Vietnam

[chelseyw23]

I am going next month. What did you rate this country and what recommendations do you have to see/do?

We absolutely loved Vietnam. Up there with Iceland as my favourite holiday.

We did the typical route from North to South - Hanoi -Sapa - Ha Long Bay - overnight train to Hue - Hoi An - Ho Chi Minh City.

I loved everywhere except Ho Chi Minh City which was much hotter, very busy and full of skyscrapers.

Hanoi has lots to see and do, all in the Guide Books. I’d recommend the Water Puppet Theatre (hilarious) and also paying for a street food tour so that you learn the ropes. We were also taught how to cross the road in the incredible traffic. If you want to go to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, it was quiet in the afternoon an hour or so before closing.

The Citadel at Hue was amazing. Hoi An is really pretty and you can get made-to-measure clothes made overnight.

The food is great. It is really cheap to eat out, even in nice restaurants. We liked the local beers but would give the local Vietnamese wine a swerve. I’m not picky but even I couldn’t stomach it!

Food tour on the back of a motorbike - we did that in HCM City - totally amazing and worthwhile. The experience and the food too.

How much did you pay for flight and what airline?

Did you manage to get a good flight price

No afraid not as we don't fly economy. We went with Singapore.

Have you not booked flights yet if you're going next month?

We flew Vietnam Airlines March last year. We flew in from Heathrow to Hanoi and back from HCMC to Heathrow. The cost was about £800-£850 each return. There were cheaper flights eg on China Southern but I wanted direct flights.

Crikey what’s your day job 😂

I booked the flights about 6 months in advance. DD is going in a few weeks and booked recently. I think her flights are about £800+ with China Southern via Shanghai. That is the biggest cost. When you’re there, Vietnam is really good value.

Yeah I know it’s really cheap eating out and hotels etc. I will be travelling solo and I am a bit scared about this but oh well. Not finding anything under £1000 at the moment. Don’t know whether to book now or wait for the prices to come down

Bear in mind I tend to work whilst I'm away, the downside of the big job!

You'll love it when you're there. I'd fly indirect if I had the choice of that or not going.

What were the walking conditions like? Did you feel safe and everything. What beachy areas would you recommend

I’m not convinced that flight prices will come down. They seem to go up and up!

With normal caveats, we felt very safe in Vietnam. We were in touristy places, nearly everyone spoke some English and all were really friendly.

We went hiking in Pu Luong Nature Reserve in Thanh Hoa Province. Also in Mai chau. Beautiful scenery and easy to navigate. Different to Sapa I think.

I did feel safe but then I wasn't solo, but no one was intimidating. The Vietnamese seem quite stern but gentle (although a visit to the chu chi tunnels shows you how incredibly resilient they are!). The history is really interesting if that' s your thing.

We went to Phan Thiet for the beach. It's super windy which meant it was full of kite surfers. We really liked it but it was cooler because of the wind - which suits us.

I don't think I'd worry about travelling solo, really. There weren't loads of hawkers, the knock off gear was everywhere but no one is pushy.

I used china southern via China, which were the cheapest flights when comparing prices on flight scanner. I think we paid £600 return but it was November.
Internal flights are really cheap too, as are the buses and overnight buses.

A fabulous holiday and I felt really safe everywhere. I used GetYourGuide to book trips and it is fine as a single traveler. Small groups but safety in numbers.

What did you make of China southern ?

Loved it and spent some time on my own, particularly in HCMC. I felt 100% safe (female 50s) and people were lovely. Food was fab. Beer and cocktails good but wine utterly vile. If you like cooking do a cooking course. Overnight train was fine (take a sweatshirt and go to the loo early!)

Ps flew Qatar which was fine other than a mad check in mess at LHR.

Do you recommend any day trips from Hanoi or any places to see in the north?

Perfectly ok. The food was best when loaded up in the uk and we got food on the shorter trip from China to Vietnam too. And vice versa.

You must go to halong bay and nimh binh near Hanoi.

And Sapa appeared to be really popular although didn’t do it personally. Lots did the overnight buses there and stayed a night or two.

OP, with the utmost respect, you are coming over a bit AI-ish. You said you had booked for next month, but you haven't, and you are asking for opinions on walkability of certain resorts, beachyness, airlines etc. If you want to go (and it is a great place to go, sole or otherwise) a good place to look is Tripadvisor on their Vietnam page, especially the JBR "just back reports". I am only saying this because I got caught up in a very realistic discussion ages ago with someone who was after advice about going to Krakow on a solo holiday, and I gave loads of info, and offered to go into DM, share my schedule etc. One of the places I had been to was McDonalds because the McD in the main square is weirdly quite good, not because of the food (same everywhere) but because you get the same experience as sitting anywhere else on the square, clean loos etc. for a fraction of the cost of sitting anywhere else on the square. It wasn't a high point of my holiday or anything, but I then got some responses that were completely odd, like "do you think this place serve food at my table" at which point I realised I was probably speaking to some sort of bot or AI thing. Forgive me if I have your post all wrong,

How many days?
You can do a bit research on Travelfish site for the places in Vietnam.

2 weeks

Lonely Planet guide is your friend.

Flight prices always go up closer to departure time.

I went to Vietnam last year solo, I flew into HCMC, it was crazy but didn’t mind it, I took a flight to Phu Quoc, which is an island on the Gulf of Thailand but about an hour flight or so away . I took a ride on the longest cable ride there. I ended up there as Da Nang was due to be rainy for the days I had previously booked.
I flew to Hanoi which I really enjoyed, went on a food tour, day trip to Ninh Binh, pottered around the night markets, loads of coffee shops (since they are the second largest exporter), lots of banh mi’s, ate some great food. Food is cheap, I felt really safe, people are nice. I flew with BA/Qatar Airlines but I booked months in advance. If £1k is the best you’ve found, go with that as it’s unlikely to decrease.