Destination Guides

Chả cá Lã Vọng is pieces of golden fish eaten hot with spring onion, dill, noodles and roasted peanuts. Learn how to order a portion that matches your appetite, mix dipping sauce to your taste, and use the tabletop pan during a rest stop while exploring Hanoi.

Bún bò Huế is fragrant with lemongrass, rich with mắm ruốc, and offers many ways to choose your cut of meat. This guide helps you order bắp, nạm, gân, giò or chả to your taste, adjust the spiciness and find a filling meal stop on your road trip.

The bowl of noodles just set down may surprise first-timers: the broth doesn't cover the noodles like in phở or other noodle soups. On top is the topping and peanuts, with herbs and grilled rice cracker on the side. But the small amount of broth is not a sign that the dish is lacking. It's one of the things that makes mì Quảng what it is.

After a few bold-flavored meals on your trip, a plate of gỏi cuốn can bring a sense of a change in pace: the soft rice paper, fragrant herbs, vermicelli and filling showing through the thin wrapper. Without a frying pan at the moment of serving, the dish creates its appeal by placing many textures into one small bite, then leaving them.

In Hà Nội, the smell of grilled meat may make you want to stop before you've even had a chance to look at the menu. A bún chả portion is usually brought out in separate parts: white noodles, herbs, grilled chả and a bowl of dipping sauce with pickled vegetables. Not a pre-mixed dish, nor like an ordinary bowl of noodle soup, bún chả.

The crackle of the crust shattering at the first bite, a hint of tang from the pickles and a warm, fragrant filling: bánh mì can turn a quick meal on the road into something memorable. But "a loaf of bánh mì" isn't always the same dish. There are ones filled with meat and pâté, ones with egg, with fish cake; and there are places.

Soft rice noodles, the meat and the hot broth create different ways of eating in each region. Suggestions on choosing phở bò or phở gà, ordering the cut that suits your taste and adding just enough seasoning when you stop along the way.

Spend five days linking Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku and Kon Tum: explore coffee, waterfalls and villages, then head north along National Highway 14. Practical stops, travel planning and budgeting for a self-guided trip.

Choose clouds or golden terraces, plan two or three days from Lào Cai, and confirm accommodation and transport before departure. A practical Y Tý guide with stops, reference costs and time to spare.

Cà Mau is the southernmost province of Vietnam, home to a piece of land that every Vietnamese wants to set foot on at least once: Mũi Cà Mau with its national coordinate marker. This waterland suits travelers who crave an authentic Mekong Delta experience, from floating markets and the U Minh