Asia
Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. Its capital is Hanoi and its official language is Vietnamese.
Destinations covered
11
Published guides
26
Region
Asia
Explore Vietnam
Discover cities, regions and experiences worth building a trip around, then go deeper with practical guides and local context.
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Cần Thơ is a centrally governed city of Vietnam in the Mekong Delta, which under National Assembly Resolution 202/2025/QH15 also took in the former Sóc Trăng and Hậu Giang provinces. XTOUR maps the Cần Thơ Museum in the city and lists the Cái Răng floating market as a place reached from it.
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10 destinations
Da Nang is a centrally governed city on Vietnam's central coast, with the Hàn River through its centre and Mỹ Khê Beach on its seafront. XTOUR maps the Museum of Cham Sculpture, the Dragon Bridge, Da Nang Cathedral, Mỹ Khê Beach and the Marble Mountains in the city's urban wards; Bà Nà, a separate commune of the same municipality, is not counted as part of the city.
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Hanoi (Hà Nội) is the capital of Vietnam; Vietnam's national tourism board describes it as founded over 1,000 years ago. XTOUR maps the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Hoàn Kiếm Lake, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hỏa Lò, Saint Joseph Cathedral and the city's national museums at their places in the city.
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Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is the centrally governed city of southern Vietnam, which Vietnam's national tourism authority calls the economic heart of the country and the main hub of the southern region.
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Huế, the former capital of the Nguyễn dynasty, became Vietnam's sixth centrally governed city on 1 January 2025, according to the Government's e-newspaper. XTOUR maps the Imperial City, the Huế Museum of Royal Antiquities and Đông Ba Market in the city, and lists the royal tombs and Bạch Mã National Park as places reached from Huế rather than places in it.
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Hạ Long is the city on the north shore of Ha Long Bay in Quảng Ninh, whose administrative unit Wikidata records as dissolved on 1 July 2025; the bay's management board now names that shore by wards such as Tuần Châu, Bãi Cháy and Hạ Long. XTOUR treats the bay's caves and islands, reached by boat from the Tuần Châu and Hạ Long international passenger ports, as places reached from Hạ Long, not in it.
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Hội An is a historic port town on the Thu Bồn river in central Vietnam, known to Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and Italian traders of the 16th and 17th centuries as Faifoo, according to the Hội An World Heritage Conservation Centre. Wikidata records the city of Hội An as dissolved on 1 July 2025, and the centre now gives its own address as Hội An ward, Đà Nẵng city.
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Nha Trang is a coastal city in Khánh Hòa province whose city-level unit was dissolved in the 2025 reorganisation; its centre is now the ward of Nha Trang, which the ward's own portal says was formed from five former city wards.
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Phong Nha is a village in Quảng Trị and the commune of the same name where the Phong Nha–Kẻ Bàng National Park management board has its address; Vietnam's national tourism site calls it a village and lists places to stay and eat in Phong Nha town. XTOUR uses it as the base for the national park and its caves, which it maps as separate places reached from Phong Nha.
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Sa Pa is a mountain town in Lào Cai province that Vietnam's tourism authority describes as standing at the head of a deep valley of rice terraces; the town-level unit was dissolved in 2025 and its centre is now the ward of Sa Pa.
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Đà Lạt is a highland city in Vietnam's Central Highlands, a mountain resort that the national tourism authority says French colonialists founded about a century ago; Wikidata describes it as the former city and capital of Lâm Đồng province. The authority names Xuân Hương Lake as the city's focal point, with the central market nearby and colonial architecture in its churches, art-deco hotels and railway station.
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Bài chòi is central Vietnam's sung card game and performance art, inscribed by UNESCO in 2017 as 'The art of Bài Chòi in Central Viet Nam'. This article sets out what the UNESCO listing says, how Hội An's heritage centre describes the game, and where the centre's own programmes include it.
Champa was a kingdom of the central Vietnamese coast whose kings built brick temple towers to Shiva from the 4th century onwards; Mỹ Sơn, inland from Hội An, was its chief religious centre. This article explains what the towers are and what they were for, where the official pages XTOUR has read place Champa sites, and how the living Chăm pottery craft that UNESCO lists today fits beside them.
Cổ Loa, the earthwork citadel attributed to King An Dương Vương of Âu Lạc, lies in Hà Nội north of the city centre and is managed by a board under the Thang Long – Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre. This guide sets out what the centre and the board say the site is, where they separate legend from evidence, and what the board's visitor page says about tickets and access.
The Cu Chi tunnels are kept at two separate sites, Bến Dược and Bến Đình, each recognised as a national relic in a different year and each the base of a different wartime command. This guide sets out what the relic site's own pages say each one is, what else sits beside Bến Dược, and what XTOUR cannot confirm.
Cù Lao Chàm is a group of small islands off the Hội An coast; the Cù Lao Chàm – Hội An World Biosphere Reserve is a much larger UNESCO designation that also takes in the whole of Hội An's mainland. This guide separates the two, sets out what official pages say about the islands, and where those pages disagree.
The Gióng festival, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010, is held at two temples in outer Hà Nội: Sóc, where the hero is said to have risen to heaven, in the first lunar month, and Phù Đổng, his birthplace, in the fourth. This article explains how the two differ, what the nomination file says happens at each, and what XTOUR cannot give you, starting with this year's Gregorian dates.
Since 2023 the World Heritage property is no longer just Ha Long Bay: the Committee extended it to the Cat Ba Archipelago, across two provinces with two management boards. This article sets out what the decision says the property includes, how the figures quoted for it differ, and what the Committee has asked of Vietnam since.
Boats on Ha Long Bay follow one of eight itineraries set by the bay's management board, each with its own list of caves and islets and its own sightseeing fee. This guide sets out what the board's pages say each route includes, how day and overnight trips use them, where the board's own pages disagree, and what XTOUR cannot confirm.
Four Ho Chi Minh City museums cover four different subjects: Vietnam before 1945, the evidence of war, art from Cham sculpture to the 20th century, and the city's own story. This guide sets out what each museum's own pages and the city tourism portal say each holds, how they sell tickets, where those pages disagree, and what XTOUR cannot confirm.
According to the World Cultural Heritage Conservation Centre that sells it, Hội An's old-town ticket is a bundle of chosen visits, but the centre's Vietnamese and English pages do not describe the same ticket. This guide sets out what each page says the ticket gives, how the pedestrian-street rules and festival exceptions sit beside it, and what XTOUR cannot confirm.
Hội An's heritage centre runs a small system of themed museums in old-town houses, from Sa Huỳnh burial jars to trade ceramics, folk crafts and a traditional pharmacy. This guide sets out what each one shows in the centre's own words, where its two websites disagree, and which museum its current page says is closed.
Tết Nguyên Tiêu, the festival of the first full moon of the lunar year, is what Hội An people call 'the Tết after Tết', and since 2023 it has been on Vietnam's national list of intangible cultural heritage. This article sets out what Hội An's heritage centre says happens, where, and how it differs from the monthly old-town night.
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