8 reasons to visit Vietnam for your next family holiday

Image

This post is part of our family month - during which we're exploring all the fantastic experiences for families across our destinations in Asia. For more inspiration, take a look at our dedicated family page.

Vietnam is a paradise for families. Whether your kids are still little or practically grown-up, there are so many exciting activities to get stuck into here that a two-week trip can feel like several holidays all rolled up into one. Here are some ideas for your next family adventure.

Festive fun

Wherever you travel in the world, festivals are one of the best ways to really get to know the countries you visit. The decorations are out, music fills the streets, traditional games are played out in public and there are all kinds of delicious festive foods to try. Most importantly, however, everybody is in the mood to party – which means much more interaction with the locals than you might expect on an average day. One of our favourite festivals for families has to be the Mid-Autumn Festival (Tết Trung Thu) where the streets come alive with lion dances, colorful paper lanterns, and street parades. You'll also find lantern displays, boat races and cultural performances celebrating events throughout the year.

Image

Lantern festival in Hoi An

Beautiful beaches

All good family holidays need to balance adventure with relaxation, and with a 1,000 miles of coastline there are plenty of places to get a bit of R&R in Vietnam. While you relax at a beautiful seaside resort, your little ones can blow off steam as they build sandcastles on the beach, swim in the clear blue sea and go on a snorkelling hunt for tropical marine life. To read more about Vietnam’s best beaches, click here!

Image

Basket boats on Danang Beach

Craft workshops

A great way to get to grips with Vietnamese culture is to search out some good craft workshops. Whether it’s lantern-making, kite-making or cloth-weaving, Vietnam is full of traditional crafts to try your hand at. At most workshops, you’ll get an introduction to the methods and watch one of the pros at work before getting the chance to craft your own creation to take home.

Image

Kite making is a traditional art in Vietnam. Have a go at creating your own at a craft workshop.

Spectacular caves

Vietnam has beautiful landscapes, filled with dramatic karst formations and sprawling cave networks. Phong Nha Cave and Paradise Cave in Vietnam are a great example, and easily accessible for those with children: the former is accessed by boat from Phong Nha town, and the latter is a relatively short walk uphill from the foot of the mountains. For families with older children (over 16), there are also some incredible multi-day adventurous treks taking you deeper into the park and its cave network,

Image

Exploring the caves in Phong Nha National Park

Cookery classes

Vietnamese cuisine is justly lauded as some of the finest in Southeast Asia, but as any parent will know – that doesn’t mean your kids will eat it. Try to get unadventurous children more involved in the food with a cookery class. There are plenty of them across Vietnam, most of which will include a visit to the local market to buy produce (or, in some cases, to a local farm to pick vegetables) and a professional demonstration, before you get to have a go yourself. Getting involved in the production of their meal from start to finish has the potential to make even the fussiest of children more inclined to branch out – and if they still won’t eat it… well there’s more for you.

Image

Take a cooking class in Hoi An

Rural experiences

One of the greatest things about travelling with children is exposing them to different lifestyles and showing them that you don’t need all the mod cons to be happy. Many Western kids these days can’t imagine life without an iPad, but take them to Vietnam and they’ll realise that other children don’t have these luxuries – and moreover, that they don’t necessarily miss them.

There are all kinds of ways for families to immerse themselves in a simpler way of life in Vietnam, whether you go the whole hog with an overnight village homestay, or simply plump for a single experience – trying out traditional farming methods, for example. The best thing about it all is that by participating in these experiences, you’re helping to ensure the survival of traditional culture.

Image

Try your hand at farming in the countryside around Hanoi or Hoi An

Modes of transport

Sometimes it’s not the carefully planned and arranged experiences that have the biggest impact on your children. Sometimes it’s the simpler things – like transport. As adults we have a tendency to view transport as an unfortunate inconvenience, but in Vietnam it’s all part of the adventure. Cycling around Hanoi in the morning, taking a cyclo tour of Hue, zipping through Hoi An on the back of a Vespa, kayaking through Halong Bay, cruising on a boat in the Mekong Delta… there’s no end to the exciting modes of transport you can try out with your family.

Image

Travel by boat through the Mekong Delta.

Fascinating history

OK, so history has a reputation for being a bit dry, and children and museums don’t always mix. We know that. But Vietnam’s fascinating history really comes to life when you’re crawling through underground passages at the Cu Chi or Vinh Moc Tunnels, or standing in the shadow of a tank in central Saigon. Surely every child has played soldiers in some shape or form – and here they can do so while (hopefully) absorbing a bit of real history at the same time.

Image

Relive history at the Vinh Moc Tunnels, where Vietnamese villagers sheltered from US bombing campaigns.

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to family holidays, and nobody knows your kids’ interests and temperaments better than you do. That’s why we tailor every holiday we make to your individual needs and preferences. Just get in touch with one of our Vietnam experts to find out what we could do for you.