Tips and Tricks for planning a trip to Central Vietnam from Manila

It’s Central Vietnam time! I’ve been to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh several times (North and South respectively), but never Central Vietnam, so I was feeling pretty psyched!

First, let me walk you guys through the details of this 8 days trip in the month of April (supposedly the best time to go – not yet too hot, but not yet rainy). Below I’ve listed out our itinerary, although in retrospect, I’ve realized there are some ways to optimize this further. I’ve also indicated in parenthesis beside the day, which city we slept in that day so you know where you’d need to book your hotel

• Day 1: Manila – Ho Chi Minh – Da Nang – Hue
• Day 2: Hue Citadel, Imperial Tombs (Khai Dinh), Perfume River, Walking Street
• Day 3: Hai Van Pass, Marble Mountains, Hoi An Food Tour
• Day 4: My Son Sanctuary Sunrise Tour, Ancient Town of Hoi An, Night Market
• Day 5: Hoi An Central Market, Da Nang
• Day 6: Ba Na Hills Resort
• Day 7: Go Market, Flight to Ho Chi Minh
• Day 8: Every Nation Church, Ben Thanh Market, Flight to Manila

 

So, logistics first.

When REALLY is the best time to go to Central Vietnam?

I must admit I found Vietnam crazy HOT while we were there, but this was likely because we were out the whole day, even under the scorching heat of the noontime sun. If I could redo this all over again, I would place all our activities in the early morning, and in the late afternoon. The hours of 10:30AM to 3:00PM are best utilized in windy restaurants and in our air-conditioned hotel rooms.

So yes, if I could redo this whole trip all over again, I would likely go February to early April. I think any earlier than that, you’d be subjected to cooler temperature but also rain. And I hate rain when I’m traveling. Icky feeling to be wet, or even just humid. Any later than April and I bet it would be SO hot. Not worth it.

 

What’s the best way to get to Central Vietnam from Manila?

Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from Manila to Da Nang (the 3^rd largest city in Vietnam). So your best bet is to fly to Ho Chi Minh, then take another local flight out to your starting city. We hadn’t really mapped our itinerary out yet when we booked our flights, but given our itinerary, we should’ve flown from Ho Chi Minh to Hue (instead of to Da Nang, which would’ve saved us a 1.5 hours car ride from Da Nang to Hue).

Now, we decided to book everything via Vietnam Airlines (their Manila to Ho Chi Minh flight is technically just a code share under Philippine Airlines). We thought this was the better option so that in case of any flight schedule changes, at least we’d only need to talk to one airline. Honestly though, I wish we’d just booked with Philippine Airlines for the Manila leg, then booked with Vietnam Airlines separately. You see, we DID encounter troubles with our flights:

• Vietnam Airlines changed our Ho Chi Minh to Da Nang schedule last minute, which clashed with our Manila to Ho Chi Minh flight
• Vietnam Airlines didn’t manage to confirm our Ho Chi Minh to Manila flight until 3 days before we flew out from Manila. CRAZY. Supposedly Philippine Airlines suddenly cancelled their seat allocation with Vietnam Airlines, without explanation.

BUT there’s no way to contact Vietnam Airlines from the Philippines!!! If you try their local number, they’ll tell you they have no authority to modify bookings because we booked via the website. So the alternative left to us was to email Vietnam Airlines, and they take awhile to reply. Also, their English isnt great, so I was always a bit worried that we were not on the same page. Finally though, we finally managed to resolve everything three days before our flight out. Thank you Lord!

Also, because we booked via Vietnam Airlines, I don’t know why but our Mabuhay Miles werent credited. And when we complained, they said we had to send them a copy of our boarding passes. I didn’t save my boarding passes! In the past, it was enough to just give them our eTicket number. However, in this case, because we had booked via Vietnam Airlines, our eTicket number wasn’t valid and my miles weren’t credited. So sad. That was worth 2000 miles too!

Oh well. At least we made it to Vietnam!

 

How do I apply for a Vietnamese visa?

If you hold a Philippine passport, there’s no need for a visa for 21 days. However, if you hold a passport that requires a visa, the process is pretty easy. Just go to this link: https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/web/guest/trang-chu-ttdt

Wow, this was actually quite tough to find. Despite being the OFFICIAL Vietnamese government site to apply for an e-visa, when you google, so many other sites crop up that look legit but are actually travel agencies! Anyway, just fill up the information requested in the eVisa page and pay. You’ll receive an email immediately after with a reference number.

After ~3-5 days, you can check the status of your visa here: https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/en_US/tra-cuu-ho-so

Just provide the required information (registration code, email, and date of birth) to check. They will email you also actually if your visa is approved, but I found the email to be a bit delayed. I had applied for visas for 3 people, two received an email in the morning while one received an email in the afternoon. But when I checked the status of all 3 in the morning via the above link, all eVisas were already approved and ready for download

Tada. Once you have your eVisa, simply download it and print it out. This is required in ALL immigration checks, and will be requested by hotels too along with your passport. If needed, keep a soft copy on your phones as well, and print 2 copies for safekeeping

 

What do I need to pack?

Well, if you’re going in April, pack the following:

• Shorts (because it’s hot!) and 2 pairs of pants (for temples, or something that will cover your knees)
• Breezy tops – can be sleeveless, but if so, bring a shawl to cover your shoulders when entering holy sites. Rule of thumb, if you’re going for 8 days, bring 16 tops (double the number of days). You’ll thank me later. I only brought 12 and had to wear my pajama tops on some nights because I was so grossed out with my sweaty top already but had no more tops to wear

• Comfortable walking shoes – tbh, Grab is quite cheap here in Vietnam so you can opt to take Grab from place-to-place. BUT there will be some areas where you need to walk, such as in Ba Na Hills, in Hue’s Citadel etc. So bring comfy walking shoes
• Wide brim hat – the sun is SCORCHING hot. Bring a wide brim hat. If you’ve got a floppy one, by all means, bring it. If you don’t have a hat, buy one in Vietnam, akin to the one their farmers wear. It has SUPER good coverage. My boyfriend bought one and I was pretty jealous

• Sunblock (a lot of it) and mosquito repellant (there are mosquitoes huhu)
• Pajamas
• Swimsuit (the hotels we stayed at had pools – they weren’t big lapping pools, but more like chill pools)
• Toiletries and lotions (your skin can get quite dry here!)
• Data sim card. We bought an e-sim in the Philippines via this link : https://gigago.vn/esim/giga10u/, but we also bought a physical sim in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh airport, while we were lined up for immigration). Price-wise, they both came out quite similar actually, so you can do either
• Vietnamese Dong or USD. If you’re choosing to convert your USD to Vietnamese Dong in Vietnam, I’d suggest you do so OUTSIDE the airport (after immigration), at banks, or at gold stores / pawnshops. Gold stores and pawnshops give the best rates and are the least choosy. While banks and outside airport rates are alright, but super choosy – they rejected some of our USD because there were markings on it or because they had been folded. To be safe though, bring “clean” USD to Vietnam to minimize troubles when exchanging money

 

Should I book hotels and tours and car transfers while still in the Philippines, or when in Vietnam?

For hotels, we booked everything in the Philippines via Agoda (so they were refundable in case plans suddenly changed).

For tours, we actually booked everything via hotels too! The prices are SUPER reasonable. When you compare it against Klook, hotels are only a tad more expensive, but transacting with just one vendor (e.g. the hotel) is a lot more convenient.

For our car transfers in between cities (Da Nang to Hue, Hue to Hoi An, Hoi An to Da Nang), we booked everything via the hotels too! But for airport taxis, we just booked a Grab. It was pretty easy to get a Grab, and this was A LOT cheaper vs the hotel rate (at least in Ho Chi Minh).

 

Okay, great! Preliminary FAQs aside, it’s time to dig deeper into what to do and what to eat of Central Vietnam! Woohoo!

• Tips and Tricks for planning a trip to Central Vietnam from Manila
• Top Things to Eat and Do in Hue: Citadel, Imperial Tombs (Khai Dinh), Perfume River, Walking Street
• What to Expect from Hai Van Pass: Is it Worth It?
• Top Things to Eat and Do in Hoi An: Hoi An Food Tour, Ancient Town, Night Market, Central Market
• What to Expect from My Son Sanctuary: Is it Worth it?
• Ba Na Hills Resort: Best Route to Take to Maximize Time Here
• Where to Eat in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh