We stayed for 3 weeks travelling from the South of Vietnam all the way to North. This was our first time travelling across Vietnam and here are some of the mistakes that we made which we could have avoided.

Booking properties for weekday at weekend prices

Did you know that many properties have a weekday price and a higher weekend price. If you are planning to stay at a property for a longer duration, and you are in no position to directly negotiate with them, I suggest you do some research and find out the weekday prices and weekend prices. Don’t book for the entire weekday and weekend stretch at one go. Book the weekends separately and the weekdays separately at the same property to save costs.

Here is an example scenario at the Hostel that we stayed in Ho Chi Minh. Say if we were to stay in a deluxe double room from the 9th of September, 2022 Friday till the 14th of September 2022, Wednesday.

If we book for the entire stretch at once, we end up paying 1336 per night

However, if we book it separately, we pay 1364 per night for the weekend and 1054 per night for the weekday, bringing our average down to 1178 per night.

Not staying at the heart of the city

At Hoi An, we initially stayed for 3 days at Palm View Villa. This was just 4 kms from the center of the city. However, I think we missed out a lot because of this. Hoi An is an ancient city where the city center is full of life (and lamps). It’s a heaven for walking, cycling and shopping.

Staying far away from the city centre made us miss out on all of these things on the first 2 days. Once we saw the night life, we extended our stay in Hoi An by a day and took a place right in the heart of the city. The lesson here is, if you are staying in a city for a short period of time, stay in the heart of the city. That way, you are a part of all the action that is happening.

Spending energy bargaining on the wrong products

Vietnam is famous for shopping. Hence bargaining is an important skill. Be it Ben Thanh market, famous for fake luxury items, the cloth and tailoring market in Hoi An, the food and nut markets across cities or even the local vendors. So when shopping anything, you need to be geared up to strike a good deal.

However, we spent a lot of time bargaining in Ben Thanh over souveniers and things which were not our primary buys. By the time, we were done buying those things, we were exhausted and just wanted to run away mostly. So pick items that you really want to buy, the bigger, more expensive ones and negotiate your best on those rather than the small items (unless you really want to)

Not planning for the popular spots in advance

While the decision to go with the flow was deliberate, we really missed out on a few things because we did not plan or book in advance. On top of the list is camping in the caves at Phong Nha National park. All the slots were sold out and we could only do a day trip which we did not want to. We wanted to experience the camping experience inside a cave, which needs to be planned a lot in advance.

Second thing that we missed out on was a better cruise at Halong Bay. We took the aquamarine cruise which was amazing, but if we had planned a lot more in advance, we could have got a better cruise. So if you are planning to do these popular activities, make sure you plan well in advance.

Not renting a bike

You see a lot of bikes in Vietnam, and when in Vietnam, do as the Vietnamese do. Rent a bike, its cheap and probably the best way to do city sightseeing. We missed out renting a bike in Ho Chi Minh. But post that we rented a bike wherever we went. It was cheaper and more convenient to go across all the places that we wanted to see, explore the local markets, shopping, finding vegetarian and vegan restaurants in different corners of the city.

Not doing enough research

This is generally true in any scenario where you want good results. For us this was valid in Da Lat where we missed going to Valley of Love because we reached at nearly the closing time. Again this was true in Hoi An where we just walked from street to street, picking random shops for tailoring (Luckily we found a great shop on the last day, but it was too late by then). Do a little bit of research, in general about where to stay, where to go and where to shop.

Staying at an AirBnb instead of Hotel in Hanoi

We stayed in Hanoi old quarters and there are a lot of AirBnbs and hotels. While we prefer staying in Hostels and AirBnbs because they have kitchen, we regretted this decision in Hanoi. Primarily because most of the AirBnb in Hanoi are in alleys which are narrow, have a lot of mosquitoes and are old (without the charm). In such a case, I would recommend staying at a hotel which is right on the main road. It makes it easier for tour guides to come pick you up as well without needing much coordination.

We think these are generally true for anywhere you travel. So watch out during your next trip. Also if you are looking for a Vegetarian food guide in Vietnam, you can check it out here.