Vietnam is a travelling honeymoon, not a lying-still one. Two places in seven days, three in ten. Come December to April if you are mostly in the south and centre, March or April if you want the whole country at once. For the beach part: Phu Quoc for resorts, Con Dao for quiet, Nha Trang for a resort coast with a city attached.
Is Vietnam actually a good honeymoon?
We are asked this more than almost anything else, usually by couples deciding between here and Thailand or Bali. The honest answer has two halves.
Yes, if you want range. In one week you can wake up in cloud at fifteen hundred metres, eat dinner in a lantern-lit town that has not changed its street plan since the sixteen hundreds, and swim the day after. That spread is the thing Vietnam has and the single-island honeymoons do not.
No, if your picture of a honeymoon is one lounger, one pool and no packing. Vietnam rewards moving. The resorts here are very good, but the country is better than the resorts, and couples who never leave the property tend to tell us afterwards that they saw a lovely hotel and not much else.
There is a third thing worth saying, because nobody else will. Vietnam is not a quiet country. Cities are loud, traffic is constant, and building happens everywhere, including next to beautiful hotels. If silence is the whole point of your trip, go to Con Dao or stay in the mountains, and we will tell you honestly which of our locations are peaceful and which only look peaceful in photographs.
When to come, including the December question
The country runs on three different calendars, which we have written out month by month in a separate guide. For a honeymoon the short version is this.
- December to April is the dry season in the south and the best stretch on the islands.
- March and April is the one window where the north, the centre and the south are all pleasant at the same time. If you are doing a Hanoi to Saigon trip, come then.
- September to November is storm and flood season on the central coast. Hoi An floods most years. The north, meanwhile, is lovely in October and November.
December deserves its own paragraph, because it is the month couples ask about most. In Phu Quoc, Con Dao and Saigon, December is excellent: dry, clear, warm. In Hanoi and Sapa it is cold, often grey, sometimes drizzling for days. Plenty of couples still love the north in December, with coats and hot coffee and empty streets. Just do not plan it expecting blue sky.
A seven day honeymoon that works
Two places, three nights each, one travel day. This is the shape we recommend most often and the one couples tell us they would repeat.
| Days | Where | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Hoi An and the Da Nang coast | Old town, tailors, a river, lanterns at dusk, and thirty kilometres of beach half an hour away |
| 4 | Fly south | About an hour and a half in the air |
| 5 to 7 | Phu Quoc or Con Dao | The lying-still part, once you have earned it |
If you would rather have mountains than a beach, swap the second half for Sapa or Ha Giang and fly in and out of Hanoi instead. That version is harder work and, in our view, more memorable.
A ten day honeymoon
Ten days buys you a third place without making the trip feel like a tour.
- Days 1 to 3, Hanoi and Ha Long. Two nights in the Old Quarter, one night on the water. The bay is worth doing properly from a boat rather than as a day trip.
- Days 4 to 6, Hoi An. Fly to Da Nang, stay in or near the old town, and keep one morning completely free. The town is best at six in the morning and after nine at night.
- Days 7 to 10, an island. Phu Quoc for resorts and direct flights, Con Dao for quiet. Finish here, not in a city.
What we would cut if you only have five days: everything except the centre. Hoi An, the coast, and one day doing nothing.
Where the beaches actually are
Vietnam has three thousand kilometres of coast and the beaches are not evenly good. Honestly:
- Phu Quoc. The easiest. International flights, big resorts, warm water, and the dry season runs November to April. Also the most developed, so choose the south or the far north of the island if you want quiet.
- Con Dao. Our own favourite. An hour's flight from Saigon, almost no development, and water that still looks like a postcard. Fewer hotels, which is the point.
- Nha Trang. A long resort coast with a real city behind it, and bays further out that are much quieter than the main strip. Dry from January to August, wet from September to December, which is the opposite of what people expect.
- Da Nang. Thirty kilometres of clean sand next to an airport, and Hoi An half an hour away. Not a secret, and not trying to be.
- Quy Nhon. The one we would name if you want somewhere few people at home will have heard of.
Ha Long is not on this list on purpose. It is magnificent and it is not a beach holiday: it is one or two nights on a boat among limestone islands, and it belongs in a northern week.
Being photographed on your honeymoon
This is quietly one of the best things you can do with ninety minutes of a honeymoon, and it is nothing like a wedding shoot.
No gown unless you want one. No family, no timings, no shot list to get through. We meet at sunrise because that is when the beach or the old town is empty, we walk, and we photograph the two of you as you actually are on that trip, in the clothes you packed. Couples tell us afterwards that these are often the pictures they framed, not the wedding ones.
If you do want the gown for an hour, say so and we will bring one. Our wardrobe is included in every session either way.
What it costs
A honeymoon session is priced exactly like our pre-wedding sessions, by the city you are in. Nothing is added for it being a honeymoon.
| Where you are | Session | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Hanoi | 6 hours, 2 locations | $780 |
| Saigon | 6 hours, up to 2 city locations | $880 |
| Phu Quoc | 6 hours | $1,380 |
| Da Nang and Hoi An | 6 hours, our travel, stay and car included | $1,480 |
| Da Lat | 6 hours, our travel and stay included | $1,480 |
| Nha Trang, Sapa, Ha Long, Moc Chau | 6 hours | $1,480 |
We do not sell tours, we take no commission from any hotel, and we are not paid to name any of the places on this page. That is the reason we can tell you which ones we would skip.