Travel Guide to Central Vietnam

Based on my personal opinion:

If you are looking for adventure, head to Northern tip of Vietnam – – Sapa

If you are looking for scenery, head to the capital of Vietnam – – Hanoi

If you are looking for food, head to the Southern tip of Vietnam – – Ho Chi Minh city

If you are looking for everything, head to Central Vietnam – – Danang. Hoi An. Mui Ne.

They got everything here!

Xin Chao central Vietnam! The holiday region of central Vietnam usually consists of Da Nang, Hue, Hoi An, Dalat and to a lesser extend, Mui Ne. In this post, I have omitted Hue as it is more of a historical laid back old town and also Dalat, a mountainous resort due to time constraint of only 6 days.

Budget:

It cost less than SGD$750 per pax (Singapore Dollars) for a 6 days/5 nights trip to central Vietnam.

Getting into central Vietnam means flying to Da Nang city is the easiest international gateway. There are direct flights from Singapore to Da Nang on VietJet, one of Vietnam low cost carrier. With just 7kg hand carry allowance, one can catch the flight as low as SGD$89 (all-in) for your 1 way trip to Da Nang!

*Travel Tip* : Fly directly into Da Nang city on a 1 way trip and choose to depart from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) back to your home country. This way, you will not backtrack and can fully explore central Vietnam and down to southern Vietnam.

Tour Attractions:

There are many land tours available for tourists to book each time you step into a new city in Vietnam. Rest assure most of these tours allow one to book at the very last minute, meaning if you were to arrive today and want to go on the tour tomorrow, one can still be able to book it so long before the tour counter close for the day. Beside that, most if not all hotels offers tour packages for you to choose from at your convenience.  Do take note that no matter if you book from hotel or from the plentiful of travel agents stores in the city, they usually pick customer up from the hotel. So do not be conned by the fact if the hotel were to tell you, they are able to pick you up and drop you off at the hotel since this is the industry practice.

Other than that, I booked my tour attractions before I arrived in Vietnam. Reason being it saves me time and hassle to find tour attractions.

*Travel Tip* : In terms of cost saving, you will be glad to know that Klook Travel Application, offers one of the more competitive rate! In additional, if one uses the ShopBack Application , you can enjoy further cashback! For instance, I had booked the Bana Hills tour package at SGD$40 after using promotional code while the hotel offers me their best price at SGD$45.

Transport:

There are buses and trains available within city areas like Da Nang & Mui Ne . If  you are travelling from city to city, take sleeper buses to relax in comfort on the long journey. I took the sleeper bus from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh (5 hours long ride) and it comes with 1 stop in between.

Alternatively, I would strongly encourage one to try taking the local overnight sleeper train for long distances. One would experience how the locals travel while admiring the views of the rural scenery. I would recommend taking the sleeper train for the sector between Da Nang to Phan Thiet (which is the closest train station to Mui Ne resort area). The journey takes around 15 hours.

If you are looking for long distance train rides, I recommend buying it online to secure the bed. It might be slightly more expensive (of around USD5 more on average), than if you are to buy over train counter or local travel agent offices. The website I use to buy online train tickets is called: https://www.baolau.com/en/

If you are travelling on the train, remember to book the cabin that comes with 4 beds and the lower deck. You will appreciate the hassle of climbing up to your bed each time you are back from the washroom. By the way, the train ride between Da Nang and Phan Thiet, travels along the coastal sea.

*Travel Tip* : Download the “Grab” mobile application.  This private hirer car service is known to be the number one transport application in Asia region and is popularly use in Vietnam.

Places to Explore:

#1 ) Da Nang

Da Nang is a coastal city in central Vietnam known for its sandy beaches and history as a French colonial port. The star attraction in the region includes the Bà Nà hills. Ba Na hills is often portrayed as the place to witness the golden bridge. Nested at the height of 1,414m from the sea level, the Golden Bridge is no less than an iconic architectural wonder.

Getting to Ba Na hills involves taking cable car rides up and there are Funicular rides that transport one through the hillsides while admiring the scenery.

Do note that there are 2 cable car rides section. Upon taking the cable car on the first section, one will arrive at the famous golden bridge. Should the sky be overcast with clouds or the bridge is overly crowded, feel free to take the second section of the cable car ride to go up further to explore the theme park above, before coming back to the golden bridge.

Did I mention that Da Nang is also a paradise for seafood lovers?  With so many seafood restaurants lined up in the area, feel free to be spoilt for choice.