Vietnam - Nha Trang, Da Lat & Ho Chi Minh City
Our final three stops as we head South down Vietnam and finish our Vietnam trip in the country's capital
Nha Trang
Andrew: 3/5 Beth: 3/5
Nha Trang was a more rogue choice on our itinerary, and in truth, this may be a more uneventful blog post. The honest reason why we came here was that we needed to head South from Hội An and knew how long the bus journey would take to go all the way to Ho Chi Minh City, so a couple of stopovers were necessary. Nha Trang is regarded as a ‘coastal resort city’ known for its long, curved beach, which seemed like an easy place to spend two nights relaxing. Our trip from Hội An took 11 hours, and we slept overnight on one of Vietnam’s VIP Sleeper Buses. These buses are premium compared to others we had experienced, most notably wider, so you’re not lying like a pencil, and we both (with the help of a sleeping tablet) slept very comfortably for most of the journey.
We found a simple, no-frills, clean hotel for our stay (Mojzo Inn Boutique Hotel), which came to a bargain of £25 for two nights with a private, air-conditioned room and bathroom! The hotel was a short walk to the beach through the night market, with an abundance of coffee shops and restaurants nearby. We would definitely recommend staying here if you’re seeking value, especially as our bus arrived at 8 a.m., but the hotel kindly had our room ready by 10 a.m. so that we could have a quick power nap and refresh.
In all honesty, we didn’t really do much here. We had planned to visit a mud bath, Thap Ba Mud Bath, which seems to be most notable here in Nha Trang, but with some beach-town lethargy setting in, we resorted to relaxing at cafes and restaurants, walking down the shore and watching some locals play beach volleyball. Without sounding like a broken record on all our posts, the weather was so incredibly hot that it was impossible to be out for too long; tourists and locals were zig-zagging the streets to find any shade they could while walking. Due to this, we shamefully succumbed to a McDonald’s (the first one we had seen in Vietnam) for a large Diet Coke and ice cream twice. Our favourite pastime, however, was to sit on beanbags on the sand at the beach bar, looking out at the sea with an ice-cold beer as the sun set, chatting away as we built up our appetite for dinner. Some of the best things to do in life are the cheapest!
Food-wise, it was pretty good; being a coastal, more resort-y tourist town, there was more than just Vietnamese food on offer, so we took the opportunity to mix it up and try some very satisfying Greek food, and we even found a lovely Italian to enjoy fresh pasta, salads and (actually good) wine. Overall, Nha Trang was worth the two nights and one full day we spent here to reduce our travel time and allow our bodies some time to unwind. We would say, though, if you’re cooking up your own Vietnam travel plans and days are precious, there is no need to include this on your itinerary, but if you do, follow in our footsteps and smoothly walk into a 5-star hotel (Meliá Vinpearl), dodging staff, to use their swimming pool for the nights you stay, it definitely validated our choice to go for the chill, £12 a night hotel we stayed in and gave us a fun story to tell.
Points of Interest
Accommodation
Mojzo Inn Boutique Hotel - Map (£12 a room per night)
Food & Drink
Phyto Bistro Vegan & Vegetarian Healthy Restaurant - Map
Alpaca Homestay Cafe - Map
Greek Kitchen - Map
La Cala - Gusto Italiano - Map
Da Lat
Andrew: 3.5/5 Beth: 3.5/5
Da Lat was a place that I (Beth) came to 6 years ago. Previously, we rented motorbikes and rode around the countryside to discover beautiful new landscapes around every corner. Da Lat has definitely modernised and developed over the past six years, and it wasn’t quite the picturesque city that I remember. However, overall, we enjoyed our two nights here with no regrets, and our trip was really made by an incredible tour on our second day, which we will talk about later.
It was a 3-hour and very bumpy minibus ride over from Nha Trang with the most horrendous driver that kept us airborne for most of the journey, with a poor woman being sick halfway through. This was just our luck for boasting about how excited we finally were to have a short journey… Lesson learned: never prematurely celebrate! We were dropped off at our hotel, which looked like it had been quickly built that morning, and the reception staff had no idea that they were, in fact, meant to be running a hotel and not a TikTok channel. Needless to say, we will not waste time talking about the hotel, but we wouldn’t recommend staying there. To make matters worse, Andy was in absolute horror when he realised we had accidentally booked a hotel without air conditioning, although luckily the nights here are much much cooler due to its distinct temperate climate up in the hills, so you won’t need to worry too about this when you are looking for accommodation, though, it wouldn't go a miss.
We spent our first afternoon at ‘Crazy House’, an unconventional building designed and constructed by Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga. Taking inspiration from architect Antoni Gaudi, the buildings are a maze of spiral staircases, themed hotel bedrooms, hidden nooks, and swirls of bright colours - weird, wild and wonderful are the only words to describe it truly. We had an hour of fun exploring all that Crazy House offers and being praised by Chinese tourists for our inventive photography skills and modelling; after all, if there’s no photo, were you really there right? You can stay here too in a series of uniquely themed rooms, tigers, bears, bamboo, you name it! Truthfully, it would be very noisy and busy during the daytime as people can literally walk past your room door and windows but are obviously encouraged not to pester, so privacy might be a concern. We discussed this and are still on the fence about whether this would be a fun spot to stay. We think it could be for one novelty night!
Our evening meals in Da Lat were spent at the same restaurant, Goc Ha Thanh, as we struggled to find inspiration for decent food that wasn’t overpriced and aimed at tourists here. It helped that this spot offered fantastic Vietnamese food at a great price and in a homely atmosphere, so coming back was an easy choice, and we recommend it! On the first day, we spent time walking around the lake in the late afternoon and got very excited when we visited our first large supermarket (why are foreign supermarkets such an event?), where we were greeted by dozens of dogs in glamourous sunglasses at the entrance … yes, truly. Sadly, it was a ploy to sell tourist photos, and the cute doggos weren’t really some special, fashionable breed we hadn’t encountered in the UK, but it was fantastically funny and cute.
Our trip to Da Lat was truly defined by a last-minute tour that we booked, ‘Mr Rot’s Secret Tour’, which was recommended by a friend and booked through doing lots of research online to find an email address or number (see below). As you can tell by the name, the tour is a well-kept secret with those who attend, and Mr Rot asks that it stay this way, for good reason, too. What we can say, without spoiling anything, is that the morning was unlike any tour that was advertised elsewhere, and it was the one moment in Vietnam where we were deeply immersed in a local community that would otherwise not be available to tourists (even other tours that might advertise something similar). Due to Mr Rot’s very unique personal upbringing and family life as someone who walks the worlds between Vietnamese and the K'Ho people (who mostly do not speak Vietnamese), we got to have some of the most wholesome, authentic experiences with the locals and Andy even got to bust out some dance moves and nearly got himself a new wife… Yeah, things really escalated quickly. In the afternoon, we visited a few more tourist sites while still staying in a small group and being taken to places off the beaten track. We strongly recommend this tour to anybody visiting Da Lat. The only part we missed was the Alpine Coaster, which we would have liked to have done if we had more time.
Da Lat was a lovely stopover on our south route, but the secret tour made the visit worthwhile; it offers something genuinely unique to the trip you can’t get elsewhere in Vietnam. Finally, we booked another VIP Sleeper Bus for 8 hours through the day, taking us into the heart of Ho Chi Minh City for our final stop in our escapade through Vietnam. We were actually booked through a bus tour company called ‘An Anh’ through 12Go, which was the best we had experienced in Vietnam, so try to book through them if you can!
Points of Interest
Accommodation
Thanh Thanh 3 - Map (not recommended)
Food & Drink
Goc Ha Thanh Restaurant - Map
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Andrew: 3.75/5 Beth: 3.9/5
Our unique ratings for Ho Chi Minh City are based on it not quite hitting the cultural experience that Hanoi gave us, yet it was a nice hit of a more commercialised city with plenty to offer (and you could actually walk on the sidewalks!).
We had an incredible stay at our first Airbnb in Vietnam in District 1, above a bougie coffee shop that played Vinyl records throughout the day and served overpriced (but delicious) coffee whilst the local hipsters worked away on their laptops. We loved having our own mini apartment for the last leg of our journey, appropriately named “Funky Apartment”, filled with cute little details and amenities that gave a nice homely vibe, as our energy levels were depleting slightly as we neared the end of our Vietnam trip. The night we arrived, we enjoyed our trip's first takeaway: a delicious pizza from Pizza 4P, which was recommended to us. We ordered via Grab on the sofa, accompanied by a bottle of wine from the supermarket, while watching Netflix.
Yep, here we go again with the heat. Ho Chi Minh City was another hot city, so our days were about hitting the key locations, taking it slowly, and finding as much shade or air conditioning as possible. Andy spent the day at the War Remnants Museum, which we highly recommend making time for. I (Beth) had previously been, so I spent the time alone catching up on my own things.
The Indochina & American-Vietnam War impacted all the families of the country in one way or another, whether it was family members serving in the military, political views, religious beliefs, or physical disabilities. It was a historic period that Vietnamese people are proud of due to their resilience and strength against the odds. If you are interested in learning about the historical impact of the conflict and the true stories behind the war, you must visit the War Remnants Museum, although it can be a heavy experience.
Outside, as you enter, you will see an arsenal of old military equipment fielded by both sides, including a tank, chinook, artillery pieces, and planes, accompanied by some key facts. The museum building has multiple floors, where you will be guided through a mix of war stories, documents, films, key statistics, photos, equipment, weaponry, and other artefacts that illustrate everything that happened during the war, including the atrocities of Agent Orange. This dioxin-based herbicide caused severe health and genetic disorders, which are still being seen even four generations later. The room depicting the damage caused by this chemical was not for the faint of heart due to the sheer number of photos showing the effects on victims.
We also visited the famous ‘Apartment Cafes’, a lovely novelty. The nine-story apartment block has been transformed into countless cafes, restaurants and shops, and you can choose to climb the stairs and explore or pay a small price to use the lift. Convincing ourselves that we were still young and able-bodied, we climbed the floors despite the rampant sweating that followed and settled in a cute coffee shop to enjoy an iced coffee while overlooking the city from a balcony. Also, whilst someone is on hand ordering the coffee, we strongly recommend grabbing a doughnut from ‘Dosh’ on the same block to accompany it!
The rest of our time in the city was spent exploring Book Street, Saigon Central Post Office, cocktail bars and racing each other around the city via getting separate Grab motorbike taxis. Some reviews give the post office a bad reputation, but we enjoyed spending half an hour here to shop for a few more postcards to use as wedding thank you cards, write them there, and then send them off whilst exploring the little market stalls. It is also conveniently located next to Book Street and the Notre Dame Cathedral (which was under construction when we went, sadly). Also, I have to confess, I (Andrew) saw a cool area of Saigon called the Japanese Corners and thought it would be a great place to go for food that night, we did go, and it was streets filled with brothels masquerading as massage parlours - was a pretty funny turn of events and place to take my wife to before abandoning the plan, we live and learn to do a little more due diligence.
On our last full day, we booked a half-day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels through Airbnb. We were nervous about booking this as we knew it would be a long drive with only a few hours at the tunnels before returning to the city and wondered if it was worth it instead of exploring more of the city. You can also choose to include the Mekong River Delta in the trip, which, if you have a more limited stay in Vietnam, is recommended to do, but do it on separate days so you’re not rushed at both places by your tour guide; we ultimately passed on this because had a lot of similar experiences earlier in Vietnam and had limited days at our disposal to explore the city.
Despite some initial trepidation, we were glad we spent some time visiting the tunnels, and we think it was well worth the trip. It is touristy, that’s unavoidable, but just like the War Remnants Museum, it’s just really, really interesting to learn how the network of tunnels was utilised to sway the war in their favour through superior movement throughout the jungle, allowing to set ambushes and booby traps that kept American soldiers terrified of walking through the jungle. We enjoyed crawling through the tunnels too - albeit only doing the short ones whilst the rest of our group conquered the long ones, which even went to the second level of three, where it was much darker and hotter, returning from them looking a little worse for wear and sweaty!
In truth, they have made the tunnels almost two times larger now to fit us Western tourists; we’re not built like Vietnamese soldiers who were skinny, living off tiny rations back then. But the good news is that you can go through them now, and the immersion isn’t totally broken, as you can still see some of the original tunnel structures and examples of the brutal traps they used. If you want, you can pay to shoot various weapons on a range, but after exploring the war memorial, we personally didn’t think it was appropriate.
The only thing we would change next time would be to use a tour company that used guides with more knowledge about the tunnels' history in context with the war and their impact, and even a ‘script’ that they follow for the tour. Our guide was lovely, but we often got derailed on other stories or facts about Vietnam, missing out on questions we had about the tunnels or the Vietnamese war - at the end of the day, that’s what you’re there for! So for this trip, I would look into booking with a more well-known company that still keeps the group size to around 10 people maximum.
Ho Chi Minh City was a fantastic end to our five weeks in Vietnam. We loved our time here in a bustling, developed vibe in contrast to the vast majority of our trip, and there really isn’t much we would do differently except maybe the Mekong River Delta if we had another day. We now bid farewell to the city and Vietnam as a whole as we are now off to our next country and capital city, Bangkok, Thailand!
Stay tuned, though! We will write a separate, much more succinct Vietnam itinerary post outlining our completed route through the country, key information and tips, days spent at each location, and linking to our individual blog posts that you can bookmark and use if you so choose to make a similar journey in the future, or parts of it - and we could not recommend it enough! We have created special memories that will last a lifetime here, and we will always remember how beautiful the country is, how kind and welcoming the locals are to us as tourists and how, as a whole, it feels like a truly authentic adventure for those wanting a break for western culture.
Points of Interest
Cu Chi Tunnels - Map
War Remnants Museum - Map
Apartment Cafes - Map
Saigon Central Post Office - Map
Book Street - Map
Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon - Map
Accommodation
Food & Drink
Cuc Gach Quan Restaurant - Map
Hai Cái Tẩy Cafe - Map
Ben Nghe Street Food - Map
Pizza 4P’s - Map
Secret Garden Restaurant - Map
Dosh - Map
Layla Eatery & Bar - Map
Great read , again . Love this it kind of helps me picture all the amazing bits and pieces that you’re doing and experiencing x