Accommodation

Firstly, don't worry too much, for each town and city I visited there was always plenty of options to stay at, so even riding into a random town late in the day you will be fine.

There are 3 main forms of accommodation that you will encounter on your travels through Vietnam. The cheapest is of course HOSTELS.

Hostels are typically busy, frantic, fun, a little loud, cheap as hell, and filled with the younger crowd. I stayed in many hostels during my travels because they force you to meet people and let's face it, traveling solo can be very lonely from time to time.

So for me I like to pop into a hostel (private room) and use it to make friends. Jump in the pool, make conversation, go enjoy a sunset at a viewpoint with two dutch girls, drink beer until 3am with the Irish rugby lads, or bump into other weary solo travelers equally lonely and covered in dust. Go over, start talking, that is why we are all here.

HOTELS are everywhere and typically are really great. They will be clean, have air con, and the beds will be ok (sometimes a little hard) but you’ll have the space you need to wash, sleep, and reset.

HOMESTAYS in Vietnam are in most ‘touristy’ towns and consist of converted homes. A family typically turns their 5 bedroom house into a small hotel, the staff are all family, the rooms are clean, the food is homely, and the atmosphere is far more welcoming. If you want to connect more with Vietnamese culture then stay in homestays more often.

My best advice when it comes to finding a place to stay (other than the places I recommend in this guide) then simply open google maps, zoom into the town, and look out for the accomodation/hotel pink icons to appear, and then simply open each one, take a glance at the price, the reviews, and you will be able to choose a place in seconds.

But if the rooms are all full or not available on the booking sites, don’t worry, CALL THEM.

The amount of times I saw a cool hotel or hostel and the booking sites said they were full or the room I wanted was unavailable, but then after I called them using the number on google and found out that the room was available blew my mind. Don’t take the booking sites' word for it, call them in person!

Just be aware that most good hotel will book up ahead of time during weekends.

Vietnam had hot showers everywhere although sometimes you may need to ask for help to turn the boilers on, so don’t assume there is no hot water, there is just a switch hiding around that needs flicking on to activate the hot water.

Rarely however will a hotel have a fridge so don’t expect to bring a few beers back to room to store in a cold fridge, and finally all my rooms had complementary towels so you won’t need to pack a towel.