The month of January was all about Vietnam! And we had some company – Elizabeth’s parents met up with us for 2 weeks!
Our itinerary looked like this!
Mui Ne - Living the Vietnamese beach life
Ho Chi Minh - Navigating the big city, aka Saigon
Hoi An - Exploring the UNESCO town
Ha Long Bay - Cruising around for a few days
Hanoi - Celebrating the “Tet” New Year
Geographically, Vietnam is a long country, so some of the distances between popular cities are far! Most people opt to fly between the bigger cities (like us) or take an overnight train. The airports were a little hectic, so the 15 hour overnight trains may not be too bad!
There are amazing places to see in Vietnam and it is very cheap. Unfortunately, the secret is totally out on that and has been for a while! Their tourism numbers have skyrocketed and lots of ex-pats call Vietnam home. Luckily, that means there are tons of cool restaurants and plenty of comfortable places to stay!
So, here is what we got up to during our time there!
Mui Ne
Living the Vietnamese beach life
Before Elizabeth’s parents arrived, we headed to Mui Ne, a small beach town east of Ho Chi Minh City. We took the train about 4 hours to get there, which was a funny experience – the only food for sale on the train was corn on the cob, and we were shown a Google Translated message when we boarded that made absolutely no sense, but we think they wanted to tell us the toilet was broken. We definitely left most of the other English-speaking tourists behind when we boarded that train, but it was comfortable and got us where we wanted to be!
We liked our Airbnb in Mui Ne - mainly because we could walk to The Dong Vui food court, an outdoor area packed with a variety of food stalls, where we ate at least once a day. We got to see a lot during our time here because we rented a scooter for the week and went out exploring most days. We enjoyed watching some epic kitesurfing, photographing a beautiful fishing village, eating the world’s most delicious smoothie bowls, and hiking through a “fairy stream.” We’ve got tons of pictures, but here are some of our favorites!
Train ride from Saigon to Mui Ne
We had this “coconut villa” to ourselves for $24/night…
Sunset at the fishing village
Just north of our location in Mui Ne, there was a more upscale area where the beach was nicer – only because it is maintained by the high-end beachfront resorts that line the waterfront. We found trash on beaches in Vietnam to be a serious issue, so these clean beaches were a nice reprieve. This is also the area where you can watch hundreds of people do some very impressive kitesurfing or take lessons yourself! If we go back to Mui Ne, we’d stay at one of these resorts, probably the Sailing Club Resort. We took our scooter there a few times to access their beach and eat lunch at their incredible restaurant.
Our time in Ho Chi Minh
The big city, more commonly known as “Saigon”
The “Communist” Apartments
Ho Chi Minh Accommodations
During our first couple of nights in Saigon, we were on our own, so we stayed in this trendy Airbnb hidden down an alley in District 1. Once Elizabeth’s parents arrived, we moved to a great boutique hotel called the Little Saigon Boutique Hotel. We’d highly recommend both, but we preferred the space and location that our Airbnb offered.
“Secret” Airbnb entrance
Vegan street food tour
We’ve been on a health kick lately, focusing on eating more plant-based foods and generally consuming less meat and animal products. So, when we stumbled upon a vegan tour in Saigon, we figured we’d give it a shot and learn more about this newfound curiosity of ours.
We booked the tour through Airbnb Experiences and met our guides first thing in the morning. Their names were Spring and Hieu – and for the next few hours we walked all around town, stopping every 10-15 minutes at their curated selection of plant-based food stalls and restaurants.
Some of the foods we loved, and some of the foods we will continue to live without. The tour was a great way to learn about the city from people about our same age and experience some unique Vietnamese cuisine!
Walking Tour with Joe & Julie!
We’ve tried to get in the habit of doing a walking tour or a street food tour on the first day in a new country. We found a tour with a very nice lady named Nana and hit the streets early on Joe and Julie’s first day in Vietnam. She took us to the burning monk monument, a tiny historic coffee shop, a secret weapon bunker from the Vietnam War, the flower market, and the communist apartment blocks that were built by US soldiers. Having a guide allowed the four of us to catch up while simply following Nana around the chaotic streets!
Saigon Opera House
The Bamboo Circus show at the Saigon Opera House was a fancy night out. The show was an acrobatic and dance performance meant to illustrate the modernization of the Vietnamese culture. The show was the perfect length (not too long), and we liked getting to see the inside of the French-inspired opera house.
The shows sometimes sell out, so try to get tickets online ahead of time. There were plenty when we looked about two weeks in advance!
The War Remnants Museum
The War Remnants Museum was a little bit of a somber morning. The museum highlights lots of the atrocities that occurred during the Vietnam War (or as they call it, the “American War in Vietnam”) and provides a generally anti-American perspective on the motives behind the war.
As people who weren’t alive during the Vietnam war, this was a pretty intense exhibit to visit. For Elizabeth’s parents who remembered most of the news about the war, it was more or less what they expected, but still brutal.
Favorite Restaurants in Ho Chi Minh
Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai - simply a street food cart that is parked on a popular shopping street. Our favorite Banh Mi of the entire trip.
Pho Hung - we went here on our first night for a giant bowl of Pho. We ate tons of Pho, even for breakfast most days, and this first bowl was the best!
Secret Garden Restaurant - awesome rooftop atop 5 sketchy flights of stairs. We went twice!
Hoang Tam Local Restaurant - after our walking tour with Nana, she took us to lunch here. It was an authentic vietnmese meal (she had to order for us). It was very fun figuring out how to eat everything!
Little Hanoi Egg Coffee Shop - a very small restaurant tucked away down an even smaller alleyway. Delicious breakfast and Hanoi’s famous egg coffee in HCM.
Banh Mi 27 - the best banh mi we had in Vietnam!
Hoang Tam Local Restaurant
Hoi An
Exploring a UNESCO World Heritage town
The four of us got to Hoi An via a flight from Ho Chi Minh to Da Nang, and then a taxi from Da Nang to Hoi An (45 minutes). A bit of a process, but worth the effort!
This city is amazing. We had heard a lot about Hoi An leading up to our time here and it exceeded expectations. The fusion of different types of architecture as well as its history as an important Asian shipping port helped Hoi An Ancient Town become a Unesco World Heritage site. Today, the unique (and photogenic) yellow buildings that line the streets, delicious food, and colorful lanterns make it extremely popular with tourists like us. We especially loved the views of the old rooftops from our favorite coffee shop where we stopped a couple of times for Vietnamese iced coffees.
Hoi An Accommodations
Since we stayed in an Airbnb house outside of the historic center of town, we rented two scooters to get around more easily. Mike and Joe drove the scooters with Elizabeth and Julie on the back. Hilarious and very fun!
It turned out that we might have preferred to stay in the historic center of the town, but the amenities and shared spaces our airbnb offered were perfect for our group. The fridge came fully stocked with food and drinks, delivery food was available for any meal, and breakfast was prepared by the neighbors/managers and delivered to us each morning. The final verdict was that it was the prime place for groups who are comfortable riding scooters!
Sunrise Yoga on the Beach
Mike, Elizabeth, and Julie hit the beach very early our first morning in Hoi An for a private sunrise yoga class. The beach and a small beachfront village were just a few minutes' scooter ride from our house location. The beach doesn’t immediately come up when people talk about Hoi An, but we really enjoyed yoga on the beach, an afternoon at a beach club, and a few beachfront meals.
The Deluxe Organic Farm Tour
Another great find on Airbnb Experiences! This half-day tour included a bike ride, basket boat ride, cooking class, farm tour, and lunch. We really enjoyed the farm tour and cooking class. The food was delicious – the savoury shrimp pancakes were the crowd favorite!
Top restaurants we tried in Hoi An…
Banh Mi Phuong - Can’t really miss this place because Anthony Bourdain ate here! A busy spot, but fun to visit. The Banh Mi we recommended in Saigon was better!
92 station restaurant & cafe - 92 Tran Phu Street – a must. Grab a seat and an iced coffee on the 3rd floor rooftop for some very good pictures.
Thirty Seven - A high-end western restaurant along the river. Our favorite western meal in Vietnam! We got to sit outside a few feet from the river which was really nice!
The burrata at Thirty Seven
Halong Bay cruise
All aboard the Dragon Legend ship
After Hoi An, we drove back to Da Nang and boarded a flight to Hanoi. After just one night in Hanoi, we hopped in a van for a long 5-hour drive to Halong Bay.
We ended up on a cruise boat called the Dragon Legend. This specific boat actually toured “Bai Tu Long Bay” rather than the classic section of the dramatic cliffs that is called Ha Long Bay. We picked this option because we’d heard that Ha Long Bay is overcrowded and not quite as serene as it once was. To be honest, we couldn’t really tell the difference and we think we made the right choice!
Disclaimer: We aren’t huge cruise fans, but this is a bucket-list-worthy place to see, and a cruise is the only way to do that! So, it is what it is!
Hanoi
Celebrating the Chinese “Tet” New Year
Hanoi was a busy, busy place when we got back from our HaLong Bay cruise. The entire city was gearing up for the Tet New Year, the biggest celebration of the year. We stayed at a very nice hotel called the La Siesta Central Hanoi, which was perfectly situated next to the large park surrounding the Hoan Kiem Lake. The park was ideal for relaxing walks around the lake, and luckily, it was the location of the Tet New Year’s Eve celebration. We had a view of the awesome firework show, which happened the night of January 24th, from our hotel room balcony!
Our favorite Hanoi restaurants!
Lots of restaurants were closed for the holiday, but we did try a few good ones that we’d recommend!
The Railway Cafe - located along the edge of the train track, this cafe was a nice place to hangout while you wait for the local commuter train to come flying by, unbelievably close to your table, every hour or so!
Crab Fried Spring Rolls - a small street food stand located at 21 Hang Be Street in the Old Quarter. We can’t find this business online to share a link, but this spot was recommended to us by a local! Amazing!
Pizza 4Ps - homemade burrata and the pizza was amazing!
Waiting for the train at the Railway Cafe
What a month! Thanks for reading!
*Itinerary Update (March 2020)
After Vietnam, we were scheduled to fly to Bali. The coronavirus outbreak was escalating during our last few days in Vietnam (the last week of January) and was clearly going to be an issue. Because of that, we decided to get out of dodge and leave Asia right away. We canceled our flight to Bali and flew to Perth, Australia!
From there, we had a lot more rearranging to do because we realized we wouldn’t be spending March and April in China, Japan, and South Korea as originally planned. We’ve spent some time planning and have figured out epic ways to fill the gap! Our plans for New Zealand were safe, plus we’d be able to conquer our Australian bucket list including visiting Western Australia, the Gold Coast, Uluru, and Tasmania Island.
We aren’t 100% sure what comes next with travel restrictions constantly changing, but we will be sure to keep calm (& safe) and carry on!