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The Ultimate Itinerary for 2 Weeks in Northern Vietnam

After a rather stressful start entering Vietnam, we just had the most amazing past 15 days here. We decided to explore only Northern Vietnam since Daniel is visa-free for 15 days, so it just seemed logical to set our sights out on a small area. Vietnam is huge and I think we would have needed at least 4 weeks if we wanted to explore the south as well!

Sapa Vietnam
Follow my advice, and these are some of the views you could experience on your trip!

We chose Northern Vietnam since there was a typhoon in the south and Daniel really wanted to ride along the famous motorbike loop. But more on that later! So, why was the start of this journey a bit stressful? The country we were in before Vietnam was Taiwan (a great place to travel, by the way). We had a midday flight and we were going to be quite late after our last day in Taipei. It was then that we realized that although Danne is visa-free, I most definitely need a visa to enter Vietnam. I seriously cannot wait until I can apply for my Swedish passport since I am going to be invincible and be able to get into so many countries!

Related Blog Post: Read why you should visit Taiwan here!

Anyways, after a lot of stress and changing our flight to 7 pm, since even express visas need some time, we found a company that was relatively cheap and could produce an express 1-month visa before our evening flight. We used Govietnamvisa.com and paid about 48 USD for the 4-hour visa service. Honestly, it was worth it. They communicated with me at 1 am via Whatsapp and the application process was rather easy. Since we had extended our trip in Taipei by a few hours, we were able to print out the form and get passport photos to expedite our waiting time once entering Hanoi.

All I know from various years of travelling is that everything solves itself in the end. It seriously does! There is no use in stressing out since this is Asia and with a little patience and some money, you will get to your destination.

So, we started with a hiccup, but we happily arrived in Hanoi on November 19th and left on December 3rd. In 2 weeks, we felt like we really got to explore the north and even got a tiny, tiny bit off the of the beaten path, which is nearly impossible in touristy Vietnam.

Northern Loop Vietnam
I cannot express how much you must ride the Northern Loop!

So, what does the ultimate itinerary for 2 weeks in Northern Vietnam look like? Feel free to click on the anchor links below to hop to your favourite part!

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