The Rough Guide to Vietnam

Roughly planned a two week trip by ourselves from Hanoi to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. I ordered the book shortly before we left and it was everything I had hope with lots of useful information on transport, sights, accomodation etc.. I found the maps in Hanoi and the other towns/cities we went too very good; just the right mix between simple and clear but with the important detail. For accomodation we usually found places through booking.com or a similar site but the guide gave us a good idea of the area we wanted to stay in. We planned what to do each day a day or so in advance and with the help of the book, local people and tours we managed to see all we had hoped while having a brilliant time. There is still plenty to see and if we get to go back one day as it is an absolutely beautiful country with no end of attractions!

We used this during our 3 day stay in Ho Chi Min City. Was disappointed to discover the restaurant section was really out of date (not one of the ones we wanted to eat at was still open) but the information on the tourist sights was up-to-date.

I usually like Rough Guides and this is no exception. Just enough detail to get one going and some good recommendations. I appreciate the history and cultural background chapters which are a must-read before going on holiday.

Great guide book, with useful nutshell Summaries on City orientations, brief histories, top things to do, travel tips to neighboring cities, warning on potential scams. Highly recommended!

Bought for a forthcoming trip to Vietnam in July 2015, was superb, up to date and appropriate info in an easy read style

A good start to finding out about Vietnam and what it has to offer. I am still reading the book and can't say how accurate it is as not visited the country yet but so far it's been helpful in figuring out what to do when I get there.

Great

it's ok....however nowadays you can find a lot of up to date info online and rely on tripadvisor for hotels etc...

perfect

This is one of three guides that we have looked at to prepare for our upcoming trip to Vietnam. The other two were library books. This is clearly the best of the three, and we are reading it cover to cover. Until we return from Vietnam, we will not know whether it is completely accurate, but it is very informative and clearly written. I am amending my review to indicate that I discovered that admission costs ARE included in the book. They are written in small print between the name of the site/attraction and its description. In the same place, also in small print, is additional information about the attraction, such as location and hours.

I bought the Rough Guide because I had used their guidebooks when traveling through Latin America and loved them. Back then, the Rough Guides gave all necessary details to find hidden gems, many of whom had not had been covered by other major guidebooks. In the case of the new Vietnam guide, I was disappointed: no unique information and insufficient guidance to actually find the places, for example 'many buses go from XXX to YYY' or 'a few kilometers outside the city centre' without providing actual addresses or directions. A lot of information is outdated; it seems that some items have simply not been checked for the new edition (e.g. Tiger Falls near Dalat have been abandoned for y e a r s). The e-book features are not consistently accessible across devices: my android reader could not zoom the maps nor did the search function work; my old kindle could not activate the links embedded in the text. This is not the Rough Guide standard I expected.

I prefer Rough Guide to LP. Even though both are generally good.

It will do for my trip in May