Vietnam Tourist Sights & Attractions

Hanoi City Private Tour including Cyclo Ride and Lunch
Known as the 'Paris of the east', Hanoi is one of Asia's most charming cities. Spend a day enjoying the essential sites of Hanoi, including The Ho Chi Minh Complex and The Temple of Literature, the Museum of Ethnology, Ngoc Son Temple and picturesque Hoan Kiem Lake. To complete the day, take a cyclo tour through the historic Old Quarter and explore the many markets streets dedicated to a variety of local wares.

Dalat

click to enlarge

Halong Bay

Magnificent Halong Bay, with its 3000 islands rising from the clear, emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, is one of Vietnam's natural marvels. The tiny islands are dotted with innumerable beaches and grottoes created by the wind and waves. The most impressive of the grottoes is the Hang Dau Go, a huge cave of three chambers, while the Thien Cung Caves are also very impressive. The name Ha Long means 'where the dragon descended into the sea', and refers to a legend about a dragon who created the bay and islands with its flailing tail. There's even a modern legendary creature, the Tarasque, said to haunt the area.

Taking a tour of the bay is the main activity here; most book a tour at a cafe or hotel in Hanoi. If you want to arrange things independently, be ready for lots of hard sell from touts in Halong Bay City. To see a lot, choose a fast boat. If you want a romantic experience but with the risk of getting hardly anywhere, look for one of the old junks. You have to charter the whole boat, but there are usually enough travelers around to make up a party and keep costs down.

The main town in the region is Halong City, which is in two halves, bisected by a bay. Bai Chay (the western part) is the more scenic and has the most hotels, restaurants and persistent touts. Hon Gai (the eastern part) is connected to Haiphong by a ferry. Masochists might try seeing the bay on a day-trip from Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh City is the heart and soul of Vietnam. It's a bustling, dynamic and industrious centre, the largest city in the country, the economic capital and the cultural trendsetter. Yet within the teeming metropolis are the timeless traditions and beauty of an ancient culture.

Ho Chi Minh City has several excellent museums that explore its dramatic history and feature everything from harrowing images of the war and revolution to political art. Outside, botanical gardens, temples, pagodas and churches beckon and inspire. more...

Hué

Traditionally, Hué has been one of Vietnam's main cultural, religious and education centres. Its Thien Mu Pagoda is one of the most famous structures in Vietnam. The remains of the huge, moated Citadel (Kinh Thanh), constructed by the Emperor Gia Long from 1804, contain many interesting sights, such as the Ngo Mon Gate, Nine Holy Cannons, Thai Hoa (the Palace of Supreme Harmony), Nine Dynastic Urns and the Halls of the Mandarins. Sadly, the intriguing Forbidden Purple City was largely destroyed during the Vietnam War. About 15km (9mi) south of Hué are the splendid Royal Tombs, of the Nguyen emperors. Hué has many other places of religious and dynastic importance, and some good museums.

You can do sampan trips up the Perfume River, which include visits to some of Hué's main attractions. If you want to get out of the city for a swim, head 13km (8mi) northeast to Thuan An Beach, where there's a lagoon and a hotel. It can be reached by sampan or bus.

There's a range of accommodation in Hué to suit most budgets, and the city is famed for its fine restaurants. Hué has a long tradition of vegetarian food, which is prepared at pagodas for the monks. Stalls in the markets serve vegetarian food on the 1st and the 15th days of the lunar month, and there are also several restaurants serving it all the time.

Hué is about 700km (430mi) from Hanoi and 1100km (680mi) from Ho Chi Minh City. The Reunification Express train running between those cities stops here, and there are frequent flights and buses to both cities. more.....
 

Nha Trang

Although it has the potential to develop into a flashy resort such as Thailand's Pattaya Beach, Nha Trang is still a good place to go for sun and partying. But see it while it lasts. With very clear turquoise waters (except for the wet season), snorkeling, diving and fishing are prime activities, and just lazing on the town beach is an experience in itself. You'll be offered everything from lunch to a manicure.

When you tire of the beach, there are some interesting sites nearby, such as the Long Son Pagoda, and 2km (1.2mi) to the north of town are the Cham towers of Po Nagar, built between the 7th and 12th centuries on a site that had been used for Hindu worship as early as the 2nd century.

See: A delicacy not just for the haves

Nha Trang's dry season runs from June to September (which is different from Ho Chi Minh City's). To cater for the growing influx of visitors, many new hotels have been built in town. Nha Trang is a major fishing port, so excellent seafood is available. The exotic dragon fruit (thanh long) grows only in the Nha Trang area. It's about the size and shape of a small pineapple, but tastes something like a kiwifruit. The fruit is in season from May to September, when you can find it served as a drink.

Express and regular buses link Nha Trang with Ho Chi Minh City; express buses take about 12 hours. Express trains run to both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and there are daily flights to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Phu Quoc

Vietnam's largest island is situated in the gulf of Thailand.
The drop-shaped island is 48 km in length, and from 3 to 28 km breadthwise. all in all it has 1320 qkm and about 70000 inhabitants are living on it.
Compared to other islands, Phu Quoc has a very good infrastructure, like for example: an airport, several harbours, wide roads, money-exchange, hospital, post-office, police-station and a beautiful market.

Sightseeing's and activities:
River cruising, visiting fish-sauce factories and pepper plantations, jungle-trekking to the waterfall, boat trips to an thoi islands with snorkelling and fishing, enjoying the countless lonely beaches, marvelling the local products at the market, try to find the whale museum.
Since March 2002 there is also a diving-base on Phu Quoc. It is located 1 kilometre down south of Duong Dong.

Grand Mercure La Veranda Phu Quoc  
Grand Mercure La Veranda is located on Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Thailand, only 1 hour by air from Ho Chi Minh City. Designed to reflect the ambiance of a colonial seaside mansion, the boutique resort is set in tropical gardens on a stretch of beautiful white sandy beach - and features 43 rooms, each with private balcony. Facilities include two restaurants, lounge bar, swimming pool, water sports center and spa. The resort can also organize traditional ~Vietnamese or Christian wedding ceremonies.

Phan Thiet

is a small, pleasant town on the central Vietnam coast. Located midway between Saigon and Nha Trang on National Highway 1, it used to have a reputation as a convenient overnight stop for travelers. Ironically, what those same travelers didn't know was that Phan Thiet is also the gateway to one of the most beautiful, unspoiled stretches of coastline in Vietnam, if not the world. Today, Phan Thiet has become a destination in itself and it won't be long before the fishermen hauling in their nets on the beach are replaced by children hawking chewing gum.

Phan Thiet is divided by the Ca Ty River, with the older part of town to the south. As you enter town, National Highway 1 becomes Tran Hung Dao Street. The Tran Hung Dao bridge offers an excellent view of the fishing boats in the small harbor. Walking is the best way to get around downtown Phan Thiet, although there's no shortage of cyclos.

While Phan Thiet is pleasant enough, the real attraction of the area is the Mui Ne Cape, stretching 25 kilometers into the South China Sea. Until recently, the cape attracted few visitors. In fact, the cape was reputed to be a hideout for bandits and thieves. More than likely, someone's distant cousin was once robbed of a few coconuts at the point of a sharpened bamboo pole. At any rate ,the reputation stuck and the locals left this wild frontier to the fishermen and their families.

Then in 1995 a European couple opened a 17-room resort on a pristine stretch of beach midway between Phan Thiet and the fishing village of Mui Ne. To the astonishment of the locals, the Coco Beach Resort (Hai Duong Resort) was soon welcoming weekend Saigonites and tourists. The rest is history. Today a new guest house, hotel or resort opens its doors virtually every month and the pace shows no sign of letting up. If you want to see the Mui Ne Cape before it is just another strip of wall-to-wall hotels and restaurants, you'd better get here quick!

I can't think of a better place to spend a relaxing couple of days in Vietnam. It's a great way to take a break and unwind after the challenges of traveling. When you tire of the beach or golfing, there are the sand dunes, numerous pagodas, the bustling Phan Thiet market and even a Cham temple to explore. Best of all, the freshly caught seafood is out of this world.

Hot and humid year-round, Phan Thiet's rainy season begins in May and runs through October, making the best time to visit from November to May.
 

Ba Na

The French called Ba Na “the spring of France” and flocked to the mountain near Danang to get some respite from the central coast city’s sweltering heat. Villas mushroomed on the mountain’s slopes, as did banks, post offices and hospitals. But through the ups and downs of history, Ba Na’s promise of cool relief was almost forgotten again until in 1997 its tourist potential was resuscitated. Roads were rebuilt, and today throngs of tourists rush again to the 1,487-meter-high mountain to experience its four seasons in a day. In the early morning, it’s spring; at noon, it’s summer; in the late afternoon, it’s autumn; and when the night falls, it’s winter.

On the way up Ba Na, which is often compared to the cool Central Highlands resort town of Dalat, you can literally feel the weather change. Even in the summer, Ba Na enjoys a coolness of 18 degrees Celsius, while nearby Danang on the coast bears a heat of 38 degrees. Even in the hottest of summers, the temperature on Ba Na rarely exceeds 25 degrees Celsius. In the winter, temperatures on the mountain can drop to as low as two degrees. Because of the difference in climate between plane and mountain top, fog and clouds often shroud Ba Na in the early morning and afternoon. Squalls of rain may start pouring down on you, stopping as quickly as they started, which is unusual for the central region, where rain usually lasts hours or more. But on Ba Na, blue skies, as if it had never been different, quickly replace the mass of clouds, having lingered mysteriously on the mountain side just a short while before.

Well, in short, it is the weather that attracts. Coming from the distance, you will see the endless green of protected natural forests covering the mountain. The forests over more than 17,000 hectares hide many rare trees and plants and hundreds of animals. Especially, a kind of flower called dao chuong, or enkianthus, grows on Ba Na. The flower looks like a small reddish bell and blooms in spring. Local authorities work together with a French man to build a dao chuong garden, making for another tourist draw, once completed, in the spring.

Quy Nhon

Quy Nhon is a seaside town with about 200,000 inhabitants, whose harbors are accessible to more than 4,000 boats and ships. This town is about 650 km far from Ho Chi Minh City.

Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh, is the homeland of the most respected Vietnamese hero: Nguyen Hue. Being the cradle of the classic theatre "Tuong" and the martial art of Viet Nam, it used to be the important commercial centre of exchanging trade with China. The ancient capital of the Cham Tra Ban (1000-1471) is located 26 km far from Quy Nhon. Nowadays Quy Nhon is famous for its local products like bird's nests. The province has quite many Cham towers like Banh It Towers... The sandy beach here is good and right in the town.