Vietnam Travel Guides

Vietnam is quite an easy country to bike tour through, the roads are excellent (much like China) and the road side facilities such as shops, restaurants and hotels are plentiful.

We’ve been quiet on Instagram and we got kinda stuck in Phan Thiet. We cycled three days here and always planned to stay here for a couple nights because there’s some cool towers here, but poor Stew got so sick!

We stayed in Nha Trang twice and we've tried three different rooms. Here are our best recommendations with the reasons why we like them.

To be honest, the last three days were easily cycling, but getting used to moving a 35kg-45kg bike in 30 degrees is not easy feat, especially when you’ve not been the most active for 2-3 years 😬

Getting back on the bike felt *so good* today. We cycled 60 miles in 30 degrees which I think is pretty good considering we lived in cold Scotland for the year leading up to the trip.

Well, we made it to Nha Trang and we are so happy to be here! Nha Trang 2023 is quite different to the Nha Trang we met in 2020. Back then it was basically a ghost town with hotels and hostels closing around us.

This couple were a ray of sunshine today. We sat with them on the train from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang. I didn’t need to speak Vietnamese to tell that they were very playful together. Every so often she takes his hand.

We headed to the train station to book our train out of Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang. We leave tomorrow at 11am. It’s an 8 hour train! Guess what though, we managed to book the exact same AirBnB that we left almost three years ago.

Flying to Vietnam changed our time zone +7 hours and when we’ve travelled before we’ve changed time zones by an hour or 2 max. It was 30+ hours of travelling here including a 9 hour wait in Dubai from midnight until 9am. We didn’t get much sleep at all.

Twice in the last two months Stew and I have closed a chapter. First, we moved out of our lovely home in the Scottish Highlands. We shifted all of our stuff out the house and 400 miles across the country.

We spent about a month in Hanoi. We explored Vietnam's capital and now we're sharing our experience with you.

As of 25th March, HK will refuse entry to ALL foreigners including those visiting for connecting flights. Our airline, Cathay Pacific stated on their website that if we didn’t have flights departing from HK before midnight on the 24th we would be stopped from boarding the plane at Vietnam. Our departure is 01:10 on the 25th. ⁣

After 3 and a half years of working, planning, saving and riding it’s taken to reach this point, now only 9 days away from our first year on the road, we have no choice but to come home. ⁣⁣⁣

Over the Tết (New Year) period we saw a lot of people burning money – yes burning money on the side of the road.⁣ At first I thought nothing of the burning piles of rubbish as we saw a lot of this riding to Hanoi – it’s one way that they get rid of trash in Vietnam. ⁣

When the weather was forecast at it’s best we decided to seize the opportunity and visit Ha Long Bay.⁣

Here we are on Train Street, Hanoi.⁣ I’m posting this picture just because I really like it.⁣ I like that Stew’s mum managed to capture us in the moment; eagerly awaiting the train to come rushing by while we ate dinner.⁣

You know how sometimes you can just walk into a place and feel right at home? Well that is exactly how I felt in Salon Blonde, 32 Lạc chinh, Hanoi.⁣ I hate having my hair cut by anyone who isn’t Kim, but the 10,000 miles between us making a hair cut impossible!⁣

They came with 3 suitcases and a wheel bag delivering much needed items. Our 2 heroes brought all the snacks including chocolate hobnobs, marmite and walkers crisps.

We never planned to be in Hanoi for New Year it was more of a welcome surprise when we arrived. We were torn between staying in Hanoi or cycling to Ha Long Bay. We asked a few locals who suggested Hanoi would offer a better experience.

Vietnam and in particular, Hanoi has bought a whole new set of experiences. I’ve taken a series of videos to show you what it’s like…