Vietnam

Hanoi has the finest street food culture in Vietnam — and in a country where street food is a serious art form, that is not a small claim. The Old Quarter's 36 guild streets are the centre of it: narrow lanes where vendors have occupied the same pavement positions for decades, each specialising in a single dish perfected over a lifetime. Pho Gia Truyen on Bat Dan Street serves one of the most celebrated bowls of pho bo (beef pho) in the city — thin slices of rare beef, rich bone broth simmered overnight, fresh herbs, and a squeeze of lime, eaten standing or perched on a low plastic stool before 8am when the pot runs out. Bún chả — grilled pork patties in a sweet-salty broth with vermicelli noodles and herbs — is Hanoi's other great dish, served at lunch only.

In the evening, Bia Hoi Corner (the junction of Luong Ngoc Quyen and Ta Hien streets in the Old Quarter) is Vietnam's most famous street drinking spot — fresh-brewed draught beer served in plastic cups for around 5,000 dong (20 US cents), at tables that spill across the pavement into the intersection. Arrive at 7pm, order a bia hoi and whatever snacks the vendor near you is selling, and watch the Old Quarter evening unfold. A guided street food tour covering 6–8 stops over 3 hours is the best way to orient yourself on the first evening.

Ha Long Bay — 1,969 limestone karst islands rising from emerald-green water in the Gulf of Tonkin — is one of the most extraordinary natural landscapes in the world and Vietnam's single most unmissable experience. The karsts are the remnants of a limestone plateau gradually dissolved by rainwater over 500 million years, leaving behind pinnacles and islands of rock in an endless variety of shapes and scales, some rising 200 metres straight from the water. UNESCO designated the bay a World Heritage Site in 1994. On an overcast day it looks like a Chinese ink-wash painting. On a clear day, with the water reflecting the islands and a traditional junk sailing between them, it looks like something a travel photographer staged and couldn't quite believe actually existed.

The only way to properly experience Ha Long Bay is on an overnight cruise — a 2-day/1-night or 3-day/2-night trip aboard a traditional wooden junk boat. The overnight stay allows you to be on deck at sunrise when the bay is completely still and the mist hangs between the karsts, and to kayak into sea caves and hidden lagoons accessible only when the tide is right. The best operators anchor away from the main tourist clusters; the difference between a crowded pier anchorage and a quiet hidden lagoon is the difference between a good and a great Ha Long Bay experience. Budget for at least a midrange cruise (Heritage Line, Indochine Cruise, or similar) — the cheapest boats cut corners on food, anchorage position, and kayaking access.

The Marble Mountains — Ngũ Hành Sơn — are five marble and limestone hills rising dramatically from the coastal plain between Da Nang and Hoi An, each named after one of the five elements: water, fire, metal, wood, and earth. They have been a sacred site for over a thousand years — first for the Hindu Cham people, then for Vietnamese Buddhist communities — and are riddled with natural caves that have been converted into pagodas, each lit by natural light shafting in through holes in the cave roof. The effect, particularly in the Huyen Khong Cave where shafts of light illuminate Buddhist altars in a cavern large enough to hold hundreds of people, is completely extraordinary.

Thuy Son (Water Mountain) is the most accessible and most spectacular — a lift takes you to the base of the pagoda complex, from where a network of stairs and pathways winds between caves, pagodas, and viewpoints over the Da Nang coastline. Climb to the Am Phu Cave (the Cave of Hell) for its grotesque Buddhist underworld carvings, then to the Vong Hai Dai viewpoint at the summit for the finest view in the area: the South China Sea stretching away to the horizon, My Khe Beach below, and the Hai Van Pass mountains visible to the north. Allow 2–3 hours. Go early — by 10am the tourist buses begin arriving.

The Hai Van Pass — Ocean Cloud Pass — is a 21km mountain road crossing the Trường Sơn range between Da Nang and Hue, climbing to 496 metres above a coastline that Jeremy Clarkson once called "one of the best coast roads in the world" on Top Gear. He wasn't wrong. The road winds up through dense jungle above a series of switchbacks, with the South China Sea visible hundreds of metres below on one side and the mountains rising sharply on the other. At the summit, French colonial-era fortifications and Vietnam War-era bunkers sit at the highest point, with views in both directions along the coast that stop you completely.

The easiest way to do it is on the back of an Easy Rider motorbike with a guide — experienced local drivers who know the road, the viewpoints, and can narrate the history of the pass (it was the historical boundary between the ancient kingdoms of Dai Viet and Champa, and a strategically critical position during the American War). The round trip from Da Nang takes 3–4 hours. The pass can also be driven one-way from Da Nang to Hue as part of a longer motorbike journey north — an excellent option if you have an extra day.

Hoi An's Ancient Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — a trading port frozen in time since the 17th century, when it was one of the most important commercial centres in Southeast Asia. The old town's assembly halls, merchant houses, Japanese-influenced covered bridge, and French colonial facades survive almost completely intact, the building styles reflecting the Chinese, Japanese, and European traders who all left architectural signatures in the streets. During the day, the town is beautiful and busy. At night — particularly during Lantern Night on the 14th of each lunar month when electric lights are switched off and the streets and the Thu Bon River are lit entirely by hundreds of coloured silk lanterns — it becomes something genuinely extraordinary.

On Lantern Night, paper lanterns are floated on the river as offerings, boats carry lanterns along the waterway, and the Ancient Town glows in warm amber and red light that makes even bad photographs look extraordinary. If your dates don't align with the full moon, the town is still beautiful on any evening — the lanterns are always lit, just fewer of them. Walk the length of the Ancient Town after dark, cross the Japanese Covered Bridge, and eat a bowl of Cao Lau (the local noodle dish made with water from a specific ancient well — it genuinely only tastes right here) at one of the street stalls near the river. Three days is the minimum; most visitors wish they had stayed longer.

The Rừng Dừa Bảy Mẫu — the Seven Mẫu Coconut Forest — is a 100-hectare water coconut palm forest on the Thu Bon River delta just outside Hoi An. Navigating it in a coracle (a round woven bamboo basket boat known as thúng chai, traditionally used by Vietnamese fishermen) is one of the most entertaining experiences available anywhere in Vietnam. The boats are steered by spinning the oar rather than rowing in the conventional sense — a skill that takes a lifetime to learn and that the local guides demonstrate with casual mastery before performing spins, figure-eights, and full rotations at speed while you grip the sides and try not to fall in.

The forest tour typically takes 1.5–2 hours, including a demonstration of traditional crab and fish trapping in the waterways, a passage through the densest part of the coconut palm forest where the canopy closes overhead, and a boat-spinning performance that most visitors agree is the best photo opportunity in the Hoi An area. Book through a local operator rather than a hotel desk for the most authentic experience — the guides from the local fishing village run the best tours.