Product Description

Borne from the Southeast Asian guidebook that The International Herald Tribune's Thai Day hailed as a guide with depth and color that most of [its] competitors lack, To Vietnam With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur launches the To Asia With Love series. This beautiful, full-color guidebook features a collection of personal essays by savvy expatriates, seasoned travelers, and inspired locals. Each reflection on a favorite dining, shopping, sightseeing, or cultural experience is paired with a practical fact file, so that readers can follow in the writers footsteps. From staying overnight with a local hill tribe and climbing Southeast Asia's highest mountain, to touring historic French villas and getting involved with local charities, every recommendation captures a distinctive aspect of the country.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52512 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 303 pages

About the Author
Editor Kim Fay first traveled to Southeast Asia in 1991. Since then, she spent four years living in Vietnam and has traveled back frequently, writing about the region. She is the creator and series editor of the To Asia With Love guidebooks, and the author of Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam.

Photographer Julie Fay Ashborn's travels through Southeast Asia inspired her photography in To Asia With Love, The Little Saigon Cookbook, and Communion: A Culinary Journey through Vietnam.

Customer Reviews

The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of
This book has been my morning coffee comrade ever since I received a copy a week or two ago, and now I'm ready to pack my bags and head off for Ho Chi Minh City. This is the very best kind of guidebook for the independent traveler--it trusts that you know how to get from an airport to a hotel and that you can pick up key civilities from a phrasebook. What it does and does quite well is provide you with personal and highly individual recommendations from expats, travelers, and Vietnamese people, who tell you what they love about this country. From their stories, you can draw up your own itinerary--their tips provide a springboard for your own adventures.

This is a book to dip into and to use for building dreams. Short essays provide information for every interest--Todd Berliner offers film buffs the Hanoi Cinematheque and Cafe, "which you cannot find unless you know where it is." Antoine Sirot tells where to find ballroom dancing to live music in the romantic destination of Dalat. Jeff Greenwald reveals the pleasures of searching for the elusive langur of Cat Ba Island, and Vu Kieu Linh not only tells why the hoa sua flower makes Hanoi an unforgettable place in autumn, but tells exactly where to walk for a fifteen-minute stroll through the flowering trees that bear these blossoms.

Where to stay, what to eat, how to shop: these conventional guidebook subjects are all included but are enveloped in the experience that has made the recommended places special to the author (there are 60 contributors to this book, including the editor and photographer.) If you're like me, you will develop a fondness for a particular voice and yearn to wander with that writer. (Believe me, when I finally get to Ho Chi Minh City, I plan to hunt down Emily Huckson.)

And in addition to the nourishment for dreams that it provides, this is a gorgeous book that is sheer pleasure to touch. The cover feels like satin, and the paper used for the pages sets a whole new standard for the paperback publishing industry. Julie Fay Ashborne's photographs are generously sprinkled throughout the book and every one of them is a visual poem.

Editor Kim Fay has followed up her first travel guide To Asia with Love: A Connoisseurs' Guide to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.with a book that is certain to become another travel classic--beautiful, useful, and completely irresistible.

Great, unique "guide"
This is less of a travel guide and more of a book that will get you into the spirit of travel in Vietnam. If you're overly familiar with Vietnam, this book may not be that helpful as far as learning new experiences or tips go. This is not a great book to read if you're wanting hotel suggestions and that type of thing (though there are a few in each city). There are a few "hidden" gem locations, but other than that everything else you could probably find on your own.

I wish the book was organized slightly differently. There are overview chapters at the end, that I wish were instead in the front. This book is a series of essays from about 50 different writers, at the end there is a chapter with background info on said authors. I would have preferred to read this first in order to know their perspective on the matter. I also wish this book came with an outline of places they mention to visit by city, there aren't that many places mentioned they could've almost fit on one page. I would recommend just taking brief notes by city if you're in fact going to try and follow anything in this book. But really, I took this book as more of a guide of types of things to do, and sought out my own recommendations. (The only place I explicitly tried to visit in HCMC--Sakura Cafe--appeared to not exist anymore? The hotel at the address listed had never even heard of it)

All in all, a great read. Great gift idea for someone that's planning or dreaming of an upcoming trip to Vietnam! It's a wonderful primer that does cover some of the most basic customs, but you will however absolutely still need to buy a traditional guidebook to accompany this. (Even this book says this in the end...). Great book, and well worth reading.