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In this Tet, Dave and his family chose Ninh Binh as the destination for the early spring trip of the Year of Rabbit and shared more about Vietnam tourism on the social platform.
Having been in Vietnam for 4 years and enjoying 3 Tet's in Vietnam, every year Dave (28 years old, British, an English teacher) and his family took a spring trip to different places, with various cultures, just to relax after hard working days. This year, one of the places is Ninh Binh Province.
Departing on the 2nd day of Tet, Dave went to famous places of the ancient capital: Thung Nham, Trang An and Tam Coc - Bich Dong.
According to Dave, Ninh Binh offers a harmonious combination of rivers and mountains creating a beautiful landscape. It provides a destination that tourists can visit in just one day or spend many days fully feeling the beauty of ancient, quiet, charming and lively environments.
This is not the first time Dave has come to Ninh Binh because this place has everything a tourist needs: beautiful scenery, majestic mountains and rivers.
But explaining more about the reason for choosing Ninh Binh for the first trip in 2023, Dave shared: "People are familiar with foreign visitors. Many can speak English, making travel convenient. It is more beneficial, especially for foreigners like me. The atmosphere of spring travel of Vietnamese people is also bustling and crowded than in previous years."
According to Dave, the Tam Coc - Bich Dong area was the most interesting on the last trip because he could easily find local restaurants serving Western food. If foreign tourists want to experience local specialities and enjoy Western dishes, the restaurants in Tam Coc are always ready to serve. Dave and his family love the deliciously cooked Mexican food at Rico Taco Mex Bar & Grill.
To avoid boredom from eating a lot of New Year's food, Dave chose Ninh Binh goat meat with various dishes such as rare lemon, stewed rice husk, rolled fish fat, and burnt goat meat... "Dishes from goats are prepared by the chef. Ninh Binh is skillfully processed; goat meat no longer has a bad taste but is very soft. Every dish I ate, I liked, "said Dave.
One thing Dave doesn't like about Tam Coc is that there is still a situation where locals raise high prices for foreign tourists and cling to them to force them to use their services and buy their products.
"Sometimes this can ruin a trip. I believe that besides the natural beauty, hospitality, attitude and interaction with local people are also very important. For tourists, These things have a lot of impact on visitors' feelings, deciding whether they want to return to that place or not," he said.
Because he has a Vietnamese wife, Dave has his wife share details about Tet culture, and his wife has been a guide during the past Tet seasons.
"After 3 years of celebrating Tet, I am very familiar with Tet, but I think I still want to understand Tet better, about the traditions that Vietnamese people often do with Tet holiday," said Dave. He suggested that tourist localities organize programs to help foreign tourists better understand Tet, such as why giving children lucky money, the custom of square cake (Banh Chung) and glutinous rice pie (Banh Day), why using kumquat trees instead of orange trees, etc. It will attract the curiosity of international tourists.
"If they are single travellers, they may not be able to experience and understand Tet to the fullest the way I experience it, thanks to the explanation of my family," he added.
For Dave, Vietnam is one of the ideal destinations because tourists have a lot of choices in different aspects. Vietnam has many options for travel from luxury to budget, fast or slow travel, relaxation or exploration, and drinking with friends or lovers.
He also hopes there will be more advantages in policies, transportation, and services... Tourism will develop more. This year, Dave had difficulty obtaining a visa for his mother to come to Vietnam for Tet due to a more complicated licensing process.
In addition, Dave hopes that the issue of maintaining hygiene, the environmental landscape at tourist destinations and the way local people do temporary tourism like in Tam Coc needs to be improved to create a good impression in the eyes. International travelers.
