Vietnam: Hội An, Hạ Long Bay, and the Northern Highlands
Vietnam runs 1,650km from its northern highlands bordering China to its southern delta reaching toward Cambodia — a narrow country of extraordinary geographic diversity that, in a single trip, offers limestone karst seascapes, ancient Chinese-Japanese trading ports, French colonial boulevards, rice terraces sculpted over centuries by the hands of ethnic minority farmers, and a street food culture of such variety and quality that it constitutes one of the world's great culinary traditions. It is also, for Southeast Asia, a country that has retained its essential character through enormous change — rapid economic development, mass tourism, and the legacy of war — with a resilience that makes it genuinely moving to visit.
Hội An: The Ancient Trading Port
The Ancient Town of Hội An (UNESCO World Heritage since 1999) was one of Southeast Asia's most important trading ports from the 15th to 19th centuries, where Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, and Indian merchants maintained permanent warehouses and communities. The result is an architectural hybrid unlike anywhere else in Asia: Chinese merchant houses with Japanese-style communal roofs and European tile facades, arranged along narrow lanes that lead to the Thu Bồn River.
Hội An rewards slow exploration: the Japanese Covered Bridge (1593, the symbol of the old town), the Chinese Assembly Halls (Phúc Kiến is the most ornate), the merchant houses of Tấn Ký and Phùng Hưng, and the tailors who will make bespoke clothing within 24 hours at prices that are a fraction of comparable Western tailoring. The surrounding countryside — paddy fields, bicycle paths to the beach at An Bàng, the pottery village of Thanh Hà, the vegetable-farming My Son — provides an entirely different dimension to a town that can feel overwhelming with tourists at midday.
Hội An's food is considered by many food writers to be the finest in Vietnam:
- Cao Lầu: A regional noodle dish unique to Hội An — thick rice noodles (traditionally prepared with water from specific local wells), pork, crispy rice crackers, and a complex savoury broth with Vietnamese and Japanese influences
- White Rose dumplings (Bánh Bao Vạc): Translucent steamed dumplings of rice flour with a shrimp filling, shaped to resemble white rose flowers — delicate and extraordinary
- Bánh Mì: The Vietnamese baguette sandwich (French colonial legacy) reaches its apogee in Hội An — Bánh Mì Phượng has been internationally acclaimed as making the world's best version
Hạ Long Bay: The Karst Seascape
Hạ Long Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin — 1,969 islands and islets of limestone karst rising from emerald-green water — is one of Earth's most visually spectacular landscapes and one of Southeast Asia's great UNESCO designations. The mythology is clear: Hạ Long means "descending dragon" — the islands are said to be the scales of a dragon sent by heaven to protect Vietnam from invasion.
The practical reality is that the bay is best experienced on a multi-day overnight cruise — the day trips from Hanoi (3.5 hours away) provide a glimpse but not the experience. On an overnight boat, the pattern is: arrival in the afternoon, sundowners from the boat deck as the karst silhouettes shift in the evening light, dinner on board, waking at dawn when the mist is in the valleys between the rocks and the bay is at its most extraordinary. The Lan Ha Bay section (adjacent to and less visited than the main Hạ Long zone) is generally preferred by those seeking fewer boats and more authentic engagement with the landscape.
Activities: kayaking through floating fishing villages, swimming in secluded coves, exploring sea caves (the Thiên Cung Cave and Đầu Gỗ Cave are the most impressive), and cooking classes on board better cruise vessels.
The Northern Highlands: Sapa and Hà Giang
The far north of Vietnam — the provinces bordering China — is home to Vietnam's most spectacular mountain scenery and the richest concentration of ethnic minority cultures: H'Mông, Dao, Tày, Thái, and dozens of other groups, each with distinct language, dress, and agricultural tradition.
Sapa and the Hoàng Liên Son Mountains
Sapa, a hill station established by the French in 1922 at 1,600m, offers access to the rice terraces of the Muong Hoa Valley — among the world's most photographed agricultural landscapes, in season (September–October for golden harvest) genuinely extraordinary. The trekking routes to Lao Chai and Ta Van villages pass through working terraces and H'Mông and Dao communities. Sapa is now heavily touristed; the village homestay experience outside the town itself is far more authentic than the town centre.
Hà Giang: The Last Frontier
The Hà Giang Loop — a 3–4 day motorbike circuit through the rocky plateau of far northern Vietnam near the Chinese border — has become one of Southeast Asia's most celebrated adventure travel routes. The scenery is extraordinary: the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau Geopark (UNESCO Global Geopark) is a landscape of grey limestone peaks separated by narrow valleys terraced with buckwheat (pink flower in October–November) and maize; the villages are of H'Mông, Lô Lô, and other minorities who maintain traditions of dress and culture that feel genuinely unchanged. For those comfortable on a motorbike (or willing to hire a driver), Hà Giang offers the most authentic and spectacular northern Vietnam experience currently possible.
Vietnamese Food: A Brief Primer
- Phở: The national dish — clear beef (or chicken) broth with rice noodles, sliced meat, and herbs. Phở Bắc (northern style, Hanoi) is clear and precise; phở Nam (southern style, Ho Chi Minh City) comes with a table of additions
- Bún Bò Huế: The spicy lemongrass-and-shrimp-paste beef noodle soup of Huế — more complex and assertive than phở, and equally extraordinary
- Bánh Xèo: Sizzling crepe of rice flour with turmeric, pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts — eaten wrapped in rice paper with herbs and dipped in nước chấm fish sauce
Practical Information
- Getting there: International flights to Hanoi (for the north) and Ho Chi Minh City (for the south). Danang airport for Hội An.
- Getting around: Internal flights between cities; trains (the Reunification Express, Hanoi–HCMC, 33 hours) for the experience; buses for budget travel; motorbike hire for the highlands
- Best time: October–April for northern Vietnam and the coast; year-round for the south
- Budget: Among Southeast Asia's best travel values — excellent food and accommodation at very accessible prices
Related: Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto, and the Ancient Road | Southeast Asia's Best Street Food Cities