The best places to drink in Hội An, from wine bars, cocktail lounges, craft beer taprooms, beach pubs & clubs…

A rich & exciting cafe culture in an ancient market town on the Hà Giang Loop…

Intimate, cosy, independent & off-beat, these bars offer refuge from the city & getting there is half the fun…

The story of a unique drink created in a local cafe in Hue that went from being a secret recipe to a nationwide success…

Places to rest, drink, sleep, eat & take shelter when on the road, hammock cafes are a valuable resource for long-distance travellers in Vietnam…

Artisanal breweries, local beer restaurants, dive bars for resident artists, chic cocktail lounges for posers & budget hangouts for backpackers…

A heritage building in the capital’s Old Quarter houses a nostalgic coffee shop, keeping the city’s younger generation in touch with its past…

Sip locally brewed craft beer or cocktails next to an infinity pool with panoramic views of Da Nang city & beachfront from the rooftop of the Four Points by Sheraton…

Dozens of cool, cosy, photogenic, independent coffee shops with countryside views form one of the most exciting coffee scenes in Asia…

Stylish sky bars with sunset views, windowless speakeasies with professional mixologists, rustic-chic wine bars above the waves, cheap beach shacks & much more…

Overlooking an attractive bay on Phu Quoc Island, this unpretentious, open-side little beach bar & cafe is an inexpensive & informal place for a sunset cocktail…

An ubiquitous but uncelebrated part of daily life in Vietnam, iced tea (trà đá) is an essential component of dining culture & social life…

The old apartment block on Ton That Dam Street, in downtown Saigon, has been colonized by cool cafes, hipster bars & fashion boutiques. Gritty & intriguing architectural vestiges lurk in every nook & cranny of this enigmatic French colonial-era complex….

I’ve only recently started to visit my local juice lady in Saigon. Now, however, I go there every day for fresh fruit juices & smoothies. In Vietnam, fruit juices are often served with added sugar, and smoothies with condensed milk, but it’s pretty easy to order them without…

Vietnam has a rich & thriving cafe culture – probably among the most active, dynamic, and independent cafe scenes in the world. And now, the cult of coffee has reached the remote, utterly beautiful island of Con Son, in the Con Dao Archipelago….

Two wooden junks floating on the milk tea-coloured waters of the Kenh Te Canal in District 7, The Boat Cafe is one of those special places in Saigon that offer respite from the noise & chaos of the city without actually leaving it…

Named after a grand old tree by the roadside, this cafe is located on the scenic road between Phan Thiet & Di Linh, in the Central Highlands. With good views & strong local coffee, it makes a pleasant pit-stop on a motorbike road trip…

Occupying the best spot on Bai Sao, the most popular beach on Phu Quoc Island, Paradiso Beach Club is a great place to chill, drink, eat & swim…

The Central Highlands is famous for its coffee and its mountains. Photo & Bike Cafe marries these two elements nicely, making it the perfect pit-stop on any road trip that passes through Bao Loc, on the way between Saigon and Dalat…

A floor-by-floor guide to this cool & iconic Saigon landmark…

In Phú Nhuận District – Saigon’s unofficial ‘café capital’ – a small grid of leafy streets plays host to a collection of trendy coffee shops. Bounded by the Thị Nghè Channel and Phan Xích Long Boulevard, I call this the ‘Café Quarter’…

Fermented glutinous rice mixed together with an egg & steamed to create a mildly alcoholic rice pudding…..for breakfast

Saigon has thousands of independent coffee shops. Hidden down narrow alleyways, tucked away in forgotten colonial villas, or concealed in enigmatic old apartment buildings, there’s a whole sub-culture of ‘indie’ cafes in this city. These are my favourites.

Saigon is at the heart of Vietnam’s economic boom: new high-rises and five-star hotels go up every year. On the upper storeys there are stylish bars with views over the city, catering to the country’s nouveau-riche and wealthy foreign visitors. But, with the price of drinks still relatively low, rooftop cocktails are affordable for travellers on all budgets, especially if you make the most of Happy Hours.

At 5 o’clock in the afternoons in Saigon, high schools and universities disgorge their students into the busy streets. Dusk is one of the coolest times of day, and many of these students head for one of the city’s parks, where they buy food and drink from street vendors and sit on the grass talking into the evening hours – this is Cà Phê Bệt.