Vietnam with kids – Best places to visit

[Orient Skyline Travel]

Travelling to Vietnam with kids has been increasing trend in the last recent year; many beautiful places are considered as the best places to visit in Vietnam, a fascinating country in Southeast Asia.  Thanks to its stunning landscapes spectacular natural wilderness, cultural diversity, very friendly and welcoming people and the last but not the least its white sand beaches paradise along the tropic coastline with the World most beautiful bays, Vietnam has been a rising star destination for family holidays. Every year millions of tourists travel to Vietnam to enjoy the amazing experiences that Vietnam has to offer. Travelling to Vietnam with kids will be interesting and more fun to include some of the following into your Vietnam family travel plan. The aim of these is to prove realistic suggestions to create a fun time for kids and enjoyable journey for parents making the holiday a well balanced to suit every member, kids and parents.

 

1. Hanoi

Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam, the second largest and second most crowded city of the country too. The unique culture, the glory history, the ancient temple and most iconic landmarks have made Hanoi one of the best places to visit in Vietnam.  Today, Hanoi is a very vibrant city while remains a very attractive destination to visit and discover with your beloved family.

Activities:

As a big city, Hanoi has several of attractions and activities that may take you a few days discovering. Within a day, the following are the most interesting and best places to visit in this Vietnam’s capital for both kids and adults.

• Hanoi’s Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake: This is the most interesting area for your to explore on foots. The Old Quarter of Hanoi is a system of narrow streets and long and dark alleyways connecting all together. It is labyrinth of small handcraft streets where local residences had their products made and sold from their homes. Hence today the names of the streets are also names of the products which were sold or manufactured in the former time. It has changed however a few streets such Tin street, Silver streets where the products are still on display. After walking, pay a visit to Hoan Kiem Lake, the name derived from the Legend that an emperor of Vietnam after defeating the Chinese Quing army had returned the holy sword to the turtle in the water. Walk across the Red bridge to the island if your kids want to see a giant turtle displayed in a glass box.
• Temple of literature (Van Mieu in Vietnamese) sits in within a well kept ancient garden, is one of the most iconic temples throughout Vietnam, built in 1070 to respect Confucius, the Chinese scholar and philosopher, the Temple of literature turned into the first national university of Vietnam and functioning for almost 700 years. Take your kids here for a worth visit and they can rub the heads of the sacred turtle for good luck in exam and good health.
• Cyclo ride: Hanoi use to be a kingdom of bicycles and cyclos around 25 years ago. They were the main means of transportation in the city. Today it is kingdom of mortobikes! However there are still some cyclos as a fun way for tourist to enjoy Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Hop on one with your kids and have fun and breezy ride around the old street of Hanoi.
• Water puppet show in Hanoi: This is one of the most ancient arts of performance of Vietnamese. It is believed to be created by the rice farmers of Vietnam around one thousand years ago in the rural rice filed villages outside Hanoi. This one hour entertaining show is a great way to wrap your day in Hanoi.

 

2. Halong Bay

A good holiday in Vietnam with kids must include Halong Bay as it is one of the World’ new natural wonders, the world largest limestone formation rising out of the sea, the UNESCO heritage site of Vietnam recognised for two times. It is mesmerising enough for you to say “I want to stay here for month” It is just like in celestially beautiful paradise!

What to do and how to enjoy Halong: Taking a boat cruise tour to discover the strange towering rock formation of Halong bay is a must for whoever comes to Vietnam. If they miss this one - cruise the emerald water of Halong Bay - they have missed a lot.

There are two options. Generally, day cruise and over night cruise. The first day cruise option is not realistic one for kids as you get to travel long hours from Hanoi to Halong Bay which is about 3,5 hours by car so kids could be tired if they are small like under nine or ten. Then the second option of taking Halong overnight cruise is far better choice for family travelling with kids as not only you and your kids enjoy the spectacular bay view but also indulge an overnight experience on water onboard the boat built in traditional junk boat style.

During the boat cruise, the family can enjoy more onboard activities like limestone cave exploration, swimming on the moody beach or paddle kayak to explore the hidden lagoons. In addition, it fun time to join in with the Chef from boat for a cooking demonstration making some Vietnamese finger food for yourself or rise up early and practise Tai chi on sundeck with Tai Chi guru.

 

3. Sapa

Sapa sits 1650m higher than the sea level, on east side of the Phanxipan Mountain near borderline with China, the highest one in the Indochinese region, considered as the Tonkinese Apls. With the cool climate and the average temperature 20 degrees that made Sapa once the summer escape destination for the French during their colonial period of the Indochina.  Today, Sapa becomes a popular destination for foreign tourists who want an excellent mix holiday for breathtaking landscape and fascinating culture of the ethnic minorities.

Walking through Muong Hoa valley to enjoy the natural landscape of the green valley surrounded by the spectacular mountain ridges, you walk along the world’s most beautiful rice terraces which stretch from the valley bottom upward to the mountains top, cross the vigorously mighty river on the suspension bridges to visit hamlets of different ethnic minorities. Visit local families to interact and learn about their unique culture and traditional animism belief. Particularly, visit a local woman who is passionate in making traditional cloth and learn how to print batik on indigo cloth. On the way, pass several local school, wave hi to kids and teachers and your kids can interact with local friendly kids at their classroom.

4.  Hoi An

 

Hoian Town in central Vietnam, 25 km to the South of Da Nang airport, one of the prominent UNESCO heritage site of the country, is an architecturally well-preserved example of a trading port in the Southeast Asian region dating from the 16th to the early 19th century. At first it was a small sleepy fishing village then due to great location on half way between Japan, China to Srilanka, India the village became busy port. During its heyday the port welcomed merchant boats from Japan, China, Spain, and Holland, Portugal. Today, its street arrangement, buildings reflect the influences, both indigenous and exotic like Japanese and Chinese and little bit of western countries, that makes this charming town very unique heritage site.

Family activities in Hoian:

• Hoi An story: Stroll leisurely around town to discover the great history of the place and what make this a prominent UNESCO site of Vietnam. The walk should not be too long as UNESCO site is not too spread out but quite centrally concentrated. The main points of interest and visiting sites are located in within its 5 main street running paralleled away from the waterfront one. The town discovering walk shout include the Phuc Kien Assembly house, this is in fact a temple, built by the people from Phuc Kien (Fukian) province in China and dedicated to worshipping the Gods that is believed to save their life on the sea journeys to Hoi An. Walk down further to visit the Japanese covered Bridge, this was financially built by the Japanese residence who had their business here in Hoi An. Apart from functioning as a bridge it was also a temple for the God who was believed to keep Japan safe from monster which causes earthquake! Hop into one the many ancient houses, ancestral home of the family and learn about their lovely family tradition as well as the story about the past floods they have undergone.

• Vespa tour: Do as local do, ride a motorbike and hit the roads to explore Hoi An rural countryside to maritime sleepy fishing villages. Instead of the normal regular motorbike, today treat your family with a ride on specially designed fashionable Vespa. No worries, you do not have to suffer from driving in Vietnamese style, all you need to do is sit back and relax behind the certified driver. Stop en route to take in the peaceful rustic atmosphere in the back ground of rice field and water coconut cannals.
• Being a farmer, riding a water buffalo in Hoian will not soon to forget as it is the highlight of the holiday in Vietnam with your kids: This needs to be organized with a local travel agency. On this tour your kids and you will embark on activities in the rural countryside of Hoian like planting vegetable in Tra Que vegetable village, learn some basic techniques to control water buffalo to plough the paddy rice field. Last have fun riding a water buffalo. Buffalo boy then!
• Food discovery of Hoian: This UNESCO town is one of the best places to visit in Vietnam’s central region, apart from history discovery Hoi An is the paradise of local food and delicacy. Book a street eat tour of Hoi An to discover the local taste which will be highlight of your Hoi An experience.
• Cooking class for family: If you love cooking and want to try your hand at cooking Vietnamese food, there are lots restaurants in Hoi An you can book for this fun family activity. Walk through the local and colourful market with your chef and select ingredients, roll up your sleeves and prepare your own dish.

5. Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest and busiest city of Vietnam to the South. As it is quite modern city with only some iconic sites worth visiting within a day like the Reunification Palace, War Museum, Sai Gon Post Office and The Norte Dame Cathedral. Following are list of interesting things for the families with small kids.

• Rooftop coffee on Bitexco Tower: located on 48^th floor of the second tallest building of Ho Chi Minh city, this place offers a great aerial city view.
• Theme park: In Ho Chi Minh City, your kids perhaps you too are deserved a theme park experience where there both relaxing games and thrill one, best part of going there would be water games. The most popular and best ones are Dam Sen and Suoi Tien.
• A O circus show or My village show: In the evening, your family can enjoy some of the best shows in Vietnam, AO and Lang Toi both are depicting the beauty of the Vietnamese culture but performed in contemporary performance art using traditional materials for artful displaying items like bamboo stick, bamboo baskets and robes...

6. Mekong Delta

Mekong Delta is the flat land basin of the Mekong River where there hundreds of silted waterways traversing the area. Mekong Delta is well-known for its verdant rice field and orchards.

No matter you just begin holiday in Vietnam with your kids or you are about to leave after the trip, leave the hustle and bustle of metropolis Ho Chi Minh city behind and take a day or two to cruise the Mekong Delta where you will experience the totally different landscapes of the flat endless verdant rice fields fertilized by the red silt from thousands of waterways and small canals of the mightiest river system in Vietnam – Mekong River.

A day tour is comprehensive to have a glimpse of the area, from the traditional wooden boat you cruise the Mekong river main stream, glide through a floating market, which is the regional aspect in Mekong Delta, to take some of the postcard photos then leave the cruise and take a walk through the fruitful orchard and bonsai garden to visit some local family industries on the island making rice paper, coconut candy, distilling rice wine.

Embarking on the overnight tour to cruise the Mekong will even be a perfect journey as you travel deeper into the heart of the Delta and discover more authentic local life in the less seen urban river towns and sleepy villages along the waterways.

The last but not the least experience the night on the quaint river cruise. For alternative, experience sleeping in a local home stay in the middle of the family orchard on the Island of Mekong River.

7. Vietnam beautiful beaches

When a family travel to Vietnam with kids, automatically the following question arises: Are there good beaches? This case yes. Vietnam is famous for its beautiful coastline and islands with over sixty beaches, many of them are enclosed within some of the world top beautiful bays like Halong Bay, Lang Co Bay, Nha Trang Bay...eat the freshest seafood, enjoy being tanned while your kids have fun time with variety of beach sports, snorkelling and diving.

 

We hope the above are convincible for your family to travel to Vietnam with your kids. To get more suggestions for an incredible journey in Vietnam, please take a look at our customized tours for that perfect holiday in Vietnam for you and your beloved kids!