Nice By Vietnam

  A group of Vietnamese tourists take a yatch tour in the South Pole in Antarctic, 2019. Photo courtesy of VietGlobal Travel After a long suspension due to Covid-related border closures, Vietnamese travel firms have resumed outbound tours with prices of up to VND338 million ($14,900). Hanoi-based tour operator VietGlobal Travel is launching a 16-day tour package to the South Pole with prices of up to VND338.9 million in which tourists would visit Ushuaia, dubbed the world's southernmost city in Argentina, and explore Drake Passage or Neko Port by expedition yacht. The South Pole is located on Antarctic and one of the coldest climatic regions. In the summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the sun is bright and warm, suitable for sightseeing. In addition to admiring giant icebergs, visitors can see whales, seals, Adelie penguins and green-eyed cormorants with the closest distance to five meters. Hoang Phung Hieu, deputy director of the company, said five Vietnamese tourists booked tours ...

  A Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 plane takes off behind a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner at Changi Airport in Singapore, March 28, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Edgar Su Singapore Airlines has increased regular flights to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi from three to eight weekly since Monday. There will be five flights a week from Singapore to HCMC and three to Hanoi, using Boeing B787-10 and Airbus A350-900 aircraft, the carrier announced on its website. Flights between Singapore and Da Nang in central Vietnam remain suspended. Singapore officially resumed commercial flights to HCMC and Hanoi from Jan. 13 with three weekly flights after nearly two years. Singaporean investors have been eyeing the Vietnamese market in recent years and around 12,000 Vietnamese live in Singapore. A total 90 percent of Singaporeans plan to visit Vietnam this year once entry restrictions are completely lifted, according to a poll of 1,000 people by Changi Airport Group, operator of the island nation's airport. On...

  Passengers wait at Frankfurt Airport in Germany for a flight to Hanoi, January 25, 2022. Photo courtesy of Vietnam Airlines The first two commercial flights from Europe operated by Vietnam Airlines landed at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport on Wednesday after nearly two years of Covid suspension. The first flight departing Frankfurt with 190 passengers arrived at 9:30 a.m. (local time) and another from London carrying 300 landed at 9:55 a.m. Most of the passengers were overseas Vietnamese returning home for family reunions during  Tet  (Lunar New Year),   Vietnam’s biggest and most important holiday. From Feb. 8, the carrier will operate flights once a week each Tuesday on the Hanoi-London route and Hanoi-Paris-Frankfurt routes every Thursday. Before the pandemic, Vietnam Airlines was the only carrier in Vietnam to operate direct flights to Frankfurt, Paris, London and Moscow. Vietnam had closed its borders and grounded all regular international flights in Mar...

  With travel demand picking up ahead of the Lunar New Year, airlines have increased flights to major cities and tourist hubs and ended Covid-19 testing requirements for flyers.

  Hanoi’s Old Quarter bustles with festive ambience as Tet nears, red and gold decorations dominating shop fronts. Peach blossoms and kumquat laden plants and trees line other streets. With a week to go before Tet, the Lunar New Year, residents are hitting the streets to shop for the festival and it seemed that all roads led to Hang Ma Street in the Old Quarter on Sunday. A  Tet  market, open only once a year for the Lunar New Year festival, runs along Hang Luoc, Hang Khoai, Hang Ruoi, Hang Ma streets in the famed Old Quarter, selling thousands of decorations, ornamental plants and fresh flowers. A group of girls buy various decorations to hang on peach blossom branches or trees. Red is considered a symbol of luck and prosperity in Vietnam and most of the decorative items and offerings sport that color. From individuals to families to businesses, everyone seeks divine blessings for success and happiness. Many families hang red hand-made scrolls, lanterns or calligraphy wo...

  Foreign tourists on Bui Vien pedestrian street, one of Saigon's most popular hangouts, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran The clamor is growing for the government to fully reopen borders to tourists in early February and scrap the stringent entry restrictions to revive the tourism sector. Dinh Viet Son, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said at a tourism conference on Monday that full resumption of international tourism is of a piece with the resumption of international flights. Vietnam resumed regular commercial flights to 10 destinations on January 1, and aviation officials are in talks to restart services to the U.K., France, Russia, and Germany. Trinh Hong Quang, deputy general director of Vietnam Airlines, said there is a "really urgent" need to fully reopen international borders since the tourism industry has suffered for over two years due to Covid-19. Truong Gia Binh, head of the Private Economic Development Research Board, questioned the ...

  A restaurant inside Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi. Photo courtesy of the hotel Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi ranked fourth on the list of 10 hotels serving the best breakfasts in the Asia-Oceania region based on Tripadvisor reviews. The five-star hotel in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem District earned 2,625 positive reviews on U.S. travel site Tripadvisor, ranking behind Malaysia’s Traders Hotel (4,237), Pan Pacific Singapore (3,453) and Thailand’s Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok (4,086), according to the new ranking released by British research company mornings.co.uk. The ranking was based on analyzing what spots had the largest number of positive Tripadvisor reviews where breakfasts were deemed to either the best, excellent, or great. In the global ranking, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London was ranked serving the world’s best hotel breakfast with 5,363 and Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, 11th. Founded in 1901, Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is one of the few capital hotels featurin...

  A Bamboo Airways aircraft approaches Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Shutterstock/Huy Thoai Bamboo Airways announced Monday it would launch a regular direct flight connecting Hanoi with Frankfurt in Germany from Feb. 25 to meet growing travel demand. There would be two weekly flights and the frequency would be increased later based on demand, it stated in a press release. The carrier starts selling tickets for the route from Monday and plans to open a direct route between Ho Chi Minh City and Frankfurt soon. Ticket sales for other direct flights from Hanoi to London and HCMC-Melbourne are also open from Monday, with the frequency of two weekly flights on each of these routes. The first flight between Hanoi and London is scheduled to take off on March 22 and from HCMC to Melbourne from Feb. 19. Before the pandemic, Vietnam Airlines was the only carrier in Vietnam to operate direct flights to Frankfurt, Paris, London and Moscow. Vietnamese aviation ...

  An aerial view of downtown HCMC at night. Photo by VnExpress/Tran Ngoc Dung A survey has found that 90 percent of Singaporeans plan to visit Vietnam this year once entry restrictions are completely lifted. In the poll of 1,000 people by Changi Airport Group, the operator of the island nation's airport, 95 percent said they would stay in Vietnam for over seven days for their holidays, and their favorite destinations are Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang, and Ha Long Bay. Three in five said they have visited Vietnam before, and most respondents were impressed by Vietnam's diverse cuisine, natural landscapes and traditional culture. Vietnam resumed commercial flights to and from Singapore on January 1. In November the government started allowing in foreign tourists under a vaccine passport program, and nearly 8,000 have arrived so far. But they are only allowed to come on package tours with limited itineraries. Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Quang Nam, Quang Ninh, and Binh Dinh provinces and HCMC an...

  A Tet photo contest held every year by the Ho Chi Minh City Photographic Association (HOPA) has captured the colors of spring from all corners of the country in dazzling fashion. The HOPA contest, titled "Mua Xuan Nham Dan 2022" (Spring in the Year of the Water Tiger 2022), had two themes: "Xuan Que Huong" (Hometown Spring); and "Chim, Dong vat thien nhien, Hoa, Ca kieng, Con trung" (Birds, Animals, Flowers, Fish, Insects). The "Xuan Que Huong" theme attracted over 2,500 entries from 300 photographers. Of these, 87 were chosen to be exhibited. The award ceremony and the exhibition are set to take place on January 26 in HCMC's District 1. The "Email ve cham soc suc khoe" (Email on healthcare) photo by Dinh Tat Canh in Quang Nam won the Colorful Award, the contest’s top prize. Canh said the picture of hundreds of yoga practitioners was composed like an email message to everyone to take care of their health, especially in Covid-19 ti...

  Farmers in Sa Dec Village, famous for the flowers it cultivates for the Tet festival, are busy all day putting finishing touches to their blooming crops. The village in Dong Thap Province’s Tan Qui Dong Commune has 2,000 households earning a living mainly from growing flowers and ornamental trees. It is considered the floral capital of the Mekong Delta and a main supplier of flowers to provinces and cities across the country. A farmer uses his boat to take care of baskets of chrysanthemum morifolium planted on platforms built above a water logged area. Vietnamese have a long tradition of using fresh flowers as offerings to deities and their ancestors to pray for luck; and to decorate their homes during the  Tet  (Lunar New Year) festival. This year, the Lunar New Year falls on the first of February. For this  Tet  season, an estimated 100,000 baskets of yellow chrysanthemums will be supplied to neighboring localities, including Ho Chi Minh City, around 5,000 p...

  A Vietnam Airlines aircraft takes off at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangzhou, China, 2019. Photo by Shutterstock/Markus Mainka The Civil Aviation Administration of China has rejected Vietnam's proposal to resume commercial flights since strict entry measures remain in place to control Covid. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said last month it wrote to its Chinese counterpart about restarting flights, but was informed that with number of Covid cases still remaining high globally as well as in China the government was yet to ease control measures,  Giao Thong  (Transport) newspaper reported. It has not been authorized to discuss resumption of flights with other countries yet, the Chinese agency said, promising to start discussions with the CAAV as soon as the government relaxes pandemic prevention measures. China is one of the few countries in the world still pursuing a zero-Covid policy and stringent entry requirements. Vietnam resumed regular flight...

  Golden sunshine on an area of Cu Hill next to Xuan Huong Lake with a view of the French-built College of Pedagogy in Da Lat. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Ngoc Ga Ha Long, Da Lat and Vung Tau have been awarded "ASEAN Clean Tourist City Standard" awards for their cleanliness, green environment and sustainable development. The awards ceremony was part of 2022 ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF 2022) held in Sihanoukville Province in Cambodia from Jan. 16-22. The recognition was based on a set of indicators including environmental management, cleanliness, waste management, awareness-building on environmental protection and cleanliness, green spaces, health safety, urban safety; and tourism infrastructure and facilities that evaluate how sustainable ASEAN cities are. For years now, Vung Tau, around 125 kilometers (77 miles) from Saigon, has been a popular weekend escape in southern Vietnam, famous for its long, gentle beaches and warm waters. Da Lat, a cool resort town in the Central Highlan...

  With just over a week until Tet, Vietnam’s biggest and most important festival, here is a list of seven holiday destinations worth consideration. Staycation in Ho Chi Minh City InterContinental Residences Saigon, Sheraton Saigon and Renaissance Riverside Saigon are offering staycation packages with room prices starting from $155 a night, in which guests can enjoy a private gym, swimming pool and other luxury entertainment services. An outdoor swimming pool inside InterContinental Residences Saigon in HCMC's District 1. Photo courtesy of the hotel HCMC is now a green zone, deemed at low Covid risk, with a series of tourism and cultural activities run during  Tet  like the Nguyen Hue flower street, spring flower market at Binh Dong Wharf in District 8 and a lion dance for luck in the Chinatown. Glamping in Da Lat Glamping, a luxury version of camping that includes facilities and accommodation far more comfortable than traditional camping – has become a growing trend among...