Vietnam

🇻🇳 Vietnam

Da Nang

This coastal city is a hidden gem waiting to be explored.

🇻🇳 Vietnam

Hanoi

Hanoi (Hà Nội — "inside the river bend", referring to the peninsula between the Red River and its tributary the Tô Lịch) is one of the most atmospheric and ancient capitals in Southeast Asia: Vietnam's political capital since 1010 AD (when Emperor Lý Công Uẩn moved the court from Hoa Lư) is a city of 8 million where the French colonial boulevards of the 19th century (the Opéra, the Sofitel Métropole, the Long Biên Bridge) coexist with thousand-year-old pagodas, the 36 Streets of the Ancient Quarter (each street historically named for the guild that traded there: Tin Street, Silk Street, Paper Street, Fan Street), and one of the greatest street food cultures in Asia. Hanoi's food is completely different from Saigon's (Ho Chi Minh City): more restrained, more refined, less sweet — pho bo (the beef noodle soup, considered superior in Hanoi to the southern version), bún chả (the grilled pork and rice noodle dish that President Obama ate with Anthony Bourdain), and the extraordinary breakfast culture of banh mi and egg coffee.

🇻🇳 Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City (Hồ Chí Minh — still called Sài Gòn by its 9 million residents, renamed after the fall of the South Vietnamese capital on April 30, 1975 when North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Reunification Palace ending the Vietnam War) is the most electrifying city in Southeast Asia: the largest city in Vietnam, the economic engine of the country (contributing 23% of Vietnam's GDP) and the most dynamic, fastest-changing urban landscape in the region — a city of 9 million motorcycles, neon-lit street food alleys, colonial French boulevards and glass towers rising from what was once the "Pearl of the Orient." Saigon's food is completely different from Hanoi's: sweeter, more fragrant, more influenced by Chinese and Khmer traditions — the bánh mì here is sweeter, the phở is served with more herbs and bean sprouts, the bún bò Huế is the spicy beef noodle dish nobody outside Vietnam knows, and the street food culture of the Bến Thành night market and the alleys of Bình Thạnh district is the most intense and diverse in Vietnam.