Neither of us had left Europe before this trip, and booking a first time in Vietnam itinerary entirely from someone else’s blog post felt like a leap. It wasn’t. Real advice, no fluff, exactly what we needed before our first big trip — and three weeks later I’d say the only thing missing was a warning about how fast we’d want to come back.
Hanoi Did Not Feel Like the Guidebooks
The Old Quarter’s tangle of streets, still organised by trade the way the guide described, took about a day to stop being overwhelming and about two days to become the thing we missed most once we’d moved on. A bowl of pho from the stall the guide mentioned, eaten standing at a plastic stool barely off the curb, set the tone for how we ate for the rest of the trip.
Ha Long Bay, Then Somewhere Quieter
We nearly skipped Ha Long Bay for being too touristy, then went anyway and were glad we did — the limestone karsts rising out of the water are exactly as strange and beautiful as every photo promises. Lan Ha Bay nearby, which the route suggested as an alternative, had a fraction of the boats and the same scenery.
Hoi An and the Slow Ending
Hoi An’s lantern-lit old town was where the trip stopped feeling like a checklist. We stayed four nights instead of the planned two, had clothes tailored we didn’t strictly need, and ate at the same noodle stall three evenings running because the owner remembered our order by the second visit.
Booking blind, off someone else’s write-up, worked better than any amount of independent research would have. For anyone doing this for the first time, our Southeast Asia backpacking route and packing checklist cover exactly what we used, start to finish.
What We’d Pack Differently
We underestimated the humidity and overpacked cotton clothing that never fully dried between wears. A couple more sets of the quick-dry gear our own packing checklist recommends would have made the Hanoi to Hoi An stretch noticeably more comfortable.
And with hindsight, a lightweight rain shell would have earned its space in the bag more than once, even outside the official monsoon months.
Photo by Hieu Do Quang on Unsplash.
