One thing before I start. What follows is simply how I personally choose where to go. This is not a list of the best places in Vietnam. I hope you'll read it with that in mind.
Work has taken me up and down the country, from Hanoi in the north to the Mekong Delta in the south. Here I want to write about the places I'd happily return to, and the ones that turned out to be well worth the trip even though little has been written about them in Japanese.
So I'm leaving out Da Nang and Da Lat. Both are good cities, but they've already been covered plenty, and there isn't much I could add here. For an objective city-by-city comparison, seeA guide to 17 cities sorted by what you're after covers that, so if you want the full picture, take a look there.
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Beaches | Nha Trang and Quy Nhon, not Da Nang
Let me start with the coastal towns. When people say resort, Da Nang is still the choice that comes up. There are direct flights from Japan and it's easy to reach. That makes perfect sense to me.
With that in mind, the two I'd single out are Nha Trang and Quy Nhon. They have completely different characters, so I'll take them one at a time.
Nha Trang | A city used to foreigners, and easy to pair with Da Lat
Nha Trang counts as the provinces, but travelers know it well. It has drawn Russian visitors for a long time, and shops and hotels aimed at foreigners grew up here early.
That flow of Russian visitors dried up almost entirely for a while, but since direct flights from Russia to Cam Ranh Airport resumed in March 2025 it has clearly come back. More than 740,000 Russians visited Vietnam in the first half of 2026, roughly three times the figure for the same period a year earlier. Walk along the seafront in Nha Trang and you can feel it.
The international hotel chains are all here. InterContinental and Sheraton have been around for a while, and a Hyatt Regency opened in early 2026. There's also a Marriott resort on Hon Tre Island. That's what I mean when I say foreigners rarely run into inconvenience here.
There are no direct flights from Japan, so you connect through Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, or Da Nang. Overland, the train from Ho Chi Minh City takes more than 7 hours. The bus is a little quicker, but either way, if you're short on time, flying is the better call.
From Ho Chi Minh City Time required Fare guide A word By air (Cam Ranh Airport) About 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes 3,000–8,000 yen round trip Just over 30 km from the airport to the city Train (Reunification Express) About 7–9 hours Varies between seats and sleeper berths 9–10 departures a day. Take the night train and you save on a night's lodging Bus (sleeper limousine) About 8.5 hours Around 300,000 dong (about 1,800 yen) Frequent departures, mostly overnight
If you're short on time, fly. On the other hand, taking an overnight sleeper and arriving in the morning isn't a bad move at all, since it saves you a night's accommodation.
Nha Trang. Cam Ranh Airport sits about 30 km south of the city center
The other thing Nha Trang has going for it is how close Da Lat is. It's about 140km, three to three and a half hours by bus or limousine. The road climbs over the Khanh Le Pass, so depending on traffic it can stretch to nearly four hours.
Even so, it lets you combine two places with very different characters, beach and highlands, in a single trip. That pairing seems to be less well known than it deserves. Da Lat's airport had been closed for renovation since March 2026, but it reopens on August 19. Until then the only way in was overland, which made this route the realistic one.
If you're eating, make it seafood. What I ordered most often was bánh xèo filled with shrimp and squid. For something more particular to Nha Trang, though, the local signatures are bún chả cá, topped with fried fish cake, and bún sứa, made with jellyfish. Bánh căn, cooked in small unglazed clay molds, is sold at shops open from morning until night. For explanations of the dishes themselves, seeA guide to Vietnamese food sums it up.
With so many foreigners around there are plenty of tours to choose from, which makes it a good fit for anyone at the stage of "I've gotten used to Vietnam and I'd like to try somewhere outside the big cities." As for cafés, seeA coffee guide to Nha Trang sums it up.
Quy Nhon | Few foreign visitors, and no tourist pricing
Quy Nhon, in contrast to Nha Trang, is decidedly local. You don't see many foreigners.
That may not last much longer, though. Quy Nhon made Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2026 and turned up among Tripadvisor's trending destinations. What the write-ups pointed to were the coastal activities and the seafood, almost exactly what I liked about it.
One more thing worth knowing, to save yourself some confusion: the administrative side. In the reorganization of July 2025, Binh Dinh Province, which Quy Nhon belonged to, was merged into Gia Lai Province. Quy Nhon is now the administrative center of Gia Lai. Older guidebooks say "Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh Province," but that province no longer exists.
I stayed at a mid-range hotel. It isn't that there's nothing upscale — there are resorts such as the Anantara villas. But the choices aren't as wide as in Nha Trang, so you'll probably end up with a mid-range hotel or an Airbnb apartment. For a few days of travel, that was no problem at all. For how to choose a place to stay, seeWhere to stay in Quy Nhon lays it out in detail.
For sightseeing, the beach and squid fishing come up most often. The city beach is fine, but the prettier stretches are a little way out: Ky Co (Kỳ Co), ringed by cliffs; Eo Gio (Eo Gió), a headland whose rocky ridge wraps around a crescent of sand; and Hon Kho Island. All of them start from a fishing village called Nhon Ly (Nhơn Lý).
Location What it's like Starting point Ky Co (Kỳ Co) A cove ringed by cliffs, reached by boat Nhon Ly fishing village Eo Gio (Eo Gió) A headland whose rocky ridge wraps around a crescent-shaped beach Nhon Ly fishing village Hon Kho Island (Hòn Khô) A small island offshore, with clear water Nhon Ly fishing village The city beach Walkable from town, and few people Central Quy Nhon
Eo Gio. Ky Co and Hon Kho Island also start from Nhon Ly, the fishing village in this area. It's about 20 km north of central Quy Nhon
The squid fishing trips also leave from Nhon Ly. You meet in the late afternoon, then it's a few minutes by speedboat out to a raft anchored offshore. Over the next two hours or so the sun goes down while you drop a line, with the fishermen showing you how. Whatever you catch gets cooked right there. The price was 400,000 to 500,000 dong, or roughly 2,400 to 3,000 yen.
That said, the best thing about Quy Nhon for me was somewhere else entirely: the food. Few places are priced with tourists in mind, and the restaurants lining the streets are simply the ones locals eat at day to day. At least everywhere I went, seafood was cheap and good.
I want to be clear about this: the prices that surprised me most weren't in central Quy Nhon. They were further out, in the countryside you reach by car. The sea urchin I ate out there cost less than 100 yen apiece. Beer was about 40 yen a bottle. A can of beer in Ho Chi Minh City runs around 100 yen, so that's less than half.
There are cheap, good places to eat in town too, but the prices in a different league that I'm describing here only turn up once you head out past the edge of the city. Whether or not you can rent a motorbike and move around will change your impression of Quy Nhon considerably.
I only found out later that this stretch of coast has long been sea urchin country. In Vietnamese it's called nhum biển, and the area even makes a fermented sea urchin paste (mắm nhum). The reason it was cheap wasn't a discount aimed at travelers. It was simply what they catch there, served as it comes.
Go on your own, rent a motorbike, ride around, and otherwise take it slow. That's the kind of town it is. If you're going with a partner or family, somewhere a little more built up like Nha Trang would serve you better, simply for the range of places to eat.
Da Nang Nha Trang Quy Nhon Direct flights from Japan Yes None (connecting flights) None (connecting flights) Foreign travelers Many Many Hardly any Accommodation level Everything up to luxury resorts International chains available Mid-range and apartments Suited to A first beach trip Anyone taking a first step outside the big cities People who want to take it slow on their own How it's covered here Left out as a standard pick Recommended Recommended
Highlands | Not Da Lat, but Bao Loc and Buon Ma Thuot
Next, the mountains. Da Lat is the obvious highland resort, but it's famous too, so I'll skip it.
Da Lat is a finished tourist destination. There are plenty of places to eat and it's easy to travel in. What it doesn't really give you, honestly, is that backpacker sense of having arrived somewhere new. If that's the texture you want, the next two are more interesting.
Da Lat Bao Loc Buon Ma Thuot What this town grows Flowers, vegetables, coffee Tea (B'Lao) Coffee (Robusta) Big waterfalls nearby Several Damb'ri Waterfall (a drop of about 60 m) Dray Nur Waterfall (over 250m wide) A lake in the middle of town Xuan Huong Lake Nam Phuong Lake — Tourist development Fully developed Hardly developed Hardly developed Places to eat and drink Many Few Few (though there are plenty of coffee shops) How it's covered here Left out as a standard pick Recommended Recommended
Bao Loc | A big waterfall and tea country
Near Da Lat there's a town called Bao Loc. There isn't much you would call a tourist attraction. Its landmark is Damb'ri Waterfall (Thác Đamb’ri), a large fall with a drop of about 60 m, roughly 17 km from the town center. Honestly, that's about the only headline sight.
The town is laid out much like Da Lat, spreading around a small lake called Nam Phuong Lake. There are far fewer people than in Da Lat, though, and the whole place moves at an easier pace.
Damb'ri Waterfall, about 17 km northwest of central Bao Loc
What gives this town its character is tea. Bao Loc sits at 800–900 m with an average temperature of 21–22 degrees, and tea has been grown here since the 1930s. It's known under the brand name B’Lao, and the town is sometimes called Vietnam's "tea capital." Tour the tea fields, then drink the tea right where it's grown. That, I think, is how you spend your time here.
Buon Ma Thuot | Waterfalls, and more coffee shops than a town needs
Buon Ma Thuot follows much the same pattern. About 25 km south of the city is Dray Nur Waterfall (Thác Dray Nur), more than 250 m across, while the town itself stays quiet.
What set it apart from Bao Loc was the sheer number of coffee shops. Walk around and coffee shops are everywhere you look. There's a reason for that: Dak Lak Province, which contains Buon Ma Thuot, ranks first in Vietnam for both planted area and output. More than 30% of the country's coffee comes from this province. Calling it the "coffee capital" is not a metaphor.
The World Coffee Museum, in central Buon Ma Thuot
There's also the World Coffee Museum, opened by Trung Nguyen in 2018. The building is modeled on the stilted longhouses of the Ede people, and it's genuinely worth seeing.
There's no lineup of major sights. Even so, if you come with no purpose beyond sitting over a coffee and taking your time, I think it's an interesting enough town.
What these two share is that there isn't much to see. If that strikes you as thin, skip them. If you'd rather wander an unfamiliar town than work your way through a list of sights, they suit you well.
The Mekong Delta | Stay the night instead of settling for a day tour
The Mekong Delta is best known for day tours out of Ho Chi Minh City. Most people go that way, but I'd suggest staying the night.
By bus from Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Tre is about 2 to 3 hours away. Tra Vinh is 3 to 4 hours, and Ca Mau, further on, runs 5 to 6 hours.
Ca Mau needs a small caveat. That figure is how it felt on my own trip; booking sites sometimes show anywhere from 7 to 9 hours. On this stretch the journey varies a lot with the bus company, the route and the departure time.
For context, the expressway linking Can Tho and Ca Mau opened in December 2025. The trip is certainly shorter than the old slog down Highway 1, but the travel times posted by the bus companies haven't all caught up. Check the latest schedule with the company you're riding with before you go.
One more note on place names. In the July 2025 reorganization, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh provinces were merged into Vinh Long Province. Both are now part of Vinh Long. While we're on the subject, Vung Tau was absorbed into Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam's map has been redrawn quite a bit over the past year.
Destination By bus from Ho Chi Minh City The character of the town Ben Tre About 2–3 hours Palm groves and canals; the easiest one to reach Tra Vinh About 3–4 hours (some listings say a bit over 4) Quiet, with no tourist development Ca Mau 5–6 hours (some listings say 7–9) Seafood country; crab and shrimp are cheap
Ben Tre. The 2025 reorganization placed it in Vinh Long Province. It's the Mekong town closest to Ho Chi Minh City
None of them have many sights. What they have is thick coconut groves and fruit in abundance.
What I find most interesting is the food culture. Compared with what you eat in Ho Chi Minh City, the hotpots here have more of a sour edge and more dishes are built around river fish. Canh chua, soured with tamarind, comes with cá linh, a small fish caught only during the flood season, and yellow blossoms. There's also lẩu mắm, a hotpot with fermented fish dissolved into the broth. That classic Southeast Asian feel comes through more strongly in this region.
Ca Mau is also a seafood-producing area, so crab and shrimp come remarkably cheap. Here too, the more used to Ho Chi Minh City prices you are, the more it surprises you.
For lodging, pick a hotel along the Mekong. I won't go into it here, but Can Tho has places built on an island in the middle of the river, reachable only by boat. They sit minutes from town, yet once you arrive the water is all around you. There are also cruises where you sleep aboard a boat on the river.
For a slow, retreat-style trip where you don't do much of anything, I think this region suits well. As for choosing where to stay,our article on Mekong Delta hotels sums it up.
Editor's comment Laid out side by side like this, the towns I've named share one trait: there isn't much to see. Neither Quy Nhon nor Bao Loc has sights that will fill a whole day. In that sense, Da Lat and Da Nang will certainly leave you more satisfied.
What still makes me want to go back is probably that the trip stops being about ticking off sights. With nothing in particular to see, you go to the market in the morning, eat at a local place at midday, and ride along the coast on a motorbike in the afternoon. You end up spending your time less like a traveler who flew in from Japan and more like someone who has been living in the town for a few days.
If you have a short break and can only go to one place, I'd recommend the standards too. But for anyone who has been to Vietnam a few times and feels they've seen the main sights, towns like these will stay with them longer. They did with me, at least.
Domestic flights run around 10,000 yen round trip. Two days and one night is enough
When I talk like this, people assume it must take a lot of time and money, but Vietnam has plenty of domestic flights. From Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi there are services to Da Nang and to destinations all over the country.
As for fares, if you can get an LCC seat on a weekday in the off-season, a round trip can come to around 10,000 yen. That's when everything lines up, though. Over long holidays and around Tet it doubles or triples, which is no different from Japan.
At that price, a weekend trip of two days and one night works perfectly well. Staying in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi and leaving it at that feels like a waste. Even a single night will do, so I'd like you to head out to the provinces.
As for what to sort out before the trip,The complete guide to preparing for a trip to Vietnam , and for a sense of local prices, seeColumn on prices in Ho Chi Minh City covers that. Out in the provinces, the prices I give there drop another notch.
Quick reference by purpose
Let me pull it together. The towns in the lower rows are the ones this article is really about, but they're hard to weigh without a benchmark, so I've included the familiar names as well.
Best for Town Reason First trip to Vietnam, and you want the beach Da Nang (the standard, for comparison) Direct flights, and few things to puzzle over You want to venture into the provinces Nha Trang Plenty of foreigner-friendly restaurants and tours Want to cover the beach and the highlands in one trip Nha Trang + Da Lat 3-4 hours by bus; fits into a single itinerary Traveling alone, taking it slow, eating well Quy Nhon (including the outskirts) Cheap, good seafood and few foreign visitors Tea and quiet Bao Loc Tea country. Few people, small town Want to spend your days over coffee Buon Ma Thuot Plenty of coffee shops, and a quiet town An easy taste of Southeast Asia Ben Tre 2-3 hours by bus from Ho Chi Minh City Want cheap crab and shrimp Ca Mau Seafood country, but 5–6 hours each way, if not more Want to slow down by the river Can Tho Places to stay on a river islet, reached by boat
As I said at the start, this is just how I choose. You're the one deciding where to go, so take it as one piece of the picture.
Frequently asked questions
Is it fine to visit Vietnam's provincial cities on your own, without a tour?
Nha Trang has the shops and tours geared to foreigners, so you won't struggle even on a first trip outside the big cities. In Quy Nhon, Bao Loc, and Buon Ma Thuot, English rarely gets you far, so install a translation app and a ride-hailing app before you go.
What's the fastest way to get from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang?
Fly. Overland, the train takes more than 7 hours. The bus is a little quicker, but if you're short on time I'd take a domestic flight.
Can I visit Nha Trang and Da Lat on the same trip?
Yes, you can. It's three to three and a half hours by bus or limousine, and since the road crosses a mountain pass, traffic can push it close to four. Even so, it lets you fit two places with very different characters, the coast and the highlands, into one itinerary.
Isn't a day tour enough for the Mekong Delta?
You can see the floating markets and the canals on a day trip. But what makes this region interesting is its food culture and the way time passes along the river, so a single night changes the impression considerably. Ben Tre is 2–3 hours by bus from Ho Chi Minh City, so it's within reach even on a weekend.
Do prices fall even further outside the big cities?
They do. Food especially can come at prices you'd never see in Ho Chi Minh City. That said, this was outside Quy Nhon rather than in the city itself. Out there a sea urchin cost less than 100 yen, and a beer about 40 yen.
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