Best Traditional Vietnamese Halong Bay and Hoi An Heritage Tour Destinations
Browse more guides: Vietnam travel | Asia destinations Best Traditional Vietnamese Halong Bay and Hoi An Heritage Tour Destinations TL;DR Vietnam - the long S-shaped country running 1,650 km from the Chinese border to the Mekong Delta - packs an extraordinary range of UNESCO heritage into a single trip. Major destinations: Halong Bay (UNESCO, 1,600 limestone karst islands rising from emerald water in the Gulf of Tonkin), Hanoi Old Quarter with the 36-streets pre-colonial trade district, Hoi An (UNESCO, the merchants' town frozen since the 18th century), Hue Imperial Citadel (UNESCO), plus broader Vietnamese cultural-tourism. Plan a 10-14 day Vietnam trip running north to south. This is one of the best-value mainstream Asian destinations and one of the most photogenic in South-East Asia. Background Vietnam was unified in the 19th century under the Nguyễn dynasty (1802-1945) with its capital at Hue, which built the Imperial Citadel modelled on Beijing's Forbidden Ci...