We are just back from a two week trip to Vietnam and I’ve had a few questions about our trip and what we did in Vietnam, so here you go this is our detailed itinerary on how we spent two weeks in Vietnam with teenagers.
It was my first time travelling in SouthEast Asia and this was a girls trip of two woman and their teen daughters so feeling safe was of paramount importance. It was also the first long haul trip I had done with my teenager to a non english speaking country. Vietnam did not disappoint! The best time to travel is November – End of April which is before the rainy season starts. The trip cost me about £6000 in total this included our spending money. We had lots of free time and some pre arranged trips and we stayed in two really good hotels, because we are not backpackers and wanted to mix high end experiences for our teenagers.
We booked the Vietnam with teenagers trip independently, primarily because I had won £5000 on a recent competition with www.lastminute.com so booked the flights to Ho Chi Minh City using that. We booked with Qatar and we had a lay over in Doha for an hour. The flight was six hours and then 7 hours. We also did a cheeky upgrade to Business Class for the second leg because as we checked in their was a good deal and we had a f**k it moment! The up grade was worth every penny and such a treat.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and had booked to stay in Au Lac Charner (which I have reviewed separately) we booked all our accomodation through Booking.com which was really easy. As soon as we arrived I adored the city. I observed in wonder the busy streets and all the mopeds – it was organised chaos! Our teens had researched using Tik Tok and told us how to cross the roads which was an experience! The trick is to just walk and never step backwards! Mopeds will just drive around you, without stopping!
Day 1-3 in Ho Chi Minh City
The afternoon on Day 1 was spent just wandering around, we did some shopping in markets, where you need to barter, I bought designer t shirts for home and we watched vendors with their street food. We found the viral cafe block which again we had seen on Tik Tok, we loved it here and this is where we first tried the infamous Iced Vietnamese Coffee which we quickly became addicted too! Late afternoon was spent swimming in our pool before heading our for dinner.
Day 2: We had an early start on the second day as we had booked a walking tour of the city with Get Your Guide. We totally recommend this as it is a great way to discover the secrets of the city. We saw the top things and tourist sites including The Post Office, the evacuation points, the city hall etc. This tour gave us a great understanding of the history of the city and further information about the Vietnamese War. The walk was a great experience and only cost a couple of pound. We tipped our travel guide as is the custom.
After the walking tour we took ourselves off to the war museum, we paid on arrival and spent our time reading the history and looking at photographs. It made sense to us especially after the tour. By lunchtime we were hot and needed a break. We headed to a food market where we enjoyed lunch and had local banh mi. The rest of the day was then spent relaxing and swimming back at the hotel before going back out for dinner. Our hotel was in such a central location it was an ideal base when visiting Vietnam with teenagers.
Day 3 was another early start as we had pre booked a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta. We were picked up in an executive car and there was only us and three others on the tour. Again our tour guide was really knowledgable and friendly.
The Cu Chi Tunnels were about an hour away and going with a local guide makes it super easy as they pre pay everything and deal with tickets etc. He took us around the site and taught us so much about the social and political history of northern Vietnam and the south. It was a very different experience to the War Museum which is quite anti American. At the tunnels you have the opportunity to explore them but you do need to be quite small, physically fit and able to pull yourself out again.
After the Cu Chi Tunnels we were taken to a local restaurant for lunch. It was a sharing platter and all included in the day trip price. We had amazing food including prawns, sushi and rice. The local people are so friendly and want to please.
Once lunch was finished we were back in car to head to the Mekong Delta where we had a boat ride and visited some ethnic villages including a bee farm where we tried honey tea and sweets. We also saw traditional villages where chocolate is made and at each stop we were given fresh fruit to eat. We certainly did not go hungry! This was probably one of my favourite trips and really showed what rural Vietnam is like. It was a great chance to see life off the beaten track.
Day 4 My birthday! What a place to wake up in on my birthday! The hotel spotted it was my birthday and bought us cake to eat for breakfast! It was a great start to the day and again demonstrated how much the local people want to welcome you. We then checked out as we were travelling to Phu Quoc for the remainder of our Vietnam with teenagers trip.
Day 4-13 Phu Quoc
Phu Quoc is a small island that is actually only 11KM from Cambodia!
We flew on a domestic flight with Viet Jet and unfortunately we did have a couple of hours delay which was frustrating. The short flight was just 1 hour and we were picked up from the airport by a driver organised by the hotel. It was a short 30 minute journey to our hotel Ocean Bay Resort, which again we had booked through Booking.Com The hotel surpassed all our expectations.
Our first impressions were incredible and just what I wanted to see! We were then taken to our beach bungalow. Each bungalow was for two people and perfect for me to share with my teen daughter. We had our own room from our friends to give us some space when needed.
Ocean Bay is the perfect place to unwind and enjoy spectacular views of the sunset. The resort has optional activities including morning Yoga and paddle boards that you can hire on the private beach. I have written a separate review of our resort.
The resort is stunning and the Vietnamese people were so attentive, this was the perfect beach holiday, with white sands, warm sea and it was just an incredible experience. We were on a bed and breakfast basis. Breakfast was impressive with traditional food, plus continental options. Breakfast went on to 10am and and they were very promt to pack away so you do need to have your plates full by 10!
The hotel spa resort is quite rural and you need to use Grab or mopeds to get about. We used Grab which is like Uber and super simple to use. It is really quick too. We had booked a snokelling trip before we arrived and we had a great time with Tommie which we found in a Fcebook group we joined. Again we were picked up from our hotel after breakfast and taken to the port. Tommie bought us all iced coffee ready for the day. We then did some simple fishing off the boat which was cooked for our lunch!
We were then taken to an area to practice snorkelling, we were shown how to breathe. Once everyone was confident we were taken to another area on the boat trip where we could see coral and beautiful fish. Tommie filmed us and got some great underwater shots, this was so much fun and a real highlight with our teenagers. Our teens also had their own go pro and enjoyed messing about with it. Lunch was then served on the beach where we had a few hours relaxing before being taken back to the hotel.
Another trip we wanted to do was to Starfish Beach which is near Rach Kem as this is the best place to see starfish. For this we hired our own driver as wanted to leave a little later. We found a local driver which was great value, he took us to a pepper farm on the way, again organising tickets for us. We saw lots of local produce and saw how the local farmers work.
To get to Starfish Beach you need a boat, it is the only way to get there. After seeing the starfish and enjoying the beach we were taken to a floating restaurant. This was like nothing I had ever experienced. We were served the freshest most amazing prawns. You’d never find a true authentic experience like this on your own and this is why using local guide is beneficial. Our driver then took us home.
Phu Quoc also has the longest the cable car in the world and we had arranged tickets for this. Whilst the cable car was spectacular and the views were incredible we were disappointed with the water park that you land in. Sunset Town was not our vibe at all. The waterpark was ok for the teens for a couple of hours but there is nowhere to sit and relax. We had a buffet lunch which was just like a huge free for all. Very much like a canteen and although the food was ok, we left pretty quickly preferring a more authentic experience.
However what saved the day was that we realised we were near Kemh Beach which we had heard was stunning so we jumped in a Grab and headed there. It didn’t disappoint. Here the sand was the whitest we had seen and there were beach bars and bean bags on the beach. We stayed a few hours and really loved this beach.
Day 13-14
We were initially due to fly back to Ho Chi Minh City and then catch our international flight the same afternoon, however Viet Jet changed our flight times and we couldn’t risk further delays that then caused us to miss our flights. So we had to rebook the flights which cost us an admin fee each of about £25. When we were at the airport there was then an issue as our middle names were not on the tickets but on our passports. We discovered that this is a real issue with Viet Jet and they try to charge an admin fee to add this on.
Luckily we argued the point because they had actually provided the new ticket and therefore they didn’t charge us. But we witnessed them charging all the Europeans to ‘correct’ their tickets – this only happened on the return flight!
We flew into HCMC and stayed another night in the first hotel to give us peace of mind. It also gave us another night of shopping! The final morning was spent having a last wander through the city and couple of hours in the sun before heading back to the airport.
Summary
We loved Vietnam and it won’t be my last visit! I would now like to explore the north including Halong Bay Da Nang and Hoi An’s Old Town. It is a great safe country to visit with young people. I didn’t want to do so much hopping with my teen for this first trip incase she didn’t like it or we felt unsafe but next time I would be more adventurous and try a family trip with more stops.
