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Dalat is an alternative Vietnam: the weather is spring-like instead of tropical hot, the town is dotted with French-colonial villas rather than socialist architecture, and the surrounding farms cultivate strawberries, coffee and flowers instead of rice.

Dong Van is the Ha Giang region's most popular overnight stop and, not coincidentally, is home to some solid accommodation and food. But the real reason to come is for the Sunday market, one of the region's biggest and most colourful. The town is also a good base for day treks around nearby minority villages and nearby sights such as the Lung Cu flag tower and the Lung Cam Cultural Tourist Village.

Ninh Binh is a good base for exploring quintessentially Vietnamese limestone scenery. Few Western tourists head here, but many Vietnamese flock to nearby sights, including the nation’s biggest pagoda and the Unesco World Heritage–listed Trang An grottoes.

Few parts of Vietnam stir the imagination with the lure of adventure quite like the highlands. The ribbon that is the Ho Chi Minh Hwy winds its scenic way past coffee plantations, pine-studded mountains, rice paddies with their wallowing buffalo, enormous reed-covered lakes and peaceful villages, laying down the challenge of a two-wheeled journey.

This stupendous coastline of ravishing white sands and azure bays is Vietnam's premier destination for beach holidays.

The high-rise, high-energy beach resort of Nha Trang enjoys a stunning setting: it's ringed by a necklace of hills, with a turquoise bay dotted with tropical islands.

Gateway to the Mekong Delta, My Tho is the capital of Tien Giang province and an important market town – although for the famous floating markets, you’ll need to continue on to Can Tho.

A popular weekend escape from HCMC, Vung Tau rocks at weekends when beach-starved locals and expats descend in numbers, but it is relatively quiet during the week. The city enjoys a spectacular location on a peninsula, with ocean on three sides; the light and sea air make it a refreshing break from sultry Saigon.

Yok Don nationalpark i södra Vietnam ska istället erbjuda etisk elefantturism.

Quang Ngai city is something of an overgrown village, so most visitors only drop by for a spot of grazing at lunchtime. The few travelers who venture here for longer usually do so to pay their respects to the victims of the most famous atrocity of the American War at nearby Son My.