Vietnam Travel Guide: Best Hotels, Restaurants & Experiences

Vietnam stretches 1,650 kilometres along the South China Sea, from the terraced rice paddies of Sapa in the north to the Mekong Delta's floating markets in the south. Hanoi's French Quarter retains century-old townhouses alongside tube-house cafés serving cà phê sữa đá; Saigon's District 1 pairs modernist towers with colonial-era grand hotels. Hoi An's lantern-lit Old Town draws on Cham, Chinese, and Japanese trading-post heritage, while Da Nang and Nha Trang anchor the central coast with resort strips and urban seafood scenes. Cambodia lies west across the Mekong corridor; China shares Vietnam's northern border and influences in temple architecture and culinary tradition.

The hotel landscape ranges from restored French-Indochinese properties in Hanoi and Saigon — high ceilings, hardwood floors, wrought-iron balconies — to contemporary beach resorts in Phú Quốc and Quy Nhơn. Dining spans family-run phở stands, rooftop fine-dining venues reinterpreting imperial Huế cuisine, and riverside terraces in Hội An serving cao lầu and white rose dumplings. Coffee culture runs deep: Hanoi's cà phê trứng (egg coffee) began in the 1940s; Saigon's third-wave roasters source Đà Lạt arabica and operate minimal-design brew bars in repurposed shophouses.