If you’re anything like my husband and I, you’re trying to make the most of the time you have in a country. Working in the school system, our breaks are limited to the school calendar which means we travel on a tight timeline and we try to fit it all in the best we can!
Day 0
Travel day! We were lucky that our flight was a straight shot without hiccups! We were flying from LAX straight to Hanoi
Day 1 – Hanoi, Vietnam
Airport Travel/Hotel
We touched down in Hanoi around 11 am and got picked up by a taxi that was arranged by our hotel. To be honest, this has been a huge game changer when visiting countries we aren’t so familiar with. Knowing that somebody is at the airport to take you to your hotel brings such peace of mind. And typically, it’s quite cheap by US standards. Totally worth it!
On the first leg of our trip, we stayed at May de Ville Legend Hotel (Update: I think this hotel has since closed. The area is still great and they have other chains around the city).
It was a great, central location, and we were able to do most of our exploring of the city on foot. Also, when we were looking for accommodations, we wanted to stay somewhere nicer but not too out of budget. Air conditioner and a nice bathroom are a must for sweaty Southeast Asian travel.
Currency Exchange
Once we got to the hotel and freshened up, we were on a mission to get our currency exchanged. In our research, we found that the best method to get our currency exchanged was to avoid the high fees at the airport and opt for a jewelry store instead. There are a ton on the west side of Hoàn Kiếm Lake so make your way there. The exchange fee was practically zero
We spent the remainder of the day settling in and walking around the vicinity of our hotel. It was nice to take it easy and get the lay of the land.
Food
- Cafe Phố Cổ rooftop coffee shop with egg coffee & coconut coffee
- Fruit Vendors – My husband and I bought an assortment of fruits from a woman on the street. I couldn’t tell you exactly what each fruit was but I can tell you that it was an assortment of sweet, sour, and crunchy. Also, all the fruit vendors ask if you’d like them to sprinkle your fruit with this sugary/spicy mixture. Say yes! It’s incredibly delicious and adds an extra kick.
- Street Vendors
- Phở Thìn Bờ Hồ
Day 2
Temples
Today, we walked around a few Buddhist temples in the Northern part of Hanoi. One of the temples we visited, Chùa Trần Quốc ,is on a tiny “island” and is one of the oldest temples in Hanoi. What makes it extra special is the sacred fig tree planted in the temple brought over from India. The tree is reportedly the tree that Buddha sat under when he reached enlightenment.
While we were in the area, we also stopped by the Presidential Palace and Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. These two buildings are located in a sprawling park near the temples. It’s nice to walk around the greenery while making your way over.
Hanoi Train Street
Of course, you cannot leave the city without seeing the famous train street. This beautiful, narrow, strip of train track has a numerous amount of buildings and cafes built around it.
When we visited, it was extremely difficult to get onto the tracks and into a cafe. At every entrance, there were police guarding the way onto the tracks. Yet, we saw people sitting in the cafes!
As we continued to walk along the tracks, we noticed that people were being led onto the tracks after being hailed by one of the cafe owners. It’s not a perfect science, but walk up to the track, make eye contact with a cafe owner, and they’ll help guide you to their restaurant.
Once you’re on the tracks, you’ll need to stay at their restaurant and order a few drinks/food. They’re quite strict about making sure you don’t walk around the tracks, mostly due to safety, so just know you’ll be stuck where you land until you leave.
I have heard that there are times in the year when getting and moving around the train tracks are more lax. It seems to correlate with how long it has been since an incident has happened. Unfortunately, we were not able to see a train pass through but there is a very unreliable schedule that you can check to try and catch a glimpse of it!
Food
Breakfast – Xôi Xéo at Xoi Cat Lam – A traditional Hanoian breakfast! This stick rice with mung bean and toppings was a nourishing and delicious breakfast to start the day. There are a ton of places that serve Xôi Xéo around the city, this one was closest to us. It was a great experience and they had an English menu!
Lunch – Since we had such a big walking day, we ended up stopping at random cafes for coffee and picking up little bites as we went. We also ended up eating a few bites at the train cafe we were seated at!
Dinner – Bún chả at Bún chả Hương Liên – The famed restaurant where Anthony Bourdain and President Obama enjoyed a meal together. Bún chả is a noodle dish topped with grilled pork. It was savory, satisfying, and just what we needed after a long day of walking around
Day 3 – Halong Bay, Vietnam
Today was our big Halong Bay day. After hours of research, we booked a tour with Genesis Regal Cruise. It was an INCREDIBLE experience. I was truly blown away by how efficient, jam-packed, yet relaxing the crew and company made this experience to Halong Bay. I highly recommend taking time in your Vietnam itinerary to go down to Halong Bay with this company.
Morning
We were picked up in the lobby of our hotel bright and early. The ride to Halong Bay was seamless and the bus was comfortable. It was a long drive, about 2.5-3 hours, so be prepared with motion sickness pills if you get car sick!
Upon arrival, you wait by the dock until the rest of the guests join you. The staff takes your luggage and when everybody arrives, you get transported to the cruise boat on a smaller boat.
The ride from the smaller speed boat to the cruise boat was incredible. It’s a surreal experience to sail by all of the mountains in the emerald waters. It truly feels like something out of a movie.
Afternoon
Once we got to the boat, we immediately had lunch on the boat. After the welcome speech and lunch, we had a smidge of free time before our first excursion. Our first excursion was a raft ride through more of the beautiful mountains of Halong Bay. What was particularly impressive was that our boat was being single-handedly propelled by one man. Being so close to the water and passing by the mountains was breathtaking experience and we enjoyed it immensely.
Evening
After our excursion, we had free time before dinner was served. When I tell you the company has an air-tight schedule, I am not joking! There was something planned for each hour of the day. Post-dinner, there were drinks on the rooftop and squid-fishing off the side of the boat.
Food
- Breakfast – we had breakfast at our hotel, most hotels will include breakfast with your stay. We found this to be super convenient on big travel days where we didn’t have enough time to venture outside for breakfast
- Lunch & Dinner – The cruise ship provided all our nourishment. Lunch was a buffet and dinner was served by the wait staff. We enjoyed the food and dinner felt super luxurious!
Day 4 – Hanoi, Vietnam
After a restful night of sleep, we were up bright and early for breakfast. Before leaving back to Hanoi, we had the opportunity to kayak amongst the mountains. I thought this excursion was super interesting because we learned a bit more about the floating communities that lived in Halong Bay and the causes of pollution.
After about an hour of kayaking around, we returned to the cruise ship, freshened up, packed our bags, and had lunch before returning to the port. When we arrived, the bus to take us back to Hanoi was already there and we spent the next few hours making our way back to the city.
Despite only having been in Halong Bay for about 24 hours, I felt as if we had seen and experience everything we needed to. I highly recommend visiting!
After getting back to Hanoi, we spent the rest of the day popping around to different cafes, trying new fruits from the vendors, and ended up getting dinner on the famed Beer Street.
Food
- Breakfast/Lunch – Buffet style food provided by the cruise
- Dinner – We walked through Ta Hien Beer street to grab a bite to eat. It’s packed with mostly tourists enjoying a drink and bites. We’re not huge drinkers but it was a great experience walking through the streets — there’s so much energy!
Day 5 – Hoi An, Vietnam
This morning, we checked-out of our hotel and made our way to the airport. A pro-tip is to arrange taxi transport the night before with the receptionist. It saves on time and is one less thing to worry about in the morning!
Prior to landing in DaNang, the closest airport to Hoi An, we arranged pick-up with our hotel. Again, it’s such a game-changer to do this. It takes out any of the guesswork and the prices are very reasonable.
After we checked-in to our hotel, we dropped our bags and ventured closer into the city. I was immediately enamored with its beauty. It’s a city existing within a jungle and the old french architecture is beautiful. Hoi An is truly a city out of a movie.
As we walked along the streets, we could not help but gaze in admiration at all of the fresh fruit and produce the vendors were selling. And, as is tradition, we decided to pick out a few fruits that looked unfamiliar to us to try.
My favorite fruits that we tried were the Soursops and the Mangosteens. I highly recommend trying out all the tropical fruits. In the U.S., most are available but they are extremely pricey and do not taste half as good!
We wanted to get some real food, so we stopped by the two most famous Banh Mi shops — Banh Mi Phuong and Madam Khanh. You can read more about my thoughts on each here!
We finished the day off with a massage at our hotel. Massages are more affordable in Vietnam due to the conversion rate so don’t miss out! It was the perfect way to end the day.
Food
- Breakfast – Hotel breakfast once again! I’m telling you, it’s such a hack to stay in a place that serves breakfast
- Lunch/Dinner – A variety of different fruit from the vendors we passed — try a mangosteen, soursop, and eat lots of passionfruit. We also ate banh mi at Banh Mi Phuong and Madam Khanh. You can read more here, if you’re interested.
Day 6
Excursion to Marble & Monkey Mountain
When we checked-in the day prior, we asked the front desk to help us book an excursion around the city. They were super helpful and provided us with a brochure of several tours. We ended up choosing the Marble and Monkey mountain tour, which I highly recommend.
The tour was a halfday excursion and we were picked up right at our hotel early in the morning to get started. We were joined by several other guests before we made our way to the mountains.
The tour was beautiful. Despite how tough the humidity made it to walk up some of those hills, there was no denying how breathtaking each location was. Our favorite stop was taking the treacherous crawls up the inside of Marble Mountain. In between Marble and Monkey Mountain, we stopped for lunch at what seemed to be a local woman’s house.
Disclaimer/Tour Info
This tour, in particular, required quite a bit of walking uphill so that is definitely something to consider if you book a similar tour through another company. I found an identical tour at Get Your Guide if you want to check it out! (I do receive a small commission if you book through my link). If you aren’t exactly sure what you want to explore yet, ask the front desk at your hotel, they are sure to be able to help! And, there is typically space despite only booking a day in advance.
When we returned from the tour, we freshened up and went back out into the main city center hub of Hoi An. We enjoyed walking by the water and even found a woman serving one of my absolute favorite Vietnamese dishes, Bánh bèo.
We spent our last night enjoying some local beer at a restaurant and walking through a food market that was going on while we were there. I’m not sure if the marke happens on specific days or goes on every night but it was located across the bridge on the little “island.
Food
- Breakfast – Again, we munched on some of the hotel breakfast that was provided
- Lunch – The tour included a stop to grab lunch. It was an array of local Vietnamese cuisine prepared by a local woman
- Dinner – Bánh bèo and an array of snacks at the food market we ran into. We ate everything from egg rolls to fried squid on a stick!
Day 7 – Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam
On our last day in Vietnam, we flew to Ho Chi Min City to round out our trip. We only had a day here, but we made the most of our time.
On this leg of our trip, we stayed at a nicer hotel and boy, was it worth it. I thought I was in heaven when I saw the sparkling white tub and stark white sheets on the bed. After a week of traveling around and sweating profusely, it felt incredible to be bombarded by air conditioning and the promise of comfort — not that we were exactly roughing it prior.
Once we freshened up, we stepped out the door to make the most of our day. We stumbled upon an incredible coffee shop, which I don’t think exists anymore, and cooled off while I got my caffeine fix in. There were so many fun drinks on the menu and we could not help but order multiple!
Here are cafes similar to the one we went to:
- Cafe Slow
- Every Half Coffee Roasters
- Allure Coffee
There is no shortage of cute and unique coffee shops so definitely bop around!
After our coffee break, we spent the majority of our day at the War Remnants Museum. It was an incredibly powerful experience and I highly recommend visiting if it was not already on your list. It’s quite a large museum so leave yourself a few hours to explore and read through the different sections.
Once we finished up at the museum, we walked over to Su Su Waterfall Fried Chicken to grab a bite to eat. You can read more about our experience in my blog about Vietnam eats!
After dinner, we wanted to walk around a bit more but saw that the clouds were moving in quickly. Thankfully, we had enough foresight to grab a cab just as the rain came pouring down. We spent the rest of the night relaxing in our comfy hotel room.
Food
- Breakfast – We grabbed breakfast at our hotel before our taxi picked us up for the airport
- Lunch – Grabbed a Banh Mi as we were walking over the the War Remnants Museum. Also had a ton of yummy coffee drinks at a local coffee shop
- Dinner – Su Su Waterfall Fried Chicken
Pro-tip: If it’s financially feasible, book a nicer hotel towards the end of your trip. It’s so nice to have a big space to unwind and get comfortable before you head back. It was definitely a super relaxing experience to be able to take a bath and get cozy in our nice hotel bed.
Day 8
Our flight out wasn’t until later in the evening so we spent the morning popping around coffee shops and getting small bites to eat.
Since we still had some time to kill, my husband went to the gym while I got one final massage. It was the perfect way to end our trip before heading back to the airport.
