Salzburg

A French-era hill station, this national park reaches a peak of 1450m at Bach Ma mountain, only 18km from the coast. The cool climate attracted the French, who built over a hundred villas here. Not surprisingly the Viet Minh tried hard to spoil the holiday – the area saw some heavy fighting in the early 1950s and again during the American War.

There’s much more to northeast Vietnam than Halong Bay. The sinking limestone plateau, which gave birth to the bay’s spectacular islands, continues for some 100km to the Chinese border. The area immediately northeast of Halong Bay is part of Bai Tu Long National Park.

Plonked about midway between My Tho and Can Tho, Vinh Long is a major transit hub and the capital of the province. For travelers, it's a gateway to island life, Cai Be floating market, abundant orchards and rural homestays.

Just off the Danang Beach coastal road, the Marble Mountains (Ngu Hanh Son) consist of five craggy marble outcrops topped with pagodas. Each mountain is named for the natural element it’s said to represent: Thuy Son (Water), Moc Son (Wood), Hoa Son (Fire), Kim Son (Metal or Gold) and Tho Son (Earth). The villages that have sprung up at the base of the mountains specialise in marble sculpture, though they now astutely use marble from China rather than hacking away at the mountains that bring the visitors in.

Graceful, historic Hoi An is Vietnam’s most atmospheric and delightful town. Once a major port, it boasts the grand architecture and beguiling riverside setting that befits its heritage, and the 21st-century curses of traffic and pollution are almost entirely absent.

Dien Bien Phu (DBP) plays a star role in Vietnam's modern history. It was in the surrounding countryside here, on 7 May 1954, that the French colonial forces were defeated by the Viet Minh in a decisive battle, and the days of their Indochina empire became numbered.

Tra Vinh, one of the prettiest towns in the Mekong Delta, is a peaceful place to explore the region's little-touted Cambodian connection. Around 300,000 ethnic Khmer live in the surrounding province and the area is dotted with more than 140 Khmer pagodas. With wide boulevards shaded by lines of trees, the town itself is more symbolic of the French colonialist era, but get beyond the outskirts and you'll soon discover that Khmer culture is still alive and well in these parts of Vietnam. Tra Vinh also has a small but active Chinese community, one of the few such communities that remain in the Mekong Delta region.

Northwest Vietnam, with its rocky, cone-like mountains, high vistas and deep valleys, encompasses some of the most extreme geography in the country – if not all of Southeast Asia. Travelling to the more remote parts of the region takes time and effort, but those short on either can stick around Sapa, the surrounding hills of which are a microcosm of the region as a whole.

South of Hanoi, Ninh Binh province is blessed with natural beauty, cultural sights and the Cuc Phuong National Park. Highlights include boat trips amid karst landscapes at Tam Coc and the Unesco World Heritage-listed Trang An Grottoes.

Draped along the banks of the Hau Giang River (Bassac River), Chau Doc sees plenty of travelers washing through on the river route between Cambodia and Vietnam. A likeable little town with significant Chinese, Cham and Khmer communities, Chau Doc's cultural diversity – apparent in the mosques, temples, churches and nearby pilgrimage sites – makes it fascinating to explore even if you're not Cambodia-bound. Taking a boat trip to the Cham communities across the river or heading to nearby Sam Mountain and Tra Su Bird Sanctuary are other highlights, while the bustling market and intriguing waterfront provide fine backdrops to a few days of relaxation.