Five days in Vietnam, and the one thing you must not do with them

Five days in Vietnam works, provided you accept early what the map is telling you. The country runs about 1,650 km from top to bottom, and five days is one region.

Is five days enough for Vietnam?

Enough for one region and a good trip, not for the country. Two cities at opposite ends of Vietnam turn five days into two days of sightseeing and three of moving. One region gives you a city, a landscape and a night somewhere that is neither.

The two routes below are the ones that hold up. Both assume you land and leave from the same airport.

Route one: Hanoi and the limestone

Two nights in Hanoi, two away among the karst, one back in the city. This is the strongest five-day trip in the country for a first visit, and everything in it sits within about three hours of the capital.

Day 1. Land, and stay in the Old Quarter or just south of it. Walk the lake, eat, sleep off the flight. The district page covers where.

Day 2. Hanoi properly — Ba Dinh in the morning while the Mausoleum is open, the Old Quarter lanes in the afternoon. The three-day Hanoi route has the full version to borrow from.

Day 3 and 4. Choose one. Ninh Binh is two hours away and can be done as an overnight, with a boat between limestone towers in flooded rice fields. Ha Long Bay is a night on a boat and about four hours each way.

Day 5. Back to Hanoi, a slow morning, and out. Keep the last afternoon free rather than booking anything into it.

Route two: the centre, based in Hoi An

Five days in Hoi An with day trips is the other route that works, and it is the better one if the weather in the north is wrong for your dates.

Fly into Da Nang. Two days for Hoi An itself — the old town ticket, the tailors, the beach — then a day for Hue and the Hai Van pass, and a day for Da Nang or the Marble Mountains. The five-day central route sets this out in full.

The advantage is that nothing here is more than three hours from anything else, so no day is lost.

Can you do Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in five days?

You can, and it is the single mistake that spoils most five-day trips. The flight itself is about two hours. The day it consumes is closer to six once you count the ride to the airport, the wait, the flight, and the ride into the second city.

Spend that day and you have four left, split between two cities that each want three. The comparison page is the better way to decide which one, and the answer is to save the other for a longer trip.

If you have the itch to see both, the trip you want is ten days rather than five.

What about the south?

Saigon and the Mekong is a real five-day trip, and the right one if you are landing in Ho Chi Minh City anyway. Two days in the city, two in the delta around Can Tho for the dawn markets, and a fifth day back.

The southern five days are quieter than the northern ones, and the landscape is flatter. The three-day Mekong route and the southern week both extend it if the dates loosen.

What does five days in Vietnam cost?

Around 250 to 500 US dollars per person on the ground, not counting the flight in. That covers a guesthouse or three-star room, three meals a day, entry tickets and local transport.

What inflates a short trip is domestic flights rather than daily spending — which is another argument for staying in one region. The cost guide breaks the daily figures down.

What should you book before you go?

The e-visa and the first night, and little else. The e-visa costs 25 US dollars for a single entry and takes about three working days, so apply a fortnight ahead rather than the week before.

On five days, book the Ha Long boat too if that is your route, because the good ones fill. Everything else — trains, buses, the Hue day — can be arranged the day before from where you are staying.