Best tour destinations for family holiday in Vietnam

Vietnam no longer is the land of curiosity, stepping out from the pain of wars, Vietnam is now a country of peace and safe destination for all nationalities to Vietnam. If you have a plan for family holiday, just go, Vietnam as everything to satisfy your family. Vietwind Travel is pleased to send you the best tour destinations for family holiday in Vietnam as bellows:

1. Hanoi- the capital of Vietnam, a 1000 year old city is where you can get the overview of Vietnam’s culture and understand about Vietnam.

Hanoi City Tours

Activities in Hanoi are many such us walking around the old quarter, trying streets foods. Enjoying water puppet show and visit many historical and cultural sites

2. Sapa, the most beautiful mountain town where you will have opportunities to meet some ethnic groups who still wear their traditional dresses and keep traditional life. In Sapa, you can also trek down the villages in the bottom of Muong Hoa valley to enjoy wolrd’s most amazing rice terrances and see daily life of the local. In summer, Sapa is considered as an air conditioner. Great break for during your Vietnam holiday

Sapa Tours

3. Halong Bay, simple the best Vietnam tour destination, the beauty and values of this Unesco heritage make your Vietnam tour unforgettable. In Halong, your family can walk to visit: Sung Sot cave”, fishing villages, swim or explore hidden places with kayak.

Halong Bay

4. Hoi An, highlight of any holiday in Vietnam, loved by ever tourist for the charming beauty. Hoi An is perfect stop during your Vietnam travel where you can enjoy walking around the ancient streets and shopping, drinking, having delicious meals or bilking to experience countryside, swimming at Cua Dai beach…a lot of things to do for your family vacation in Hoi An

5. Ho Chi Minh City ( Saigon) , to be the most exiting city to visit in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City is the first or last stop of your Vietnam tour, and a base to launch wonderful trips to Cu Chi tunnel, Mekong Delta Da Lat, Mui Ne beach, Nha Trang beach, Phu Quoc beach...

6. MeKong Delta, the rice producing region and also the spotlight of many Vietnam tour packages. Mekong Delta offers exiting life on water with floating villages, market, massive rice fields, fruit gardens...

7. Nha Trang Beach, the heavyweight champion of Vietnam. Nha trang has been knocking out visitors for years. True, the town is brazen and brash, but the beach is bold and beautiful and a gateway to a cluster of quitter islands. Nha Trang is really a nice break during your holiday with family

8. Mui Ne. It’s a perfect place to end you Vietnam family holiday. Mui Ne sets on a seductive swathe of sand. It is a absolute charmer with swaying palms and towering dunes. Get pummeled on the beach by a masseurs or pummeled by the waves with water sport- this place blends action and inertia to perfection

9. Phu Quoc, simply the most beautiful island in Vietnam. It is great to relax at the and of your family holiday tours. Phu Quoc is liberally sprinkled with picture- perfect white- sand beaches and cloaked in dense impenetrable jungle. Long beach is sophisticated, Ong Lan beach romantic and Bai Sao simply irresistible

Ngoc Son Temple, Sword Lake

For ages, the Lake of the Restored Sword (also called Sword Lake) has been considered to be one symbol of Hanoi

Geologists believe that the lake was once a section of the Red River before the latter changed its course. The change took place a thousand years ago but the name “Restored Sword” (Hoan Kiem) was given only five centuries ago. In the past, the lake was called Luc Thuy (Blue Water) because the water was always blue. In the 15th century, the lake acquired its present name which is closely connected with the following legend: "In Lam Son village, Le Loi was given a sword which he always brought along with himself during the ten years of resistance against the Ming invaders.

After he had defeated the enemy, he settled in Thăng Long. One day, while King Le Loi was boating on Blue Water Lake, one turtle suddenly emerged on the surface. He took out his sword and pointed it at the turtle ’who snatched the sword and dived immediately. Lê Lợi thought that God had given him the sword to from the early 16th century onwards, the Le Kings and Trinh Lords had the lake beautified considerably.

Around 1739, Lord Trịnh Giang set up Khanh Thụy Palace on the Pearl Island as a place for him to enjoy summer breezes. His younger brother, Trinh Doanh, had a mound built on the eastern side of the lake and named it Đoc Ton in memory of his success in suppressing peasants’ uprising in the Doc Ton region, near the Tam Dao mountain range. In 1786, King Le Chieu Thong ordered his soldiers to burn down Khanh Thụy Palace and the Trinh Lords’ Palace. In the 19th century, a pagoda dedicated to the Buddha was built on the foundation of Khanh Thụy Palace.

Later, this pagoda was turned into a temple dedicated to Van Xuong, a legendary figure, who was in charge of literature and examination affaks, and to Tran Hung Dao, a Vietnamese hero who defeated the Yuan-Mongolian invaders in the 13th century. In the temple there is a statue of Kwan-wu, an elite General famous for his loyalty, and a statue of Lu Zu, a famous herbalist; both were Chinese and deified.

In 1865, Nguyen Van Siêu, one of Mà Nộị’s great men of culture took responsibility for the repairs of the entire area. On Độc Foil mound, he had a stone tower built whose peak resembles a writing brush (Brush lower). On the tower’s body are engraved three words Tả Thanh Thiên (Writing on the Blue Sky).

Ngoc Son Temple, Sword Lake

Passing through Brush Tower, you come to Nghiên (Ink Slab) Tower. It is an inkstone shaped like a half of a peach placed on an arched gate. On the body of the inkstone is engraved an essay on the usage of inkstones from the philosophical viewpoint. Passing Nghiên Tower, you come to The Hue Bridge, (“Perch of Morning Sunlight”). At the other end of the bridge is the Moon House (Dac Nguyet Lau), which is at the same time Ngoc Son Temple’s gate.

Hoan Kiem Lake

The temple has three main buildings, the front one is the great ceremonial hall, the middle one is dedicated to Van Xuong, and the back is dedicated to Tran Hung Dao. In front of the great ceremonial hall is Tran Ba Dinh (Wave Preventing Pavilion).

The Huc Bridge

A little afar from that pavilion on the southwest of Sword Lake, there is Turtle Tower mound which was built at the end of the 19th century. Indeed, it has no historical and aesthetic value, but since it has stood there for around one century, it has become familiar to many Hanoians and foreigners.

It is notable that there are many parallel sentences in Ngoc Son Temple. They were composed by famous Confucian scholars and are valuable literary works.

Kim Lien Pagoda

This pagoda was built on a strip of silt land by Hanoi West Lake in Nghi Tam village. Today it is in Quang An village, Tay Ho district.

Kim Lien Pagoda

According to legend, the pagoda was built on the foundation of the former Từ Hoa Palace built in the Ly Dynasty. Princes Tu Hoa, daughter of King Ly Than Tong (1128-1138), and her attendants came to this area to grow mulberry, raise silkworms and establish the Tam Tang (silkworm and mulberry farm). This farm was later renamed Nghi Tam guild.

The pagoda was built in the 17th century. According to a stele erected in 1868 in the pagoda, the latter’s name was Dai Bi and it was built in 1631. Seven years later, with people’s donations the pagoda was enlarged. In 1771, Trinh Lord ordered Bảo Lâm Pagoda in the west of the Capital to be removed here, and he renamed it “Kim Liên”. The repairs in 1792 gave the pagoda the present architecture.

Kim Lien Pagoda

It is now composed of three halls, each of which has two roof layers whose comers are gently curvy. Among the Buddhist statues, one deserves very much attention of historians. It depicts a middle-aged man with three- tufted beard, in a Buddhist frock, holding a card in his hand and weaving a mandarin’s hat. Some hold that he was one of the Trinh Lords but some think that he was a Buddhist monk who led his religious life in this pagoda after serving in the Trinh Lord’s Palace.

The statue is estimated to be over 200 years of age. Besides, in the central hall of the pagoda, there is a wooden lacquered board engraved with two Han characters Hoang Uan (meaning “widespread morality”, which was made in 1870. Another board engraved with the characters Liên Hoa Hai Hoi (scene of the happy life in the land of the Buddha) was made in 1930. Apart from its nice disposition, the pagoda has a gate of sophisticated, elegant and intricate architecture.

One Pillar Pagoda

This complex includes a pagoda and a tower built in the middle of a square lake. It was officially called Dien Huu Pagoda - Lien Hoa (Lotus) Turret. Later, it was given the popular name of Mot Cot (One-pillar) Pagoda. It is square in shape; each side is 3m long will a curved roof and supported by a cylindrical stone pillar.

The pillar, 1.2m in diameter and 4.0m high (excluding the underground section), supports a system of wooden beams which serve as a strong framework for the turret. The whole thing resembles a blossoming lotus stretching up out of a square pond which has a surrounding brick-wall. The wall has an opening through which a path runs to a nice ladder leading up to the turret.

Over the entrance of the turret, there is a wooden board carved with Chinese characters “Lotus Platform”. It is written in one historical document that: “King Ly Thai Tong (1028-1054), in his dream, saw Avalokitesvara (Kwan-yin) sitting on a lotus-shaped tower to which the King was led. Later, the King told the mandarins about his dream and sought their advice.

One Pillar Pagoda

Some of them advised the King to build a pagoda with a lotus-shaped base on a stone pillar in the middle of a pond just as the King had dreamt. After that, Buddhist monks were asked to perform rites to pray for the King’s longevity. The One Pillar Pagoda was consequently called Dien Huu (Prolonged Happiness).

That event took place in 1049. Thus, originally, the pagoda and the lotus turret were built at the same time. The former’s size is not known but the latter is described in an ancient stone stele as follows: “Linh Chieu Lake was dug, in the middle of which was erected a big stone lotus-flower with thousands of petals on which was placed a blue pavilion. A statue of Kwan-vin was situated in that pavilion.

There was a corridor surrounding the lake. Bich Tri pond was dug behind the lake. An arched bridge ran from the front of the lake through the turret to the lake’s back. The front yard of the bridge was flanked by two towers decorated with emeralds.

One Pillar Pagoda

So, the original Lotus Pagoda in the Ly Dynasty was far bigger than the present pagoda. It had more incorporated architectural structures.

The present One-pillar Pagoda has undergone numerous changes and repairs. On 11th September 1954, before their withdrawal, the French army mined and destroyed the Lotus Turret. When Vietnamese soldiers took over Ha Noi, the Government rebuilt the pagoda in accordance with the reconstruction was completed in April 1955.

Close to the pagoda is a Bodhi tree which was presented to President Ho Chi Minh by Indian President A. Prassad on the occasion of the former’s visit to India.

Quan Su Pagoda

It lies halfway along the street bearing the same name and numbers 73. The entire pagoda compound is the ancient village of An Tap. At this place at the beginning of the Lê Dynasty (15th centurv).

A house called Quan Su was built to receive ambassadors from Laos, Chiem Thanh, etc. when thev visited Thang Long. Since these ambassadors were all Buddhists, a pagoda was built near Quan Su for them to practise the religion. Later, Quan Su was destroyed but the Quan Su Pagoda was preserved.

Quan Su Pagoda

At present, there are some stone steles in the pagoda; the most noteworthy one was made in 1842 on which the following paragraph is found: “The pagoda is in An Tap village, Tho Xuong district where the Buddha was worshipped in the front ceremonial hall, and Ly Quoc Su (an erudite Buddhist monk who lived from approximately 1100-1141 and was considered the patriarch of the craft of bronze casting) was worshipped at the back. In the early reign of King Gia Long (1802-1820), the Thang Long Citadel was renamed Bac Thanh (Northern Citadel) and several military stations were built. The pagoda was located next to the Hau Quan Station.”

Quan Su Pagoda

In 1934, the Tonkinese Buddhist Association used this pagoda as its headquarters. In 1942, the pagoda was rebuilt in its current architecture and interior decoration. In 1958, Viet Nam’s United Buddhist Association was founded, making the pagoda its head office.

Tran Quoc Pagoda

This pagoda may be one of the oldest in Viet Nam According to legend; it was built during the reign of King Ly Nam De (544-548). Originally, the pagoda was built adjacent 10 the bank of the Cái River (the Red River) and called Khai Quốc (Founding the Nation).

It was renamed by King Lê Thái Tông (J 434- 1442) An Quốc (Safeguarding the Nation). In the reign of King Lê Kính Tông (1600-1618), the river bank broke. The Tran Quoc Pagoda was moved to Cá Vàng Island in the middle of West Lake (i.e. its current location) where the Lý Kings had Thúy Hoa Palace built and the Trần Dynasty had Hàm Nguyên Palace constructed. King Le Hy Tong (1680-1705) renamed the pagoda Tran Quoc (Protecting the Nation).

Tran Quoc Pagoda

In about the 15th or 17th century, people built the Co Ngu dyke and a path connecting the dyke and Cá Vàng Island. The present pagoda still maintains its unique architecture so different from others. At the front is the great ceremonial hall; in the middle is the main sanctuary. At the rear are two corridors and the bell tower. Inside the pagoda there are various beautiful statues, the most noteworthy of which is the wooden gilded statue of Sakyamuni in Para Nirvana. There are also many stone steles.

The oldest of them was created in 1639 011 which Dr. Nguyen Xuan Chinh wrote the history of the major repairs to this pagoda in that very year. there is a luxuriant Bodhi tree in the pagoda’s compound, which is the present of the President of India, who paid a visit to the pagoda in 1959.