The best places to visit in Vietnam, and the nights each needs

Vietnam is 1,650 km long and a fortnight covers about a third of it properly. So the useful question is not which are the best places to visit in Vietnam, but which ones earn the nights they cost.

Twelve places to visit here, in the order a trip usually meets them, with what each is for and how long it needs.

Which places carry a first trip?

Nine, and they sit on one line down the country. A first two weeks picks five or six of them and leaves the rest for a second trip.

The seasons in that last column disagree with each other on purpose, and the month-by-month guide is the page that resolves them.

Why does almost every trip start in Hanoi?

Hanoi is the arrival that needs no plan: an Old Quarter you walk out into and the best street food in the country. Two of the things people came to Vietnam for sit within two hours of it. Two nights is the honest minimum and three is better, because the second morning is when the city stops being loud and starts being legible.

What Hanoi is not is a sightseeing city. The Hanoi hub lists what there is, and the useful version of the list is short. October to April is the pleasant half of its year.

Which bay do you sleep on?

Lan Ha, if the choice is open. The limestone is identical to Ha Long, because it is one drowned landscape under three administrative names. The difference is how many other boats are anchored in the same water at nine in the evening.

One night on a bay is the format that works and two is better; a day trip from Hanoi buys about four hours afloat for six in a minibus. Bai Tu Long is the quiet north-eastern route, and Cat Ba is where you sleep ashore instead.

What does Ninh Binh do that the bay cannot?

Ninh Binh puts the same karst towers in flooded rice fields instead of the sea, and lets you move through them on a bicycle for nothing. A boat here is rowed, by a woman using her feet, for about two hours through three low caves.

Two nights, and it is the easiest good day in the north: 95 km from Hanoi, no cruise to book, no season to wait for. February to May is when the fields are green rather than stubble. The Ninh Binh hub has the three sites worth the time.

What is worth two days underground?

Phong Nha holds the largest cave passage on earth, and several smaller ones you can walk into on a morning's notice. Son Doong is an expedition costing thousands of dollars and booked a year out; Paradise, Phong Nha and Dark cave are the ones an ordinary trip actually does.

Two nights, because the caves are an hour apart and one day means choosing. The season is February to August — the Phong Nha hub explains why the autumn floods shut the low caves entirely.

Why does Hue need a night rather than a stop?

Hue is a citadel, seven royal tombs spread over 15 km of riverbank, and the most particular food in Vietnam. None of that is a three-hour stop on the way to Hoi An. A day and a half is the shape that works: the citadel in a cool morning, two tombs in an afternoon, dinner on the food the emperors' kitchens left behind.

Most people give it half of that and leave unimpressed, which is a scheduling result rather than a verdict. The Hue hub ranks the tombs, because visiting all seven is a mistake.

What fills three days in Hoi An?

An old town of about 1,000 protected buildings that takes one morning, and a coastline, a food scene and a tailoring trade that take the rest. Hoi An is the one place on this list that rewards slowing down rather than covering ground.

Three nights: the town, a beach day at An Bang, a cooking class or a bicycle to the rice fields, and one fitting if something is being made. It is also the most crowded place in the country between nine and five — the Hoi An hub is blunt about which hours are yours.

Is Da Nang a destination or an airport?

Da Nang is both, and the trip decides which. Da Nang is the airport that serves the whole centre, a 30 km beach with cheap rooms behind it, and the northern end of the Hai Van pass. It is not a sightseeing city.

Two nights if the beach is the point, none if it is not; Hoi An is 30 km away and most people sleep there instead. May to August is the swimmable half of the year. The Da Nang hub covers what the city is for on the days you are not on the sand.

What do two nights in the delta buy?

The delta buys a landscape that runs on water. Houses face the canals, a wholesale market trades from a boat at half past five in the morning, and roads are an afterthought. One day trip from Saigon buys the coach journey and a coconut-candy workshop.

Two nights gets you to Can Tho for the Cai Rang market at dawn, or to Ben Tre and Vinh Long for the smaller version with nobody on it. November to April is dry season. The Mekong hub sets out which town does what.

What is Saigon for on a short trip?

Ho Chi Minh City is where the twentieth century gets explained: the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, and the tunnels at Cu Chi an hour out. Its street-coffee culture has turned into the best in the country.

Two nights covers it, and the city rewards evenings more than mornings. It is also the southern airport, so it is usually the first or last stop rather than a detour. The Ho Chi Minh City hub lists the museums in the order they make sense.

Which places are worth a longer trip?

Four places are worth a third week rather than a second: Ha Giang, Sapa, Phu Quoc and Con Dao. Each one costs a leg of transport that a fortnight rarely has spare.

Ha Giang is the best road in the country and needs three or four days plus the ride from Hanoi. Sapa is the walking version and the one most exposed to weather. Phu Quoc and Con Dao are the southern islands, and their season is the opposite of the central coast's — the beaches guide sets out which works when.

Where do Vietnamese holidaymakers go?

South of Da Nang, and in the summer months. Quy Nhon and Phu Yen are working coastal towns with the cheapest beach rooms in the country. Da Lat is the highland version, holding 14-23°C every month of the year.

The domestic resorts are busier with families in June to August, thinner on English, and considerably cheaper than the foreign circuit. That trade is the whole reason to go.

Which places disappoint, and why?

Four places account for most of the disappointment reported about Vietnam: Ha Long, Sapa, Nha Trang and the floating markets. In every case the format is the problem rather than the place.

Ha Long on a day trip from Hanoi buys about 4 hours on the water for 6 in a minibus. Sapa in low cloud is a town with no view and a lot of shops. Nha Trang is a resort city, which is a disappointment only if nobody told you. The floating markets are a working wholesale trade at 05:30 and mostly gone by nine, as the Mekong page says plainly.

Each has a working version: a night on the water, a valley homestay, a different beach, an early boat.

How many places fit in the time you have?

Fewer than the map suggests, because the distances are real. Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is about 1,650 km, and the train takes around 32 hours end to end.

• Five days — one region. The five-day route picks it for you.
• Ten days — two regions, three or four places. See ten days.
• Two weeks — three regions, five or six places. See two weeks.
• Three weeks — add the far north or the islands, not both. See three weeks.

What decides the order you visit them in?

Your flights and the weather, in that order. The country is symmetrical enough that north to south and south to north work equally well, which the north-to-south guide explains at more length.

The one exception is autumn. From September to November the central coast takes its rain and its typhoons. A route that plans Hoi An for October is planning around a flood, and the typhoon guide has the dates.

What is the honest shortlist?

The least regretted fortnight runs Hanoi, a night on Lan Ha bay, Ninh Binh, then the train to Hue. Hoi An takes three nights and Da Nang flies you home. Six places, one internal flight, no night buses.

Add the Mekong instead of Ninh Binh if you would rather have water than karst, and add Phong Nha instead of Hue if caves matter more than emperors. What you actually do in each of them is the things to do roundup. Everything else on this page is a second trip, and there is no shame in that.