Thanh Hoa

Thanh Hoa is a large northern province with one internationally important ruin, one very Vietnamese beach, and the road into Pu Luong running through it.

What is the Ho Citadel, and why is it listed?

The Ho Citadel is the surviving stone wall of a capital built in 1397. UNESCO listed it because nothing else in Southeast Asia was built this way. The blocks are dressed limestone, some of them several tonnes, fitted without mortar into a rectangle with a gate on each side.

The dynasty it was built for lasted seven years. What remains is the wall, the gates and an empty field where the palaces stood. That makes the citadel a strange and rather moving place to visit rather than a busy one. Half an hour covers it, and the drive out from the city is about 45 km.

Is Sam Son a beach or a spectacle?

Sam Son is both, and the spectacle is the more interesting half. Sam Son is one of the oldest seaside resorts in Vietnam, developed in the French period. It is now a wall of hotels above a broad grey-gold beach, filled from May to August by domestic holidaymakers.

Nobody would fly here for the sand — Quy Nhon and Phu Yen are a different class of coast. What Sam Son gives is a view of how the country actually takes a holiday. Group photographs at dawn, seafood by the kilo at lunch, karaoke after dark. The beaches guide ranks the coast that visitors usually want.

What are the Lam Kinh tombs?

Lam Kinh is the ancestral seat of the Le dynasty, and it is the quietest important site in the province. Stone elephants, horses and mandarins line the paths between tombs under old trees, and the whole complex sits in forest rather than in a town.

Lam Kinh rewards an unhurried two hours and almost nobody is there. If the Ho Citadel is the province's headline, Lam Kinh is the part people remember.

Where does the road to Pu Luong start?

The road to Pu Luong leaves the Hanoi highway well before Thanh Hoa city. That is why most people who visit the reserve never see the province capital at all. Pu Luong is three to four hours from Hanoi through Hoa Binh, and it sits inside Thanh Hoa province in name more than in practice.

The distinction is worth knowing when planning. A trip to the citadel and a trip to the terraces are two different journeys, not one stop with two halves.

How do you reach the province, and how long does it need?

Thanh Hoa city is about three hours from Hanoi by train on the north-south line, with the station in the middle of town. By road on the expressway it is much the same. Trains continue south to Ninh Binh in the other direction and to Vinh beyond.

One night is enough for the citadel and Lam Kinh together. Two make sense only if the beach is the point, or if the province is a break on a longer run down the coast. The train itinerary covers where it fits.

The citadel end or the beach end?

Sleep in Thanh Hoa city for the citadel and at Sam Son for the beach, and the two have completely different prices. City hotels are provincial business rooms at the bottom of the bands in the accommodation guide. Sam Son in July charges resort rates for the same standard of room.

Entry to the citadel and to Lam Kinh is a small ticket in the tens of thousands of dong each. The real cost of the day is a car. The three sites sit 45 to 50 km apart in different directions, and no bus joins them up.

Is there a quieter beach than Sam Son?

The province has around 100 km of coast, and two quieter beaches on it. Hai Tien, 30 km north of Sam Son, and Hai Hoa, well to the south, are both domestic resorts at an earlier stage: fewer hotels, wider sand, less noise after dark.

Hai Tien and Hai Hoa are not reasons to come to Thanh Hoa. Both are a reason to stop at the coast rather than driving past it, if the trip already runs down this stretch of the country. The beach safety guide covers what to check before swimming on an unpatrolled stretch, which is most of this coastline.

What is nem chua, and why here?

Nem chua is Thanh Hoa's contribution to Vietnamese food: fermented pork, cured with garlic and chilli, wrapped in banana leaf and eaten raw. The province is where it is best known from. Packs of it are sold at every bus stop and station on this stretch of the highway.

The taste is sour and sharp, and entirely unlike the grilled pork foreigners usually meet in Vietnam. The snack and street-food guide covers what else travels well from a roadside counter.