A culinary journey through Vietnam: Hanoi to Saigon
One client, one brief, and five cities' worth of eating.
Everyone who knows me knows how much I love food. It plays a huge part in any trip I plan for myself. In fact, it's often the reason I visit a destination in the first place. So when a client asked me to design him a culinary journey through Vietnam, I was in my element.
Vietnam is a gift for this kind of trip. The food changes as you travel down the country, from the delicate, herb-heavy dishes of the north to the sweeter, punchier flavours of the south, so an itinerary that runs from Hanoi to Saigon is a tasting menu in itself.
Here's what we put together.
Hanoi
Backstreets by jeep, stopping for bun cha, banh mi and ice cold bia hoi at a pavement table. Bun cha is the one to get right here: grilled pork and noodles in a bowl of broth, eaten on a plastic stool about a foot off the ground. Evenings are for street food adventures in the Old Quarter, where the best cooking often comes from one family who have made a single dish for decades.
Ha Long Bay
An overnight cruise among the limestone karsts, with a seafood banquet on deck as the sun goes down. One of those meals he'll never forget. Smaller boats are worth paying for here, both for the quieter bays and for the food.
Hue
Riding through villages and canals on the back of a motorbike, then fine dining in a centuries-old villa in the evening. Hue was Vietnam's imperial capital, and its royal kitchens left it with a cuisine of small, precise, intensely flavoured dishes. It is one of the country's most underrated food cities.
Hoi An
The lantern-lit Old Town, the markets, and a cooking class. Hoi An has dishes you will find nowhere else, so this is the place to learn a few of them properly and bring them home.
Saigon
A Vespa food tour through the city: night markets, hidden restaurants and street food so good he'll want to cancel his flight home. Saigon eats late and eats well, and the back of a scooter is the only sensible way to keep up.
Build a trip around what you love
Food has always been my way into a destination. If it's yours too, or if you have another passion you'd like to build a trip around, I can design a journey entirely bespoke to you: street food tours, cooking classes, market visits, chef's tables, or something completely different.
FAQs
When is the best time to visit Vietnam?
It depends where you are going, because the country is long enough to have several climates at once. Broadly, spring and autumn suit a Hanoi to Saigon trip best, and Miranda Seymour of Seymour Escapes plans the route around the weather rather than the other way round.
How long do you need for a Vietnam food trip?
Around two weeks lets you take in Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hue, Hoi An and Saigon without rushing. Ten days works if you drop one stop.
Can you build a trip around food rather than sightseeing?
Yes, and it is one of my favourite briefs. Cooking classes, market visits, street food tours and chef's tables become the structure of the trip, with everything else planned around them.