Category: Family Travel

Best Activities for Children in Vietnam

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to book a stay or purchase an item I may earn a commission at no cost to you.

Vietnam is full of great activities for children. Although it can be a bit of a ‘tricky’ country to wrangle your children in (think hot, chaotic, dirty, noisy) it’s worth it for the wonder and excitement that it brings and all the cool things available for them to do. Also the Vietnamese people are so friendly and love children so I highly recommend visiting with children.

Here are our top activities in Vietnam for children:

Water puppet show, Hanoi

This is a delightful and SHORT (60 minute) puppet show in water unlike anything you have ever seen before. Centrally located in the Old Town of Hanoi you will be able to walk there from your hotel even with young children. My 3 year old was transfixed the whole time despite me being convinced we would have to walk out halfway through. Even my 3 month old baby loved it. Tickets were very affordable too. Show times vary but generally take place 5 times a day at approx. 3 PM, 4:10 PM, 5:20 PM, 6:30 PM and 8:00 PM. You can buy a ticket on the day.

Old Quarter Night Market, Hanoi

The Hanoi Night Market is only on on the weekends but is a great experience for kids if you are in Hanoi at the right time. It gets dark early in Hanoi so kids get the excitement of being out and about when its dark without staying up too late past their bedtime. Plus the market has lots of fun things to look at and buy for cheap so you aren’t breaking the bank including lots of kids clothes and toys and junk that kids like to collect or ‘tat’ as we call it. There is also some food and drinks to purchase. My 3 year old acquired a purple crocheted turtle which has a measuring tape inside that you can pull out at this market and she LOVES it.

Ride a Cyclo around Hanoi

Hanoi is such a great place to watch all the hustle and bustle of a city and what better way to do that than the novelty of a Cyclo. The Cyclo is a bicycle taxi that you can find all over Hanoi. They are pretty pricy and more of a tourist attraction than an actual convenient way to get around but your children will love them and the slight breeze provides a welcome break from the heat of the city.

Try all the fresh fruit juices available

Kids love fruit and they looooove juice. Vietnam is a paradise as they can get a huge variety of fresh fruit juices on the street anywhere in the country. Made fresh in front of you its great to keep your kids hydrated and get in their 5 plus a day. We love watermelon, lime, passionfruit and mango juices!

Train Street, Hanoi

Train Street in Hanoi is the coolest experience for kids – nowhere else in the world are they going to see a train moving by at that speed up close. It’s also a great spot for pictures. Obviously caution is recommended and you need to be actively parenting your children while you are here. However, the trains are scheduled at set times of the day so you will have a lot of advance warning of the approaching train and the locals will let you know when you need to get out of the way. The Train Street is ‘officially’ closed but if you turn left when facing the main entrance to the street and then right down the next road someone will find you and lead you through a tunnel to come out into the open of the street.

Trang An Boat Ride, Ninh Binh

Kids love every form of transport – a little rowboat is definitely an exciting experience. Add to that a trip through gorgeous green landscapes with big limestone karsts, long caves where the adults need to duck so that they don’t hit their heads and lots of chances to get out and stretch their legs. The kids will decide that sightseeing is cool and be way more patient at the next stop. I highly recommend bringing your own children’s lifejackets on this boat ride as the ones provided were very ill-fitting.

Halong Bay Cruise

What could be better than enjoying some luxury along with your kids? Enjoying some luxury without them. But jokes aside if you have to take your kids along a Halong Bay Cruise is beautiful, entertaining, relaxing and kid-friendly. They can’t escape the boat easily so you can let your guard down a little and there are tons of activities, not to mention a buffet and a pool (depending on your cruise). Also the novelty of sleeping on a boat and buying things from the little market boats that float past does not wear off fast.

The Beach

The classic – if you are ever stuck for somewhere to take your kids in a hot climate, the beach is always a winner. An Bang Beach in Da Nang is perfect as its right in the city and close to lots of amenities + you can get a hotel right by the beach through booking.com. There are nice beaches all over Vietnam though so you can’t go wrong wherever you are going to be based!

Sunworld Amusement Park, Da Nang Hills

This place is CRAZY. It’s not a traditional amusement park so you don’t need to try to entertain the kids while you line up for rides all day. The first attraction that will interest the kids is that you need to take a cable car to get here as its waaay waaay up a mountain. I think you are on the cable car for about 20-30 minutes!!
Then once you get up the top there is a giant hand bridge, another cable car, food outlets, a french colonial village to wander through, a cool fountain and some interesting gardens, a full indoor arcade area, a kids play area and some indoor rides for smaller kids and some for big kids/adults. There are a couple of rollercoasters too but these close when the weather is bad as they are outdoors.

Visit somewhere rural

The Vietnamese people are so lovely and even more so when you get out of the cities. It’s a great idea for children to experience the realities of Vietnamese life and get an authentic experience of the country. That’s what travel is about after all! We travelled to Vinh Hy Bay which is very off the beaten track and only popular among local tourists. Our 3 year old had a great time wandering through an indigenous village and also playing at the local playground with some of the local children. Our baby made friends with a local grandmother. I definitely suggest enjoying some everyday activities with your children such as taking a walk and playing on a playground in a place like this.

Stay in a nice hotel

My last suggestion of what to do with children in Vietnam is to have a stay in a nice hotel. Your money goes a lot further here so you can get luxury for less. You can find a great hotel with child friendly amenities on booking.com. Just relax at the hotel and enjoy all the things you can’t normally afford or wouldn’t do at home. My suggestions are:

  1. Hang out at the hotel swimming pool all day
  2. Order room service
  3. Let your children have anything they want at the buffet breakfast and be okay with them leaving piles of food on their plate because they selected too much
  4. Go up and down all the floors in the lift as many times as your kids want
  5. Take advantage of your hotel’s babysitting service (if they have one – many in Vietnam do) and go out for a nice meal while your children make a new friend.
  6. Lie in bed and watch movies
  7. Have a bubble bath
  8. Get your kids special mocktails at the hotel bar
  9. Jump on the bed (especially if they aren’t allowed to at home!)

I hope you have found this list helpful! I also think the Mekong Delta would be an amazing spot for children but we didn’t get down that far south this time around. Please do let me know of any other great activities for kids in Vietnam in the comments!

Erika xx

Places my baby slept in Vietnam: Photo Essay

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to book a stay or purchase an item I may earn a commission at no cost to you.

I went to Vietnam with my 2 month old baby (She was 3 months old when we returned after 3 weeks!) and it was the best decision I ever made – It is so easy to travel with a newborn when you can carry them everywhere and they sleep ALL the time!

Here is a sweet photo essay of all the sleeping my baby did while me and the rest of my family were enjoying ourselves! If you would like practical tips on travelling with a baby or young child please see my post here instead.

Disclaimer: I highly recommend you also get an actual hotel room via booking.com. Despite appearances my child did actually spend every night and a scattering of day naps sleeping in a cot at a hotel haha.

RemasterDirector_18da6b0cf

In the above picture my baby is sleeping in the Koo-di Pop-Up Travel Bassinette. It can be used for sleep in a hotel room but is also handy to have for at the airport, beach, park etc. so baby can have a safe space to lie down.

Oh and just for fun here’s one of my toddler falling asleep at the hotel pool too! Travel is TIRING. She slept there for 2 HOURS.

There you have it – sleeping on an aeroplane, a train, a boat, a cruise ship (at the bar), multiple restaurants, a vineyard, a pool, in our arms, on a massage table , in the carrier, on the bed and in a bassinet. And these are just the times we took photos! This baby experienced so many things while travelling haha!

What weird places have your kids fallen asleep? Let me know in the comments!

Erika xx

Must have Gear for Travel with Kids

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to book a stay or purchase an item I may earn a commission at no cost to you.

Travel with children is a whole different ball game. Even if you are a seasoned traveller with all the right tools and tricks you need to re-learn everything to travel with children. Packing is one of those areas in which you need a whole new arsenal of weapons just to get through the trip.

We recently went to Vietnam for 3 weeks (our first major trip with 2 children – a 3 year old and a 3 month old. Read all about it in my post here) but we have also done some short and long trips within New Zealand (some road trips some via aeroplane); and we also went to Europe when our eldest was 18 months old so we have had our fair share of failures and successes here.

My absolute top tip is to travel with as little luggage as possible. You aren’t exactly going to be able to stick to a carry-on with small children BUT you tend to be a lot more forgetful and rushed so the less you have with you the better. If not, you will end up losing things along the way. You can always wash clothes (especially children’s clothes) on the road so don’t bring too much of this sort of thing. Toys and books are necessary but you always need much less than you think you do!

So without further ado here are the things you need to take:

Water steriliser

I am all for helping the environment (except when it comes to reducing my plane travel as I live in New Zealand there isn’t really any other option to get anywhere) and I used to always be disgusted at the number of plastic bottles we went through on a trip to countries without safe drinking water. With a water steriliser there is no longer any wastage and we can get clean water anywhere, anytime which is so crucial with kids – you don’t want to be wandering around trying to find a shop because you have run out of water or be worried about your child wasting or spilling what you do have. As a family you go through so much water too and while you sterilise you can teach your kids about why its important! We have the Classic Steripen and have never had any issues with it.

I also suggest taking a reusable water bottle as you will need it to sterilise your water in and drink from. The Nalgene water bottle is a great size and fit seamlessly with the Classic Steripen.

Travel Car Seat

There are travel car seats on the market for older kids that take up much less space if you are moving around a lot and don’t want to lug carseats around. We took the Bubble Bum Booster Seat for our toddler. These are so useful because they are easier to transport so if you need to jump in a taxi you can. However, you can’t find this sort of thing for infants in a capsule so if you have a small baby and you can afford it – take the best travel capsule on the market: the Doona infant car seat. This thing is AMAZING and saves you having to take a travel stroller also. It also means you can just hop in a taxi anytime you like as you won’t have to lug your carseat around afterwards you can just convert it to a stroller for these occasions!

Family Travel wallet

There is normally one adult in a partnership doing all the organising and now that you have kids you have 4 passports and tickets and other documents to carry around. I always use a family travel wallet to keep all of these things accessible and organised along with our itinerary. Amazon has some great options.

Packing Cells

Really for the same reason as above – to keep you organised. Packing Cells can help to seperate out different items so you can locate them easily (ie. all the togs/items for swimming) and stops you from needing to fully re-pack your bag every time you move hotels. Its a great idea to have a different colour per member of the family if you have kids as you are usually sharing bags with them.

Go Pro

I find when I travel with my children I tend to do a lot more activities where a camera would get damaged and a lot more play in water. A Go Pro is a great idea to take to capture all those moments when you would prefer to keep your phone safe and away from the situation.

Sarong

This seems like a strange item to carry unless you are doing a solely beach holiday but I always carry a sarong with me everywhere when I travel. Its great for covering up your legs or shoulders in temples or staying out of the sun, keeping warm if the wind picks up and drying off if you paddle in some water or mopping away some sweat. It’s also an emergency skirt if you get mud all over you and its so lightweight and easy to pop into your handbag or a daypack. If you are travelling with kids it can be used for all these things for your children – also particularly as an emergency towel or blanket as children always need these.

Travel Toys

You are going to need toys if you are travelling with kids but you don’t want to lug your whole toy box around with you. Mostly new toys with a few old favorites is the best mix of things to take. Make sure almost everything is very small and ideally multi-use ie. stackable cups, a favorite soft toy, little toy cars. The absolute BEST toys for travel I have found are the Melissa and Doug magic painting and Melissa and Doug reusable sticker books.

Tablet

My kids don’t really use a tablet at home but while we are travelling you are gonna bet I get that baby out whenever it can calm them down and keep them happy. Plane trips and restaurants are the key locations where a tablet = bliss. Make sure you research some age-appropriate games and download them before you go. For a young child this could be as simple as a game where you pop bubbles as they float across the screen (yes this game exists).

Travel cot

If your kids need a cot to sleep then you can either stay completely in hotels that will provide one or you can take your own. I would try to avoid taking your own if you are heading on holiday via aeroplane as they are still very bulky. If you have a very young baby I swear by the Koo-di Pop-Up Travel Bassinette. It can be used for sleep in a hotel room but is also handy to have for at the airport, beach, park etc. so baby can have a safe space to lie down.

Child appropriate gear for activities

The best thing I took with me to Vietnam was life jackets for my 2 young children. We were doing a LOT of water based activities and some places provide children’s lifejackets but these were ill-fitting and weren’t going to fit my 3 month old baby! Taking along one that fit really well for my toddler meant she actually wanted to wear it and we always had piece of mind that she wouldn’t slip out. Also for babies you can get special jackets that fit snuggly and tighten under the bum so that they are held in place too. We used a baby lifejacket when we took her on a kayak, rowboat and a speedboat and felt so much more comfortable (what a daredevil baby she is!).

Enjoy making memories!

Erika xx

Top Tips for Travelling Vietnam with Babies or Toddlers

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to book a stay or purchase an item I may earn a commission at no cost to you.

We have just come back from an amazing family holiday in Vietnam. Our 2 kids have just turned 3 months old and just turned 3 years old. I highly recommend Vietnam as a child-friendly destination but you need to follow some steps to make sure a trip here goes smoothly! Here are our top tips for travelling Vietnam with kids:

  • Book in advance – seems obvious but many travellers like to play things by ear. Once you have kids to travel with planning is your friend! You don’t have to book absolutely everything in advance but i highly recommend all hotels, a lot of your transport and even restaurants if you know the place you want to go to will be busy – you don’t want to be waiting around for a table with kids. You should also have a good idea of what you want to get done each day and the time you have to do it in so that you can make sure you don’t get waylaid and end up hanging around the hotel all day.

The most user friendly place to book is booking.com and its usually the cheapest too. I like to head here to book all our accomodation as I can easily compare deals and view ratings.

  • This one should be obvious BUT I still feel I have to specify: bring your carseats and don’t ride on motorbikes. Just because the locals don’t use carseats and take their children on motorbikes this does not mean its safe. It’s not worth risking your child’s life. Having said that you can make it easy for yourself with a few tips and tricks:
  1. There are travel car seats on the market for older kids that take up much less space if you are moving around a lot and don’t wan to lug carseats around. We took the Bubble Bum Booster Seat for our toddler.
  2. You can stay centrally so that you don’t need to lug your carseats around day to day – you will be able to walk to most attractions and restaurants if you stay in the right area. The best way to get around further afield is by hiring a car with a driver so you can easily leave your seat in the car during activities.
  3. If you have a small baby and you can afford it – take the best travel capsule on the market: the Doona infant car seat. This thing is AMAZING and saves you having to take a travel stroller also. It also means you can just hop in a taxi anytime you like as you won’t have to lug your carseat around afterwards like we had to.

  • The best thing I took with me to Vietnam was life jackets for my 2 young children. We were doing a LOT of water based activities and some places provide children’s lifejackets but these were ill-fitting and weren’t going to fit my 3 month old baby! Taking along one that fit really well for my toddler meant she actually wanted to wear it and we always had piece of mind. Also for babies you can get special jackets that fit snuggly and tighten under the bum so that they don’t slip out. We used a baby lifejacket when we took her on a kayak, rowboat and a speedboat and felt so much more comfortable (what a daredevil baby she is!).

  • Even if your child normally eats really healthy, varied food (you are living the dream my friend) don’t sweat the small stuff while you are on holiday. Mealtime battles are just not worth ruining the trip. Kids are more tired than usual and on edge due to being in unfamiliar territory – it’s ok if they just eat white rice/bread/chips for every meal and ask for an ice-cream every day. Remember they are on holiday too and let them enjoy it. We found that if we didn’t push her, once my toddler had had a good rest and got in the swing of things she was ready to try some unfamiliar foods – and she still got to experience the novelty of going out to eat all the time and trying all the amazing tropical fruit on offer. It’s still great for their development and sometimes there is nothing you can do – such as when we asked for a small spoon and received a plate of hot chips which my toddler immediately tucked into – the desire for a spoon forgotten.

  • Talking about overtired kids, plan some nap or rest time into your days. Even if your child has outgrown naps they may revert back to taking them while you are away. Even adults tend to start taking naps when they are on holiday so its a reasonable expectation. Napping will allow them to handle the new experiences a lot better, escape the heat in the middle of the day or make way for a late dinner out.

  • If your kids won’t wander through a museum at home – don’t expect them to when you are overseas. Plan activities that you will both like – places they can wander and look at nature, swimming pools, playgrounds, shopping, beach, buses etc. if they are really into that, boats if its a novelty – travel to your kid’s interests. You can still have a great time and find some cool alternative things to do.

  • Lastly, If you can – bring help! Travelling with the grandparents, aunties and uncles or friends is the best idea ever. You can take turns babysitting, there are more eyes on the kids and more interesting people for the kids to interact with. Plus it makes the cost of hiring a car etc. cheaper. Not everyone will have this option but even going with another family with kids helps to spread the responsibility.

Following these tips I’m sure you will have a fantastic time with your kids – and make memories that will last a lifetime. I know we sure did!

Erika xx