Vietnam street food tours.
 

Debating if we should include a street food tour on an upcoming trip. Wondering if we are better off just heading to the restaurants or food stalls ourselves and not being taken around in a large group.

If we do opt for the tour, which of these cities would be best for the tour, Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An or HCMC?

Thanks in advance.

Saigon Hotpot or XO Foodie tour in HCMC.
Hanoi Kids in Hanoi.

The food tours are expensive for what you get. Nice riding around the streets the streets of Saigon on the back of a motorbike though (probably not for the faint hearted).

We have always gone our own way rather than tours. It has helped that we have Vietnamese friends in Saigon and Hanoi which as helped. My wife created google street maps for food in Saigon, Hanoi and I think Hue. PM me if you would like links.

Walking is the best route in Hanoi and Hue but a motorbike taxi is your best bet in Saigon. The best food options are out in the suburbs District 9, 10.

My wife did a few posts on Vietnamese food on our blog https://accidentalnomads.com/category/food-in-asia/ the entry for Hue has a lot of info on individual dishes etc. which may help in deciding where to go. The best small restaurants and stalls tend to do one or two dishes and do them well so it is worth sourcing some places in advance. Having said that we have found some brilliant places just by wandering the streets and eating where the Vietnamese Eat.

We had a great time on our walking food tour in Hanoi. We went with "Hanoi Street Food Tour" as it received good reviews on TripAdvisor. Our guide was fun and informative and helped us feel more comfortable learning how to cross the street (an important skill in Hanoi!) We did the tour on our first day in Vietnam which was a fun introduction to an amazing country. I don't know how large the groups usually are, but we only had one other couple with us. All the food we tasted was yummy!

Plenty of advice on street food and cooking tours from the long-established site TravelFish:

https://www.travelfish.org/sight_pro...noi/hanoi/3230

It mentions the Hanoi Cooking Centre. I took their street tour a few years ago. The small group started in the market and then proceeded from small plastic stool to another set of small plastic stools, tasting unusual and sometimes unknown foods and ingredients. We happened to have two guides that day, highly informative young men, who kept us on route for well over four hours, ending with ice cream and coffee. They insisted, as did the chefs at several cooking schools I attended, that food and eating open a window on Vietnamese culture. The country was hungry for many decades; now food is an obsession. My rates are out of date, I expect, but a hands-on cooking class will cost a fraction of what it would in Western Europe or North America.