Travel to Vietnam
- 11 avr. 2018
- 4 min de lecture
Hola chicas y chicos !
Today's article will be about my amazing trip to Vietnam. I've traveled there during ten days with one of my very best friend. We've traveled from the North to the South and have discovered amazing places around this unknown country of Vietnam.
Here is a resume of my travel and of my best tips to discover the Vietnamese lifestyle.
Trip tips: you should convert your dollars or euros in Dong when you arrive in Vietnam it's cheaper!
First Stop : HANOÏ
When we booked our road trip to Vietnam, we wanted to discover the Vietnamese culture. And what a better way to discover a country culture than travelling to its capital.
Hanoï is located in the North of Vietnam. The city is well known for its architecture and the diversity of its culture with South East Asian, Chinese and French influences. We stayed in a hotel in the city center of Hanoï, " The Old Quarter" where tiny streets are organized by shops type.
The city ambiance is incredible, there are tones of scooters everywhere (be careful when crossing the street) and people are extremely nice. The nights are crazy in Hanoï, the streets are full of travelers Vietnamese dancing Salsa. It's a safe city, where you can travel alone and meet a lot of people.
We visited Hanoï during two days. There are a lot of free Museums there, so if you are staying longer than us I will definitely recommend to visit them.
The best things to do there for a short time period are:
- The temple of Literature
- Walk around the lac
- Temple in the middle of the lac
- Maison centrale
- The Railway street
- The Cathedral
- Walk everywhere in the old quarter to discover how Vietnamese are living.
Second stop: Halong Bay is emerald waters and islands
Our trip to Halong Bay was short but intense. We booked our trip the day before going there at our hostel for 60$/person, including a ride to Halong Bay back and forth, a lunch,a kayak trip, grottoes visits and a snack on the boat.
We started our journey with a four hours bus trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay. To be honest, you better not want to sleep in a car when you travel in Vietnam. The roads are full of scooters that cars and bus beep every time they cross it. There is no code of conducts...so get ready for a nice roller-coaster trip!
When we arrived in Halong Bay, we took a cruise to the scattered Halong Bay islands. The view on the cruise was amazing!
We stopped nearby an island to do kayak during an hour it was the best.
I definitely recommend doing kayak there. When you are on the boat, you can't really see the inside of the islands, dotted with wind- and wave-eroded grottoes. But when you are on the kayak, you can see everything and go inside the grottoes where it feels so calm and peaceful.
To end our day trip, we went to the Thien Cung grotto, in one of the island of the Halong Bay called Luom Bo. To get there you had to climb into the forest for like five minutes before entering the grotto where there are beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.
Tips: Book your trip to Halong Bay in Hanoi! There is a lot of tourism agencies located in the city center where you can book boat tours from 20$ to 200$ or more. You definitely have to bargain a lot and try different places before booking your boat trip to get the best price ! I didn't have any problem doing that. I loveeeee bargaining with Asian people it's a lot of fun ;) (even if Chinese are more easy going than Vietnamese when it comes to bargain).
There are plenty of boat tours option at Halong Bay. You can either chose to stay for a day as we did or stay longer. You can chose to sleep on a boat and spend the night at the Halong Bay or sleep on an island and enjoy the bay for a longer period of time.
Third Stop: Phú Quốc my little Paradise
Because I needed sun and the ocean, Phú Quốc was the best place to escape.
Phú Quốc is a Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia, in the Gulf of Thailand.
The island is a three hours fly from Hanoi and is known for its white sandy beaches and resorts on the southwestern shore.
I love adventures and road trips but after living in Shanghai for so long, I wanted to escape the city and live a princess life. So that's what we did. We booked a 5 stars hotel for 4 nights and enjoyed the sun and the ocean.
The hotel we stayed at was the Sea Sense resort for 60$ a night (yes that's the price you will pay for a 5* hotel in Vietnam). The resort was incredible. The room was beautiful, we had a king size bed with a view on the ocean. The pool was next to our bedroom and right next to the ocean.
The breakfast was unlimited and full of European food. As a cheese and bread addict living in China, I was literally the happiest person in the world !
We didn't do much in Phú Quốc. We laid at the beach all day long, and had dinner at the Mango Beach resort right next to our hotel. The food was delicious with an amazing ocean view.
We did one excursion to the Phú Quốc islands and went to hike on the island for a day.
The excursion was a boat trip during a day where we went to the south islands on Phú Quốc. We did snorkeling and fishing it was a fun experience! The beaches there are insane, the sand is white with a blue crystal water. As usual the Vietnamese were extremely nice and welcoming with us.
Feel free to ask if you have any question,
I would love to help!
Xx Audrey
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