Kerri King, a mother who came from New Zealand, and her 9-year-old daughter, staying in Vietnam for 11 days, went to neither Hanoi nor Ho Chi Minh City nor Phu Quoc. They spent all 11 days in just Hoi An, the central ancient town. Not touring around, not moving, putting down roots in one place. While it's long been considered the royal road for a Vietnam trip to \"traverse north and south and go around several cities,\" this choice poses a certain question. A trip touring many sightseeing spots, versus a trip deeply \"living\" in one town. For travelers heading from Japan to Hoi An too, this story isn't someone else's business.<\/p>\n
According to reporting by the Vietnamese paper Thanh Nien, the Kings abandoned touring from the start and narrowed it to Hoi An alone. The reason is simple: they wanted to know one place to the bottom, cutting out the \"trip hassle\" that comes with city-to-city travel \u2014 packing, checkout, and the wait times at airports and stations.<\/p>\n
What the mother and daughter did in 11 days is closer to living than to sightseeing. They swam at An Bang Beach, walked the yellow-walled old town under bougainvillea flowers, and threw a small vessel with their own hands at Thanh Ha pottery village. They visited Tra Que vegetable village, bought a candleholder at the Phuc Kieu casting village, and hand-made a lantern from a bamboo frame at the silk village. They also watched the 500-person outdoor performance \"Memory of Hoi An.\" In food they were captivated by cao lau and chicken rice (com ga), coconut and condensed-milk coffee became a favorite, and King even came to order Vietnamese coffee at her own workplace. King said, \"There's too much in Hoi An that draws my heart; I have no regrets even about missing other towns.\"<\/p>\n
It's too soon to dismiss these 11 days as one eccentric's story. Behind it is a change in the very style of travel. Traveloka, one of Southeast Asia's largest travel-booking platforms, cites \"slow travel\" as a 2025 travel keyword. It's a flow where trips that stay put in one place, spend time at your own pace, and reset mind and body are broadening support, centered on people avoiding crowds.<\/p>\n
Vietnam suits this flow. Prices are relatively contained, and costs are unlikely to swell even on a long stay. Hoi An in particular is a rare town where the walkable old town, nearby beaches, and scattered craft villages fit within a radius of a few kilometers, letting you \"do something different every day without moving.\" A place a touring trip passes through in half a day, a staying trip can revisit any number of times. Go to the same cao lau shop three times and you become a familiar face to the owner. What stayed most in the King mother and daughter's hearts wasn't a famous spot either, but the personalities of the hotel staff who braided the daughter's hair and the tailor who talked to them like an old friend.<\/p>\n
Even with the same number of days, the content of a trip changes greatly by how it's built. We've laid out both types' characters within a verifiable range.<\/p>\n