The railway down the spine of Vietnam is one of the great train journeys of Asia and one of the least pampered. It is a single track, 1,726 kilometres from Hanoi in the north to Saigon in the south, built by the French, severed for decades by war, and reunited in 1976 — which is where the unofficial name “Reunification Express” comes from, though, as the rail nerds will tell you, no train actually carries it. The fast SE-series trains do the whole thing in around 33 to 35 hours. Riding it that way is a stunt. The trip is to break it into legs and sleep in the towns.

I rode it south in January, dry-season weather in the north, warmth building all the way down. A week, Hanoi to Saigon, on the SE trains.

Days 1–2: Hanoi

Two nights in Hanoi, the old northern capital, before you board anything. The Old Quarter is the heart of it — a thousand years of trade compressed into a maze of streets each named for the guild that once worked it, motorbikes pouring through it in a constant river. Walk the lake at Hoan Kiem with its red bridge to the Ngoc Son temple, see the grim and fascinating Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, and eat — Hanoi is a street-food capital, the home of pho and bun cha (the grilled-pork-and-noodle dish Obama famously ate here with Anthony Bourdain). Get your train tickets sorted: the SE trains leave from Hanoi station (Ga Hà Nội) at the west end of the centre, and soft-sleeper berths are worth booking ahead, either through the national railway’s site or a reputable agency.

A practical word on the trains themselves, because expectations matter. These are not high-speed services — the single track and the terrain keep average speeds modest — and the rolling stock ranges from refurbished private-operator carriages to older state cars. The soft sleeper is a four-berth compartment with a door, air conditioning, and bedding; it is comfortable and sociable, and the small premium over hard sleeper (a six-berth) is worth it on an overnight leg. Bring snacks, water, and a power bank; a trolley comes through and there is usually a dining car, but provisioning yourself is smarter. The window, scratched as it sometimes is, is the entertainment.

Day 3: Overnight train, Hanoi to Hue

Board an evening SE train south for the long overnight leg to Hue, roughly 13–14 hours, and sleep across it in a soft-sleeper berth. Hue was the imperial capital of the Nguyen dynasty, and the reason to stop is the Imperial City — the vast walled citadel and palace complex on the Perfume River, badly damaged in the 1968 battle but extensively restored, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Take a boat on the Perfume River to the Thien Mu Pagoda and out to the elaborate royal tombs of the emperors scattered in the hills around the city. Hue’s cuisine is its own tradition, refined and spicier than the north’s, shaped by the imperial court — the rice-noodle beef soup bún bò Huế is the dish to seek out, hotter and more lemongrass-scented than Hanoi’s pho, and the city’s array of tiny royal-style “rice cakes” (bánh) are a lunch in themselves. Night in Hue, on or near the Perfume River.

Day 4: The Hai Van Pass to Da Nang

This is the leg you ride awake. The short daytime train from Hue to Da Nang is, for about three hours, the most beautiful stretch of railway in the country: the line clings to the coast and climbs the Hai Van Pass, the mountain spur that drops to the sea between the two cities, with the track hanging above empty beaches and blue water the road bridge bypasses through a tunnel. Sit on the right going south (the sea side) and do not sleep through it.

Da Nang itself is Vietnam’s third city, modern and beach-fronted, with the famous golden-handed Ba Na Hills bridge in the mountains above. But most travellers push 30 minutes south to Hoi An — the lantern-lit old trading port, a preserved UNESCO town of merchant houses, tailors, and a covered Japanese bridge, car-free in the centre and luminous after dark. Stay in Hoi An if you can; it is the loveliest stop on the line.

Day 5: Hoi An, then the night train south

Spend the day in Hoi An — get clothes made (the tailoring is the town’s other industry), cycle out to the rice paddies and the beach, and stay until the lanterns come on along the river. Then transfer back to Da Nang and board an overnight SE train south toward Nha Trang, sleeping across the long coastal run.

Day 6: Nha Trang

Wake in Nha Trang, the south-central beach city on a long curve of bay. This is the trip’s downshift: a day on the sand, a swim in the South China Sea, the ancient Po Nagar Cham Towers on the hill above the river mouth (a Hindu temple complex of the old Champa kingdom, still in use), and the mud baths the town is known for. Eat seafood on the front. Night train south again, the last long overnight leg, toward Saigon — about 8 hours.

Day 7: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

Arrive in Saigon, officially Ho Chi Minh City, the southern megacity and the end of the line. It is faster, hotter, and more headlong than Hanoi. See the War Remnants Museum — sobering and essential — the French-colonial Notre-Dame Cathedral and Central Post Office, and the Reunification Palace, the 1960s presidential palace where a North Vietnamese tank crashed the gate in 1975 to end the war, frozen as it was that day. Eat in the night markets of District 1, drink a cà phê sữa đá — iced coffee with condensed milk, the southern ritual — and let the scale of having crossed the whole country by rail settle in. If you have an extra day, the Cu Chi tunnels outside the city, the Viet Cong’s underground network, are the standard half-day trip, and the Mekong Delta lies a couple of hours south for the floating markets. The single-track line you have been riding for a week runs out here, at Saigon station in District 3, the terminus where the southbound trains begin and a journey the length of a long, narrow country comes to its end.

Direction, weather, and how long to give it

Vietnam’s shape makes the weather a moving target down the length of the line, and it is worth a thought before you fix the dates. The north (Hanoi) is best in the dry, cooler months of roughly October to April; the central coast (Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An) has a wetter spell later in the year, peaking around October–November, when flooding can affect Hoi An; and the south (Saigon) runs to a dry season of about December to April and a wet one after. Going north to south in winter, as this itinerary does, generally chases the better weather down the country, though no single window is perfect everywhere. As for length, a week is the realistic minimum to do the line justice with the stops above; ten days lets you slow down in Hoi An and add a beach day or two without rushing the overnight legs. Doing the full 1,726 km in one or two sittings is possible but misses the entire point — the towns, not the transit, are the trip.

What it costs, roughly

Vietnam by rail is cheap by any Western measure. A soft-sleeper berth on a long SE leg runs a modest amount, hard sleeper less, and even buying every leg the rail bill for the whole country is small. Accommodation runs from backpacker-cheap to genuinely luxurious for not much money, with Hoi An offering the best value-for-loveliness on the route. Food is the great bargain — you can eat superbly on the street for a few dollars a day. Book the SE trains and a soft sleeper ahead, ride the Hai Van Pass in daylight, and the most expensive thing about the trip will be the flight to reach it.

Verification

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Frequently asked questions

What is the Reunification Express?
It is the informal name for the trains running the full length of Vietnam between Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), a 1,726 km single-track line. No train officially carries the name, but the SE-series services are what travellers mean by it.
How long does the whole journey take?
End to end, the fastest SE trains take roughly 30–35 hours. Almost no one rides it straight through — the point is to break it into legs over a week, sleeping in towns and riding the scenic daylight sections like the Hai Van Pass awake.
Should I book soft sleeper or hard sleeper?
Soft sleeper (4-berth, air-conditioned) is the comfortable choice for overnight legs and worth the small premium. Hard sleeper is a 6-berth and fine for the budget-minded; soft seat works for short daytime hops. Book the SE trains ahead, especially around holidays.
Which direction is better, north to south or south to north?
Either works; this itinerary runs north to south, ending in Saigon. The most scenic single stretch — the Hai Van Pass between Hue and Da Nang — is spectacular in both directions, so just be sure to ride that leg in daylight whichever way you go.