Routes built around real transfer times rather than a map. Vietnam punishes over-scheduling more than most countries, because the distances are long and the good parts are slow, so each route below says what it leaves out and why.
By how long you have
Start here if the dates are fixed and the map is not. Each route is built around what fits in that many days once the transfers are counted, and each says what it leaves out rather than pretending nothing was cut.
Three or four days is enough for one place and nothing else. Which city rewards a short trip, what fits in each, and the mistake that ruins most of them.
Two weeks buys exactly two of the four things a ten-day trip has to cut. Which two, what each costs in days, and the fourteen-day route that holds them.
A month is the first length where Vietnam stops being a transit schedule. Where the extra two weeks go, what they buy, and the three places that need them.
By region
Start here if the region is decided. A week in the north and a week in the centre are different trips with different weather, and staying inside one of them buys days that a north-to-south run spends moving.
The Reunification line runs 1,726 km and takes 32 to 35 hours end to end. Which sections repay the time, which to fly, and what the sleeper classes mean.
City by city
Two or three days in one place, hour by hour. These fit inside the longer routes above and are the ones to read once the shape of the trip is settled and the question becomes what to do on Tuesday.
Saigon is a working city, not a monument circuit. Three days of it: the war museums, Cholon, the evenings, and whether Cu Chi or the delta takes day three.
Hue is a walled citadel and a river of royal tombs. Which combined ticket pays for itself, what order to take them in, and the evening most visitors skip.
