Sleeper train or flight: getting up and down Vietnam

Every tour that covers the whole of Vietnam has the same problem to solve. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are about seventeen hundred kilometres apart by rail, the main sights are strung out along the coast between them, and a fortnight is not long. Somewhere in the itinerary, usually between Hanoi and Hue and again between Hoi An and the south, the group has to cover a long distance quickly. There are three ways to do it: by road, by air, and by the railway that the Vietnamese call the Reunification line.

The Reunification Express

The railway from Hanoi to Saigon was built by the French in stages and completed in the 1930s. War cut it in many places, and it was rebuilt after 1975; when through trains began running the length of the newly reunified country again at the end of 1976, they became known as the Reunification Express. No train officially carries the name, but it has stuck. It is a single, metre-gauge track, which means trains wait in passing loops for one another and none of them is fast. The quickest through trains take more than thirty hours from one end to the other.

It is also, in places, one of the loveliest railways in Asia. Between Hue and Da Nang, where the road climbs over the Hai Van Pass, the railway keeps to the shore around the foot of the headland, through short tunnels and along ledges just above the sea. North of Hue it runs for hours through rice fields and villages, with the mountains inland.

A night in a soft sleeper

On a tour, the train is usually used overnight, most often between Hanoi and Hue. Groups normally travel in soft-sleeper compartments: four berths, two up and two down, with a door that closes, bedding, a small table and a reading light. It is a good deal more comfortable than it sounds, and a good deal less comfortable than a hotel.

The berths are firm and on the short side for tall travellers. The track is old, and the carriage sways and clanks, so sleep tends to come in pieces. Toilets are shared, at the end of the carriage. Trains stop at stations through the night, and the journey from Hanoi to Hue takes twelve hours or more. Some travellers find all this exactly the point, the rattle and the dawn over the paddies; others arrive in Hue tired and lose the morning to it. Both are fair reactions, and it is worth knowing which you are likely to have before you book.

The train also saves a hotel night and most of a day, which is why tours with a tighter budget or a slower spirit use it. The flight, by contrast, is a little over an hour from Hanoi to Hue or Da Nang, but by the time you add the drive to the airport, check-in and the drive at the far end, it takes up most of a morning.

Roads and the slower way down

The third way is the road, which is how most tours cover the shorter hops: Hanoi to Halong Bay, Hue to Hoi An over the Hai Van Pass, Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta. A few tours go further and drive the whole central stretch, stopping on the way rather than flying over it.

Explore Worldwide's A Taste of Vietnam - Halong Bay to the Mekong Delta, twelve nights, takes the slower view of the north: its places include Ninh Binh, Phong Nha National Park, the wartime tunnels at Vinh Moc and the citadel at Quang Tri, all on the long stretch between Hanoi and Hue that a flight passes over.

The more classic shape is Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, which Just You's Discover Vietnam, twelve nights, follows for solo travellers, and which Explore Worldwide's Inside Vietnam, thirteen nights, follows with Lan Ha Bay and the Hai Van Pass added. How each one travels between the regions is set out in its day-by-day itinerary.

How to tell which you are getting

A tour's summary rarely says "overnight train" in large letters, and a list of places does not tell you how you travel between them. The day-by-day itinerary does: look for the days that begin in one city and end in another several hundred kilometres away, and see whether they say flight, train or drive. If it is not clear, ask the operator before booking, along with how many to a compartment and whether the train can be swapped for a flight.

Neither answer is wrong. A first visit with only two weeks probably wants the flights, and the time they buy in Hue and Hoi An. Someone who likes a timetable and a window seat, and can sleep through a level crossing, may find the night train is the part of the trip they remember best.