if you're coming to Vietnam and you're looking for ideas and inspiration for your next trip
don't worry this video has got you covered you see my name is paddy doyle and i just
traveled for two months from the very top to the southern part of the country and during
that trip i saw some incredible things and i had some unforgettable and amazing
experiences along the way and so i just wanted to highlight the very best of vietnam in this video
we're not going to do this in any particular order i'm just going to show you the best places in the
country and so get your notepad ready and don't worry too much because the description of the
video will have much more information about each place in this video linked below by the way is
a 50 page ebook i've finally finished my vietnam travel guide it's got all the best roads to drive
if you're looking to do it by motorbike all of the best places to visit if you're just going there on
a backpacking or solo trip so yeah check out the ebook check out the discount and let's get on with
the video and start reeling off the best places in the whole country of vietnam so let's start off
with a bang let's start with the hai zhang loop up in northern vietnam there is a very famous
three or four day motorcycle loop through some of the most incredible landscapes on planet earth
okay oh traffic jam here it's terrible isn't it guys now don't worry if you're thinking i don't
know how to ride a motorbike i'm not really a biker you can still do the high jungle you go
to any hostel in hanoi or up in haijang itself you can organize to do a tour where a vietnamese
local will drive you you can sit on the back and go with the group and of course like me you can
just travel the hajjang loop on your own time in your own solo way if you do have your own
motorbike or transport you can people have asked me you can do this in a car of course you can
but the magic and the majesty only reveals itself on a motorbike in my opinion you're able to go
on much more dangerous but incredibly scenic roads you can get onto the skywalk for example
which is a kind of shortcut that's supposed to be for farmers and local people to go on foot but it
is wide enough nowadays to go on a small motorbike and honestly the har zhang loop was three days of
perfection i just couldn't comprehend at some times just how beautiful the views were looking
down 300 400 meters into the valley below from start to finish so much to see so much to do
and if it was me i would do the hajjang look three times in a row it was that beautiful
next up and not far from hajong is hanoi the old quarter in particular it's this really
rustic unique and beautiful place it's so alive everything is moving and everyone is existing in
harmony but it's such a cluster there's so many people living on top of each other working on top
of each other businesses squeezed into every nook and cranny it's so beautiful as well you've got
french churches you've got delicious food there's a beautiful lake there's beautiful temples there's
so much to see and do within the old quarter of hanoi it's my favorite city in the whole country
by far it's just southeast asia personified it's hectic it's colorful it's fragrant it's noisy
it's an attack on the senses and i absolutely love him and i recommend you stay at the central
backpackers hostel if you're on a backpacking trip and a really nice time there really social and
you've got beer corner where you can go out in the evenings and just let loose and have a few beers
and really soak up the warm hospitality of the vietnamese yes mate i love you
i think it's vietnamese custom to choose your drink 400 times one more time next up is halong
bay the world famous ha long bay i'm sure you're planning to go here on this trip
but just in case you're wondering it was absolutely incredible i went on a luxury
tour again the information in the description will help you book one of these the further ahead you
plan the further ahead you book it the cheaper it will be i ended up paying about 300 for mine it's
an absolutely beautiful place and if you're doing it on a luxury tour or a luxury cruise
you'll just experience it in the most comfort possible and for sure spend a little bit of your
daily budget cut back elsewhere and go on a luxury tour it was one of the best things i ever did wow
there's a bathtub with a view next up we're going down south to saigon ho chi minh city as it's now
known in particular my favorite place in that city was district one this is the modern area this is
the place where there's high-end shopping fast cars luxury places to eat and delicious food and
it's where the palace is it's where there's the cathedral it's where the opera house is as well
lots of historical buildings there's also like a walking street where there's loads of bars
and nightclubs and i had a few good nights down there i'll tell you that it's just a
hustling bustling type of place and you've got skyscrapers and it just feels like a modern city
very different to the rest of vietnam and i really enjoyed it down there and what you can do as well
is if you're staying in a hostel or i stayed in this incredible place it was a hostel but my
private room had a bathtub and it was really clean one of the best hostels i've ever stayed in again
it's all linked below and from there i organized to go on the chichu tunnel system i think it's
called where you go and visit the viet cong uh underground tunnel systems and that was a really
cool day trip and i organized that in saigon as well so yeah you're probably gonna be starting
or ending your trip in saigon so allocate at least two or three nights to really get to know district
one and the surrounding areas of saigon because uh yeah it was one of the highlights for me one
of the most scenic most historical and beautiful and obviously extremely romantic places was hoi an
hoi an has these mustard yellow colored buildings and lots of historical temples beautiful unesco
world heritage site and delicious food everywhere you look lots of places to get tailor-made
clothing and at night the highlight is the canal system if you are lucky with the weather and it's
not raining you will witness not only a beautiful sunset but the whole canal system will transition
and the lights and the lanterns will come on and it just creates this beautiful atmosphere
all of the tourists will go up and down on the canal boats and it just creates a yeah a beautiful
romantic atmosphere park up at the irish pub get yourself a nice drink listen to the live music and
just watch the romance unfold hoi an was one of the highlights for sure this is probably the most
romantic place i've ever been alone so next up on my list is north west vietnam now that's a big
area and i had this i think it was the highlight for me to be honest was this trip where i started
in sappa and i drove for about three or four days through northwest vietnam down towards nimbin and
along this road which took me two or three days we went through different provinces like sonola
and within north west vietnam there's so much to do there was a cave that i drove my motorbike
through which is just wild oh my god this is actually a cave and this is actually the road
wow going into a cave it was also the world's longest glass bridge which was quite pretty
but for me it was just the atmosphere of being in one of the most beautiful areas and one of
the most least traveled areas you won't see many travelers at all to be honest just the odd biker
driving around having a great time that's where i met the most locals that's where i had some of the
most best experiences and the highlight for me was i just pulled over on the side of the road
and there was these kids having the time of their life in this watering hole jumping off this cliff
and yeah that summed up my time in northwest vietnam it was just truly spectacular
somewhere that most travelers might not go you might not end up going there if
you're not on a motorbike and you've got lots of time but consider it because for
me it was actually my favorite part in the whole country you guys have the best life
a couple of hours south from hanoi is nimbin this place is gorgeous now it's not the biggest
you probably only need two nights there because there's only a couple of things to do there's
a few temples and pagodas which are beautiful and you should definitely check those out there's also
a really unique boat tour you can do where the vietnamese ladies and sometimes gentlemen will row
you for about an hour up and down this gorgeous canal system and you go underneath these limestone
cliffs and you get to see these beautiful rice paddy fields and it's where they filmed parts
of that king kong movie and it was absolutely gorgeous and the highlight in nimbin was the
viewpoint you can get up there in the sunset or go up for sunrise climb up takes about half
an hour 20 minutes to get to the top bring some water bring a camera yeah nin bin was not just
a highlight for me of vietnam but it was one of the highlights of southeast asia so for sure visit
nimbin the drinks ladies the finished work we're the last people leaving and he's just pointed
up at the top of the cliff i can see some goats so gonna quickly fly the drone up and say hello
good spot okay last up and not least this place was gorgeous let's talk about fong na now this
place is where they claim to have the most adventure i think they call it the adventure
capital of vietnam and you can see why there's so much to do there let me tell you some of
the highlights for me uh straight away the duck stop was brilliant this is just somewhere where
there's a little farmer and he raises ducks and you can go there and feed the ducks and have fun
with the ducks it's absolutely hilarious and one of the highlights of the whole trip in vietnam
you've also got some caves that you can do on your own or on a little tour with your hostel
check out the paradise cave huge beautiful absolutely mind-blowing does take an hour of
walking to get there but incredible place and then there's also the dark cave now i lost most of my
footage from there unfortunately because my gopro got nicked um but you can zipline up and down
jump in the river swim down the river and then obviously you go inside the cave
and after about 10 minutes of squeezing through these rocks you get into this big dark area
where you can have a mud bar and it's so much fun and so those two caves you can do really easily
rent a motorbike or go on a little tour with your hostel or hotel but
if your budget allows check out oxalis they're based in fongnar and they do the tours within the
larger cave systems including the largest cave in the world and tours start from around three
hundred dollars all the way up to three thousand plus depending on what tour you want how many days
have a look at them they do one day two day ones for me i did a three day
caving experience in tulan and it was absolutely gorgeous one of the best experiences physically
demanding of course but super rewarding we've got some incredible photographs and i got to make some
friends for life doing it so for me fangnar is the adventure capital somewhere not to be missed
and even if you've not into caves the surrounding areas are just beautiful fangnar was special all
right then thank you for checking out this short informational video if you're new to the channel i
do longer form content normally so everywhere in this video has its own dedicated video
um i also traveled across the entire country of thailand i went to every province
and in the future we'll be going to laos and maybe cambodia and the rest of the world eventually one
day so subscribe if you're new because i love to travel and make videos for you to enjoy
and i hope you found this video useful have a great time in vietnam it is the perfect place
to have an adventure and of course there'll be ups and downs like anywhere but vietnam has a certain
sequoia there's something about it which is just you cannot replicate anywhere else it's a
true adventure it's a beautiful place amazing people delicious food and lots to see and do
so enjoy your trip have a great time stay safe and i'll see you in the new video very soon bye