VIETNAM

  VISA INFORMATION:

  • Vietnam offers U.S. travelers a 90 day tourist E-Visa, but must be applied for online before traveling.  (We recommend applying at least two weeks prior to travel because officially it will take 3 business days to receive but could take longer).  The official website to apply for and get information on the E-Visa is visa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn
  • THIS INFORMATION IS VALID AS OF 5/4/2024!!  UP TO DATE INFORMATION CAN ALWAYS BE FOUND AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT WEBSITE IN YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE.  FOR U.S. TRAVELERS, IT CAN BE FOUND AT travel.state.gov

Helpful Apps!

  • Google Translate
  • Google Maps
  • Grab – to orders both taxies and food delivery
  • KLOOK – to order online tickets for various activities

Links to our Accommodations:

Things we liked about Vietnam!   🙂

  • The people are the most open and friendly of any country we’ve visited so far!
  • Very safe!
  • More laid back way of life
  • Diverse landscape
  • Vietnamese Coffee!!
  • Very inexpensive to live!

Things we didn’t like as much:   ☹️

  • NOTHING!

  Some of our favorite things in Vietnam include:

  • Having lunch and beers at our friend Nhu’s place in Hoi An!
  • An Bang Beach near Hoi An
  • Ninh Binh – it’s one of  the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen!
  • Hot Stone massages!

Places We Visited

HOI AN AT NIGHT

Hoi An

Hoi An is our favorite place in Vietnam!  We’ve been here 3 times in 4 years and it’s where we normally meet up with Michelle’s mum and dad (they vacation in Hoi An for 3 months every year).  We simply can’t say enough good things about Hoi An.  If there is only one place in Vietnam that you can visit, we recommend it be Hoi An!

For a more detailed explanation of why we love it here so much, click here to see my blog titled “What’s So Special About Hoi An?”

Da Nang

Da Nang is a beautiful city!  We spent about 2 weeks here and really enjoyed it.  We had planned on staying for a month, but our AirBnb didn’t work out so we left early and returned to Hoi An.  

The beaches here are beautiful and we highly recommend visiting this vibrant city!

Da Nang's "Dragon Bridge"
Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills

Ba Na Hills

One of the places on our “bucket list” while still in Da Nang was to visit Ba Na Hills.  Ba NA Hills is a little hard to describe.  It’s sort of an amusement park without all the rides, but is high in the mountains and is an instagrammable paradise!  We booked our tickets and transportation through “KLOOK“.  We caught the bus (which was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel) and were taken about 45 minutes into the mountains where we caught the longest cable car in the world to take us up to the Park.  Our favorite attraction was the Golden Bridge (pictured to the left).  If I were to rate the experience, I’d give the cable car ride 5 out of 5 stars, and the park about 3 out of 5 stars.  Our ticket included a lunch buffet, but we both felt that if we were ever to do this again, we wouldn’t include the lunch buffet because there wasn’t a lot of food we liked.  We think we would have enjoyed lunch more if we could have eaten at one of the many other restaurants found in the park and the price would have been about the same.  

Night Train to Ninh Binh

After leaving Hoi An, we took an overnight train from Da Nang to Ninh Binh.  This was a lot of fun and a great experience!  For a more detailed description of our journey, click here to see my blog titled, “Ups and Downs (and Sideways) – Traveling by Train in Vietnam”

Night Train to Ninh Binh

Ninh Binh

Ninh Binh, Vietnam is a “must see”, in our opinion!  The landscape in this area is like nothing we’ve ever seen before!  We rented a motor-scooter here for the first time and that was a lot of fun.  It also gave us the freedom we’d been missing in our travels (having to rely on taxis and public transportation).  We thoroughly enjoyed Ninh Binh!  We stayed here 4 nights, but would have like to have stayed longer.  There are two main areas in Ninh Binh province, and they are Tam Coc (the main town), and Trang An (less populated but probably the better place to see the natural wonders of this area).  We stayed in Tam Coc on this trip, but rode our scooter to Trang An to take a 3 hour boat tour on the river, and to hike to the top of Mua Mountain to see incredibly breathtaking views.  We both rate Ninh Binh 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend coming here.  You won’t be disappointed!  

Ha Long Bay Cruise

Ha Long Bay is one of the most famous parts of Vietnam and tourists in the thousands flock to it each year.  After doing a 2 night/3 day cruise, I would describe it as something that everyone should do once in their lifetime.  It’s beautiful.  It’s romantic.  But it’s expensive!  For a detailed description of our Ha Long Bay Cruise, please click here to read my blog titled, “Honest Review of our Ha Long Bay Cruise”.

Hanoi

Hanoi is the largest city in Vietnam (by far!) that Michelle and I’ve visited.  We very much enjoyed it here and we highly recommend!  The hotel we stayed at is shown up above in the “Links to our Accommodations” section.  The area was fantastic as it was close to everything including our favorite place, “Hoan Kiem Lake”.

We’re still amazed at just how many people can fit in an area and move around by either walking, bicycling, motor-scooter, car, taxi, bus, tuk-tuk, or cyclo without crashing into each other.  It’s truly an art form!  The best way I can describe it is to show you this short video I took while we were sitting at a roof-top restaurant watching an average intersection in the city.  Presented for your viewing pleasure…