I am Vietnamese and stay in Ho Chi Minh City so just give u some infos if u wanna go HCMC.
With $1000, I think its ok for you in 2 weeks, lets say $400 return ticket + $50/day. If you go in group, I think hotels dun cost u much, since average hotels fee is about $12 to $20 only, and you can share 2,3, or 4 persons/room. For hotel booking, I think there's no need to book in advance, you can just go to the center and walk ard the Pham Ngu Lao Street, there are many there. U can book from this website also for budget hotels:
http://www.hostelbookers.com/
I love backpacking also so here are some infos for the backpacking, for the hotels and transport:
- From Tan Son Nhat airport, u can go by bus to the center, just tell them u go down @ Pham Ngu Lao Street (30 cents for the bus ticket).
- For going ard, I think since u go in groups, just share the taxi lor, taxi costs ard 1$/km (not very sure but 1$ is maximum already).
- For going to other provinces (assume u dun just stay in HCMC for 2 weeks, its damn boring in 2 weeks in HCMC), you can take bus (bus for province to province is different from bus within city, different vietnamese words also), or train.
+ For bus, its quite complicated, if you want to go South, you will need to go to province-to-province bus station for South-West routes, bus station for Noth routes if you want go North province. Take taxi to the bus station, buy tickets to go to the province tat you like. Price is from $5 (<= 200km from HCMC) to $20 ( $20 for going to Hanoi, 1000km+ from HCMC, not remember exactly).
+ For trains, you can book train tickets through agents ard ur hotel in the center, many Singaporeans going to Vietnam book through this one:
http://www.sinhcafevn.com/
price ranging from $5 to $60 depending on the province and type of trains, just ask the agents lor. but $60 maximum and from HCMC to Hanoi.
For the places to go:
- HCMC, I think you can search within this forums, many threads about places in HCMC, basically just historical places.
- I recommend some provinces from nearest to far, far away to Hanoi:
+ Vung Tau: got beaches, climb mountain to pagoda, seafoods, vung tau cafe!, Vung Tau hotels quite expensive from $20+ (can share of coz)
+ Binh Thuan province (Phan Thiet City): beaches (must go Mui Ne beach), again seafoods, got climb mountain also but not remember the name.
+ Ninh Thuan province: havent gone before, but basically beaches, more infos on hotels, places:
http://www.ninhthuanpt.com.vn/English/NinhThuan/du_lich/Index.htm
+ Khanh Hoa province (Nha Trang City): very nice beaches, must go Doc Let beach, vinapearl, waterfalls (not remember names), some historical places but i dun know loh.
+ Lam Dong province (Da Lat city): nice weather, mountain, waterfalls there, temperature always under 25oC, very chill, got fog, very romantic, waterfalls damn nice (not remember all names), Love Valley.
+ Dak Lak province (Buon Me Thuoc city): havent gone so no infos...
+ Da Nang: nice beaches and moutains, dun know much also liao.
+ Hue city: famous for historical places.
+ Ha Noi capital: havent gone before
In fact there are so many infos that I cant cover here lah, suggestions are get province map, map does show interest places, ask the hotel's reception for famous food at each province, and transport.
Btw, one more important thing is Vung Tau and Da Lat, there is no train as I know so far, so can go by bus only, for other provinces, theres train. If can go by train, better go since its more comfortable and can say safer, faster also.
If I remember anything else, will sure post here...