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
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we will see you guys in the next video bye you
