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Tips for Vietnam

I visited Vietnam with a friend in early 2024 for a month. Here are my top recommendations, grouped by city.

Hanoi

Cycle tour around the city The friendly people at Friends Travel Vietnam (website/location) provide one hell of a cycling tour. Decent bicycles, and a varied route, visiting temples, an island in the Red River and some sites around the city center. As a cherry on the cake we passed a street food stand selling roasted dog.

Train street A unique tourist trap. Don't plan your day around it, but do visit if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Get a chair 15 minutes before the train passes at one of the many small bars, and sip your egg coffee while you enjoy the passing train. Only a handful of trains passes every day, so make sure to get the current time schedule, your hotel should have one.

A Water Puppet Theater These shows should be awesome. Unfortunately we couldn't get tickets, trying to book 2 days ahead. So book well ahead if possible. This venue is apparently the best in town.

Hoa Lo Prison Quite depressing, but fascinating museum in the Hoa Lo Prison. Shows some nasty parts of Vietnam's history. One of the best war-themed museums I visited this trip (there are many).

Da Nang

Mai's Boutique Hotel This small, laid-back hotel has it all: a nice swimming pool, friendly staff, decent breakfast, good location. Not to be confused with 'Mai Boutique Villa', at which we also stayed later on and wasn't nearly as nice.

Dragon Bridge This bridge is nice enough to check out by daylight. In the weekends the bridge is closed for traffic once per evening for a mind-blowing show where the dragon comes alive to spit fire and water!

The Mad Den A relaxed Irish pub, a bit outside the center. The Mad Den attracts a mix of expats and tourists, famous for its weekly pubquiz.

Dalat

100 Roof Bar This is hands-down the top attraction in town! The bar looks tiny from the outside. Enter anyway and buy a drink at the entrance to start exploring the amazing maze inside and have your mind blown. Best to visit end of the afternoon to have a good view over the city. Pro-tip: when you reach a balcony overlooking the street, you are not done yet! Keep exploring until you reach the garden at the back.

Crazy House Another top attraction! The Crazy House Has the same insane architect as the 100 Roof Bar and was built over a period of 10 years in a wild mix of styles. Think: the set of Alien meets Gaudí.

Cycle down to the coast Book a guided bicycle tour with Groovy Gecko Tours and cycle down from Dalat to the coast (in my case to Mui Ne). The first 40 kilometers and the last 30 or so are by van; the stretch in between is 70 km of amazing views, jungle, rivers and lowlands. Ten kilometers of the route is downhill only, taking you from the 1500-meter-high plateau Dalat resides on down to sea level.
Note that parts of the track are uphill, so some basic fitness helps. However, if you feel tired, you can always hop on the support van to skip a section. The bikes are solid mountain bikes and the frame sizes are big enough for people up to 1.95 meter tall.

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

Pasteur Street Craft Bar Chill street-side pub with a generous amount of beers on tap. Nice change from the ubiquitous Bia Saigon.

Heart of Darkness Craft Brewery The Heart of Darkness Brewery brews some seriously nice beers. Add to that a lovely playlist with indie/rock/metal and a decent food menu. Beers are pricey though, as they are in most craft beer bars in Vietnam. Roughly the same as Western European prices. For dirt cheap beer, check out Bia Hoi at a street corner local pub, seated in a tiny plastic chair.
Fun fact: Heart of Darkness is the name of the novel the movie Apocalypse Now is loosely based on.

vietnam traveltips

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