Vietnam.
Vietnam is the country this site knows best, and it is not close. We have spent months in Da Nang rather than days, kept extending a checkout date instead of booking a return, and priced the things people usually only theorize about — a month's rent, a bowl of banh mi from a stall we walked past every morning.
What follows is all of it, in the order we would actually use it: the cities first, then the food, then where to sleep, then the part almost nobody runs the numbers on — what it costs to stay a while rather than pass through.
Da Nang is lived, not researched. We stayed for an extended period, the Crowne Plaza review and the Da Nang coffee guide carry our own photographs, and that review names the staff who looked after us. Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An are researched from primary sources and from time in the country, and we would rather say so than imply more.
The cities
Start here. Da Nang is the one we know street by street.
The beach city we kept not leaving. Where to stay, what it costs, and why it beats the places people fly to instead.
ItineraryIf you only have a long weekend, this is the order we would do it in.
City GuideForty minutes down the coast and a completely different pace. Lanterns, tailors, and the crowd problem nobody warns you about.
ComparisonThe honest answer depends on how long you are staying, and most guides get it backwards.
City GuideThe old quarter, the traffic, the coffee, and what the north gets right that the south does not.
City GuideLoud, fast and cheaper than it looks. Where to base yourself and what to skip.
Eating
The part of Vietnam that ruins other countries for you.
What separates a two-dollar sandwich from the best thing you eat all trip.
EatsVietnamese coffee culture, and the places we actually sat in. Our own photographs.
MethodThe approach that works in any Vietnamese market, not a list that goes stale.
MethodHow to read a stall in ten seconds. The signals that matter and the ones that do not.
Where to sleep
Including the one review on this site with our own photography.
Our longest and most detailed review — the Club Lounge, the staff by name, and nine of our own photographs.
Long StayThe rate almost nobody asks for, and the scripts that get it. This is how a month in Da Nang gets cheap.
BudgetNot what they were, and in Vietnam that matters more than most places.
The money
The part that changes whether this is a holiday or a different life.
How a trip pays for itself. The honest ledger, the vetting rules, and the follow-up-care gap nobody mentions.
The MathsWhat your money is actually worth in Vietnam — and the six honest counterweights.
The MathsWhy one month in Da Nang beats five cities in the same time and the same budget.
PlanningWhere Vietnam sits in a longer regional trip, and the order that costs least.
Getting ThereThe routing options, and when the obvious one is not the cheapest.
Work out what a month in Vietnam would cost you
Put in what your life costs at home and see the same life priced in Da Nang. It takes about thirty seconds and it is the calculation most people never run.
Run the numbers →