North of Vietnam is a region of high mountains and beautiful mountain valleys. Travelers to Northern Vietnam have opportunities to explore the life of hill tribes, and plenty of adventure activities – hiking, mountain trekking, motorbike tours and many others.

High mountain & beautiful valleys 

Why travel to the North of Vietnam?

• North of Vietnam has one of the most beautiful scenery in the country. The region has high mountains, green mountain valleys, beautiful rice fields, waterfalls and lakes.

• The region has both places with well-established tourist infractructure, such as Sapa, and virtually unexplored places, such as Ha Giang province.

• Plenty of adventure activities in Northern Vietnam, including motorbike tours and mountain trekking

• North of Vietnam is the best place in the country to experience the life of local hill tribes

• Several national parks are located in the highland areas across the region. The most famous is Ba Be National Park, north of Hanoi. It is well accessible, and has organized tours and accommodation options.

Best time to visit North of Vietnam

Best time to visit the North of Vietnam is spring months (mid-March to May). You can see mountain valleys and rice fields in their best spring colours.

• Autumn months (September to November) is also a good time to visit the mountains in the North of Vietnam. 
• Winter months bring nearly freezing temperatures to mountain regions. Summer, particularly July and August, is the peak of the rainy season in Vietnamese north.

 Must see places in Northern Vietnam

•  Sapa

Hiking trip through minority village in Sapa

See our travel guide to Sapa

•  Bac Ha

Ethnic minority market on weekends

•  Ba Be National Park

 Beautiful lake, surrounded by the mountains

Other popular destinations/ travel experiences

•  Fansipan

Climb the highest mountain in Indochina (3143m./10310ft.)

•  Ban Gioc Waterfalls

 The highest and arguably the most beautiful waterfalls in Vietnam 

With an adventure motorcycling trip you will make a big loop to experience all the bests that area can offer. Starting in Hanoi you will explore Northwest before jumping into Northeast, back to Hanoi after a day relaxing in Ba Be Lake. The perfect itinerary and the support crew ensure you get the most out of the trip in terms of comfort, enjoyment and adventure. Along the way we encounter dramatic landscapes and sweeping panoramas as the rural population goes about its business. Highlights include the terraced valleys of Sapa, beautiful Ban Gioc Waterfall and many different colorful minority groups.

You can refer itenerary Motorcycling adventure in Northern Vietnam of Activetravel Asia at: http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/tour.php?op=detail&tourId=66

Sapa, Vietnam

Sapa is considered the second destination of Vietnam after Halong Bay. This town is located in the Northern mountainous area with the endless terraced field and interesting experience to visit the ethnic villages. You can easily catch up with the heavy rain and storm. However, with me – Jeremy Jones, this is not an obstacles but an exciting challenge though I have to prepare a lot more when the rain falls.

Rain, rain, rain – it always rains

If you are a unlucky guy coming to Sapa in the middle of storm rain or after a rainy week, then you are in the major. The muddy paths made everyone fell down at least once, and our luggage were sent quite a lot of souvenir from mud.

The extraordinary Sapa landscape

Seems like being aware of this, the stalls in the villages offered most of the things to prevent slipping in every kind of terrain. The sellers are quite smart ladies, and especially when you are buying in the tough weather, the price would be indefinable. A raincoat and a pair of rain boot would be the salvation even in just two days.

Do not leave out homestays

Every visitors to Sapa should spend a night or two at homestay, for not only experience the local life experience but also come into the rural life and visit the beautiful places of the land. The further the land is, the more beautiful the landscape. And the homestay will let you see those landscape.

H'mong People in Sapa

Most of the homestay is a spacious house with sleeping rooms being built next to the main house. People say only those who stayed for two nights could experience the traditional house in the second one. However, after six hours of experiencing, the most expectation for the pervasive numbness is a fare hot shower with common conveniences.

Sapa Town, Vietnam

A homestay in Sapa

In the whole or part of the journey, all of the travelers are followed by the sellers in the village in the hope of selling something. These local ladies became the sufficient supporters when they showed us which way to go, holding our hand to “saving” us from falling down.

In general, Sapa is a perfect destination for coming after a hard rain with every conditions of muddy marshy land that you could ever imagine. However for me, I wish I had known how the trip was to prepare myself more carefully and save some cloths for becoming clouts because of mud. I will definitely not prevent anyone from traveling to Sapa in the rain weather, but I would love to suggest them to prepare well. You will not regret.

Recommended Sapa Trekking & Homestay by ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA

Hanoi - Lao Cai - Sapa - Hanoi 

4-day tour with 2-day trek and 2-night homestay

Trekking grade: Moderate

This trip includes a trek through the hills and valleys of the Sapa region, discovering several different minorities along the way. You will experience overnight accommodation in the hospitable villages of Giay and Tay ethnic minorities. The apparent hardships are worth it though as we walk through some of the most spectacular scenery that Vietnam has to offer and experience unique villages culture.

Highlights 

• Awesome scenery
• Rice terraces
• Colorful minority groups 
• Homestays in minority villages

If you only have time to explore one country in Southeast Asia, choose VIETNAM!

Let’s admit it, when it comes to travel, Vietnam gets a bit of a bad rep. Before coming here all I heard were stories of travel scams, robberies, aggressive touts, and warnings that I’d be treated like a walking dollar sign. I was beginning to wonder whether I even wanted to spend a full month in this country, but 31 days later as my Vietnamese visa is about to expire, I am sad to leave Vietnam behind.

I’ll admit I’m relatively new to Southeast Asia, and have only covered three countries in the past three months, but Vietnam has left the strongest impression on me by far.

So what makes Vietnam so special?

A woman carried a yoke basket down the street in Hoi An, Vietnam

The People

The people are warm, kind, and love to laugh and smile. It is in this country where I have met some of the most caring locals.

The central market in Hoi An, Vietnam

When I was sick in Hoi An, it was the woman who runs the Green Moss restaurant who took it upon herself to get me all better. She prepared ginger tea with honey for me, gifted me with a mint balm to rub on my neck and my chest, urged me to wear a scarf to bed, and then checked up on me daily whenever she saw me cycling around town or eating at her restaurant.

In Vietnam people have helped me when I looked lost, locals I met on a train have offered to show me around their hometowns (for free! Further proof that I’m not just a walking ATM), and business owners have been courteous to me even when I didn’t eat at their restaurant or didn’t take their tour.

The Food

Vietnam has been an explosion of flavours! Most dinners Sam and I have eaten in this country have been silent because we’ve both been gorging on local delicacies like the food in front of our plates is about to disappear. We’ve been known to order four different dishes in one go because there’s just so much new food to sample.

Spring rolls, food in Vietnam

Whether I was learning to cook Vietnamese food in a dim lit kitchen with no ventilation (picture beads of sweat running down my back and hopefully not onto my food), or enjoying a meal at a local farm in the outskirts of Hoi An, the food was spectacular.

Some of my favourite dishes in this country have been bánh xèo (a rice flour pancake stuffed with pork, shrimp, onions and bean sprouts) and fresh spring rolls. Fresh, flavourful, healthy, filling – what else do you need in a meal?

The Options

Then there is the diversity that comes with travelling in such a big country. I can guarantee that Vietnam will not bore you with its possibilities!

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Want to travel down the banks of the Mekong Delta and experience the chaos of vendors at work in a floating market? Do you want to get lost in Saigon’s back alleys as you go in search of the best pho? How about getting clothes custom made in Hoi An? Or can I interest you with a cruise of Ha Long Bay where you’ll be waking up to jagged karst mountains outside your boat? You could also spend your time in Hanoi drinking bia hoi at a little street side bar equipped with plastic children’s furniture? Or if you’re feeling a bit more culturally inclined, go for a hill trek in Sapa where you can do a home stay with the ethnic tribes that call this place home?

If any of this sounds interesting, then you need to come to Vietnam already!

Halong Bay, Vietnam

I’ve spent the entire month in Vietnam saying things like,

“I could totally live in Saigon. Sam, how would you like to come back to Saigon?”

“I could totally stay in Hoi An longer. Sam, wanna stay in Hoi An longer?” (We extended our stay.)

“Sam, wouldn’t it be fun to spend more time in Sapa? I think living here might be fun. No?”

I can’t sing Vietnam’s praises high enough!

I’m not saying that this country won’t pose its own set of challenges – you’ll encounter that wherever you go. However, if you’re glossing over Vietnam because of the negative things you’ve heard in the past, then you’re doing yourself a huge disfavour.

Give Vietnam a chance, and it may just blow your mind.

Find out more information about a travel agency offering adventure tours explore Vietnam: http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/


By AUDREY 

Bringing rice and bacon, an omelet with Vietnamese flavour in the final round of the MasterChef US, has won blind girl Christine Ha the championship. Vietnamese cuisines also set many records in 2012.

1. Christine Ha becomes MasterChef US 2012

In September 2012, Christine Ha – of Vietnamese-origin, 33-year-old blind girl from the University of Houston won the top spot of the MasterChef US, third season. Ha defeated 24-year-old chef Josh Marks to win the final prize worth $250,000 in cash, a cookbook publishing contract and the MasterChef trophy.

In the finale, Christine Ha and Josh Marks had to prepare three dishes in two hours. Josh Marks chose lobster poached in butter, lamb with sauce of curry and vegetable and bacon pecan cake. Christine Ha made Thai papaya crab salad, rice with bacon, omelet with Vietnamese flavor and ginger and coconut cream.

The meal was described by Christine Ha as "a symphony of flavors." They are simply but made the jury was surprised. Many Vietnamese dishes were also introduced by Ha at the MasterChef.

2. 10 Vietnamese dishes recognized as Asian records

On August 20, in Faridabad, Indian, the Asian Organization Record recognized 10 Vietnamese dishes as the Asian records based on the criteria for Asian Cuisine Value. 

Among them, Hanoi contributed three famous dishes - pho, bun thang and bun cha. HCM City had broken rice and goi cuon. The remaining dishes consist of Haiphong’s crab pancake; Ninh Binh’s rice crust; Nghe An’s eel vermicelli; Hue’s beef vermicelli; Quang Nam’s noodles; Gia Lai’s dried noodle; and Vung Tau’s khot cake.

3. 50 Vietnamese famous specialties

In September, in the "First journey to search Vietnam’s specialties 2012" held by the Vietnam Record Book Center, 50 dishes of various regions in the country were listed as the popular specialties of Vietnam.

Hanoi contributes six cuisines to this list, Thua Thien - Hue 5, Ho Chi Minh City 3, Quang Nam 2, Quang Ngai 2, Ca Mau 2, etc.

On this list, in addition to the familiar dishes such as: broken rice, vermicelli and grilled chopped meat, Hue’s beef vermicelli and goi cuon, there are some very strange cusines such as: Binh Thuan’s hotpot, Nghe An’s eel soup, Lai Chau’s six cuisines from pork...

4. Ho Chi Minh City’s street food praised

In the top 10 cities in the world with the most attractive street food, selected by the Vancouversun (Canada) in August 2012, Ho Chi Minh City ranked sixth. Asia also contributed 3 other representatives -Penang (Malaysia), Bangkok (Thailand) and Singapore.

According to this newspaper, the art of cooking of the Vietnamese goes into the memories of many western tourists, especially street food. Just a short tour around the Ben Thanh market to Binh Tay Market, visitors are able to find the answer why people are fascinated by street food here so much. Street food in Saigon is a mixture of many different culinary cultures, especially the French taste based on the traditional flavors and ingredients of the Vietnamese.

5. Vietnam's 10 most valuable fruit

In the "First search of Vietnamese specialties" in August 2012, the Vietnam Record Book Center listed the top 10 delicious fruits of the country. These fruits are granted the "Certificate of trademark registration" by the Intellectual Property Office.

These fruits are very familiar and famous: Lo Ren star apple (Tien Giang province); Thanh Ha litchi (Hai Duong); Vung Tau’s litchi with yellow flesh; Ben Tre’s green skin grapefruit; Binh Thuan’s papaya; Hung Yen’s longan.

The criteria for selection of the best fruit are not only delicious, but also meet the standard for export. 

Source: dtinews