

Toanvungtau / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Vietnam stretches 1,650 kilometres from the limestone karsts of Ha Long Bay in the north to the Mekong Delta rice paddies in the south, packing in 3,000 years of history, 54 ethnic groups, and one of the world's great street food cultures into a country smaller than California. These 10 experiences capture the full range of what makes Vietnam the most compelling destination in Southeast Asia.
Top 10 lists about this destination
Curated by our travel editors. Lived-experience picks weighted by community vote — updated as travelers report back.
Create a free account or sign in to join the discussion.
Sign in to join the conversation

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994, Ha Long Bay contains 1,969 islands and islets formed from karst limestone over 500 million years, rising dramatically from emerald water to create one of the most otherworldly seascapes on Earth. The bay covers 1,553 square kilometres in the Gulf of Tonkin and is best explored by overnight cruise, where passengers wake at dawn surrounded by limestone pillars shrouded in mist -- the defining image of Vietnamese tourism used in virtually every promotional campaign since 1990.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, Hoi An's trading port old town is the best-preserved example of a Southeast Asian port city from the 15th to 19th centuries, with 1,107 historic buildings including Japanese merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls, and French colonial facades surviving intact. The town of 120,000 bans motorbikes from its ancient core after 6pm, when 1,000 silk lanterns illuminate the streets and the Thu Bon River reflects the glow -- creating what Conde Nast Traveller has repeatedly ranked Asia's most beautiful town.

The 36-street Old Quarter of Hanoi has been organized by trade since the 13th century -- each street named for the guild that dominated it (Silk Street, Paper Street, Tin Street) -- and still functions as a living commercial district where 70,000 residents occupy shophouse buildings that have changed little in 300 years. The street food of the Old Quarter, from pho bo at 6am to bun cha charcoal-grilled at midday, was declared by Anthony Bourdain in 2016 to be among the world's great culinary experiences.

The former Saigon -- renamed after reunification in 1975 but still universally called Saigon by its 9 million residents -- is Southeast Asia's most energetic city, where 8 million motorbikes create a perpetual river of traffic and a street food scene of 30,000 vendors serves every Vietnamese regional cuisine simultaneously. The War Remnants Museum, visited by 500,000 people annually, offers the most unflinching account of the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective available anywhere in the world.

The Nguyen dynasty capital from 1802 to 1945 contains a UNESCO-listed citadel complex of 140 monuments including the Imperial Enclosure, the Forbidden Purple City, and seven royal tombs spread along the Perfume River -- the most concentrated collection of imperial Vietnamese architecture in existence. Hue royal cuisine, developed for emperors who demanded 50 dishes per meal, has been recognized by UNESCO as Vietnam's most sophisticated culinary tradition, and the city's banh mi and bun bo Hue are considered the finest versions of those dishes in Vietnam.

The terraced rice paddies carved into the Hoang Lien Son mountains of northwest Vietnam by Hmong and Red Dao ethnic communities over 2,000 years create a landscape of such agricultural beauty that they were listed as one of the world's greatest wonders by UNESCO Asia. The terraces cascade from peaks at 3,143 metres down to valley floors, flooding gold in September's harvest season and creating reflective mirrors during the planting season that have made Sapa Vietnam's most photographed landscape after Ha Long Bay.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the world's largest cave system -- including Son Doong, discovered in 2009, which is large enough to contain a 40-story building and has its own localized weather systems with clouds forming inside its 200-metre-high chambers. The park covers 885 square kilometres of karst mountains in Quang Binh province and contains 400 cave systems, of which only 20 have been explored, making it one of the last great geographical frontiers accessible to tourists.

The vast river delta where the Mekong divides into nine tributaries before reaching the South China Sea is home to 20 million people who live on floating villages, fish from sampans, and cultivate the rice paddies that make Vietnam the world's third-largest rice exporter. The floating markets of Can Tho -- where hundreds of wooden boats laden with tropical fruit gather at dawn -- represent a trading culture unchanged for centuries and are among the most vivid market experiences in all of Southeast Asia.

Vietnam's third-largest city sits between the UNESCO-listed Hoi An and the imperial city of Hue, making it the ideal base for exploring central Vietnam, and its My Khe Beach was designated by US soldiers during the Vietnam War as China Beach for rest and recreation -- one of Asia's finest stretches of white sand. The Marble Mountains -- five limestone and marble hills riddled with Buddhist sanctuaries and Cham Hindu temples dating to the 7th century -- rise directly from the sand 5 kilometres from the beach.

A remote archipelago of 16 islands 230 kilometres off the southern Vietnamese coast, Con Dao was Vietnam's most notorious prison colony from 1862 to 1975 -- where 20,000 Vietnamese independence fighters, including future Communist Party leaders, died in the so-called Tiger Cages. Today the same islands contain Vietnam's finest national park, with nesting leatherback sea turtles on protected beaches, dugongs feeding in seagrass meadows, and coral reefs ranked among the most pristine in Southeast Asia by the World Wildlife Fund.
The most-voted lists across every category — curated weekly. Join the early readers.
No spam. One email per week. Unsubscribe anytime.
Explore more Travel rankings on Top10Grid
Cast your vote above to unlock the real distribution
Tap the arrows on any item to vote

Top 10 Best Cities in the World to Live In 2026 — Quality of Life Ranked and Explained
206 views · @admin

Top 10 Thailand Temples in 2026
76 views · @admin
Top 10 Most Spectacular Waterfalls in the World
52 views · @admin

Top 10 Things to Do in Bangkok in 2026
41 views · @admin
Top 10 Things to Do in Mexico City 2026
40 views · @admin

Top 10 Best Solo Travel Destinations
40 views · @admin
Because you're viewing Travel
Top 10 Latin American Travel Destinations
140 views · 0 votes

Top 10 Budget Summer Travel Destinations Under $75 Per Night in 2026
133 views · 0 votes

Travel Books That Make You Book a Plane Ticket
124 views · 1 votes

Top 10 Hotels in Hong Kong 2026
123 views · 0 votes

Top 10 Best Christmas Markets in Europe
115 views · 0 votes

Top 10 Best Beaches in the World
112 views · 0 votes

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994, Ha Long Bay contains 1,969 islands and islets formed from karst limestone over 500 million years, rising dramatically from emerald water to create one of the most otherworldly seascapes on Earth. The bay covers 1,553 square kilometres in the Gulf of Tonkin and is best explored by overnight cruise, where passengers wake at dawn surrounded by limestone pillars shrouded in mist -- the defining image of Vietnamese tourism used in virtually every promotional campaign since 1990.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, Hoi An's trading port old town is the best-preserved example of a Southeast Asian port city from the 15th to 19th centuries, with 1,107 historic buildings including Japanese merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls, and French colonial facades surviving intact. The town of 120,000 bans motorbikes from its ancient core after 6pm, when 1,000 silk lanterns illuminate the streets and the Thu Bon River reflects the glow -- creating what Conde Nast Traveller has repeatedly ranked Asia's most beautiful town.

The 36-street Old Quarter of Hanoi has been organized by trade since the 13th century -- each street named for the guild that dominated it (Silk Street, Paper Street, Tin Street) -- and still functions as a living commercial district where 70,000 residents occupy shophouse buildings that have changed little in 300 years. The street food of the Old Quarter, from pho bo at 6am to bun cha charcoal-grilled at midday, was declared by Anthony Bourdain in 2016 to be among the world's great culinary experiences.

The former Saigon -- renamed after reunification in 1975 but still universally called Saigon by its 9 million residents -- is Southeast Asia's most energetic city, where 8 million motorbikes create a perpetual river of traffic and a street food scene of 30,000 vendors serves every Vietnamese regional cuisine simultaneously. The War Remnants Museum, visited by 500,000 people annually, offers the most unflinching account of the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective available anywhere in the world.

The Nguyen dynasty capital from 1802 to 1945 contains a UNESCO-listed citadel complex of 140 monuments including the Imperial Enclosure, the Forbidden Purple City, and seven royal tombs spread along the Perfume River -- the most concentrated collection of imperial Vietnamese architecture in existence. Hue royal cuisine, developed for emperors who demanded 50 dishes per meal, has been recognized by UNESCO as Vietnam's most sophisticated culinary tradition, and the city's banh mi and bun bo Hue are considered the finest versions of those dishes in Vietnam.

The terraced rice paddies carved into the Hoang Lien Son mountains of northwest Vietnam by Hmong and Red Dao ethnic communities over 2,000 years create a landscape of such agricultural beauty that they were listed as one of the world's greatest wonders by UNESCO Asia. The terraces cascade from peaks at 3,143 metres down to valley floors, flooding gold in September's harvest season and creating reflective mirrors during the planting season that have made Sapa Vietnam's most photographed landscape after Ha Long Bay.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the world's largest cave system -- including Son Doong, discovered in 2009, which is large enough to contain a 40-story building and has its own localized weather systems with clouds forming inside its 200-metre-high chambers. The park covers 885 square kilometres of karst mountains in Quang Binh province and contains 400 cave systems, of which only 20 have been explored, making it one of the last great geographical frontiers accessible to tourists.

The vast river delta where the Mekong divides into nine tributaries before reaching the South China Sea is home to 20 million people who live on floating villages, fish from sampans, and cultivate the rice paddies that make Vietnam the world's third-largest rice exporter. The floating markets of Can Tho -- where hundreds of wooden boats laden with tropical fruit gather at dawn -- represent a trading culture unchanged for centuries and are among the most vivid market experiences in all of Southeast Asia.

Vietnam's third-largest city sits between the UNESCO-listed Hoi An and the imperial city of Hue, making it the ideal base for exploring central Vietnam, and its My Khe Beach was designated by US soldiers during the Vietnam War as China Beach for rest and recreation -- one of Asia's finest stretches of white sand. The Marble Mountains -- five limestone and marble hills riddled with Buddhist sanctuaries and Cham Hindu temples dating to the 7th century -- rise directly from the sand 5 kilometres from the beach.

A remote archipelago of 16 islands 230 kilometres off the southern Vietnamese coast, Con Dao was Vietnam's most notorious prison colony from 1862 to 1975 -- where 20,000 Vietnamese independence fighters, including future Communist Party leaders, died in the so-called Tiger Cages. Today the same islands contain Vietnam's finest national park, with nesting leatherback sea turtles on protected beaches, dugongs feeding in seagrass meadows, and coral reefs ranked among the most pristine in Southeast Asia by the World Wildlife Fund.
If you liked this, you might love these

Top 10 Things to Do in Hanoi
12 items

Top 10 Things to Do in Phnom Penh
12 items

Top 10 Digital Nomad Hubs in Southeast Asia
10 items

Top 10 Onsen Towns in Japan 2026
10 items

Top 10 Southeast Asian Beach Destinations
10 items

Top 10 Things to Do in Bangkok in 2026
10 items