9 MISTAKES I MADE TRAVELING VIETNAM 🇻🇳 (Watch Before You Go)

Hello, my name's Paddy. I just completed an epic eight week trip from the very north to the very south of Vietnam. Well, almost. And I made so many mistakes and I learned so much. So if you're looking for travel advice for Vietnam, don't worry, I've got you covered because I made loads of mistakes and I can't wait to share with you what they were, how you can avoid making the same mistakes I did and get the most out of your trip in Vietnam. So let's begin. The north is the jewel of not just Vietnam but Southeast Asia. Honestly, the northern mountains, the roads, the scenes, the towns, the viewpoints, all of the experiences that you can have in the north just outclass the south. If it was me doing this trip again, I would start from the south. Saigon is a cool big city. It's quite westernized. You know, there's Starbucks and McDonald's and lots of designer shops and fast cars. And it seems like a cool entry into Vietnam. It's not overwhelming, like Hanoi can be quite overwhelming. Saigon is the perfect place to break yourself into Vietnam. It's a new culture. It's a new country. And Saigon is a safe place to start. This is a big city. I could live here. As you go further north, you will start with places like Da Lat and the sand dunes of Mu Ne. And things will start off quite well. But if you're coming from the north, which is so spectacular and so unbelievably beautiful, you'll just be left underwhelmed the more south you go. My advice, start in the south and head north. By far, the biggest mistake I made was traveling Vietnam during the school holidays. So without doubt, you must avoid the national holidays and the school holidays in Vietnam. So Vietnam has private, public, government and international schools. And they all have different months and weeks of the year. But overall, in my experience, anyway, June, July and August are the months where the kids are off. And when the kids are off, the parents are taking them on their holidays. And because of Covid and because of the economic situation in Vietnam, domestic tourism is the biggest market. Vietnamese people do travel abroad, but not as much as they travel within their own country. So en masse, the Vietnamese will go to places like Da Nang, Mu Ne, Nha Trang, Da Lat. You will see coachloads, busloads of tourists turning up everywhere that's popular, especially places like Sapa as well. Everywhere I went basically in the month of July and August, I was just a little bit demotivated. I was getting to these places, early doors, seven o'clock in the morning, and the Vietnamese wake up early, they get onto the buses early, they hit these spots, and it was just a bit overrun. Everywhere I went, it was overrun. And all of that could have been avoided if I had waited until September or got a little bit earlier in May. Because the summer months, just like anywhere in Europe, when all of the schools in Europe go on holiday, everyone goes to Spain, Portugal, Turkey, places like that, and the airports are just overrun. It's the same in Vietnam. So avoid the school holidays and the national holidays. There are quite a few national holidays, and in the description of this video, I'll put the main ones so that you can look at the dates and try to plan around those dates, because you don't want to be in these towns during the school holidays. The third mistake I made, and this is just like a nitpicky thing, but I think it's quite funny to include in this list, don't expect cold drinks and don't expect cold beer everywhere you go. Unlike Thailand, Taiwan, and other Southeast Asian countries, there are no 7-Elevens in Vietnam. Well, there's a couple in Saigon I saw, but that's it. There are other chains of convenience stores, but they're not widespread. Each town might have one, if you're lucky. They're really not on every corner like you would expect, and they're the only places where you're guaranteed to get cold drinks. The driving or when you're exploring other parts of Vietnam, you will not be able to get a cold bottle of water sometimes, and getting a cold beer is almost next to impossible in the north of the country, unless you're staying in a fancy hotel or unless you're going into a nice restaurant. But the amount of times that I ordered a beer and it came as a warm can of beer or a warm bottle, unchilled and no ice served, it was ridiculous. I couldn't believe it. That was the biggest culture shock for me, was getting handed warm beer. So yeah, just expect to not be having a nice ice cold beer after a big day's adventure everywhere you go in Vietnam, which is so sad. The next big mistake I made was worrying a lot about the local people and about how they would be and about the language barrier. So the first few days that I started driving out into the north, I had lots of flat tires and I was having lots of issues with my bike. And one particular day, I broke down outside this family's guest house and they took care of me. They fed me. They let me stay in their guest house, obviously. They just were amazing. So hospitable. They even cleaned my jeans for me because they were covered in mud. And that immediately told me that the Vietnamese were not just hospitable and kind, but they're also really funny and just a good crack. The Vietnamese are actually proactive. They just get their phone out. They open up Google Translate and they type in Vietnamese and then they press the English translation and they show you what they want you to understand. It might be practical information like, oh, you can't park here, or are you hungry? What do you want? The Vietnamese are well-versed in communicating via Google Translate, which really helped, especially trying to get my bike fixed or solving problems on the road on the day-to-day basis. The language barrier isn't an issue, which I thought it would be. So the next few mistakes are really important because they revolve around food. And food is so important to keep your morale and to keep your nutrition levels high when you're in Vietnam. And the sad part is Vietnam is not a foodie destination. Of course, Vietnam food is famous. We all know and love pho and banh mi and bun cha. But the reality is when you're on the road, when you're not in the big cities anyway, it's really hard to find delicious food. So many times, so many days after a day's drive or a day's adventure, I would try and rock up to a restaurant and get something delicious and I would be let down. The food would be subpar. It was difficult to find. And obviously, sometimes they serve it to you with a warm beer. So I was very demoralized sometimes. The best way to avoid this mistake, pack banh mis. Banh mis are obviously a Vietnamese baguette sandwich packed with deliciousness. And you very rarely get a bad banh mi. So what I started doing, especially towards the end of the trip, was if I found a good coffee place and a good banh mi, I would get a banh mi and a coffee for breakfast and a banh mi to go. And if you're going on an overnight bus or an overnight train or you're going to be on a long day out, pack something delicious. Maybe your hostel has delicious food. Get it to take out. Get it wrapped up and bring it with you. Because there were so many times where I would rock up to a place and it would be a big bowl of noodles with lacking flavor, lacking oomph. And even at dinnertime, I was struggling quite often to find good food, sadly. So it's not a food paradise like in, say, Thailand. Although Vietnam is famous for delicious food, it was actually quite hard to find decent food everywhere I went. And another mistake I made when it comes to food was I love chili. I love spicy food and I love to enhance the flavor of foods like noodles and rice dishes. But in Vietnam, so many places would just give you like a red sauce, chili sauce on the table. You know, it was just processed and it just really lacks flavor and obviously spice and kick. So easy thing to do is just bring with you, pack with you, your favorite brand of chili sauce. Maybe it's Tabasco. Maybe it's some kind of spicy sauce that you can get in the supermarket. So if you like chili and spice, you're going to have to bring it with you. This mistake I make quite often. And don't make this because it's going to cost you a lot of money. And this revolves around motorcycles, whether you're going to rent or buy, whether you're going to drive it from top to bottom like I did, or you're just going to be renting it for a day here and a day there. Please take note that you can't just park a motorcycle anywhere like you can in places like Thailand. You can't just rock up, park on the pavement, pop into a restaurant and eat your lunch. You can't just park outside of a hotel or a hostel if it's on the street, for example. You have to ask everybody for permission, always. Can I park outside? Don't just assume that it's okay. Maybe you're going to park your bike next to 20 other motorbikes. But what you might not know, and this is something I didn't know, is that these bikes will have permits. They will pay a monthly fee to park on the side of the street or on the pavement. Or they might have given money to an older gentleman who's sitting outside smoking a bong. They will take a small fee and they will take care of your bike. And if you just rock up, park the bike and walk off, then they are likely to move the bike, call the police, get the bike removed. Or the police, which this happens very often in places like Hanoi and Saigon, the police will drive around with a truck and they'll just look for bikes that are parked illegally that don't have the correct paperwork and just pick them up and move them. If you leave your nice helmet on the thing, on the handlebar, it might go. I went to a cave and I left my GoPro on the handlebar and it was gone. It got nicked. And motorcycles, they are going to get nicked. People are going to steal them if you leave the key in. I remember once I parked Dreamy, my beloved Dreamy, I parked it outside of the bus station in Chiang Mai in Thailand and I went to Myanmar for two weeks. And when I came back, I was trying to find my key and I realised I'd left my key in the bike and my bike was still there in Thailand with the helmet on the handlebar. So in Thailand, people are less likely to steal things. In Vietnam, you have to be careful. Sadly, it's commonplace for things to get nicked and my and I was very clearly told that if I didn't move my motorbike several times, it was going to get taken away by the police. So just bear that in mind. You can't just park your bike anywhere. Be careful. A big mistake that I saw a lot of people make, and arguably so did I, was trying to conserve my budget too much. So my advice when it comes to budgeting is don't be afraid to splurge, especially on these three things. The first is I would go on a luxury cruise in Halong Bay. It was amazing. It was well worth it. I paid $300, but I organised it last minute. You could probably get it a little bit cheaper. And for me, that was a once in a lifetime thing. And when are you ever going to be in Halong Bay? So if you are, if you're lucky enough to be there, do it right and go on a luxury cruise. The second thing I would splurge on is the Ha Giang Loop. The Ha Giang If you're too scared to drive a motorbike by yourself, then pay to do the Easy Rider. The hostels and the tour companies, for an extra fee, will give you a Vietnamese person and they will drive and you can sit on the back. And then you can still go with the group. You can still stay in the hostels and have the social experiences, but you'll be sat on the back and you'll see all the views and you'll experience the loop. And it's three days of pure heaven. It's three days of pure bliss. And for an extra $150, spend the money. You can save the money somewhere else, you know, staying in a cheap hostel for a week or whatever it might be. You can always cut back on savings, but do the Ha Giang Loop. Don't miss out on something so incredible just because it was $100 or $200 extra to get an Easy Rider tour. And the third thing is, if I was you, when you go to Phong Nha and the caving, you know, yes, you can go to the Dark Cave and you can go to the Paradise Cave for practically nothing, you know, just a rental of a motorcycle and the entrance fee. But I would do the multiple day tours that you can do with Oxalis. You know, I would do, well, have a look at their website. There are three day, there are four day tours, two day tours. And yes, they're $300, $400, even up to $3,000 in some cases. Splurge. When are you going to be in this part of the world where they have the biggest cave systems in the world? And when can you camp in the middle of the jungle surrounded by waterfalls and, you know, swim in the caves for two or three days in a row? Okay, are we ready to get wet? Yeah, I'm already wet. Very excited bunch. With really cool, like-minded, adventurous people. So in Vietnam, yes, it's cheap and yes, you can travel on a budget, but don't be afraid to splurge money on these big experiences, these big ticket items, because they were the ones, they were the memories that I will take away from Vietnam. You know, the Hai Giang loop was just unbelievable. The Halong Bay cruise was really special. Caving in Phong Nha was just, it was just incredible. And everyone I talked to and everybody who sees those photographs and watches that video is blown away. And it really was just incredible. But yeah, it wasn't cheap. So don't be afraid to splurge your budget. There are so many experiences that you just can't get anywhere else. And the biggest mistake I made, and something that you shouldn't do, is don't try to see it all. I really wanted to see it all. I know I went all the way up to the north, and not just Hai Giang loop, I went to the northeast, I went to the northwest, I went down through Son La, down through all these other northern regions and provinces. And then obviously I did all of the central part. And then apart from, I didn't go to Nha Trang, just because it was a choice. I couldn't really do both. I had to either go down the coast to Nha Trang or up through the central highlands to Dalat. So I had to choose between the two. But otherwise, I did everything, you know. I even went to the Mekong Delta, south of Saigon. And you know, in a two-month trip, trying to see everything, that's just not enough time. And sometimes, you know, when you see more, you experience less. So my advice is see less and experience more. They were my nine biggest mistakes after two weeks, two months, sorry, in Vietnam. Let me know what you think. I probably made a thousand mistakes, but these were the nine biggest, the nine biggest takeaways, if you want to say, from my trip in Vietnam. I hope you enjoyed the series. I hope this video was useful. If you thought it was slightly useful, you'll probably love my entire Vietnam series. The playlist is linked below. And I'll see you very soon. The next video, I will be announcing and showing you and revealing, not just where I'm going next.