A country · 220 places · 40 regions

Vietnam, all of it.

220 curated places across 40 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Hạ Long Bay · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Huế — read below as chapters, with 36 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Hanoi · 34 places

Hanoi

A tranquil lake at the heart of Hanoi's old quarter, wrapped in legend about a returned sword and a golden turtle. The small Ngoc Son Temple sits on an islet reached by a red wooden bridge.

Hoan Kiem Lake

Hanoi, Vietnam

✦ October to April · $

Dong Xuan Market

Hanoi, Vietnam

✦ October to April · $

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Hanoi, Vietnam

✦ October–April · $

All 34 places in Hanoi →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Ho Chi Minh City · 31 places

Ho Chi Minh City

An archipelago of sixteen islands in the South China Sea off the coast of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province, Côn Đảo is best known for its French and Vietnamese colonial-era prison complex — among the harshest detention facilities of the colonial period — and for its largely intact marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The surrounding national park protects nesting beaches for the endangered green sea turtle, and the coral reefs around the smaller islands are considered among the best preserved in Vietnam. The island's relative inaccessibility has limited development and retained a quiet, uncrowded character.

✦ November to May · $$

Meet Côn Đảo All 31 places in Ho Chi Minh City →

Chapter III · Da Nang · 8 places

Da Nang

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Quảng Nam Province, Mỹ Sơn is a valley containing the ruins of more than seventy Cham Hindu towers and sanctuaries built between the fourth and fourteenth centuries. The brick temples, dedicated primarily to Śiva, reflect a sustained architectural tradition influenced by Indian religious forms while developing distinctly local ornamentation in their carved friezes and tower profiles. Many structures were damaged during American bombing campaigns, giving the site a melancholic, overgrown quality heightened by the surrounding forested hills.

Mỹ Sơn

Da Nang, Vietnam

✦ February to May · $

Con Market

Da Nang, Vietnam

✦ February–May · $

My Son Sanctuary

Da Nang, Vietnam

✦ November–March · $

All 8 places in Da Nang →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Huế · 8 places

Huế

Established as the capital of unified Viet Nam in 1802, Hué was not only the political but also the cultural and religious centre under the Nguyen dynasty until 1945. The Perfume River winds its way through the Capital City, the Imperial City, the Forbidden Purple City and the Inner City, giving this unique feudal capital a setting of great natural beauty.

✦ November–March · $

Meet Complex of Hué Monuments All 8 places in Huế →