Vietnam

[paladin]

Can sell guide here ?
Can I sell my knowledge on Vietnam too ?
The money goes into my research funds to find more spots in hcm.

Nothing stopping you from creating a thatch guide or sharing your knowledge on YouTube or your personal blog, just that some platform like Thatch is ad- free, whereas blogs, YouTube and even hwz earn from advertisements. Because this is a travel thread, I had to use a travel mapping platform to explain 22 tailor shops and it’s helps my productivity and better arrangement of information

 

[Papermoon]

Going to Vietnam for a week with family for the first time, 4 ppl. Wondering how long clearing customs will take and if it's worth to get a tour for places like Ba na Hill?

Also planning to visit Hoi An and Da Nang, got any recommendations on places to stay? Planning to spend 2 days in Hoi An, 1 day in Da Nang

 

[Dead Pirate Roberts]

depending on what time u reach la.
there are peak time to avoid. or if u have babies and small kids. can try queueing at the most left lane.
sometimes the officer see got kids and babies will ask u to queue at the express queue for APAC or diplomat lane

 

[Dead Pirate Roberts]

i wonder where u copy that info from.
wasnt lunch lady in HCM instead of Hanoi ?
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

[Andrew20]

Planning to have weekend trip HCM, anyone have tried AirBNB? Is Airbnb ok or better to stay on hotel? Family of 5.

 

[Standing Birdy]

Going to Vietnam for a week with family for the first time, 4 ppl. Wondering how long clearing customs will take and if it's worth to get a tour for places like Ba na Hill?

Also planning to visit Hoi An and Da Nang, got any recommendations on places to stay? Planning to spend 2 days in Hoi An, 1 day in Da Nang

No need tour for Ba Na hill. It's a theme park. If you are 4 adults, maybe book an suv on klook or similar to be more comfortable on the trip there and back. Some of the taxis and phv there are small and squeezy behind.

Can try Lantana Boutique at Hoi An. Nothing fancy but walking distance to old quarter and clean, quiet, and safe. Memories of Hoi An show is worth watching. It's like a private NDP parade.
For Danang and other cities, can try Melia Vinpearl hotels if the location suits you. It's their local hotel chain on par with international brands like hilton but cheaper price.

 

[paladin]

Going to Vietnam for a week with family for the first time, 4 ppl. Wondering how long clearing customs will take and if it's worth to get a tour for places like Ba na Hill?

Also planning to visit Hoi An and Da Nang, got any recommendations on places to stay? Planning to spend 2 days in Hoi An, 1 day in Da Nang

Hoi an check the home stays. It’s an old town. The room in home stay is hotel room, just that you are staying in someone’s house and breakfast is authentic Hoi an cuisine.

danang can go Sanouva Danang, I had good experience there.

 

[paladin]

- Key Points:
1. Popular Vietnamese dishes include banh mi, pho bo, ca phe sua da, banh xeo, goi cuon, bun cha, cao lau, banh khot, freshly made sugarcane drink, freshly made thick ice blended fruit juice, bun dau, and Com suon nuong.
2. Recommendations for breakfast include banh mi op la (sunnyside eggs + pate + baguette) and com tam.
3. It is possible to save money and time by walking past the domestic airport and using a grabbike for transportation.
4. In Mui Ne, both Grab and Mai Linh apps are useful for transportation, and there are many taxis available.
5. Jeep tours in Mui Ne can include a visit to the white sand dunes and a sunset view. The area is known for its wind turbines and Russian tourists.
6. The Lunch Lady in Hanoi, recommended by Anthony Bourdain, changes her menu daily, and Bun Bo Hue is a popular dish.
7. Recommendations for coffee brands in HCMC include Phu Long, Cong Ca Phe, The Coffee Lab, Saigon Coffee Roastery, and Dalat Highland Coffee.
8. There is a request for a Vietnam subfolder or forum.
9. Information about extra charges for airport transfers in HCMC is discussed, including toll fees and the possibility of fare hikes.
10. Various topics are mentioned, including jobs in HCMC, apartment rentals, craft beer, massage, SIM cards, and travel itineraries for HCMC, Hoi An, and Da Nang.

Please note that some information provided may be subjective or based on personal experiences.

You joined hwz forum to provide this summary of this thread? You like chatgpt leh…

 

[Henabi]

- Key Points:
1. Popular Vietnamese dishes include banh mi, pho bo, ca phe sua da, banh xeo, goi cuon, bun cha, cao lau, banh khot, freshly made sugarcane drink, freshly made thick ice blended fruit juice, bun dau, and Com suon nuong.
2. Recommendations for breakfast include banh mi op la (sunnyside eggs + pate + baguette) and com tam.
3. It is possible to save money and time by walking past the domestic airport and using a grabbike for transportation.
4. In Mui Ne, both Grab and Mai Linh apps are useful for transportation, and there are many taxis available.
5. Jeep tours in Mui Ne can include a visit to the white sand dunes and a sunset view. The area is known for its wind turbines and Russian tourists.
6. The Lunch Lady in Hanoi, recommended by Anthony Bourdain, changes her menu daily, and Bun Bo Hue is a popular dish.
7. Recommendations for coffee brands in HCMC include Phu Long, Cong Ca Phe, The Coffee Lab, Saigon Coffee Roastery, and Dalat Highland Coffee.
8. There is a request for a Vietnam subfolder or forum.
9. Information about extra charges for airport transfers in HCMC is discussed, including toll fees and the possibility of fare hikes.
10. Various topics are mentioned, including jobs in HCMC, apartment rentals, craft beer, massage, SIM cards, and travel itineraries for HCMC, Hoi An, and Da Nang.

Please note that some information provided may be subjective or based on personal experiences.

com tam for Breakfast?! That is RARE.

 

[Fishdim]

Hi,
Planing a north to south trip from 22 to 31 Dec. I don’t think there’s enough time cover all the must-see, so am just going to pick some but not sure what to pick / drop.

Am going with my 2 teenagers. We are NOT into shopping, night life (drinking, parties, we don’t mind night markets), adventure. This trip is mainly for us to spend some relaxing family time since we have never gone for trips as a family. It’s a first time for me planning a trip (usually I just follow what my friends planned ). Some ideas/suggestions will be greatly appreciated:

Hanoi
Given that it will be winter in this region with gloomy skies, is Ha Long Bay still worth going since it basically scenery and water activities. Too misty / cold?

No time to do Sapa and I think I can’t take the long hikes (old bones hahaha) so dropping this.

Da nang
From what I searched online, it will be rainy season. Does staying in a beach front accommodation still make sense e.g my khe beach area

Hoi An
I’m considering either a day trip or part of a day trip (with monkey mountain etc) which will be about dinner time when we reach Hoi An, we will have dinner before heading back to Danang. Is Hoi An worth to spend a day?

Hue
Dropping this since it’s seems to be mainly
tomb attractions and long drive from Da nang. Or should we go anyway?

Ho Chi Minh
We have 2.5 days here. Planing to do day trips to cu cu tunnels and Mekong river. Is 2.5 days too many, should I reduce to 1.5 and add 1 day to either North / Central?

Lastly, any advice on what to pack for Hanoi? I mean is long sleeve/pants + warm jackets enough or should I pack thick jackets and glooves? Thinking of just packing Uniqlo’s heattech innerwear layer with long sleeves & pants.

thank you and sorry for the long post.

 

[paladin]

com tam for Breakfast?! That is RARE.

yeah, Com tam normally lunch. Breakfast banh Mi, banh cuon, Mi Quang, banh beo but can recommend banh Mi op la, not bad, very Vietnamese, but few tourists know or eat , its like Vietnamese western breakfast.

 

[Henabi]

Hi,
Planing a north to south trip from 22 to 31 Dec. I don’t think there’s enough time cover all the must-see, so am just going to pick some but not sure what to pick / drop.

Am going with my 2 teenagers. We are NOT into shopping, night life (drinking, parties, we don’t mind night markets), adventure. This trip is mainly for us to spend some relaxing family time since we have never gone for trips as a family. It’s a first time for me planning a trip (usually I just follow what my friends planned ). Some ideas/suggestions will be greatly appreciated:

Hanoi
Given that it will be winter in this region with gloomy skies, is Ha Long Bay still worth going since it basically scenery and water activities. Too misty / cold?

No time to do Sapa and I think I can’t take the long hikes (old bones hahaha) so dropping this.

Da nang
From what I searched online, it will be rainy season. Does staying in a beach front accommodation still make sense e.g my khe beach area

Hoi An
I’m considering either a day trip or part of a day trip (with monkey mountain etc) which will be about dinner time when we reach Hoi An, we will have dinner before heading back to Danang. Is Hoi An worth to spend a day?

Hue
Dropping this since it’s seems to be mainly
tomb attractions and long drive from Da nang. Or should we go anyway?

Ho Chi Minh
We have 2.5 days here. Planing to do day trips to cu cu tunnels and Mekong river. Is 2.5 days too many, should I reduce to 1.5 and add 1 day to either North / Central?

Lastly, any advice on what to pack for Hanoi? I mean is long sleeve/pants + warm jackets enough or should I pack thick jackets and glooves? Thinking of just packing Uniqlo’s heattech innerwear layer with long sleeves & pants.

thank you and sorry for the long post.

End of Dec is almost the end of the year end rainy season.
Hanoi can get very cold. The coldest I ever experienced was 11 degree day time and 8 degrees at night + light drizzle. If have strong wind.... its >.<

Ha Long Bay, you can do Day tour. Leave your hotel around 7am, 8am. Reach there around 10am. Do a lunch cruise. visit some historic sites. then around 4pm go back Hanoi.

Hanoi: West lake, Hoan Kiem Lake, Old Quarter, Old quarters weekend night market, Beer Street, Bat Trang Pottery Village (About 20mins west of Hanoi), Railway cafe, Dong Xuan Market

Hue-Da Nang-Hoi An are the "3 sisters of Central Vietnam" and it will also be very cold. and windy too.
Day time will be cooling around 14-18 degrees. Night time can be 10-15 degrees with wind

Hue for food. Da Nang for beach. Hoi An for sight-seeing.

You can fly Domestic from Hanoi to Hue or Da Nang. I will suggest to spend 2D1N in Hoi An to truly experience and explore this UNESCO historic city.
you can consider HANOI>DA NANG (Early morning flight). Once you arrived at Da nang airport, go direct to Hoi An and start exploring

From Hoi An, you can go direct to Hue in early morning, along the way, can pit stop at places like "Elephant Spring", spend a Day there, eat + sightsee... then late evening travel to Da Nang, check into Hotel and jiak seafood

Danang: BANA HILL, GUAN YING TEMPLE, MARBLE MOUNTAIN, HOA NGHIEM CAVE.
Night time dragon bridge firework display @ 8pm

Between Danang to HCM, you can consider Mui Ne or Dalai as additional places to visit

 

[paladin]

Hi,
Planing a north to south trip from 22 to 31 Dec. I don’t think there’s enough time cover all the must-see, so am just going to pick some but not sure what to pick / drop.

Am going with my 2 teenagers. We are NOT into shopping, night life (drinking, parties, we don’t mind night markets), adventure. This trip is mainly for us to spend some relaxing family time since we have never gone for trips as a family. It’s a first time for me planning a trip (usually I just follow what my friends planned ). Some ideas/suggestions will be greatly appreciated:

Hanoi
Given that it will be winter in this region with gloomy skies, is Ha Long Bay still worth going since it basically scenery and water activities. Too misty / cold?

No time to do Sapa and I think I can’t take the long hikes (old bones hahaha) so dropping this.

Da nang
From what I searched online, it will be rainy season. Does staying in a beach front accommodation still make sense e.g my khe beach area

Hoi An
I’m considering either a day trip or part of a day trip (with monkey mountain etc) which will be about dinner time when we reach Hoi An, we will have dinner before heading back to Danang. Is Hoi An worth to spend a day?

Hue
Dropping this since it’s seems to be mainly
tomb attractions and long drive from Da nang. Or should we go anyway?

Ho Chi Minh
We have 2.5 days here. Planing to do day trips to cu cu tunnels and Mekong river. Is 2.5 days too many, should I reduce to 1.5 and add 1 day to either North / Central?

Lastly, any advice on what to pack for Hanoi? I mean is long sleeve/pants + warm jackets enough or should I pack thick jackets and glooves? Thinking of just packing Uniqlo’s heattech innerwear layer with long sleeves & pants.

thank you and sorry for the long post.

hanoi: will be cold, 10-15 degrees celsius , you go Hanoi, never go halong Bay or sapa, a bit wasted, Hanoi itself is like JB. Cheap food, cheap spa, cheap shopping.

danang and Hoi an: near to end of monsoon season, depends on luck and whether flooding in Hoi an. Each year different, if flooding can take a week to clear. Hoi A fun activities begin from 5pm when the lanterns light up and the boats start working down the river. Day trip to Hoi An, you miss the essence.

hcmc: cu Chi tunnels - almost 1 day trip, Mekong river, 1 day trip, then you do not have much time to experience HCMC vibrant city.

overall: very ambitious to travel north to south Vietnam in 9 days. I certainly will not do that with my family. You probably spend 50% of the time travelling from one place to another and miss all the true Vietnamese experiences like villages, water puppet show, coconut boat show, Bana hills, Hoi An memories show,Vietnamese massage with cucumber peels on face, tailoring, ha long bay, ninh binh, and you will probably eat only a small fraction of cuisines since northern cuisine different from southern.

 

[paladin]

Anyway, if you want to understand Vietnam more, especially the villages and tribal huts, I believe there are only 2 places where you can find different types of huts from different villages in the same location.

1 is the museum of Enthology in Hanoi ( outdoor area)
the other is the Vinwonders Hoi An.

I have been to both. I deliberately made my son go inside the huts to appreciate them and let him know how different they are from our HBD flats and air conditioned rooms.

 

[paladin]

See my post #14244 on Hoi an
post #14256 on Hanoi,

2D1N enough meh, for each place?

if you have 9 days, this is how I would plan

option A) Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hanoi, sapa, Hanoi, ninh binh , hanoi

option B) Danang, hoi an , Hue, danang

option C) HCMC, mui Ne, HCMC, Phu Quoc, HCMC or HCMC, Mui Ne, Da Lat, HCMC

 

[keithchan]

Last few posts were amazing contribution especially for newbies to Vietnam.

After my first visit to Hanoi in June I'm already planning my next to Danang, Hoi An in Dec.

I must say Vietnam is indeed underrated and feels like a Thailand 20years back. Less commercialised and yet full of interesting surprises.

Keep up with the great sharing guys!

 

[paladin]

If you like tailoring or need tailoring services, can support my guide on tailoring at post #14620. The tailors are at Hanoi, HCMC, Danang and Hoi An so any 7-9 day itinerary for option A, B, or C can tailor. Really save money. Tailor one suit probably save enough for the flight tickets because the tailoring fee is one third of Singapore’s price. It’s an experience in itself.

be careful about visiting central Vietnam from Sept to Dec, it’s the typhoon season and both are right beside the beach/sea. I heard from reports that if typhoon is approaching, the cable car to Bana hills will be suspended too, I saw photos of the Golden bridge where everything is foggy and misty due to it being at cloud level (Bana hill is like Genting highlands, up the mountain). Then you cannot take good IG photos of the golden bridge and the French village. If you visit central Vietnam during that period, be sure to buy travel insurance for trip disruption.

 

[Henabi]

Add on to typhoon… basically is from central up to North, including Ha long, hai phong and hanoi.

One week before flying there and two days your flight back, just keep yourself updated on typhoon developments.
Take note of Anything moving down from Hai nan island, HK, Guangzhuo or moving east to west from Philippines.

during this period…south vietnam will experience a lot of rainfall.. so some degree of flooding aka “ponding” is very common around hcmc even tourist areas like Biteco building, Nguyen Hue walking street etc

 

[Innocuous*]

be careful about visiting central Vietnam from Sept to Dec, it’s the typhoon season and both are right beside the beach/sea. I heard from reports that if typhoon is approaching, the cable car to Bana hills will be suspended too, I saw photos of the Golden bridge where everything is foggy and misty due to it being at cloud level (Bana hill is like Genting highlands, up the mountain). Then you cannot take good IG photos of the golden bridge and the French village. If you visit central Vietnam during that period, be sure to buy travel insurance for trip disruption.

Add on to typhoon… basically is from central up to North, including Ha long, hai phong and hanoi.

One week before flying there and two days your flight back, just keep yourself updated on typhoon developments.
Take note of Anything moving down from Hai nan island, HK, Guangzhuo or moving east to west from Philippines.

during this period…south vietnam will experience a lot of rainfall.. so some degree of flooding aka “ponding” is very common around hcmc even tourist areas like Biteco building, Nguyen Hue walking street etc

I remembered one day before my flight from phu quoc to hcmc last december, almost all flights were cancelled due to strong wind. My flight was also delayed and I almost missed my flight from hcmc to sg.

I did not observed any ponding last december but there was a day when they had haze and I spent most of my time at Crescent mall.

 

[Dead Pirate Roberts]

When it rains most of d2 Thai Điện will flood n ponding. Make me dulan and move out of the area.