Kid Approved: Vietnam

Vietnam was not meant to be a stop on our route around the world. We had a little visa mix up that resulted in spending a month in Vietnam instead of two months in Thailand. And, wow, was I happy that our little mishap brought us to Vietnam. Just for the food alone! We spent all of our time in Da Nang and Hoi An. Our month in Vietnam fell in the middle of our year abroad and we really set out to lie low and recharged there. We visited in November during rainy season and used the weather as our best excuse to do, well, not much.

And, guess what, our kids loved it! Another example that your kids are simple to please. Trips to the beach, some delicious food, bike rides through rice paddies, maybe a new find at the market. Simple days were the best here!

Here are our favorite places in Hoi An and Da Nang through the eyes of our (then) 5 year old, Olivia…

WHERE & WHAT TO EAT

HOI AN

BANH MI - “Oh I liked to eat banh mi sandwiches.” So do we, Liv! We ate banh mi almost daily from Bánh Mì Phượng. Order your kid’s sandwich without the spicy sauce unless you have very adventurous eaters!

ICE CREAM - “Taro ice cream. I liked it because it was purple.” Ice Cream from Bazar Cafe & Restaurant was delicious. A perfect treat when hopping from one little museum to the next. (Hoi An is full of museums and historical sites. Buy tickets at the kiosks around town for about $5 and you can visit all of the museums in Old Town.)

FOOD TOUR - “We did a tour with Ms. Hanh. We fished for crabs and wore funny chef hats. I liked making the food with her. Especially because we got to eat it. The lady fed my brother mango at the end of the class.” We loved our food tour with Ms. Hanh. She guided us through the markets and taught the kids the names of each fruit. Like Olivia said, we fished for crabs (I caught two!) and made Vietnamese classics like Pho, Bahn Xeo, and fried spring rolls. We were the only ones of the tour and it was great because we could go at the kids’ speed.

DA NANG

Hot Pot - “We saw Frozen 2 at the mall and then we ate Hot Pot. I liked that there was a lot of veggies and we got to put the food into the pot ourselves. We could drink whatever juice we wanted and we always got ice cream at the end.” We ate two meals at Manwah Taiwanese Hotpot in the Vincom Mall and we loved both of them!

THINGS TO DO

Hoi An

Cam An - “The beach was good. It had lots of sand, real sand. Not just a bunch of rocks.” (Wow, our kids have spent a lot of time on Europe’s rocky beaches.) “We played with a dog there and every time I threw sand he would just dig and dig!” Despite it being rainy season, we spent two afternoons at Cam An, a beautiful beach about 15 minutes from Hoi An’s Old Town. We rented chairs from the restaurants on the beach, ate good food, and enjoyed the fleeting clear skies while we could.

BIKE RIDING - “I really liked biking riding with my family. We would yell out “Xin Chào, Moo Cow” to the cows. That’s ‘Hello Moo Cow’!” Our Airbnb had bikes to take out. While we couldn’t manage the city streets, we spent a stretch of time each day riding around the fields near our accommodation.

SHOPPING - “I bought a dark pink dress here. I wore it everywhere. I got a pink backpack there too.” Shopping in Hoi An is a top tourist must-do. I’m not a big shopper but even I got into it. All the knockoffs you could ever need and if you’re in the market for a suit or custom, handmade dress, this is the place.

WATER PUPPET SHOW - “The show was so fun! The dragons breathed fire and water. You should go there.” The best tourist activity that we did. While many museums left us wanting more, the water puppet show was completely delightful.

DA NANG

SUN WORLD - “This place was so fun. There was a huge Ferris wheel. I also went on the tea cups all by myself! They went so fast.” This one makes our top Tourist Attractions We Actually Loved list! One afternoon, Trent and I surprised the kids with a trip to Sun World Da Nang. We knew nothing about the amusement park other than it had a huge ferris wheel (10th largest in the world) and would cost us a total of $20 to get in. We were met with an afternoon full of rollercoasters with no lines and a free arcade. What a fun surprise!

INDOOR PLAYGROUND - “There aren’t a lot of playgrounds.” There really aren’t. Prepare your kids accordingly. We found a decent playground on the beach in Da Nang. But didn’t see another outdoor playground. But indoor playgrounds are popular here! The kid’s loved the indoor playground in the Vincom Mall which made up for all the playground visits we were missing in Southeast Asia. “I really liked the climbing gym and playing with baby dolls. Oh and the dress up area too! You had to take off your shoes.”

PLACES TO SEE

DA NANG

DRAGON BRIDGE - “I like Da Nang better than Hoi An because of the Dragon Bridge. There was a lot of fire! And water too.” We knew that we could see the Dragon Bridge from our apartment. It lights up and changes colors at night and is just so pretty. What we did not know that the dragon breaths fire at 9 PM on Friday & Saturday night! We watched it from our apartment on Friday and then saw it in person on Saturday. We were all seriously impressed.

LADY BUDDHA - “It was so big! I like seeing statues like this.” A trip out to see the Lady Buddha and temples was a great way to spend an afternoon. And monkey sightings always make any activity more exciting!

Would you take your kids to Vietnam? Have you already? What destinations did you love? What did they think of your travels there?