Vietnam is the longest country on our route, and your list shows it. The five best experiences are not neatly grouped together: the first is in the mountains up against the Chinese border, the last is in the Mekong Delta, and there are 1,650 kilometres in between. If you want all of it, you travel a lot.
The good news is that the distance pays you back. The north, the centre and the south feel like three different countries, each with its own climate, its own food and its own pace. You do not need to worry about it all blurring together after a week, because here that simply does not happen.
Count on about €25 a day as a backpacker. These are the five experiences that we think stay with you longest, in the order you meet them travelling from north to south.
1. The Ha Giang Loop
If there is one thing travellers keep talking about after Vietnam, this is it. Three hundred and fifty kilometres through the mountains on the Chinese border, in three or four days, on roads that wind along the edge of drops and where a new valley opens up round every bend.
The high point is the Ma Pi Leng Pass at fifteen hundred metres, where you will want to stop three or four times rather than ride straight through. Just after it you get into a small boat through the Tu San gorge, and only then do you understand how high you were just riding. The evenings are every bit as good: you sleep in homestays where everyone eats at one table, and the first night in Yen Minh is usually the night the group becomes a group.
You choose whether you ride yourself or sit on the back with an easy rider. Riding yourself starts at about €10 a day and an easy rider costs about €45 a day all-in, with homestays and food included. The honest answer on which one suits you is on our Ha Giang Loop page, and everything about the route itself is in things to do on the Ha Giang Loop.
Our verdict: the best thing Vietnam has to offer, and worth every one of the four days
Our own pick
The loop with Mama's Homestay
One of the best-known operators in Ha Giang, and the safe first choice: experienced easy riders, bikes that are actually maintained, and a hostel full of people about to do the same thing as you. Meals, homestays and entry fees are included, and you get a bed in Ha Giang before and after the ride.
Reader discount with the voucher REBELSONTHEROAD. Mention it when you book, because nobody applies it for you.
See Mama's HomestayOur partner in Ha Giang
Our own pick
The loop with Tiem Tours
Groups of eight to ten, with riders and guides who grew up on these roads. You choose how you do it: ride yourself, sit on the back, or take the car, over three days or four, in a dorm or a private room every night. All meals, the entry fees and the boat on the Nho Que are included, plus your first night in Ha Giang.
Reader discount with the code REBELSONTHEROAD. Put it in your first message to them, because without it you pay the standard rate.
See Tiem ToursOur partner in Ha Giang
2. Sailing between the limestone towers
Almost every photo you know of Vietnam was taken here: hundreds of limestone islands rising straight out of green water. The only question is where you go to see them, because three places give you that picture.
For backpackers, Cat Ba is the best of them. From the island you head out into Lan Ha Bay, with about three hundred limestone islands and far fewer boats than Ha Long Bay next door. A day tour combines sailing, kayaking and swimming, and in the evening you can kayak through glowing plankton. From Hanoi it takes about four hours to get there.
Want the same scenery without the sea? Then Ninh Binh is your answer: the same rocks, but standing in rice fields, with a three-hour boat trip through Trang An and five hundred steps up to Mua Cave for the view. How Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba and Ninh Binh compare is on our Ninh Binh page.
Our verdict: unmissable, and Cat Ba gives you the same view with the most freedom
3. The caves of Phong Nha
Halfway down the country, where most travellers only get off the night bus for a moment, is a national park with some four hundred caves. Among them are the third largest cave in the world and the very largest of all.
What makes it special is that every cave does something different. In Paradise Cave, thirty-one kilometres long, you walk a wooden boardwalk through chambers where you cannot see the ceiling. In Dark Cave you zipline, swim and wallow through a mud bath. And into Phong Nha Cave you go by boat along an underground river, with the engine off.
Above ground it is every bit as good. The Bong Lai Valley starts seven kilometres behind the village, and it is exactly the kind of place where a €5-a-day scooter makes a whole afternoon disappear. Which cave suits you is on our Phong Nha page.
Our verdict: the most underrated stop in the whole country, and two days is the minimum
4. Hoi An when the lanterns come on
The old town of Hoi An has around eight hundred protected buildings, and in the afternoon it is a busy sight. After six it becomes something else: the lanterns come on, the colour of the facades changes and small boats with candles drift across the Hoai river.
By day, by the way, you are better off outside the old town. Cycling out early to the rice fields at Tra Que, or four kilometres to An Bang Beach for a long afternoon at a beach bar, is a better way to spend the day. A bike costs about €2 a day here, and that is all the transport you need.
And then there is the food. Cao lau, white rose and banh mi, spread over as many stalls as you can manage, because a meal here costs €1.50. A cooking class that starts at the local market is the best way to understand what you will be ordering for the rest of your trip. More in things to do in Hoi An.
Our verdict: three days, and make sure at least two evenings are part of it
5. Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta
The south opens with fourteen million people and a stream of traffic that never stops. Ho Chi Minh City is louder, hotter and more modern than Hanoi, and the best way into it is on the back of a scooter on a street food tour on your first evening.
Then comes the heavier part. The War Remnants Museum in the city and the Cu Chi tunnels forty kilometres out tell the story of the war together, from both sides and up close. Give it time, and plan little else around it.
And then the delta. A full day out into the Mekong Delta shows you a completely different Vietnam: floating markets, narrow side channels between the coconut palms and villages where life happens on the water. For a lot of travellers that is the best day of their time in the south. More in things to do in Ho Chi Minh City.
Our verdict: two to four days, and give the delta its full day
Got time to spare?
Sapa alongside Ha Giang. Both are in the northern mountains and both are beautiful, but they do different things: Ha Giang you ride, Sapa you walk. A trek to Lao Chai and Ta Van with a guide from the villages and a night in a homestay is one of the best days in the north. In September and October the rice there is golden.
Hue between Phong Nha and Hoi An. The royal tombs by scooter and the Imperial Citadel at seven when it opens make a great stop, and the ride over the Hai Van Pass to Da Nang is one of the most beautiful coast roads in the country.
A beach at the end. Nha Trang has the longest good season in Vietnam, Phu Quoc is at its best from December to April and Mui Ne is all about the wind. Which one works when is in the best time to visit Vietnam.
Our top five in Vietnam
- The Ha Giang Loop, with the Ma Pi Leng Pass and the Tu San gorge
- Sailing through Lan Ha Bay from Cat Ba, or Trang An if you want to stay on dry land
- The caves of Phong Nha, plus an afternoon in the Bong Lai Valley
- Hoi An after six, with the rice fields and the beach during the day
- Ho Chi Minh City and a full day in the Mekong Delta
How much time do you need for these five?
Count on three weeks if you want to do all five properly. Ha Giang takes four days, Cat Ba two to three, Phong Nha two to three, Hoi An three and the south with the delta three to four. On top of that come the journeys between them, and here they are the biggest item: Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is sixteen hundred kilometres.
Got two weeks? Then pick one half of the country. The north with Ha Giang, Cat Ba and Ninh Binh is a complete trip, and the centre with Phong Nha, Hue and Hoi An is just as good. That works better than halving all five, because then you mostly sit on night buses. How those journeys work is in our guide to sleeper buses and night trains.
If we had to pick just one: the Ha Giang Loop. Not because the rest is any less, but because it is the only thing on this list you cannot get like this anywhere else in Southeast Asia. The whole route with every stop is in our Vietnam itinerary.
