How Many Days Do You Need in Vietnam?

How Long Should You Stay in Vietnam When You Visit for the First Time?

The first thing I wanted to do when I got home after my trip to Vietnam was plan another trip and return. After traveling for more than a week through this amazing country, I saw some of the most incredible sights and had the opportunity to interact with people living lives that were dramatically different than my own.

From the cultural tours to the food to the amazing differences between my home country and Vietnam, my trip was one of the best I’ve ever had, and I would recommend the experience to anyone, particularly if you haven’t been to Southeast Asia before.

Vietnam was the first country I decided to visit in Asia, but I also considered Thailand and Japan as options. I enjoyed Vietnam so much that I’ve already made plans to return in the future, but I may visit Thailand, Laos, or Japan in the interim.

If you have any leeway as far as how many days you can arrange for your vacation, one of the most important parts of the traveling experience is getting your trip length right. You might have financial limitations or time limits on what you can arrange, and my write-up here should help you determine how to best spend your time and money in Vietnam.

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Considering the Investment of Time to Reach Vietnam

With a few hours of research, you can probably develop a list of the places you want to go and the things you want to see in Vietnam. However, if you’re limited on time or you already know how many days you can spend in the country, don’t forget to take a look at the number of hours it takes to reach Asia from your location.

If you’re in the United States, you could have, at a minimum, 13 hours of travel time. More than likely, your travel time will be closer to 20 hours because of a layover and a few flights that will get you to Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi (those are the two main airports in the south and north of Vietnam that you’ll likely fly into at the start of your journey).

In addition to the flight time and the layover in Tokyo, Taiwan, or another place where flights commonly stop before reaching Vietnam, you also have to consider the time you have to spend at the airport before your flight, as well as reaching the airport.

If you live two hours from the airport, you’ll need to leave at least five hours before your flight because flying internationally usually means showing up at the airport three hours before takeoff. Your flying time may be even longer if you’re not on the West Coast like me. Flying from the middle of the continent will add another few hours to your flying time.

Yes, it takes a long time to reach Vietnam when you’re traveling from North America – and most other continents, too. And you might even lose a day by crossing the international date line on your international flight. However, the time you spend getting to Vietnam is well worth it, and you won’t regret it.

As you’re developing your itinerary and choosing how many days you’ll travel, don’t forget to add the travel time on the airplane at the start and end of your journey. Your 10-day Vietnam trip might actually only be eight days of actual time spent in Vietnam.

Sticking to Major Cities or Visiting Small Towns

One popular method for visiting a country is sticking to the major tourist attractions and big cities on your first trip and then delving into the smaller stuff on your second journey. If you travel often and feel that you’ll make the trip to Vietnam – or any other country – more than once, you may want to focus on Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and then Da Nang for your first trip.

However, if you’re not quite sure when you’ll return to Vietnam and want to spend some time seeing things outside the cities on a limited timeframe, I’d recommend a Vietnam itinerary that skips Ho Chi Minh City and focuses on Hanoi and Da Nang, as well as touches on smaller towns like Hoi An, Hue, and the countryside south of Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh City does have some touristy things to visit, but the speed and ferocity of the city are quite overwhelming, especially if you’re not used to the incredible traffic in Vietnam. The Vietnamese are masters of complex traffic patterns; your jaw will drop when you see the way your taxi driver navigates the streets with all the chaos.

It almost seems sometimes that you need to read minds when it comes to crossing the street in Vietnam. What are those 17 scooters going to do when they cross the street? I definitely walked around in many of the towns I visited (I like walking as much as I can on trips, so I can assure myself of a good night’s sleep despite the jet lag), but sometimes the traffic was mind-boggling.

But that’s sort of beside the point here. If you’re not 100 percent sure you’ll get to return to Vietnam and have about a week to spare, focus on Hanoi as your major city and then choose a variety of smaller towns to visit. You can take regional jets to almost anywhere in Vietnam, or you can spend a little extra time taking the train (the train tends to add several hours to the journey, though, so be aware of transit times!).

Researching What You Want to See in Vietnam

Like any other diverse geographical area, Vietnam offers visitors activities that range from sedate boat tours to exciting adventure tours, which means you can experience Vietnam in a manner that suits your mood.

Do you love history? Take a walk around My Son Sanctuary (we toured it after a bike ride through the countryside). Are you a fan of Vietnamese food? Spend some time walking around the Old Quarter of Hanoi, where you’ll find oodles of tiny little restaurants that barely have enough room for you to sit but serve the best coffee and most amazing sandwiches.

If you’re interested in remaining as active as possible during your days in Vietnam, always look for tours that recommend that “people with back problems” or “pregnant people” should avoid the tour. These restrictions usually mean that the tour is a difficult or strenuous one.

On the other hand, if you’re more interested in seeing the beautiful Vietnamese countryside, you might consider a boat ride to explore the Mua Caves south of Hanoi. Our boat ride through Ha Long Bay was also beautiful and fairly sedate (there was an opportunity to hike a bunch of stairs at one point, so of course, we took it!).

Conveniently, many guided tours you’ll encounter in Vietnam will pick you up from the steps of your hotel or homestay, which means it’s very easy to reach all of your activities and tourist destinations with someone else doing the driving.

What to Do When You Only Have a Few Days

Armed with the information I’ve shared here, you should be able to figure out how long to stay in Vietnam based on your budget and how many vacation days you can snag from work. However, if I were to put a solid number on the question, I’d say that aiming for eight days in Vietnam is just enough (that means at least ten days of total travel time due to getting across the ocean on a jet).

When I visited Vietnam, I was really quite limited on my time (hence, my sincere desire to return!), and I had to make some hard choices when setting up my international itinerary. Knowing my traveling partner really likes being active, I focused on walking tours, bicycling trips, and anything that would get us up and around each day.

You can create an itinerary with stops in any order that makes sense for you, but I’d recommend researching activities in the cities and towns of Hanoi, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, and Ninh Binh. A trip to the beautiful Ha Long Bay (you’ll normally do it as a day trip from Hanoi) is also something to consider. If you have a day that you haven’t filled with activities from one of the above towns, add a day in Ho Chi Minh to the list.

If you’re very limited on time and will only see Vietnam for a few days, your first priority should be Hanoi, and your second should be Da Nang (but more importantly, the town of Hoi An, which is just south of Da Nang). You can spend a few days in each of these cities and get a good taste of Vietnam before continuing on to your next destination.

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