14 Days in Vietnam, Solo: What I'd Keep and What I'd Cut
A two-week solo route through Vietnam — Ho Chi Minh City, five days on the central coast, the Ha Giang Loop, and Hanoi — with honest calls on Ba Na Hills, Hoi An, Ha Long Bay and Ninh Binh.
Fourteen days, solo, split four ways: two days in Ho Chi Minh City, five on the central coast in Da Nang, four on the Ha Giang Loop, and three in Hanoi at the end. I flew in to Saigon and home out of Hanoi, which saves you backtracking the length of the country.
Two things I'd tell you before the itinerary itself, because they're the decisions that actually changed the trip:
- The Ha Giang Loop was the best experience of the entire trip, and nothing else came close. If you have to sacrifice something to fit it in, sacrifice something.
- Five days in Da Nang was one too many. Four is plenty. That's the day I'd give back.
Days 1–2: Ho Chi Minh City
Saigon is where the trip starts, and two days is about right for it before you move on.
District 1 covers most of what you'd want to see on foot — the colonial-era landmarks, the Central Post Office, and enough sidewalk coffee to reset your body clock after the flight. Ben Thanh Market is the obvious first stop for street food.
The second day goes to the two big trips out of the city: the Mekong Delta, south of Saigon, and the Cu Chi Tunnels, northwest of it. Both are easy to book once you're there.
Days 3–7: Da Nang and the central coast
Fly Saigon to Da Nang — it's a short hop and there are plenty of flights. Da Nang is the base for everything on the central coast: you sleep there and day-trip out.
This is the part of the trip I'd shorten. I gave it five days and four would have covered everything without feeling rushed. Take that fifth day and put it somewhere north.
Da Nang itself
My Khe Beach is the reason to stay in Da Nang rather than in Hoi An — a long, genuinely good city beach, and the city itself is relaxed in a way the two ends of the country aren't.
Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge — and the ticket mistake to avoid
The Golden Bridge is the photo everyone comes for, and it lives up to it. The theme park up at Ba Na Hills is genuinely well designed too — I went in expecting a tourist trap and it isn't one. Worth the day.
But do not buy your tickets in advance. This is the single most useful thing in this article after the Ha Giang advice.
It is frequently fogged in up there. Not occasionally — frequently. And if the top is in cloud, you have paid full price to ride a cable car into a white wall and stand on a bridge you can't see the ends of.
Here's what to do instead: go to the Ba Na Hills cable car station first. They show a live camera feed of the conditions at the top. Look at it. Only buy the ticket if it's clear up there. If it isn't, you've lost a taxi fare instead of a day and a full-price ticket, and you can come back another morning — which is another argument for basing yourself in Da Nang for a few days rather than passing through.
Hoi An — beautiful, but know what it is
Hoi An is beautiful. The lantern-lit old town is exactly as photogenic as you've been told, and it's worth a day.
But I'll be blunt about it: Hoi An is tourist Disneyland. Everything in that old town exists to make money from tourists. It is not a normal Vietnamese town and it doesn't show you anything about how the rest of the country actually works — which matters if, like me, that's a large part of why you came.
Go, enjoy it, take the photos. Just don't go expecting the authentic Vietnam experience, and don't build extra days around it. Its reputation as the soul of the country is oversold.
Hue
North of Da Nang, and the day is really about the Imperial City — the walled Nguyen dynasty complex, the palaces and shrines and the Forbidden Purple City inside it. It's a history day rather than a scenery day, and the drive up the coast is a good part of it.
Days 8–11: The Ha Giang Loop
Fly Da Nang to Hanoi, then take the overnight sleeper bus north to Ha Giang.
This was the best thing I did in Vietnam, and it isn't close. Four days on the back of a bike through mountains and river valleys — raw nature, and I found nothing else like it anywhere else in the country. Everywhere else beautiful in Vietnam has been shaped for visitors before you get there. Ha Giang hasn't.
The three decisions that matter, in short:
- Take the easy rider — ride pillion with a local driver rather than driving yourself. The roads are bad, the other traffic is worse, and you can't photograph any of it if you're the one steering.
- Book the 4-day / 3-night route, not a shorter one. The longest version is the only one that reaches Tu San canyon, the deepest in Southeast Asia and the highlight of the whole two weeks.
- Book it in Hanoi, about two days ahead, at your hostel. The sleeper bus in both directions comes as part of the package.
I've written the loop up properly on its own, including why the easy rider is the right call even for confident riders: the Ha Giang Loop.
Days 12–14: Hanoi, Ninh Binh and Ha Long Bay
The sleeper bus gets you back into Hanoi in the morning, and the last three days run out of the city.
Hanoi
The Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake are the whole of it, and Hanoi is better in the evening than in the middle of the day.
Ninh Binh — go here
Ninh Binh is absolutely stunning, and I'd go as far as this: if you only have one of them, skip Ha Long Bay and make sure you do Ninh Binh. Limestone karsts rising straight out of flooded rice fields, and you go through them at water level on the Trang An boat tour rather than looking at them from a deck.
Bai Dinh Pagoda is nearby and easy to pair with it in the same day.
Ha Long Bay — day trip, not the overnight cruise
You'll be sold the overnight cruise everywhere in Hanoi. I did the day trip and I wouldn't do the overnight version.
The day trip is enough to see what Ha Long Bay is. It's beautiful, it's worth the day, and then you've seen it. And if you've spent any time in southern Thailand, be honest with yourself about how new it's going to feel — the limestone bays there are very similar, and Ha Long wasn't a new experience for me because of it.
Spend the extra night in Hanoi instead. Or, better, spend it in Ha Giang.
Departure
Fly home out of Hanoi. Because you flew into Saigon and out of Hanoi, you never have to cross the country twice.
What I'd change
- Four days in Da Nang, not five. Everything on the central coast fits comfortably in four.
- Protect the Ha Giang Loop above everything else on this list.
- Ninh Binh over Ha Long Bay if you're choosing.
- Don't pre-buy Ba Na Hills tickets. Check the live camera at the cable car station first.
Practical notes for doing this solo
- Fly open-jaw — in to Ho Chi Minh City, out of Hanoi.
- Domestic flights are cheap and frequent, and worth it over the long train legs on a two-week trip.
- Hostels are the booking desk for everything. Ha Giang, Ha Long, Ninh Binh — all of it can be arranged in-country a couple of days ahead, and doing it solo is completely normal here.
- Carry small notes for street food, taxis and markets.
- Keep the north flexible. Weather decides more of this trip than any schedule does, from fog at Ba Na Hills to road conditions in Ha Giang.