Vietnam was never meant to be the destination.
It was simply the country between Laos and China.
Spend a few weeks there.
Cross the border.
Keep moving.
24 days later, it became one of the hardest countries to leave.
Eating some of the best food of our entire trip, standing on the highest mountain in Indochina, and collecting a few travel stories we’ll probably still be telling years from now.
Not everything was perfect.
We joined one tour we wish we’d skipped.
We ate what might genuinely be the worst ice cream we’ve ever had.
We woke up at 4am to chase clouds that never appeared.
And somehow…
those moments became part of why we loved Vietnam.
If we had one chance to do this trip again,
this is exactly how we’d do it.
Quick Summary
📍 Route
Ho Chi Minh City → Dalat → Nha Trang → Da Nang → Hoi An → Hanoi → Ha Long Bay → Sapa
🗓️ Duration
24 days
💰 Average Budget
Around SGD90 (~USD67) per day for two people, including accommodation, transport, attractions and food.
❤️ Favourite City
Dalat
🍜 Best Food
Hanoi
⛰️ Best Experience
Fansipan
🙈 Biggest Mistake
Joining one trekking tour in Sapa.
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The Route at a Glance
Every city below has its own detailed guide if you want the full itinerary, restaurants and costs.
If you’re planning your own Vietnam itinerary, this is the exact route we’d choose again today.
| Stop | Nights | Why we go | Full guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ho Chi Minh City | 3 | Street food, city energy | (below) |
| Dalat | 4 | Cool mountains, alpine coaster, kem bơ | → [INTERNAL LINK: Dalat post] |
| Nha Trang | 3 | Mud baths, beach | (below) |
| Da Nang + Hoi An | 4 | Golden Bridge, lantern town | → [INTERNAL LINK: Da Nang/Hoi An post] |
| Hanoi | 6 | Best food in Vietnam, Ha Long base | → [INTERNAL LINK: Hanoi post] |
| Sapa | 3 | Fansipan, rice terraces | → [INTERNAL LINK: Sapa post] |
We moved between cities by sleeper bus, booked through 12Go — more on that below.
Before You Copy Our Route…
If there’s one thing we’d change immediately, it’s this:
Don’t treat every city equally.
When we planned this trip, we gave each stop roughly the same number of nights because it felt fair.
It wasn’t.
Some places deserve longer.
Some don’t.
If we repeated this itinerary tomorrow, we’d happily steal one or two nights from Nha Trang and give them straight to Dalat.
Travel isn’t about ticking boxes.
It’s about knowing where it’s worth slowing down.
Vietnam taught us that.
Ho Chi Minh City (3 nights)
Our first stop in Vietnam.
Three days of incredible street food, endless motorbikes and learning one important lesson:
Never judge a country by its biggest city.
We wandered through the pink Tan Dinh Church, spent an entire afternoon in the apartment cafés, discovered one of the best-value haircuts we’ve ever had, and somehow managed to plan the rest of Vietnam over too many cups of coffee.
It’s energetic, chaotic and a great place to ease into Vietnam—but if we’re being honest, the cities further north completely stole the show.
👉 Read our full Ho Chi Minh City Guide
Dalat (4 nights) — The City We Almost Skipped
We almost skipped Dalat.
That would’ve been one of the biggest mistakes of our trip.
Cool weather, pine forests, avocado ice cream, the longest alpine coaster in Asia, a night inside the Crazy House and one unforgettable roast chicken somehow turned a place we knew almost nothing about into our favourite city in Vietnam.
If we could change one thing about our itinerary,
we’d spend even longer here.
👉 Read our complete Dalat Guide
Nha Trang (3 nights)
If you’re travelling slowly through Vietnam, Nha Trang is a pleasant stop.
If you’re short on time…
this is probably where we’d cut a day or two.
The mud bath was genuinely fun, the Cham Towers were worth visiting, and our hotel staff were some of the kindest people we met in Vietnam.
But compared to the rest of the country, Nha Trang never quite left the same impression.
👉 Read our Nha Trang Guide
Da Nang & Hoi An (4 Nights)
Da Nang was our base.
Hoi An was the reason we came.
One of us loved the Golden Bridge.
The other looked at it for about thirty seconds and said,
“…that’s it?”
Meanwhile, My Son Sanctuary became one of the biggest surprises of the trip, and Hoi An gave us one of our favourite evenings in Vietnam.
If you only have one night there,
make sure it’s after sunset.
👉 Read our Da Nang & Hoi An Guide
Hanoi & Ha Long Bay (6 Nights) – The budget disagreed.
If Dalat stole our heart,
Hanoi stole our stomach.
This was easily the best food city of the trip.
We spent six nights eating bánh cuốn, chả cá, pho, egg coffee and accidentally discovering what might be the worst tourist-famous ice cream in Vietnam.
We also chose a Ha Long Bay day cruise instead of an overnight cruise—and honestly?
For our budget, we’d make the same decision again.
👉 Read our Hanoi Guide
Sapa (3 nights) – The weather tried to kill us. The people refused to let it.
Our final stop before crossing into China.
Standing on top of Fansipan—the highest mountain in Indochina—was one of the biggest highlights of our entire month.
Unfortunately, Sapa also gave us the only tour we’d actively tell people not to book.
Sometimes the best travel advice isn’t where to go.
It’s what to avoid.
👉 Read our Sapa Guide
What We Actually Spent
People often ask us,
“How expensive is Vietnam?”
The honest answer is…
As cheap or as expensive as you want it to be.
Accommodation was some of the best value we’ve found anywhere.
Street food regularly cost less than coffee back home.
The biggest expenses weren’t hotels.
They were experiences.
And honestly…
Most of them were worth it.
| Category | What We Paid |
|---|---|
| Food & Drinks | SGD800 (~USD590) |
| Attractions & Tours | SGD790 (~USD580) |
| Transport | SGD610 (~USD450) |
| Accommodation | SGD475 (~USD350) |
| Shopping | SGD75 (~USD55) |
| eSIM, Laundry & Misc | SGD75 (~USD55) |
Total
Around SGD2,825 (~USD2,080) for two people
Or roughly
SGD90 (~USD67) per day for two people.
For everything.
Was Vietnam Expensive?
Not at all.
Accommodation offered some of the best value we’ve seen anywhere in Southeast Asia, and local food was often cheaper than a cup of coffee back home.
Our biggest expenses weren’t hotels.
They were experiences.
Fansipan.
Ba Na Hills.
Ha Long Bay.
Cloud hunting.
And looking back, we don’t regret spending money on any of them.
If you’re travelling on a tighter budget, Vietnam is incredibly flexible.
Stay in hostels, eat more street food and skip a few paid attractions, and travelling for SGD40–60 per person per day is completely achievable.
Practical Bits
Buses: 12Go shows every operator and class in one place — essential, because quality varies wildly. Two warnings: arrival times are aspirational (our “7pm” Dalat arrival became 10pm), and boarding is organized chaos — sometimes a shuttle van to the real departure point, sometimes no ticket at all, just names shouted into the night. It always works out. It never looks like it will.
Connectivity: local eSIM ~SGD17 /month (~US$13), or sort it before landing with Airalo
Grab works everywhere and kills taxi negotiation.
Insurance: we’re traveling 18 months, so we use SafetyWing— monthly rolling payments, purchasable while already abroad.
Weather (June–July): melting in the lowlands, gorgeous in Dalat and Sapa, sudden violent rain everywhere — a packable rain jacket earns its space
Cash: small notes, count your change. The only two times we were shortchanged all month were tourist-facing businesses; everywhere else, strangers ran through rain to help us.
Final Thoughts
When we first arrived in Vietnam, we thought it would simply be another country on our way north.
Twenty-four days later, it became one of the hardest places to leave.
Not because every attraction was perfect.
Some weren’t.
We chased clouds that never appeared.
We joined one tour we’d never recommend.
We ate what might genuinely be the worst ice cream we’ve ever had.
Yet somehow…
those moments became part of why we loved Vietnam.
The places we remember most aren’t always the famous ones.
They’re the handwritten Totoro movie night.
The hostel owner opening the door at 5am.
The roast chicken we still compare every other roast chicken to.
Vietnam wasn’t just another stop on our world trip.
It became somewhere we’ll always want to return to.
🥑 What We’d Change
If we planned this trip again tomorrow, we’d only change four things:
- Spend two extra nights in Dalat.
- Cut one or two nights from Nha Trang.
- Book a Ha Long Bay day cruise again.
- Skip the trekking tour we joined in Sapa.
Everything else?
We’d happily do exactly the same.