hey guys we're lloyd and mandy we're digital nomads currently traveling the world in search
of the perfect place to call home we've just spent the past month traveling across vietnam
and today we're going to share with you our top five places we think are worth visiting
one of our favorite parts about saigon is the nightlife and mainly boivian walking street this
city really comes alive at night but especially the walking street get a lot of crowds there
there's plenty of places to go and sit and eat and actually watch people walking by it can get pretty
crowded at night so make sure you get there early and get a good spot we stayed in district one
which has its own walking street called newan hue walking street and they seem to put on a concert
there every night of the week it can get loud but the hotel usually is pretty quiet at night
so we didn't have any problems sleeping there it's the easiest city to fly into it will give
you the cheapest prices if you're flying from any other city in the world you're probably going to
want to fly into ho chi minh city one thing that really took us by surprise when we got here was
the massive european or french influence that we noticed in not only the buildings but just
the cafe and bakery and food culture there's tons of shopping to be done here with a lot
of shopping malls there's plenty of different districts to check out including chinatown and
koreatown but as we mentioned if you're going to stay in saigon we suggest staying in district one
it's the easiest most central place to get around there's plenty of restaurants we actually did a
food tour by scooter which we think is a must if we hadn't have done this food tour we probably
wouldn't have seen the rest of saigon that there was to see we'll put the link in the
description below but definitely recommend doing the food tour and starting your trip in saigon
this was a really highly recommended place for us to visit and i totally understood why
when we first pulled up i sort of got a bit of a bali feel from the place
there was really nice rice terraces at the hotel that we were staying at the weather was very hot
during the day there but it was a little bit quiet so there wasn't a whole lot to do during the day
but there was plenty of restaurants and cafes and things around to keep us entertained while
it was hot and keep us out of the sun there also is a really nice beach there so if you're a beach
person there's also that to do during the day this place really like everywhere else in vietnam
comes alive at night we had such a good time we paid to get on a boat i believe we paid about 50
000 dong each to ride the boat but worth getting on the boat at sunset all the lanterns make this
place look absolutely stunning there's so many boats i believe the ride was about 20 minutes
and it was really dreamy and we just had a really good time and really enjoyed just looking at the
lights and the bridge itself there it got really busy and was just a really good vibe
how long bay is located in the northeast of vietnam it's actually only about a three hour
drive from hanoi we would recommend spending at least two nights in ha long bay and taking one
of the junk boat tours i was a bit skeptical about going to ha long bay at first because it is such
a big tourist destination when you get to hanoi or even saigon you'll see signs everywhere for ha
long bay tours and there are hundreds of boats that run tours around the area but it's well
worth it there is a massive bay with thousands of islands with rainforests coming out the top of
them and tiny little beaches we couldn't believe actually how beautiful the scenery was there
all of the islands have huge green cliffs and it's really a one-of-a-kind experience
we took a specific cruise called the paradise elegance which we would recommend it was
a five-star boat and the service was second to none we'll put the link in
the description below but if you're going to do any kind of tourist tour in vietnam
definitely recommend ha long bay and definitely recommend doing a boat tour there's also plenty
of kayaking you can do and squid fishing at night if that's your kind of thing
or if you prefer to just stay on the boat and soak in the scenery we recommend doing that too
sapa was such a beautiful experience i was very happy that we did this took about six hours on
a sleeper bus for us to arrive from hanoi to sapa but it was absolutely worth it even the
drive there was really dreamy you drive up through the mountains and it's very green
and lush and misty and the change in temperature was absolutely beautiful it was the perfect
temperature when we arrived a little bit cooler i'd say maybe closer to around like 20 degrees
celsius maybe a little bit more than that but it was really really nice and just nice
change from the rest of vietnam the town itself was really dreamy and how everyone was dressed
was so beautiful and you have to see the outfit and they're very beautiful so one of the main
ethnic groups that reside in sapa are the hamong and the traditional outfits that you see there are
influenced by that there were so many different shops that had these outfits for sale personally
i wanted to buy one if i had the space in my suitcase i totally would sapa can be a little bit
touristy so it's kind of important to go off the beaten path a little bit and find the restaurants
that aren't too expensive that being said we did do one of the famous hot pots there which seemed
to be the thing to do and it was awesome we really enjoyed it even though we had no idea what we were
doing it was very delicious and a beautiful view from the restaurant a lot of the restaurants have
multiple levels we sat up on the fourth floor overlooking the city center and it was really nice
can be a bit expensive there but i think it's worth it for the scenery we stayed at hotel
de la cupola and it was a dream that hotel should be much more expensive than it is it's higher end
for vietnam but the value that you get out of it we've actually done a full tour on that hotel
if you'd like to see it we will link it above but there's also plenty that you can do in and
around the city there's the train that actually leaves from the hotel that we stayed at that
takes you to the famous cable car as well as the gardens that are up in the mountains worth doing
that during the day we didn't do the cable car because it was a bit expensive but even the train
up there was stunning the views were beautiful but we also recommend taking the time to go to cat cat
village which is like something out of a fairy tale it's a slight hike down to cat cat village
itself and i believe it was 90 dong per person for a ticket to get in but it was absolutely
worth it it was so beautiful really really cool it was the highlight of our trip heading down there
and seeing this fairytale-like village we did visit during summer but it actually does snow
there during winter which is kind of surprising it didn't feel like the buildings were insulated
or built for snow but i feel like that would be a really cool experience to visit during winter
this city is a must-visit destination it's the capital city of vietnam and it's hanoi
this is probably where you'll find most expats it has a much more traditional vietnamese feel
than saigon the main attraction you want to visit while you're in hanoi is train street there's a
street that is literally on the train tracks and there's cafes and bars and restaurants lined up
alongside the train tracks and about every two hours a train will run straight through this
street and everyone will pack up their chairs and move off the tracks and you'll literally just be
sitting there watching this passenger train go by and it's really a one-of-a-kind experience
we loved it it is a little bit of a touristy thing to do but definitely go and check it out if you're
going to be visiting hanoi we definitely recommend staying in the old quarter we found that hanoi was
probably the easiest place to meet other people in fact every time we went out we managed to run into
other expats and sat down and had a beer with them and had a chat best place to do that was a place
it's actually called beer corner believe it or not and it's an intersection in the middle of the old
quarter that gets shut down after 10 pm there's no cars or bikes allowed and they just put chairs out
on the street and everyone sits around drinking beers having fun you do have to cheers in vietnam
when before drinking a beer and some really unique food in hanoi this is actually the place where
it's very well known to eat a live feeding snake heart which we didn't end up doing was just a
little bit too much for us but there is a lot of unique food in hanoi and we found it was probably
the number one place to visit in vietnam it's also a good mix of traditional vietnamese
bars and restaurants and a lot of modern bars as well there's plenty of rooftop bars in the
old quarter we visited a local jazz bar and we also found ourselves in an underground secret
bar which we needed a password to get into which was pretty cool the best thing about hanoi for us
was the street food scene as soon as we walked out of our hotel we could walk in any direction and we
knew we were going to get some great food so that was probably the number one thing for us there
there were a few places that we didn't have the time to visit because we only had a 30-day visa so
there were a few that were recommended to us one being hui was very high on the list that we didn't
have time to get to and nimbin was the other one we would have loved to visit let us know down in
the comments if you feel like we forgot any places let us know what city is your favorite in vietnam
and where you would like to visit we'd love to know if you enjoyed this video and it was helpful
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helpful and entertaining travel content we will see you guys in the next video bye
you