Favourite Destinations in Vietnam

The diverse natural environment, history, culture and geography of Vietnam have created great potential for the tourism industry. Only in Vietnam, you can find forests, long coastlines, mountains, historical places, devotional places, beautiful caves and many more. All together, this has created an attracting among tourists from across the globe.

In Vietnam, you will find more than 20 beaches along with coastlines, two World Natural Heritage sites: Halong Bay and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, 6 World biosphere reserves, the Cham temples of Mỹ Sơn, etc. Considering diverse place to visit in the country, new projects are invested into, such as the tourism complex in Binh Duong, with the largest artificial sea in Southeast Asia.

If you are going to visit Vietnam, there are more than 50 places to visit and it is hard to choose a particular place there. For your help, here, we have described top five tourist spots of Vietnam.

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay or Bay of Descending Dragons is situated in North Vietnam round a 120-kilometer long coastline. The place features many islands, which are surrounded by jungles. Here, you can find many caves and beautiful flowers and many other things.

Thien Mu Pagoda
Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue is the tallest pagoda in Vietnam. The temple was established in 1601 during the rule of the Nguyễn Lords. At initial stage, the temple was constructed simply, but over time, it was redeveloped and expanded.

Hoi AnThe place is situated on the coast of the South China Sea. Hoi An has been an well known international sea port since 16th century. At earlier periods, the city was well-known for fishing, but now it is a well-known tourist spot. In old Hoi An city, you can find Chinese-styled shops and lanes.

Mui Ne
Mui Ne is one of the top places of tourist attraction in Vietnam. Strong sea breezes helped the place to become one of the major tourist destinations in Vietnam, especially for windsurfing and kite. Here you can experience one of the best sunset of the globe.

Cu Chi TunnelsThe tunnels have become a popular tourist attraction, and visitors are invited to crawl around in the safer parts of the tunnel system. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during the Vietnam War, and were the base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

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Little village on the paddy

Rising from the rice fields of Ha Giang Province, Tha Hamlet offers a glimpse of rural northern life.

About ten kilometers outside the provincial capital of Ha Giang, the jagged mountains give way to just enough space for the small village of Tha Hamlet.

Parting the hills are brown stilt houses standing over rice paddies, ponds and pig pens. Smoke rises from the palm-leaf roves. Irrigation divides different sections of the village.

The village paths are mostly hardened mud.

Inhabited by a Tay ethnic minority community, the village became an official Tourism Village in 2007, thanks to its traditional homes, unique agriculture and famous terraced rice paddies, which rise up into the hills surrounding the hamlet.

Since then, the village has received government support to maintain tourist infrastructure, such as a concrete road and accommodation.

Living off the land

Some 113 Tay ethnic minority families with more than 500 people live together on the 40 hectares of agricultural land.

Their brown homes seem to grow right out of the village’s fields and ponds. Underneath the stilts, residents keep their tools, vehicles and kindling. On the side of each house is an open area for drying rice.

The paths in the hamlet take pedestrians up along the edge of ponds and rice paddies. The raised mud lanes look soft but they are sturdy and can support anyone, even in the rain. Fish breed in many of the ponds.

The terraced rice fields and ponds are shallow and always filled with water thanks to a stream flowing from the mountains into the village.

The fields are mostly khau mang rice, a new cross-breed variety particular to Ha Giang farmers. The glutinous rice can keep for a long time without loosing its fragrance. Tha’s rice is highly sought after both inside and outside Ha Giang. And its price is still half as much as normal rice.

The ponds are filled mostly with bong fish, which used to be reserved only for kings during the feudal era. But now bong is so popular among every day people that its numbers are dwindling throughout northern Vietnam.

A large bong can weigh up 15- 20 kilograms and its meat is rich and flavorful. Tha Hamlet residents traditionally serve local bong to visitors in the traditional Tay style.

They often make goi, a dish with the raw fish and vegetables. The fish is marinated in tai chua juice before serving. Tai chua is a chayote-like fruit native to the northwestern mountainous provinces of Hoa Binh and Bac Giang. It is both sour and sweet. Other than goi, the fish is also eaten like Japanese sashimi, sometimes accompanied by dill.

ON LOCATION

Tha Hamlet is 10 km from Ha Giang Province’s eponymous capital, which is 320 km north of Hanoi along the National Highway 2.

To get to Ha Giang Province from Hanoi, take a motorbike along the Thang Long Bridge toward Phu Tho Province’s Viet Tri Town. From Viet Tri head to Tuyen Quang Province, where roads to Ha Giang are easily accessible.

By bus, start from the My Dinh Bus Station in Hanoi.

You can combine a visit to Tha Hamlet with a tour to Dong Van and Meo Vac, the northernmost districts in Vietnam. A trip through Tha, Dong Van and Meo Vac will take you four days along a rugged 300-km road.

Tourists can sleep at one of four households in Tha Hamlet that offer beds at inexpensive prices.

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The real dirt on the northwest

Bike tours to the rugged region offer a more direct experience of the life of its people. It is probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but discovering Vietnam’s rugged and scenic northwest on a motorbike is more than an exhilarating experience.

Those who have undertaken it say it enables them to see “life as it truly is for the Vietnamese people.” Dramatic landscapes and sweeping panoramas become more direct and intense when the visitor is not enclosed within a vehicle. Watching the rural population doing about its business also becomes a more intimate affair.

TOUR INFORMATION A view of Sa Pa, Lao Cai Hanoi – Hoa Binh – Son La – Dien Bien – Lao Cai – Hanoi 7-day trip with 5 days of motorcycling Motorcycling grade: Moderate to Challenging From US$546 per person Contact: Active Travel Vietnam 31 Alley 4, Dang Van Ngu St., Hanoi 367 Ngo Quyen St., Son Tra Dist., Da Nang 50 Bis Co Bac St., Dist. 1, HCMC Support number (24/7 service): (04) 3 573 8569

“We started the itinerary to four mountainous provinces – Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lao Cai – in the northwest region with a 130 km ride to Mai Chau,” said Andre Prince, who took the 7-day journey with six friends from Canada.

Together with a tour guide, they left Hanoi at 8:30 a.m. and rode the dirt-bikes (175cc and 250cc Yamahas and Hondas) west to Mai Chau, home to the Thai ethnic minority.

They traveled on road No. 6 passing expansive rice paddies and scenic villages and stopped for refreshment before tackling 70km of undulating roads with great views of mountains and valleys before reaching Mai Chau at noon.

“We were really impressed by the traditional stilt-houses, the dances and meals at Pom Coong, a village of the White Thai ethnic minority,” said Andre.

The group left for Son La Province the next morning.

Kien, the tour guide, said the motorbike trip of about 1,000 km is wonderful for those who have good health and like more adventure in their travels. The tour is also great for finding several vantage spots for photography, he added.

Besides the tea plantations in Moc Chau Plateau – the destination of the best green tea in Vietnam that grows along the roads on the hillsides in Son La, the valley of Dien Bien Phu also offers magnificent views.

Here “the ride is more adventurous with more winding roads and longer passes, while offering more colorful minority groups and more stunning scenery,” said Andre, adding that the highlight of Dien Bien Province could be the impressive Pha Din

Pass, which means Heaven-Earth. According to local legend, it was the frontier between Heaven and Earth. Pha Din is some 1,000m above sea-level.

“Climbing and descending the slopes with their many bends and deep gorges is a really unforgettable experience,” Andre said.

The fourth day was scheduled for Lao Cai, where stops at H’mong and Dao villages refreshed the crew after a 225 km ride along stunning gorges and the Nam Na River.

Fittingly, Sa Pa was the pinnacle of the trip, where the group stayed for two days and visited several ethnic minority villages deep in the forest.

“Sa Pa is a paradise for trekking lovers. It has so many routes with views of beautiful terraced fields, diverse minority groups and the highest peak in Indochina, the Fansipan.”

The group also got off their bikes to take a jeep ride downhill to the Muong Hoa Valley, where they trekked on dirt paths through pine forest, terraced fields and H’mong villages. En route they stopped to visit minority schools and had a picnic lunch by the river.

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‘Tourism Year’ to start next month in Hanoi

A year-long program to promote tourism in Hanoi will start next month, marking the 999th anniversary of the capital city, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration announced Friday.

Under the theme “Thang Long-Hanoi, the Millennium Convergence”, the National Tourism Year 2010 program in Hanoi will officially open on October 10 with quan ho folk singing, martial arts performances and calligraphy exhibitions.

Fifteen other major events will then be organized throughout next year, said Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the administration.

The National Tourism Year was initiated in 2003 by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. Each year a locality will be selected to host the program to promote local tourism products.

Source: VNA

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