Looking for adventure, but with a toddler in tow, writer Ellie Fazan headed to Vietnam on a whirlwind ten day journey from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City. Here are her top tips on travelling in Vietnam with a baby.
1. Hire a bike!
“Weeeeeeee!” my baby son squeals from the back of the bicycle, his arms raised like we’re on a rollercoaster. I never imagined I’d be cycling through Vietnam with a toddler, but here we are. It turns out freewheeling through verdant rice terraces is one hell of a buzz. I’m tempted to join him and yell for the pure joy of it. Locals harvesting rice pause to wave at Sid, who loves the attention. Most hotels have bikes you can borrow for free, and many even have baby seats or car seats available . When we reach the edge of Hoi An, the roads become a swirling mess of mopeds and buses, so we park up and continue on foot. Crossing the road here is an art form. No one stops. You just walk. And hope. It works. Somehow…
2. Eat noodle soup
Once safely on the other side, we dive into Hoi An’s Central Market — a riot of colours, smells and life. We wind our way through a maze of stalls piled high with herbs, mangoes, incense, plastic toys and knock-off North Face gear. The food hall is loud and chaotic in the best kind of way. We settled at a local restaurant run by Mrs. Huong, who lured us in by saying, “Please, I am not lucky today.” She might not have had customers, but she served us what was probably the best meal of the trip: noodles in a clear lemongrass broth served with clams, so fresh she’d sent someone to fetch them from the seafood market. Sid ate the lot. We’d learned to ask for the spice on the side, a trick that let him share pretty much everything we ate and we nicknamed him Streetfood Sid. Watching him slurp noodles with joyful abandon was one of the highlights of the trip.
3. Add some luxury
As magical as Hoi An is, travelling with a small human can get intense, so halfway through the trip, we booked ourselves into Zannier Bãi San Hô, a luxurious hideaway about six hours’ drive away (with several essential bánh mì stops along the way). The final stretch of road is potholed and narrow, flanked by food stalls and tangled fishing nets. I’ll admit, I was starting to doubt the five-star promise. But then we arrived. Ly, our host, stepped out in a beautiful oyster-coloured silk dress and, without hesitation, plucked my sweaty baby from the car. That one gesture ushered in the kind of deep exhale I hadn’t realised I needed. In the library, cold towels and ocean views welcomed us. We had two villas — one overlooking the paddy fields, and one with a private hilltop pool and sweeping views of the bay. The bed was enormous, the standalone bath glorious. And though this isn’t a family resort per se, they’d thought of everything: a welcome box with rubber ducks, nappies, wipes, and even baby toothpaste — all the things we’d somehow lost along the way. Breakfast alone is reason enough to stay. Nhà O, the hilltop restaurant, served Vietnamese iced coffee crowned with condensed milk clouds. A buffet offered everything from passionfruit mimosas to fresh pho, while chefs grilled local delicacies over coals in the courtyard.
4. Take the overnight train
Everyone said we were mad to take the train from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City overnight — with a baby. But honestly? It was one of the best bits of our holiday. The Reunification Express, built after 1975 to link the country from top to bottom, is more than a train: it’s full-on cultural immersion, with diverse passengers . In the sleeper carriage next to ours we met a family travelling with two kids, their granny, two cats and a dog. And a portable kitchen. They fell in love with Sid. Sid fell in love with them. They even fed him dinner, returning him washed and clean and ready for bed. We ate cold noodles and crispy pork fat we'd picked up at a roadside stall, and fell asleep to the rocking of the train. In the morning, we pulled into Ho Chi Minh City as the city was stirring.
5. Stop in Ho Chi Minh City
So often seen as a base for the Cu Chi Tunnels or Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh deserves more time. And for a city of 14 million people, it’s filled with family-friendly activities. We stayed on leafy Suong Nguyet Anh Street at Fusion Suites Saigon. Calm and green, yet right in the heart of District 1. Across the road is Tao Dan Park, where locals do tai chi and walk their birds (yes, really). One favourite afternoon was spent at the Botanical Gardens. Equal parts beautiful and bonkers, it’s a surreal mash-up of lush jungle, zoo (where monkeys have escaped), and colonial leftovers. The taxidermy in the museum borders on the surreal: one of the monkeys appeared to be mid-shrug. Sid was delighted by the miniature train that trundles noisily around the gardens, and we rode it twice, too charming to resist. We also went to The Apartment, a converted 1960s apartment block that’s now a warren of indie boutiques, cafés and concept stores. From the outside it looks like a Soviet relic, all weather-stained concrete and exposed wiring, but inside it’s a haven of creativity. We headed up to Catfé, a café full of snoozing, groomed-to-perfection cats who licked their lips while we drank iced coconut coffee. Sid was in heaven.
6. Crawl the Cu Chi Tunnels
We spent a morning at the Cu Chi Tunnels with Claude, our guide, who managed to make a deeply complex chapter of history come to life through storytelling, humour and warmth. This year marks 50 years since the fall of Saigon, and while reminders of that past are visible in the flags and monuments, Vietnam looks firmly forward. Be sure to get there early. We arrived before 9am and had it almost to ourselves, but by the time we were leaving, it was lunchtime – and really crowded.
7. Drift through the Mekong Delta
Sid took to the helm, literally, sitting on the Captain’s lap with his feet on the steering wheel as if he’d been a boatman on the Mekong Delta in another life. Life here revolves entirely around the river, and we stopped in a local village and saw people weaving baskets and making ginger sweets. This was a real-time snapshot of delta life: men repairing nets on floating platforms, elderly women harvesting water hyacinth. Sid was riveted by everything, especially when some local children took him off to catch a frog.
8. Have an evening to yourself
Be sure to join the jostling line of locals at Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa, where the baguettes are enormous – they actually hand out plastic gloves to eat them – and are stuffed to bursting with roast pork, paté and pickled veg. In reality, that could have been my only meal for the day, but that evening I’d booked the chef’s tasting menu at Anan, Vietnam’s only Michelin-starred restaurant. I left Sid at home (well, in the hotel) with his dad and took myself out for a treat. And what a treat. I sat at the bar next to the owner, Chef Peter. One course was a miniature bánh mì: an impossibly crisp, tiny baguette filled with paté and wrapped in Parma ham. I almost burst out laughing at the contrast of the place.
Travelling Vietnam with a baby might sound bold, but as we see here – not only is it possible, but it’s wildly rewarding. With a bit of planning and a lot of flexibility, this country is a toddler-friendly adventure playground just waiting to be explored.
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