The Adventure Continues...

Itchy Feet YouTube Channel

New Videos on Fridays 7PM EST

Exploring Vietnam

Articles, Tips, Everything you Need to Know about Visiting Vietnam

I consider myself well-versed in Vietnam. I lived there for years, and I’ve traveled to almost every corner of the country. I love (most of) Vietnam. Of course, it’s not for everyone. But the people who love it have a connection to the country that they just can’t shake.

Anthony Bourdain called it his “first love”. Saying, “I’ll come back to Vietnam, always.”

The amazing war film Apocalypse Now has a line about being stationed in Vietnam, “When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think about was getting back…”

In a lot of ways, this is Vietnam. There are plenty of frustrations that come with living and visiting the country, but it’s truly a magical place, an addictive place. The vibrations it gives off is like a high that you didn’t notice needed until it was gone.

Budget Guide to Vietnam
$20/day

Phu Quoc, Vietnam
This backpacking guide to Vietnam covers 22 locations in Vietnam and shows you how you can travel the entire country for $20 a day. It took years of traveling to complete this detailed travel guide.

View the budget backpacking guide

Vietnamese Food Guide

Soups in Vietnam that aren't pho - mi quang
When I first moved to Vietnam, I started documenting everything I ate. Two years later, I had this complete food guide to Vietnam with over 75 dishes. It includes a food dictionary that will help you translate a Vietnamese menu.

Get the Guide

 
 

Vietnam Road Trip – Part 1: Driving to Dalat

Subscribe to my site for weekly updates, including the next video in this series.

Vietnam Road Trip: Driving to Dalat

Watch part 2

At the peak of the dry season, the best place for Saigoneers to escape isn’t the beaches. The hills of the highlands are much cooler, and the pine-smelling air is fresh. After 6 months of sweltering heat and no rain, Sara and I decided enough was enough. It was time to head to the hills. We packed up the motorcycle and drove to Dalat.
More

10 Delicious Soups in Vietnam that aren’t Pho

10 Delicious soups in Vietnam that aren't pho

Pho-get About It

Everyone knows about the Vietnamese beef noodle soup phở. Vietnamese restaurants around the world have it on their menu. Pho is good. Sometimes it’s great. But there are plenty of other delicious bowls of broth in Vietnam. A lot of them won’t show up on a Vietnamese menu overseas. I suspect some may not even be considered edible to someone that hasn’t grown up with the particular flavors, and isn’t open-minded enough to really give it a chance, but I insist you try these if you get the opportunity. You might find a new favorite Vietnamese soup. I know I have.
More

How Cheap is it to Live in Vietnam?

Live it up in Vietnam for $4000 per year

Be prepared to take on any Vietnamese menu with my Vietnamese food guide
With over 75 dishes!

It’s not hard to save money in Vietnam. If you’re an ESL teacher you’re likely to make around $15-20 per hour. You can easily save half of that if you take advantage of Vietnam’s low cost of living. I’ve lived in the country for almost 2 years now. After settling in, I discovered just how little I needed to live an amazing life in Vietnam. So how cheap is it to live in Vietnam? With a bit of initial work and spending, it’s possible to live off of $4000 per year — and the best part is, you can avoid cooking and cleaning, and basically live the life of Riley.
More

My Tho, Vietnam: Don’t Just Tour Through It

My Tho, Vietnam from the Mekong River
The fishing market in My Tho, Vietnam where all the ocean fish are brought.

The Story – My Tho, Vietnam

I know how it goes.

I get on a bus, someone’s always late, we head out and I listen to people talk about how much they drank last night, everyone gets off the bus and piles onto a boat, we’re herded to various sites that are very much setup for tourists, I start to plan how I could secretly execute the loudest most obnoxious person on the tour, I get back on the bus and head back disappointed because I didn’t get a chance to execute that annoying person.
More

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam: Phuq off!

Phu Quoc, Vietnam
It looks like a paradise, but looks can be deceiving.

The Story – Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

A tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand. Probably, the best beaches in Vietnam. Soft sand. Warm turquoise waters. It sounds like a paradise — like an amazing way to spend a week after a long stretch of hard work (for Sara, not me). Unfortunately, this vacation didn’t turn out the way we had hoped. How could this be? Were we attacked by a Kraken? No, I can’t blame squid. In fact, squid definitely made the vacation better. The blame comes down on the island itself. Phu Quoc currently isn’t the paradise that it should be, but hopefully that will change.
More

Travel Itinerary and Budget for 1 Month in Vietnam

Fruit seller in the old quarters of Hanoi, VIetnam
While 1 month in Vietnam isn’t nearly enough time to see everything, it is a decent amount of time to travel from one end of the country to the other, getting a taste of the natural beauty, beaches, culture, and more. In this guide, I start in Ho Chi Minh City and head north, but this can easily be switched to north-to-south.
More

Bookmark These 20 Websites for Traveling Vietnam

Moto-taxi driver in Vietnam
A xe om driver in outside of Ben Thanh Market in Saigon, Vietnam
If you fancy yourself an independent traveler – one that doesn’t like tours and doesn’t rely heavily on guidebooks – you probably like to do your own research, finding tips about off-the-beaten-path places or local hangouts that the tourists don’t know about. With smartphones and tablets, it’s easy to arm yourself with websites for traveling Vietnam, but the hardest part is finding the sites. If you like off-the-beaten-path travel, you have to dig deeper to get that hardly seen information. Much like how I prefer eating at a restaurant that doesn’t have an English menu, I enjoy getting my information from Vietnamese sites.
More

‹ 1 2 3 4›»