Travelling Around Vietnam: Top Tips
One of the best ways to see Vietnam is to purchase a bus ticket. Buses run from the North to the South and back again and there are two or three in both directions each day. You can buy tickets with up to six stopovers: in this way, you could hop off the bus at six different destinations along the route before collecting another bus however many days later. The bus tickets last for up to six months, so you can stay in each destination for as many, or as few, days as you wish before moving on to the next.
A sleeper bus ticket with six stopovers costs from $49 – $60US but considering that each destination is at least five or six hours from the last and you get a bed on the bus, it’s not a bad price at all.
If you choose to take a six stopover ticket, you will travel:
Hanoi (the capital city) to Hue (home to many spiritual places and temples);
Hue to Hoi’an (the tailoring capital);
Hoi’an to Natrang (where many people learn to dive);
Natrang to Mui-ne (a beach town);
Mui-ne to Dlat (worth a quick visit if only to see the bizarre architecture at The Crazy House);
and Dlat to Saigon (good for walking tours, visits to the Viet Kong tunnels and a river tour on the Me Kong Delta).
If you’re going to travel to Vietnam you’ll need plenty of vaccinations before you travel (the cost can add up as these aren’t available on the NHS) including hepatitis A & B, malaria, typhoid, yellow fever and cholera. You’ll need a visa, which can be bought from the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK for about £60, or if you are travelling via China it’s possible to get a visa from there for a lot less.
The cost and type of accommodation varies between cities, from backpacking hostels for $3 per person per night to five star hotels (at not much more per night) to beach huts.
Food is mainly sweet and sour curries and Thai-style curries, and street foods include any kind of meat (including rat if you’re so inclined). English is spoken in most places but at a basic level so take a phrase book for anything but the most basic interactions.