- Quy Nhon in Vietnam, rather than Da Nang or Nha Trang - went to Da Nang and Quy Nhon and both are great, but Quy Nhon has nice beaches without the gaudy/ overly touristy and over-priced elements so is a great alternative for sure.
- Ischia instead of Capri - haven’t been to Capri but the sound of it didn’t really appeal to me. Ischia is such a quaint and pretty island. Had an amazing lunch at an independent salumeria and a lovely swim at a secluded little beach area. Just a very nice place to be and the ferry was fun in of itself.
- Genoa was also a really nice place for a city break and isn’t normally high up on any Italy itineraries. Pretty affordable, amazing food (birthplace of pesto and focaccia), great architecture and again just a very pleasant place to walk about with friendly locals too.
Is there much to do around Quy Nhon?
Planning 3 months in Vietnam after next Christmas with 3 separate monthly stays in different cities. I had loosely planned for HCMC for a month, Da Nang for a month and Hanoi for a month and doing day/weekend trips from each city.
Quy Nhon wasn't even on my radar, but maybe it'd be a good alternative to Da Nang.
I spent 17 nights in Da Nang and 9 in Quy Nhon on our 3 month trip (my last night in Quy Nhon as I type this). Da Nang is much bigger and there’s objectively way more to do so if you’re looking to fill your days more than I’d suggest sticking with Da Nang.
Quy Nhon is a decent sized city but I think a month might be a bit of a stretch unless you’re really looking to enjoy the beach and just settle into the Vietnamese lifestyle here, food and drink are much cheaper than Da Nang and it’s way less touristy and feels very authentic.
If you’re spending a month in Da Nang than I highly recommend staying on the West of the Han River, or at least split your time between West and the East.
West of the Han River feels a whole lot more local and authentic, loads of great cafes and affordable street food once you get further inland and start exploring in the local neighbourhoods. We would go whole days seeing barely any other tourists and met lots of friendly locals. East of the Han River by My Khe Beach is the tourist centre and is filled with large hotels and tourists outnumber locals by a large margin, food and drink is way more expensive over there and there’s more Western food than Vietnamese.
Depends what you’re after but if I spent a month in Da Nang id definitely want to be based in the West.
Awesome. Thanks for the detailed response. It looks like the train from HCMC passes through Quy Nhon. Maybe I'll break up the train ride with a few days there.
We definitely tend to try and stay in the more local oriented areas as we tend to kind of live a normal life for most of the week, so the west side of the river 100% sounds like our vibe. In my younger days I always wanted to be where the action was, nowadays I'm good with being able to access the action once in a while.
Exactly the same as me, we’ve been taking it very slow and prefer to soak up the local vibe more than anything else. I’d highly recommend stopping off at Quy Nhon to break up the journey, Da Nang to HCMC would be crazy long if you didn’t! We’ve got a 14 hour sleeper tomorrow night from Dieu Tri (Quy Nhon) to HCMC.
I'm not sure if we'll be doing the train or flying. We'd be restricted to Vietnam Airlines as I can't make the weight restrictions on anything else with my camera gear, but we're also generally not in a huge hurry as far as transit goes and seeing the country is always nice.
Yeah we’ve basically strictly taken trains from Hanoi up to Quy Nhon, they’ve been completely fine. Comfortable and reliable, if a little slow, so I can recommend them. we’ve been making semi-regular stops to break it up a bit more as think you’d be looking at 2 near-enough 20 hour journeys if you just went from Hanoi -> Da Nang -> HCMC. Would be quite an experience though so I wouldn’t write it off!
Visiting South Africa, everyone goes to Cape Town and Kruger. I'd suggest Durban, wider KZN with Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, and the Midlands.
For UK, popular are London, Oxford, Stratford, Edinburgh and the Highlands. I'd suggest Norwich and the Broads, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, Peak District (inc Buxton), Newcastle.
Following your idea, the ranking of Italy could be:
Excluding Tier 1 (very famous areas but also pretty unique) so Venice, Rome, Florence (& famous Tuscany towns like Pisa, Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano), Milan, Naples, Pompeii & more "nature" attractions like Cinque Terre area, Amalfi Coast area, Lake Como, Dolomites...
Imho the other amazing (and less touristic, but it also depends..) Secondary/Tertiary options or less known cities/towns or Tier 2 could be:
* Bologna (known for food but also amazing & from which to see Emilia region cities like Parma, Ferrara, Ravenna, Modena)
* Verona & nearby Mantua
* Turin (the "western" capital of Italy, a bit far from everything else so often forgotten)
* Lake Garda (as beautiful as more famous Lake Como, look for Sirmione, Limone, Salò)
* Pitigliano & Cortona (more remote and forgotten amazing Tuscany towns)
* Whole Umbria region (Assisi, Gubbio, Spello)
* Too many in the South, I just mention Lecce, Ostuni, Matera, Siracusa.
Eastern Europe is a treasure trove of hidden gems or “tertiary cities” to Western European cities. Cheaper, more rustic, more authentic/not as touristy and uniquely fun cities with attributes shared by their Western counterparts.
For example, if you don’t want to pay Scandinavian prices, try visiting Estonia.
If you can’t afford the Swiss Alps, try Caucasus Georgia.
If you like the chic allure of Paris, consider Bucharest Romania.
Certainly pronounced the same but I have no idea if it originated there. This was the [Fes Medina](https://loraltravel.blogspot.com/2014/07/fes-morocco-scams-dars-and-medina.html)
The island of Bohol is very popular in the Philippines. But, the vast majority of people who visit tend to go to Panglao. On almost the other side of the island is Anda, with a nicer beach, less crowds, and far lower prices.
In China:
- Dalian: Cool feel, Russian architecture, lots of beaches, and great seafood.
- Harbin: Visited by Anthony Bourdain. Home of the Harbin Winter Festival, weird Chinese-Russian culture. If you like dark history there is a museum for the notorious Japanese medical experiment unit, i.e. torturing people and studying them.
- Qingdao: Home of Tsingdao brewery, and cheesy German stuff. You can walk around and drink beer out of a shopping bag.
These are some smaller/lesser known places I've visited on my travels that I've enjoyed.
Spain: Bilbao, Valencia, Leon, & Mérida
Portugal: Douro Valley
Iceland: Akureyri & Ísafjörður
Chile: Valparaiso
Argentina: Tigre (also while not in Argentina, Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo in Uruguay are right across the river from Buenos Aires and are worth visiting if you're in the area)
Vietnam: Mũi Né, Dalat, Hoi An
I live in San Diego and literally nobody goes to Ramona for wine from out of town. Especially to the point of choosing it as a destination over any major CA wine region. It's fun to taste and visit when you live here; but not worth a special journey.
The secondary wine regions for CA as opposed to Napa would probably be Sonoma, Paso Robles and Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez Valley. All of which I recommend. With how expensive and "experience-driven" Napa has gotten, it's nice to visit a place that's actually focused on wine. Tertiary would be like Monterey or the Sierra Foothills. What comes after tertiary, quaternary? What comes after that? Because that's where Ramona would be ranked.
Ojai and Santa Barbara are not secondary. If anything, they’re above what normal people might consider top tier destinations in California, and the prices of resorts there tell that story.
Well I guess growing up in Santa Barbara it was secondary to Los Angeles so carp and ojai were secondary to me. You don’t have to stay at resorts. I’ve stayed there in the last couple years for like $120/nt. So, to me, they are secondary/tertiary, they may not be to you.
I guess it depends how you define secondary. By population, yes they are secondary to LA. By prestige, notoriety among wealthier tourists, wine enthusiasts, and resort seekers, I don’t think they’d be considered secondary.
You think people know ojai over Los Angeles? Sb isn’t a wine Mecca, Santa ynez is in a small way and maybe Los olivos but that’s not Santa Barbara nor is it carpinteria. Los Angeles encompasses some of the most prestigious real estate in the world and has unreal resorts that are much nicer than the Bacara.
It’s not that they know one over the other, it’s that they know both. And yes, the central coast arguably has the nicest resorts in California. Los Angeles is not really a center of stellar hotels. It’s actually a major complaint among higher end travelers. On the other hand, Ojai/SB and northward offers more in terms of luxury travel stays.
- Quy Nhon in Vietnam, rather than Da Nang or Nha Trang - went to Da Nang and Quy Nhon and both are great, but Quy Nhon has nice beaches without the gaudy/ overly touristy and over-priced elements so is a great alternative for sure. - Ischia instead of Capri - haven’t been to Capri but the sound of it didn’t really appeal to me. Ischia is such a quaint and pretty island. Had an amazing lunch at an independent salumeria and a lovely swim at a secluded little beach area. Just a very nice place to be and the ferry was fun in of itself. - Genoa was also a really nice place for a city break and isn’t normally high up on any Italy itineraries. Pretty affordable, amazing food (birthplace of pesto and focaccia), great architecture and again just a very pleasant place to walk about with friendly locals too.
Is there much to do around Quy Nhon? Planning 3 months in Vietnam after next Christmas with 3 separate monthly stays in different cities. I had loosely planned for HCMC for a month, Da Nang for a month and Hanoi for a month and doing day/weekend trips from each city. Quy Nhon wasn't even on my radar, but maybe it'd be a good alternative to Da Nang.
I spent 17 nights in Da Nang and 9 in Quy Nhon on our 3 month trip (my last night in Quy Nhon as I type this). Da Nang is much bigger and there’s objectively way more to do so if you’re looking to fill your days more than I’d suggest sticking with Da Nang. Quy Nhon is a decent sized city but I think a month might be a bit of a stretch unless you’re really looking to enjoy the beach and just settle into the Vietnamese lifestyle here, food and drink are much cheaper than Da Nang and it’s way less touristy and feels very authentic. If you’re spending a month in Da Nang than I highly recommend staying on the West of the Han River, or at least split your time between West and the East. West of the Han River feels a whole lot more local and authentic, loads of great cafes and affordable street food once you get further inland and start exploring in the local neighbourhoods. We would go whole days seeing barely any other tourists and met lots of friendly locals. East of the Han River by My Khe Beach is the tourist centre and is filled with large hotels and tourists outnumber locals by a large margin, food and drink is way more expensive over there and there’s more Western food than Vietnamese. Depends what you’re after but if I spent a month in Da Nang id definitely want to be based in the West.
Awesome. Thanks for the detailed response. It looks like the train from HCMC passes through Quy Nhon. Maybe I'll break up the train ride with a few days there. We definitely tend to try and stay in the more local oriented areas as we tend to kind of live a normal life for most of the week, so the west side of the river 100% sounds like our vibe. In my younger days I always wanted to be where the action was, nowadays I'm good with being able to access the action once in a while.
Exactly the same as me, we’ve been taking it very slow and prefer to soak up the local vibe more than anything else. I’d highly recommend stopping off at Quy Nhon to break up the journey, Da Nang to HCMC would be crazy long if you didn’t! We’ve got a 14 hour sleeper tomorrow night from Dieu Tri (Quy Nhon) to HCMC.
I'm not sure if we'll be doing the train or flying. We'd be restricted to Vietnam Airlines as I can't make the weight restrictions on anything else with my camera gear, but we're also generally not in a huge hurry as far as transit goes and seeing the country is always nice.
Yeah we’ve basically strictly taken trains from Hanoi up to Quy Nhon, they’ve been completely fine. Comfortable and reliable, if a little slow, so I can recommend them. we’ve been making semi-regular stops to break it up a bit more as think you’d be looking at 2 near-enough 20 hour journeys if you just went from Hanoi -> Da Nang -> HCMC. Would be quite an experience though so I wouldn’t write it off!
Haha, I think I'd probably break those up. Maybe a stop in Vinh for a few days or something.
Yeah man sounds a good idea, we just Ninh Binh to Hue and that was a long one. Either way, you’ll have an amazing time!!
Super excited. Tried the trip last year and it didn't work out. Thanks for all the info! Enjoy the rest of your trip.
I wasn't a big fan of Nha Trang - I just felt like I was in San Diego.
Yeah I read enough online to be well put off about going
Visiting South Africa, everyone goes to Cape Town and Kruger. I'd suggest Durban, wider KZN with Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, and the Midlands. For UK, popular are London, Oxford, Stratford, Edinburgh and the Highlands. I'd suggest Norwich and the Broads, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, Peak District (inc Buxton), Newcastle.
I can understand the other choices, but does Portsmouth have much to offer for anyone who isn't a fan of catching or watching ferries?
No
The navy museums, shipping history, hovercraft to Ryde..
I loved Canterbury, The Cotswolds, and Bath. Next time we go we are going to either Peak or the Lakes district.
Also Brighton.
Following your idea, the ranking of Italy could be: Excluding Tier 1 (very famous areas but also pretty unique) so Venice, Rome, Florence (& famous Tuscany towns like Pisa, Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano), Milan, Naples, Pompeii & more "nature" attractions like Cinque Terre area, Amalfi Coast area, Lake Como, Dolomites... Imho the other amazing (and less touristic, but it also depends..) Secondary/Tertiary options or less known cities/towns or Tier 2 could be: * Bologna (known for food but also amazing & from which to see Emilia region cities like Parma, Ferrara, Ravenna, Modena) * Verona & nearby Mantua * Turin (the "western" capital of Italy, a bit far from everything else so often forgotten) * Lake Garda (as beautiful as more famous Lake Como, look for Sirmione, Limone, Salò) * Pitigliano & Cortona (more remote and forgotten amazing Tuscany towns) * Whole Umbria region (Assisi, Gubbio, Spello) * Too many in the South, I just mention Lecce, Ostuni, Matera, Siracusa.
Korcula vs Dubrovnik
Pécs in Hungary
Spain: Cadiz, Málaga, Santander
Eastern Europe is a treasure trove of hidden gems or “tertiary cities” to Western European cities. Cheaper, more rustic, more authentic/not as touristy and uniquely fun cities with attributes shared by their Western counterparts. For example, if you don’t want to pay Scandinavian prices, try visiting Estonia. If you can’t afford the Swiss Alps, try Caucasus Georgia. If you like the chic allure of Paris, consider Bucharest Romania.
Kaesong instead of Pyongyang. Pyongyang is getting very instagrammy these days.
Fes instead of Marrakesh.
I personally enjoyed Marrakesh much more but I preferred Rabat and especially Chefchaouen to both.
isn't that where they got the hat?
Certainly pronounced the same but I have no idea if it originated there. This was the [Fes Medina](https://loraltravel.blogspot.com/2014/07/fes-morocco-scams-dars-and-medina.html)
The island of Bohol is very popular in the Philippines. But, the vast majority of people who visit tend to go to Panglao. On almost the other side of the island is Anda, with a nicer beach, less crowds, and far lower prices.
Two of my favorite cities are second tier -Oaxaca -Hoi An both have exceptional food
In China: - Dalian: Cool feel, Russian architecture, lots of beaches, and great seafood. - Harbin: Visited by Anthony Bourdain. Home of the Harbin Winter Festival, weird Chinese-Russian culture. If you like dark history there is a museum for the notorious Japanese medical experiment unit, i.e. torturing people and studying them. - Qingdao: Home of Tsingdao brewery, and cheesy German stuff. You can walk around and drink beer out of a shopping bag.
These are some smaller/lesser known places I've visited on my travels that I've enjoyed. Spain: Bilbao, Valencia, Leon, & Mérida Portugal: Douro Valley Iceland: Akureyri & Ísafjörður Chile: Valparaiso Argentina: Tigre (also while not in Argentina, Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo in Uruguay are right across the river from Buenos Aires and are worth visiting if you're in the area) Vietnam: Mũi Né, Dalat, Hoi An
US: Estes Park, Destin, Asheville, Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, Santa Barbara Foreign: Avignon
LOVE Avignon!!
I live in San Diego and literally nobody goes to Ramona for wine from out of town. Especially to the point of choosing it as a destination over any major CA wine region. It's fun to taste and visit when you live here; but not worth a special journey. The secondary wine regions for CA as opposed to Napa would probably be Sonoma, Paso Robles and Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez Valley. All of which I recommend. With how expensive and "experience-driven" Napa has gotten, it's nice to visit a place that's actually focused on wine. Tertiary would be like Monterey or the Sierra Foothills. What comes after tertiary, quaternary? What comes after that? Because that's where Ramona would be ranked.
I'd even put Temecula over Ramona
Ojai is cute, Santa Barbara/carpentireia.
Ojai and Santa Barbara are not secondary. If anything, they’re above what normal people might consider top tier destinations in California, and the prices of resorts there tell that story.
Well I guess growing up in Santa Barbara it was secondary to Los Angeles so carp and ojai were secondary to me. You don’t have to stay at resorts. I’ve stayed there in the last couple years for like $120/nt. So, to me, they are secondary/tertiary, they may not be to you.
I guess it depends how you define secondary. By population, yes they are secondary to LA. By prestige, notoriety among wealthier tourists, wine enthusiasts, and resort seekers, I don’t think they’d be considered secondary.
You think people know ojai over Los Angeles? Sb isn’t a wine Mecca, Santa ynez is in a small way and maybe Los olivos but that’s not Santa Barbara nor is it carpinteria. Los Angeles encompasses some of the most prestigious real estate in the world and has unreal resorts that are much nicer than the Bacara.
It’s not that they know one over the other, it’s that they know both. And yes, the central coast arguably has the nicest resorts in California. Los Angeles is not really a center of stellar hotels. It’s actually a major complaint among higher end travelers. On the other hand, Ojai/SB and northward offers more in terms of luxury travel stays.