360 Best Sights in Vietnam

As dusk falls, the area directly opposite the walking bridge connecting the Old Town to An Hoi Peninsula is lit by hundreds of silk lanterns, spilling out from little wooden chalets that wouldn't look out of place at a European Christmas market. In the daytime you can come here to watch the lanterns being crafted from wafts of silk and bamboo, but it's not until night, when the lantern sellers are joined by a whole host of mobile craft, jewelry, and souvenir stalls, that this area really comes alive. The night market has the biggest selection of lanterns in town and you can even design your own. While the stalls in between are not particularly notable, you can pick up cute little trinkets as souvenir for very reasonable prices.

Only accessible at low-tide across treacherous slippery rocks, Hon Ba Island is home to the Mieu Ba (lady) temple, dedicated to the patron goddess of sailors and fishermen. If you visit, watch the tide carefully to make sure you don't get stranded. There's no food or fresh water on the tiny island.

Other than Con Son, Hon Cau (Big Island) is the only island in the archipelago with a water source. It was also used as a prison island by the French—one of the more notable inmates was the late Vietnamese prime minister, Pham Van Dong, who was incarcerated here from 1930 to 1931. Hon Cau is home to a turtle nesting beach and the tours offered by the national park headquarters include a visit to the prison site, as well as snorkeling along the coral reefs just offshore.

Just like the Po Nagar Cham Towers, this headland is on the north side of the Cai River. The promontory provides good views of the coastline and the surrounding islands and is a great spot to watch the sunset. Climb up for a view of Nha Trang and its islands. If you look northwest you can see Fairy Mountain (Nui Co Tien), said to resemble a reclining fairy. To get here from the Po Nagar ruins, head north on 2 Thang 4 Street and take a right on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street.

If you feel like soaking your tired bones for awhile, have your driver or a motorbike taxi take you to the hot springs in beautiful Suoi Nuoc Nong village, a few miles south of the main road.

Be warned, the rather murky communal pool is far from idyllic.

In French-colonial days, the Hotel Continental's open-air terrace—then known as Café de la Hien—was the town's most sought-after lunch spot; during the Vietnam War, journalists and diplomats met there to discuss the latest events. Now, the terrace has been enclosed and renamed La Dolce Vita Café. The hotel features in Graham Greene's The Quiet American and the author himself was a long-time resident in room 214 and a regular at Le Bourgeois Restaurant.

Built in the late 19th century, the Majestic was one of the first French-colonial hotels, and it still has the elegant style to show for it. Head to the rooftop bar for an excellent view of the Saigon River.

The reason to visit this museum is to see the beautiful wooden structure that houses the antiques, rather than the displays themselves. Built in 1845, the small garden house is an architectural wonder, with walls inscribed with Vietnamese poetry and ceilings festooned with beautiful carvings. Inside there are miscellaneous royal knickknacks, such as wooden incense boxes, many inlaid with mother-of-pearl, plus statues, old weapons, and jewelry. Unfortunately, the whole experience is let down by lackluster guides and limited information available.

A Chinese-style pagoda built in 1838, Huong Pagoda sits behind teal wrought iron gates with a hint of art deco. Beautifully and brightly painted, the pagoda has red doors with gold floral designs, intricate scenes painted on the short walls between the second and third upturned roofs, and, resting on top, colorful animal figures. If you're lucky, a monk will be there and you can sit for tea and persimmons.

Nestled at the foot of Hon Vuon Hill, Huyen Khong Son Thuong is a monastery and the serene home of about 60 Theravada monks. Founded by Ven. Silaguna in 1989, the monastery sits in a beautiful garden with five water lily and lotus ponds and is surrounded by pine trees. Unlike the majority of Buddhist temples in Hue in which designs are influenced by the Nguyen Dynasty’s royal style, its architecture is simpler and is decorated with calligraphy poems that are composed by the monks and written in Vietnamese rather than traditional Chinese characters. Apart from beautiful bonsai trees, hundreds of orchid plants bloom here year round. If you’d like to venture further, take a one-hour hike to the top of Hon Vuon Hill, where you'll get a stunning view of hills, lakes, the iconic Huong River, and Hue’s cityscape expanding into the horizon.

While the mud baths are the main attraction at I-Resort, there are also warm mineral pools, mineral water spas, waterfalls, and a kids' play area, all set within landscaped grounds 20 minutes northwest of the main tourist area of Nha Trang. Some of the massages and mud bath package deals offer good value and include a "light bite" that's really a full meal.

The Imperial City, also known as the Imperial Enclosure, was once a complex of palaces and pavilions where civil and religious ceremonies took place. Inside it was the Forbidden Purple City, where the royal family lived. Now the Imperial City has buried the few remnants of its past glory beneath the sporadic vegetation that has taken over the ruins, but restoration work is in progress and the site still conveys a sense of splendor. There are four gateways into the enclosure: the Gate of Peace (Cua Hoa Binh), the Gate of Humanity (Cua Hien Nhan), the Gate of Virtue (Cua Chuong Duc), and the South Gate (Ngo Mon). You can only get to the Imperial City after you have entered the citadel.

About 2 km (1 mile) from My Tho, on the Mekong River, is Con Phung, or Phoenix Island, better known as the Island of the Coconut Monk. A religious sanctuary before the war, the island once had a garish, eclectic complex in a style similar to the Caodai Holy See in Tay Ninh. It was built in the 1940s by a French-educated engineer-turned-monk named Nguyen Thanh Nam, nicknamed the Coconut Monk by locals because he reputedly lived for some years on nothing but coconuts. The monk presided over a small community of followers, teaching a religion that combined elements of Buddhism and Christianity. He was imprisoned repeatedly, first by the Saigon regime and later by the Communists for antigovernment activities; he died in 1990. All that is left of the monk's utopian dreams are some dragons and gargoyles and columns with mythical creatures wrapped around them.

Phoenix Island is one of My Tho's four islands named after mythical beasts—Dragon (Con Tan Long), Tortoise (Con Qui), and Unicorn (Con Lan) are the other three. Tours from My Tho usually visit all four, stopping at tourist pavilions where coconut candy, local honey, rice wine, and local musicians await. Organizing a visit through a reputable travel agency in Ho Chi Minh City is recommended but if you do take a local tour, be sure to explore the islands beyond the tourist centers by strolling the narrow lanes to see the fruit orchards and get glimpses of local life. Boats leave from Trung Trac Street, next to Mekong tributary.

No visit to Nha Trang is complete without a boat trip to the surrounding scenic islands, such as Mieu Island (Tri Nguyen Island), Mun Island, and Tam Island. Boat trips can be arranged through local hotels and travel agencies or directly at the port on the south end of town, but note that there might be a language barrier this way.

The Cantonese community built this structure—the finest Chinese pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City—in 1909. A mixture of Taoist, Buddhist, and ethnic myths provides the sources for the small pagoda's multitude of statues and carvings, incorporating just about everything from the King of Hell to a Buddha of the Future. Slowly strolling around the interior to view them may be preferable to attempting to decipher the significance of each of the numerous, distinct deities. Take a moment to note the main altar, the side panel's depiction of hell, and, in the side room, the miniature female figures representing the range of human qualities. There are usually a few vendors at the entrance selling turtles. Buddhists believe that releasing these turtles into the pagoda's turtle pond will generate merit.

Erected in the 1600s, these are the few remaining tombs of Hoi An's old Japanese community. Although the tombs—tombstones, really—are not nearly as grand as those in Hue, it's worth the trek if only to see the "suburbs" of Hoi An. En route you'll encounter families sitting in their front yards and field workers harvesting rice. Buried in the first tomb along the dirt path clearly visible in the front yard of a family home is a Japanese merchant named Masai. About another 1,500 feet ahead is the most famous of Hoi An's Japanese tombs, the burial place of a Japanese merchant named Yajirobei, who died in 1647. Perched right in the middle of a working rice field, his tomb has an almost supernatural feel. The main tombs are easily accessible by bicycle---just head along Hai Ba Trung Street and go north of Old Town. To find the tombs, keep your eyes peeled for the white-and-yellow signs positioned along the right side of the road. (Cars are not recommended because the tombs are at the end of narrow, rugged paths.)

Continue 5 km (3 miles) to the end of Hai Ba Trung for a refreshing dip and lunch at one of the bohemian seaside shacks on An Bang beach.

This small memorial between West Lake and Truc Bach Lake marks the capture of one of the Vietnam War's most famous American POWs. On October 26, 1967, Navy lieutenant commander John McCain's jet fighter was shot down, sending him parachuting into Truc Bach Lake. Suffering from badly broken bones and severe beatings, he was imprisoned in the "Hanoi Hilton" and other North Vietnamese prisons for more than five years. He went on to become an Arizona senator and a vocal advocate of reconciliation between the United States and his former captors, and was a presidential candidate in 2008. The underwhelming red-sandstone memorial features a bound and suspended prisoner with his head hanging low and the letters U.S.A.F. (the memorial is incorrectly labeled, as McCain belonged to the navy and not the air force).

A small community of about 30 ethnic M'Nong households on the shores of Lak Lake, Jun Village is an interesting place for a stroll to see the traditional bamboo and wood longhouses and the more modern concrete versions, most with a collection of pot-bellied pigs, chickens, dogs, and children running around or napping nearby. There are two restaurants on the lakefront, both serving cheap Vietnamese fare, as well as some handicraft shops selling baskets, weaving, wind chimes, and other knickknacks. It's possible to organize a stay in one of the longhouses in Jun Village through Duc Mai Coffee, but this is best done with a guide. Be advised that bathrooms are outside.

The beautiful Khmer pagoda and nearby communal longhouse and meditation center are off the road behind graceful palm groves and huge banana trees. The richly worked interior of the pagoda houses extensive gilded wood carvings. Originally constructed in the 16th century, the pagoda was rebuilt in the French-Khmer style at the turn of the 20th century. It's an almost ethereal photo opportunity if you can snap monks posing in the foreground.

One of the biggest battles of the war—and one of the most significant American losses—took place on January 21, 1968 at Khe Sanh, the site of a U.S. Army base 145 km (90 miles) northwest of Hue. Khe Sanh lies in a highland valley not far from Highway 9, which links Vietnam with southern Laos. General William Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968, became convinced in late 1967 that the North Vietnamese were massing troops in the area in preparation for a campaign to seize South Vietnam's northernmost provinces. Relying on an analogy with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, he reinforced Khe Sanh with thousands of Marines and ordered the dropping of more than 75,000 tons of explosives on the surrounding area. The North Vietnamese suffered horrendous casualties—estimates are that as many as 10,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and hundreds of U.S. Marines lost their lives, a sacrifice that seems senseless given the fact that the American forces abandoned the base shortly after, in June 1968. Although the debate continues, many military experts believe that the battle at Khe Sanh was merely a feint designed to pull American forces away from the population centers of South Vietnam in preparation for a massive assault by the North Vietnamese in the Tet Offensive of early 1968. Although there is only a small museum commemorating the battle at Khe Sanh, a visit to the base provides a sense of how isolated and besieged the U.S. Marines must have felt as they were bombarded from the surrounding mountains. In the museum, which opens whenever tours come through the area, there are a number of interesting pictures of the battle and a book for visitors' comments that reflects the continuing debate about the American presence in Vietnam.

With powdery white sand and an ocean that seems to change colors throughout the day, this beach is just what you'd expect from a tropical island paradise. This is where the grandiose JW Marriott Phu Quoc is located, on the southern end of the island. If they are allowing guests (sometimes they don't) then you can spend a day enjoying their chairs and food, but you will have to pay for them. There is also a hard-to-find access road to the beach beside the Coconut Prison. Amenities: food and drink. Best for: walking; swimming.

Housed in a blocky concrete building across the road from Ang Pagoda, the Khmer Culture Museum has four exhibition rooms containing re-creations of various aspects of traditional Khmer life, as well as collections of musical instruments and farming tools. All signs are in Vietnamese and Khmer. It's not the most interesting museum, but worth dropping by if you're just across the road anyway.

In a large stucco French-Khmer colonial-style building, originally built as a Khmer school in the 19th century, the museum's collection includes Khmer statues and clothing, antique pots and utensils, and two long and colorful racing boats. During the French-Indochina War the building served as the headquarters for the local French militia, and during the Vietnam War it was a headquarters for American troops.

Another picturesque wooden building, the three-story Kon Tum's Catholic seminary was completed in 1934. It contains a small minorities museum that shows the history of Christianity and conversion in the region, as well as exhibits from local hill tribes. It's open on Sunday.

This bridge, about 2 km (1 mile) from downtown Kon Tum, spans the Dakbla River. The 292-meter bridge was completed in 1994, making it easier for people in Konklor village to get to town. If you're really lucky, you may see a "traffic jam" caused by a bullock cart crossing the bridge. Don't miss the rong house on the left side of the northern bank of the river.

The Lake of Sighs, northeast of town, takes its name from a tale of two star-crossed lovers, Hoang Tung and Mai Nuong. According to legend, Hoang Tung joined the army, but Mai Nuong thought she had been abandoned. Out of despair, she killed herself by jumping into the lake. On discovering her body, her lover did the same. Access to the lake is via a kitschy theme park that may entertain children for several hours. The extensive grounds contain flower gardens, statues designed for photo-posing, coffee stalls, concrete animals, and replica village huts.

The multitalented, multilingual monk Thay Vien Thuc, known as the Mad Monk of Dalat, resides in this small Lam Ty Ni Pagoda. An artist, poet, landscape architect, craftsman, and religious scholar, Vien Thuc is a living legend. If you manage to visit when Vien Thuc is present, he will usually escort you through his rooms of watercolor paintings, replete with Zen poetry, and may even paint a picture for you in exchange for a small fee. When the monk is absent, the pagoda can be a bit disappointing.

A convenient stopover on the trip from Hue to Danang, Lang Co is an idyllic hamlet on a peninsula jutting out into the East Sea. Lang Co Beach is a good place to have lunch and spend the day, and for the true sun worshipper, it's absolutely worth considering if you plan a couple of nights of beach indulgence at the Banyan Tree or its budget friendly little sister, Angsana, which is about 20km away from Lang Co Township. Take the turn off Highway 1 at the sign for the Lang Co Beach Resort; this will lead you to the long, sandy beach. Amenities: food and drink. Best for: sunsets; walks; swimming.

Established in the memory of artist Le Ba Dang, who was born in nearby province Quang Tri and became successful in Paris, Le Ba Dang Memory Space is one of the country’s best art museums. The main building of this private contemporary space, located on 4 acres near Thien An Hill, is modeled after one of the artist's paper works. The museum showcases Le Ba Dang's varied talents, from painting to sculpture to paper-cutting and printing.

In 1983, city authorities created this park by clearing the Cimetière Européen, which had been established in 1859 by the French navy as the final resting place for soldiers and sailors who died in the city. Some superstitious locals won't go to the park because of its previous incarnation and the ghost stories that have been circulating ever since the cemetery was decommissioned. Ghosts aside, with its large shady trees, this is a great spot for people-watching early in the morning, with games of badminton, ballroom dancing, aerobics, jogging, and stretching going on. The park, which occasionally hosts book and agricultural fairs, is also a popular spot for Vietnamese couples to steal some privacy after dark.