Tag: off the beaten track

Best Activities for Children in Vietnam

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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

Itinerary: Explore Guajira in 3 days

The Guajira Peninsula is an incredibly off-the-beaten track area of Colombia: so much so that it doesn’t even have a track. The area is very remote and the region is the poorest in Colombia so it can be a difficult place to visit and you will need to put up with a lack of creature comforts.

When I first visited the region in 2011 – the peninsula and the jumping off point (Cabo de La Vela) were deserted. Although some basic facilities for tourists existed. I only came across 2 travellers in Cabo de La Vela (a photographer and his girlfriend) and no others on the peninsula itself.

In 2019 when I returned, things hadn’t drastically changed. A windsurfing school had opened in Cabo De La Vela which had led to some more accomodation and a few bars and some basic restaurants. The Guajira Peninsula accomodation in hammocks and tour on the back of a truck was now for 10-20 people at a time (rather than just me on my first trip!) and the local women and children had got wise to the fact that they could charge passing trucks a ‘toll’ to drive through their private land.

The landscapes and the region itself are still magical and out of this world. Take a look at my Guajira Photo Essay for more beautiful examples!

Top Tips for visiting La Guajira:

  1. Pack really light! You don’t want to be lugging your suitcase or large backpack around this region. You are constantly on the move between locations, usually in the back of a truck or in a boat with limited space in the hot sun. On our latest trip here we left our bags at our hotel in Santa Marta and packed the bare minimum for our few days in La Guajira.
  2. Buy a Wayuu Mochila bag. The local Wayuu people make beautiful woven bags in a really unique style. Due to the region’s remoteness these bags sell online/in tourist stores in Colombia for a pretty penny. There is a lot of work involved in creating them and the local people see almost none of these profits. You will see locals selling these bags in Cabo De La Vela town for a much cheaper rate and you will know the money goes entirely to them!

Where to stay:

You aren’t spoilt with choice for accomodation options in Cabo de la Vela or the Guajira Peninsula. You can sleep in a hammock outside or in Cabo de La Vela you sometimes have the option of a very basic room. Showers are only cold water bucket showers and you also flush toilets using a bucket of water. Be prepared for this!

Its all part of the experience as long as its not for your whole trip. We love sleeping in a hammock on occasion – in Cabo De La Vela you are right next to the water on the beach! You also get a lockable shack to get changed in and store your stuff.

Expect to look like this by the end of your journey:

No showers or mirrors – but cute puppies!

Getting there and away:

I’m not going to lie – getting to La Guajira is a PAIN. But the journey is all a part of the adventure right? You can probably book a tour in advance from Cartagena or Santa Marta but how I have done it in the past is by getting to Cuatro Vias (a crossroads in rural Colombia), or Uribia and making my way from there. You’ll need at least some basic spanish to do it this way. At this point you can get on a much cheaper tour for both Cabo de La Vela and the Guajira Peninsula if you get offered one; or be able to find transport direct to Cabo de La Vela.You will be able to book an overnight tour from there to the Peninsula. You can only get to the peninsula itself with a tour.

To get to Cuatro Vias: Take a bus from Santa Marta bus station that terminates at Maicao and get off at Quatro Vias (a crossroads in the middle of nowhere – don’t second guess yourself – its the right stop). The bus will take you 4-5 hours so get started early in the morning. This crossroads heads in 4 completely different directions so it has become a bit of a meeting place for the area with market stalls and vehicles going in different directions. From here, someone will ask you where you are going and will arrange a full tour with you (through their guy in one of the nearby towns) or you can get in a taxi/mototaxi which will take you to the trucks carrying supplies and people leaving from Uribia. There may even be transport around heading direct to Cabo de La Vela. The trip to Cabo de La Vela will take you a few more hours depending on your transport – you may have to wait for the trucks to fill up.

Past Uribia your only transport is via motorbike or trucks as the roads turn to dirt tracks.

Transport on Guajira Peninsula

Your tour to the tip of the peninsula will only be for 1 day/night. Most tour operators will let you stay on another if you wish and you will just be able to pay the accomodation another night directly. However, there is not much to do in the area without transportation and you will have visited all the tourist spots on the truck the day before so 1 night is probably enough. After your night in the peninsula you will likely be transported directly back to Uribia, Riohacha or even Santa Marta so make sure you spend all the time in Cabo de la Vela that you want to before heading over to the peninsula.

Getting around:

You will probably be on a tour – in this case your tour will take you everywhere you may want to go. If not, there you can find moto-taxi’s to bring you to and from your destination or if you are up for it most places are only a hike away through the hot desert. Pilon de Azucar is a great spot to visit around Cabo de La Vela, as is El Faro for sunset.

If you arrive in Cabo de la Vela without a tour and want to get over to the peninsula (and trust me you do!) You can ask your accomodation and they will be able to find a tour going or know of someone in the small town that can arrange this for you.

Playa Pilon

Food:

A word from the wise – food is actually pretty expensive here compared to the rest of Colombia. There are no shops except for a corner store or two that sell cold drinks for very expensive prices. I suggest stocking up on snacks at a supermarket in Santa Marta before you come. I would also bring all the bottled water you will need during your trip as that is pretty hard to come by also!

I also suggest bringing some extra snacks and water for the locals. Especially once you get to the peninsula you can really see the poverty here and the locals find it really hard to access and afford food and water other than seafood. Try to avoid the ‘sweet tax’ from the local kids and give them something a little more filling and nutritious instead.

Meals are made at your accomodation – or at anyone else’s! Almost every shack along the beach will serve you food. Your options are usually fresh whole fried fish or lobster. If you are vegetarian or have any sort of dietaries good luck. The fish is amazingly fresh and tasty and the lobster is cheaper and fresher than you will find elsewhere. Enjoy the delicacy while its available!

What to bring:

  1. Lots of snacks and water
  2. Long sleeved top and pants or leggings that can double as pyjamas as you will be a lot cooler at night in the hammock
  3. Beach cover up or sarong to keep out of the sun
  4. Swimming togs
  5. Sunblock
  6. Silk sleeping bag or a light blanket for the hammock or to cushion your seat on the truck.
  7. A camera

What to expect:

Expect to experience total wilderness – I’m not sure there are many places left around the world that feel this untouched. Soak it all in and enjoy the ride (even if your butt hurts from all that bumping around on the back of a truck and even if you haven’t showered in a week)!

Erika xx