Vietnam for the first time: what actually surprises people
Almost everyone plans a first trip to Vietnam as though it were one country with one climate and a train running down the middle of it. It is one country with three climates and a train that is a pleasure on one stretch and a wasted day on the rest.
Here is what our travellers tell us caught them out, and what we would change on a first visit.
One: it is much longer than it looks
Vietnam runs 1,025 miles (1,650 km) from the Chinese border to the mouth of the Mekong and is barely 30 miles (50 km) wide at its narrowest point. Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is two hours in the air and 32 to 35 hours by train.
The practical consequence is the thing first-timers resist hardest: a two-week trip covering north, centre and south needs internal flights, usually two of them. There is no version of this route that works by road in the time available. We book Vietnam Airlines by default rather than the cheaper carriers, mainly for the baggage allowance, and we never put a turboprop flight to Phu Quoc or Con Dao on the same day as an international departure.
Two: the weather at one end has nothing to do with the other
The north has a real winter. Hanoi sits at 57 to 68 F (14 to 20 C) in January under grey cloud, and the mountains are colder. The south has no winter at all. The centre floods between September and December, and Hoi An’s Ancient Town goes under water most years.
Which means there is no month that is perfect everywhere, and anyone who tells you otherwise is describing a third of the country. March and April come closest. October and November give you the best north of the year and a real risk in the centre, which we route around. The full breakdown is in Vietnam month by month.
Three: Tet moves, and it changes the trip
Vietnamese Lunar New Year falls between late January and mid February and the date moves each year with the lunar calendar. Around it, family restaurants close, museums shut for several days, domestic flights and trains sell out months ahead at double the fare, and staff go home to their villages.
We check where your dates sit and tell you plainly. Travelling through Tet knowingly, with fewer moves and lower expectations of the restaurant scene, can be memorable. Travelling through it unknowingly is a bad week.
Four: crossing the road is a technique
There are roughly 60 million motorbikes in Vietnam and at a busy Hanoi junction they do not stop for pedestrians in the way you expect.
The method, which sounds like a joke and is the most useful thing anyone tells you here: walk out slowly, keep a constant speed, do not stop, do not run and do not step backwards. The bikes flow around you. Hesitation is what causes accidents, because a rider cannot predict you.
Five: the food changes completely as you go south
Northern cooking is restrained: clear pho with almost no garnish, black pepper and vinegar rather than sugar and chilli, and bun cha, which is Hanoi’s own. The centre, and Hue in particular, cooks the most complex food in the country, a legacy of the imperial court. The south is sweeter, more abundant and more herb-heavy, with fruit you will not have seen.
First-time visitors often arrive expecting the Vietnamese food they know at home, which is mostly southern, and find the north austere by comparison. Give it three days. The north wins most people over.
Six: Ha Long is three bays, not one
Ha Long, Bai Tu Long and Lan Ha are named parts of one continuous seascape with wildly different boat traffic. The main Ha Long cruising route carries several hundred vessels. Lan Ha, reached via Haiphong, and Bai Tu Long to the north east are the same karst with a fraction of the boats.
Two nights on the water beats one, because the first day is mostly transfer. We go through the choice properly in Ha Long, Bai Tu Long or Lan Ha.
Seven: Sapa is not what the photographs show
Sapa town has been overbuilt into something close to a building site, and we say so to everyone who asks for it by name. The Muong Hoa valley below is still beautiful and the walking is good.
If you want the northern mountains properly, Ha Giang is the answer: a 220-mile (350 km) loop through the Dong Van karst plateau, over the Ma Pi Leng pass above the Nho Que river, with markets that are not staged. It needs four days and it is worth them.
Eight: we will not rent you a motorbike
Foreign licences are generally not valid in Vietnam without a local conversion, the accident rate is high, and rural medical provision is thin. On our northern trips we put you on the back of a bike with an experienced local rider, or in a car with a driver. We will not organise a self-drive motorbike trip and we would rather lose the booking than take it. The three options are compared honestly in motorbike or car in northern Vietnam.
Nine: the hotel moves matter more than the days
Above one hotel change every two days, a Vietnam trip becomes transit. Road speeds are low, so transfer days are longer than the map suggests: Hanoi to the bays is two and a half hours, Hanoi to Pu Luong four, and Hue to Hoi An three if you take the old Hai Van Pass road rather than the tunnel, which you should.
This is why we would rather build ten good days in two regions than thirteen scattered ones in three.
Ten: the small practical things
- The dong runs in large numbers. Roughly 100,000 dong is $4. Check the zeroes on every note for the first two days.
- Cards work in cities and hotels. Carry cash for markets, rural areas and anything sold from a stool.
- Do not drink the tap water, including for teeth. Ice in established places is fine.
- Grab, the ride-hailing app, removes the fare negotiation entirely and is what everyone uses.
- The e-visa is applied for online in advance, valid up to 90 days, single or multiple entry. Apply through the official government portal, not a lookalike site charging four times the fee.
- Choose multiple entry if your route leaves Vietnam and comes back. Any itinerary that dips into Cambodia or Laos and returns needs it, and this is the most common expensive mistake we see.
- Some nationalities have a shorter visa-free entitlement instead. The list changes, so we confirm your exact passport before quoting.
- The heat governs mornings. Plan the outdoor half of the day for before ten.
- English is thin outside tourism and Vietnamese is tonal and hard. That is what a guide is for on the days you need one.
What we would do differently on a first visit
Fewer places, longer stays. Three nights in Hanoi rather than two, because the city takes a day to make sense. Two nights on the water rather than one. Three nights in Hoi An with a bicycle and an early morning in the Ancient Town before the coaches arrive. Two nights in Hue, which people cut first and regret. A night in the Mekong Delta at Can Tho or Ben Tre rather than the day trip from the city, which is a conveyor belt.
And one thing people never plan and always mention afterwards: an empty afternoon in the middle, with no guide, no transfer and nothing booked.
Plan this trip
Tell us your dates and what you want out of Vietnam, and a specialist will send a first outline with real hotels, real flight legs and the honest version of each day. Free, no obligation.
Keep reading
- Vietnam, the complete guide to planning your trip
- Vietnam month by month, region by region
- What does a trip to Vietnam cost?
- Ha Long, Bai Tu Long or Lan Ha?
- Classic Vietnam in 16 days
- All our Vietnam trips
Frequently asked questions
How many days do we need?
Is Vietnam safe?
Is it expensive?
Do we need a guide every day?
North to south, or south to north?
Plan a trip to Vietnam, a thousand miles long and three different climates All Vietnam, a thousand miles long and three different climates trips
