Vietnam - Complete Travelling Itinerary
A to-the-point adjustable itinerary for those travelling across this beautiful country from the experience of a honeymooning couple.
Introduction
We wanted to create this post as an overview itinerary for sharing our incredible trip through the beautiful country of Vietnam that we hope inspires others to follow in our footsteps. As a newlywed couple, we travelled down Vietnam for around 4.5 weeks, balancing both the high-end pampering accommodation and the simple, cheap, ‘never-going-to-be-in-anyway’ hotels along the way to give a well-rounded experience that feels would save someone else a heap of hours trying to plan a similar experience.
Below are our recommended itineraries based on your intended trip length. For each location, you can read our individual blog posts covering our whole experience regarding ratings, overall reviews, accommodation, bars, restaurants, and all the various points of interest we went to, which you can use for your own planning.
So, without any further ado, here’s our complete travelling itinerary for Vietnam.
Recommended Itineraries
10 Days
Hanoi (4 nights), Ha Long Bay (3 nights), Hai Giang Loop (3 nights).
21 Days
Hanoi (4 nights), Ha Long Bay (3 nights), Hai Giang Loop (3 nights), Ninh Binh or Phong Nha (3 nights), Hoi An (5 nights), Ho Chi Minh City (3 nights).
30+ Days (Our Route)
Hanoi (4 nights), Ha Long Bay (3 nights), Hai Giang Loop (3 nights), Ninh Binh (3 nights), Phong Nha (4 nights), Hoi An (7 nights), Nha Trang (2 nights), Da Lat (2 nights), Ho Chi Minh City (3 nights).
Route Summary
Place — Andrew’s Rating, Beth’s Rating /5 — Nights Spent
Hanoi — 4, 4 — 5 nights
Ha Long Bay — 5, 5 — 2 nights
Hai Giang Loop — 5, 5 — 3 nights
Itinerary Blog
Ninh Binh — 3.5, 3 — 3 nights
Phong Nha — 4, 4 — 4 nights
Itinerary Blog
Hoi An — 4.5, 4.5 — 7 nights
Itinerary Blog
Nha Trang— 3, 3 — 2 nights
Da Lat — 3.5, 3.5 — 2 nights
Ho Chi Minh City — 3.75, 3.9 — 3 nights
Itinerary Blog
General Vietnam Travelling Tips
Use 12Go for all your intercity buses, trains or ferries.
Use an E-Sim to get phone data and stay connected. It's more convenient than replacing your physical SIM and can be renewed from your phone as you go. I had no issues using Nomad.
For taxis, the days of haggling and worrying about paying way above normal rates to get around are gone. Use Grab or Bolt based on availability.
Cash is still king in Vietnam; be sure to take some out with you. ATMs usually charge and we advise using your own bank’s exchange rate if possible to save a few extra pounds.
Premium VIP sleeper buses between cities are worth the extra money; the beds are wider and more comfortable, and, from experience, they actually have working charging ports.
Book through Agoda or directly with the Hotels where possible; although you miss out on reward programs like that on Booking.com, you sometimes save enough money to make it worthwhile. Also, our special requests were much more likely to be accommodated when booking directly.
Banh Mi’s are delicious and pretty much great everywhere in Vietnam, so there’s no need to wait 30 minutes at the TikTok-influenced places if you want one.
Look up trains as an alternative to buses if the route allows. You can get cheap private cabins that allow you to stretch your legs in a way that buses can’t really accommodate. However, be aware of where the stations are on the map in relation to your accommodation.
Scooters are very accessible and easy to ride in Vietnam; we never had to give our passports or licenses as a deposit, and they were very cheap on a daily rate. We also were never stopped by the police, though we always wore helmets. We have heard that they crack down more on tourists who don’t, so wear one!
As UK residents, we had a 45-day visa to travel to Vietnam, and we were not required to show onward travel, easy peasy.
From our own experience, April was a great time to travel to Vietnam. The Weather in the north was warm and dry; however, it was getting hotter and more humid in the South, but it was all manageable and I would choose that over heavy rainfall any day.
Buy sunscreen, deodorant, and other important toiletries in the UK; they're gold dust out in Vietnam in terms of price. We also found that other products contained skin-brightening chemicals, which you probably don’t want if you’re as pale as me.