelling to Vietnam. International Flights. There are no flights directly from Western Europe into Vietnam at the moment -
from the U.K. several airlines will take you as far as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or perhaps cheapest of all into Bangkok -
you then have to switch to local services to get into Hanoi, Saigon or Da Nang. Thai Airlines operate a good link from Heathrow
to Bangkok with only a short wait for a connecting flight on to Hanoi.
Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport is the largest airport in north Vietnam and is situated 45kms from Hanoi Old Quarter (Downtown). The
airport international flights into Vientiane, Kunming,
Guangzhou, Bangkok and Taipei.
Tan Son Nhat International Airport is Vietnam's largest airport and serves Ho Chi Minh City - which is only 6kms to the north of the airport.
The airport provides flights to Da Nang, Haiphong, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Manila, Guangzhou, Pleiku, Kuala
Lumpur, Taipei, Singapore and Bangkok.
Da Nang. The airport is still mostly military although the civilian side of
things is being developed - you can get flights into Bangkok, Vientiane, Taipei and Phnom Penh.
Airport transfers - in our case the last thing we want to do when coming off a very long international flight is to mess about getting to our hotel - therefore we always negotiate a pick up by our hotel in order to save hassle (and of course you know that your hotel room has not been double booked by said hotel...)
Travelling within Vietnam. Domestic Flights.
Internal flights are mostly provided by Vietnam Airlines and offer a quick and
not too expensive way of covering longer distances where you might not fancy
being on a bus for so long.
It's worth noting that these internal flights do get very booked up and you
should probably get your seats well in advance - this of course can be a
nuisance if you are being flexible on where and how long you stay somewhere
since you are then committed to moving on. We knew that we wanted to leave Hanoi
for Hue on a certain day so a flight pre-booked worked out but we only booked
one other flight whilst on holiday in Vietnam which was from Da Nang to Nha
Trang (UKstg40) about 10 days later so we more or less kept our flexibility. A
typical example is from Hanoi to Hue which only takes 45 minutes by plane and in
March 2010 cost UKstg each one way.
Hanoi's Airport provides flights within Vietnam to Da Nang, Siem Reap, Nha Trang
and Ho Chi Minh City.
Tan Son Nhat Airport at Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) provides flights to Da Nang, Hanoi, Nha Trang, Dalat, Hue and
Da Nang. Da Nang airport offers flights to Hanoi, Saigon, Hue and Nha Trang.
Travelling within Vietnam. Trains, buses or car
and driver. Roads are often very busy in Vietnam - especially the coastal road
south from Hanoi - so there is no real speed advantage in travelling by car and
driver hire or by mini bus/coach - in fact the min-buses in particular are
probably the fastest moving vehicles on the roads..
Vietnam operates a huge bus network which will
get you anywhere within the country at very reasonable cost - both long distance
sleeper coaches and short hops between towns which are mostly on mini-buses. You
do not need to worry about taking luggage on the mini-buses - just book an extra
couple of seats for your suitcases if necessary. Most hotel travel desks as well
as travel agencies will sort our your route, tickets and what buses you need to
connect with - and often will arrange local transport to get you to the local
bus terminals in the various towns if necessary.
It's worth noting that when you arrive at your destination the chances are the bus station is a little away from
your hotel - you will find lots of motorcyclists and tuk-tuk drivers around who
will insist there is no taxi service available from the bus station - and want
to take you to your hotel often at very inflated rates. Ignore them and just go
into the local bus office where they will happily call up a taxi at no charge.
Another option for getting between towns is to hire a
car and driver - this is obviously a far more expensive option although
very convenient of course. The advantage of car and driver hire is you can plan
a route and stop off at various places on the way or just have the driver stop
when you see something you want to look at like a nice river and bridge. Rates
for car and driver hire are really negotiable - as you travel south from Hue the
rates do get more expensive though. As an example we hired a car and driver to
take us from Hue to Hoi An which was USD55 - another trip from Nha Trang over
the hills to Dalat (with an hour or so stop at some temples on the way) was
USD80.
Vietnam Railways.
Vietnam - Currency. The currency used in Vietnam is the Dong - you cannot buy any Dong until you arrive in the country. The main airports all have currency exchange facilities as well as ATMs - in fact ATMs are present all over Vietnam so there is never a problem getting some cash that we found. Most hotels and also any trips and so on are always actually quoted in US Dollars although you can of course pay in Dong. If you pay at hotels by credit card they will actually take the money in US Dollars and then it all gets converted back. So basically it is worth having a few hundred US Dollars available - also Euros can be easily used/exchanged.
Vietnam Hotels. There is a huge variety of quality and price for hotels in Vietnam - many of them are present on the Web so you can easily book your next stay as you travel through the country. As we travelled south from Hanoi the prices for hotels did increase quite a bit especially after Nha Trang. Dalat and the Mekong were quite expensive compared with Hanoi. Of interest we never stayed at any hotel whilst in Vietnam where the internet was not free of charge - very useful for planning your next travel stage.
Eating and Dining in Vietnam. Hanoi restaurants seemed to offer fairly basic and inexpensive food which often seemed a little bland - as you travel south the food seemed to improve with both taste and quality plus much more choice of restaurants - however the prices ever increased the further south we travelled. There were certainly plenty of Indian Restaurants located in and around most towns in Vietnam.
Places Visited in Vietnam: These locations are
listed in order of the February/March holiday we took in Vietnam and include how
we travelled between locations which might be of help for anyone contemplating a
similar north > south trip.
Hanoi Travel and Touring Guide - including a day trip down to Tam Coc, The Perfumed Pagoda and Halong
Bay. Also wandering about in Hanoi including visiting the Temple of Literature,
various markets, temples and pagodas as well as enjoying evening strolls
around the lovely Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi's Old Quarter.
Hue Travel and Touring - visiting the Citadel (The Imperial City), the Perfumed River and it's
dragon boats, Thien Mu Pagoda and exploring the Royal Tombs
Visiting Hoi An - on the north bank of the Thu Bon River this old Chinese/Japanese
trading port has lots of old houses, temples and assembly halls. Hoi An also has
some really nice beaches just a couple of kilometres away from the town centre. There is also information about a day trip
from Hoi An to My Son and it's Cham Towers.
Touring Nha Trang. Particularly known for it's beautiful huge white sandy beaches -
mostly deserted. Also of interest is Long Son Pagoda with it's giant Buddha and
the Po Nagar Cham Towers - and travelling to Dalat visiting the Po Klong Garai Cham Temples on the way.
Dalat Vacation and Travel Located up in the Vietnamese
hills Dalat is known for it's cooler temperatures and beautiful
lake - sadly in March 2010 the lake was not - it had been drained.
Visiting Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - lots of temples and pagodas including the Jade
Empower Pagoda and the Le Van Duyet Temple - and also various beautiful old
buildings such as the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office. From the City
you can take a trip out to see and even go in some of the Cu Chi Tunnels which
were used by the Viet Kong during the Vietnamese war.
Mekong Delta Touring guide - visiting and
touring parts of the Mekong Delta including My Tho and the Vinh Trang Pagoda, Vinh Long,
Can Tho and finally up to Chau Doc which is the gateway into Cambodia.
From Chau Doc we travelled by fast river boat into Cambodia and visited
Phnom Penh and then
continued to visit Siem
Reap where we spent time touring round the remarkable temples including
Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat and after that
travelled on up to
Bangkok in Thailand.
We have several other travel and holiday guides which
may be of interest:-
Cyprus Includes Troodos
and Pafos - Cyprus travel and holiday guides
India India - Goa and the
Golden Triangle (all about holidays in India and touring Indian Tombs Temples and Forts)
New Zealand New Zealand
North and South Islands - about holidays and travelling in
New Zealand
Greek Islands + Athens Many Greek Islands are covered on our Greece Holiday and Travel Guides - also a topic on touring
Athens
The Far East Hong Kong, Bali, Singapore,
Bangkok and Cambodia (Siem Reap,
Angkor Wat etc and Phnom Penh) - holiday and travel guides in the
Far East
Egypt Touring
Egypt - Sharm el
Sheikh, Luxor, Cairo and Aswan holiday guides.
England England's wildflowers,
churches, canals and many walks to enjoy if visiting England.
The Canary Isles Holiday
Guides for The Canary Islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria
Portugal Holiday guides
for The Algarve in Southern Portugal
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