What there is to do once the cities are seen: the beaches, the treks, the caves, the water, and what works with children. Most of these have a season attached, and several have a permit or a licensed operator, which is the part that catches trips out.
Outdoors
The coast, the caves, the mountains and the water. Most of these carry a season, several need a licensed operator or a permit, and that is the part that catches trips out rather than the difficulty.
Vietnam's two coasts run opposite seasons, so the best beach depends entirely on when you go. Which shore is swimmable in your month, and which to skip.
Most Vietnamese beaches are unpatrolled and the sea changes with the season. What the flags mean, where the rips are, and which months close which coast.
Vietnam is among the cheapest places on earth to learn to dive. Where the water is worth it, the prices, and why Phu Quoc's season is the inverse of the rest.
Most kayaking here happens in one bay, and the best of it is not where the cruises go. Where to paddle, what it costs, and which boat is rowed for you.
Most trekking in Vietnam is village walking between homestays, not mountaineering. Where the real walking is, which months work, and where a permit is required.
An IDP from the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand is not valid in Vietnam. What the law actually requires, what it costs to get wrong, and where to ride.
Phong Nha holds the world's largest cave and several you can walk into for the price of lunch. What each one costs, what it asks of you, and when to go.
The terraces have two seasons and one of them is two weeks long. Which valley to pick, when the gold and the water happen, and what the journey actually costs.
A French village theme park on a ridge above Da Nang, reached by a record-breaking cable car. What the ticket buys, when to go, and who should skip it.
About five hundred steps cut into limestone above Tam Coc, and the photograph that sells Ninh Binh. What it costs, how long it takes, and when to climb.
Vietnam's highest peak is twenty minutes by cable car or two days on foot, and cloud decides whether either is worth it. What each costs and when to go.
Ninety minutes through three caves and a valley of rice, rowed by one person using their feet. What it costs, when the fields turn gold, and the sales pitch.
Eight small islands 15 km off Hoi An, reached by speedboat and protected as a marine park. When the boats run, what the snorkelling is like, and the cost.
Da Nang's long city beach, a short ride from the airport and the centre. When the sea is safe, what the flags mean, what a sunbed costs, and where to eat.
Hoi An's beach, about 5 km from the old town through rice fields. How to get there, what the sunbeds cost, when the sea is safe, and why it beats Cua Dai.
Yen Tu is where a king became a monk and founded Vietnam's own Buddhist school. What is on the mountain, how long the climb takes, and when the pilgrims come.
Bai Tu Long is the same karst as Ha Long with a fraction of the boats, plus islands you can stay on. Which cruises go there, what it costs, and when to sail.
Ban Gioc is the largest waterfall in Vietnam and the border runs through it. When the water is full, what the bamboo raft buys, and how long the road takes.
A two-peak massif above Da Lat with a jeep road to a viewpoint and a longer walk behind it. What each version costs, what you see, and when the cloud wins.
Parks and forests
The protected half of the country: what each park actually holds, which ones repay a long drive, what a guide costs and which months the trails are open. Wildlife is thinner here than the brochures suggest, and these pages say so.
Vietnam has more than thirty national parks and about six worth planning around. What each holds, when the trails are passable, and what a guide costs.
Cuc Phuong is Vietnam's oldest national park, two hours from Hanoi, with serious primate and turtle rescue centres. What to see, when to walk, what it costs.
Cat Tien is four hours from Saigon and the best chance of wildlife in Vietnam: gibbons at dawn, a walk in to Crocodile Lake. What to book and when to go.
Ba Vi is an hour and a half from Hanoi: three peaks in permanent cloud, French ruins in the forest and a temple at 1,296 m. When to go and what it costs.
Culture and craft
Temples, museums, war sites and the villages that still make things by hand. What each one is, what it asks of a visitor, and which are worth an hour rather than a morning.
Chua, den and dinh are three different buildings and visitors call them all temples. Which pagodas repay an hour, what they cost, and the hours locals go.
A religion founded in 1926 with a cathedral of its own, plus the ancestor altars in every shop. What the traditions are, where to see them, and how to behave.
Most Vietnamese museums are a room of captioned photographs. Four are genuinely good, one is hard going, and this is which is which and when they close.
Vietnam holds nine World Heritage sites and most itineraries pass four without noticing. What each one is, what it costs, and which are worth a detour.
Opera houses, villas and a post office, plus the shophouses quietly disappearing. Where the colonial fabric survives, what to look at, and what it cost.
A thousand-year-old village art performed in a pool, now a nightly show in Hanoi. What happens in the hour, what it costs, and where to see the good version.
Water puppets are the form visitors see and the least of it. What tuong, cheo and cai luong are, where each is staged, and how to watch without the words.
Vietnam has hundreds of single-trade villages making pottery, silk, incense and fish sauce. Which are worth the ride, and the hour that decides what you see.
Brocade from the northern mountains, silk from two villages and indigo that stains your hands. What is woven, what is printed, and what a fair price looks like.
Palm leaf over a bamboo frame, worn in the fields and on the pavement because it works. Where they are made, what one costs, and why yours will not survive.
Tet shuts the country for a week; the Hoi An lantern night happens every month. Which Vietnamese festivals to plan around, and which to plan away from.
The seventh lunar month brings offerings on every pavement and a pause in weddings and big purchases. What it means for a visitor, and the dates that matter.
Most classes are a market walk and four dishes you will never make again. What separates a real class from an assembly line, and where the good ones are.
The old town turns off its electric lights on the fourteenth day of every lunar month. When it falls, what happens, and how to see it without the crush.
A few hectares of herb beds between Hoi An and the sea, fertilised with lake weed. What grows there, what a visit involves and whether the class is worth it.
Named sights
One page for each place people look up by name: the palace, the tunnels, the bridge, the tower. What is actually there, what the ticket costs, when the doors open, and how much of a day it takes.
Thirteen centuries of power on one Hanoi site, and the UNESCO citadel most visitors skip. What survives, the war bunker beneath it, and the two hours it needs.
A working French-era post office with a vaulted hall and painted maps, opposite Notre-Dame Cathedral. What to look at, what is free, and how long it takes.
Cat Cat is the H'mong village a short walk below Sapa town, and the busiest in the valley. What the ticket buys, how long the steps take, and when to skip it.
A French iron bridge over the Red River that survived the bombing and still carries trains. How to walk it, where to stand, and when the light is best.
A mountain road cut into a cliff above the Nho Que river between Dong Van and Meo Vac. Where to stop, when the gorge is clear, the boat below, and the permit.
Duong Lam is an hour west of Hanoi: lanes walled in red laterite, houses four centuries old and soy sauce fermenting in the yards. What to see and when to go.
Da Lat station is the prettiest building in the highlands and the end of a line that no longer runs. What survives, what the seven-kilometre ride is like.
The last great Nguyen tomb is blackened concrete over eleven years of raised taxes. What is inside the mosaic room, how many steps there are, what it costs.
A water park that opened unfinished and emptied out, with a dragon aquarium standing in a lake. What is left, how access keeps changing, and how to get there.
Temples, pagodas and churches
The named places people look up and then turn up at: what each one is for, who still uses it, what to wear through the gate, and which hours are quiet. All of them are working buildings rather than monuments, and several hold services while you are inside.
Vietnam's first university, founded in 1070, with 82 stone stelae carrying the names of its doctors. What is inside, what it costs and how long it needs.
Hanoi's oldest pagoda stands on a small island in West Lake, reached by a causeway. What is inside, what to wear, and why late afternoon is the hour to go.
A Taoist and Buddhist temple from 1909 in District 1, dark with incense and carved figures. What is inside, what to respect, and the half hour it needs.
A vast modern Buddhist complex in Ninh Binh, with an old cave pagoda on the hill above it. What to see, how the buggy and tickets work, and when to avoid it.
A tiny wooden shrine on a single pillar in a Hanoi lotus pond, built in 1049 and rebuilt in 1955. What it is, why it looks like that, and how long it takes.
Thien Hau is a Cantonese temple in Cho Lon built for the goddess sailors prayed to, with a roof of ceramic figurines and coils of incense. What to look at.
Den Hung is the hill of temples to the legendary founders of Vietnam, and its festival is a national holiday. What is on the mountain and when to avoid it.
Phat Diem is a Catholic cathedral built in Vietnamese temple form out of stone and ironwood, two hours from Hanoi. What to look at, and how it came to exist.
A Da Lat pagoda surfaced in smashed ceramic, with a dragon made of beer bottles and a bell people write on. What is there, and how the heritage train fits.
Hanoi's neo-Gothic cathedral went up in 1886 on the site of a Ly-dynasty pagoda. When you can go in, what happens at Christmas, and the tea corner outside.
Built for visitors
Towers, bridges, theme parks and a house shaped like a tree: the sights Vietnam built to be visited rather than inherited. What each one costs, whether the queue moves, and which are worth an evening rather than an apology.
Da Nang's Dragon Bridge breathes fire and water on weekend nights at nine. When the show runs, where to stand, and what else sits on the river after dark.
A concrete guesthouse grown into tree trunks and animals, still unfinished after thirty years. What it costs, and whether to sleep in one of the rooms.
Saigon's backpacker street closes to traffic at night and fills with sound systems and plastic stools. When it runs, what a beer costs, and what to watch.
A pastel resort town at An Thoi with the Kiss Bridge, a nightly show and the cable car to Hon Thom. What is free, what is ticketed, and when to arrive.
A 32 m Christ on a headland above Vung Tau, with a staircase inside it and two viewing platforms on the arms. The climb, the dress code and the lunch closure.
Everyday Vietnam
Nothing here is an attraction, and all of it is what the country looks like at six in the morning and at nine at night. The lottery seller, the school run, the pavement, the match on the television.
The country does its living between five and eight. What happens in the parks, why breakfast ends at ten, and how to build a day around the only cool hours.
Vietnam's evening is a plastic stool and a two-litre jug more often than a club. Where the real nights are, what closes when, and which street to avoid.
Quang Ba trades at two in the morning, Da Lat grows for the whole country, and every pavement has a bucket of lotus in June. Where to go and what it costs.
A ticket costs 10,000 dong, the draw is at four every afternoon, and the person selling it earns about 1,000. What the trade is and how to be decent about it.
Pigs, panes of glass, a fridge, two metres of steel bar. How a 110cc Honda became the country's freight system, and what it means for the traffic around you.
A Vietnam match empties the restaurants and fills the pavements. What the leagues are, how to get into a game, and what happens on the roads afterwards.
The light is early and late, the best subjects are people at work, and asking costs nothing. What to shoot, when, and the two rules about drones and temples.
Vietnam is easy with children in most ways and hard in two: the roads and the distances. Where to base, what works at what age, and what to plan around.
Vietnam has almost no accessible infrastructure and a great deal of willing help. What is genuinely hard, what is easier than expected, and how to plan.
