Vietnam in September: Our First Month Travelling Asia as a Family of Seven

On 31st August 2026, two parents, five kids and their scooters along with all their luggage, left the UK to travel Asia.

And by the end of September we'd somehow survived Hanoi traffic, climbed mountains, squeezed seven of us into boats, ridden bikes through rice fields, been on water buffalo, homeschooled from villas, learnt how much five children can snack in a day, bought scooters, got absolutely soaked, questioned most of our life choices at least once… and made it to Thailand.

So, here is the honest version of our first month travelling Asia.

Not the Instagram highlight reel. The actual one.

Hanoi: straight in at the deep end

Our first stop was Hanoi.

Looking back, choosing one of the busiest, noisiest and most chaotic cities we'd ever experienced as our introduction to long-term family travel was… brave.

We arrived jet-lagged with five tired children, couldn't initially get Maps working properly, had no idea where we were going and suddenly had to figure out things like eSIMs, Grab, Vietnamese money and how on earth you cross a road when approximately 400 scooters appear to be heading directly towards you.

It was a proper culture shock.

Hanoi is incredible. The food, street life, tiny stools spilling onto pavements, scooters carrying things that absolutely should not fit on scooters, smells coming from every direction and just the sheer energy of the place.

But five days there with five jet-lagged children was enough for us.

We were tired, the kids were tired, and we were trying to learn how travelling, parenting, homeschooling, making sure the business was running in the UK and creating content were all supposed to happen at the same time.

There was definitely more nagging than wholesome family bonding during those first few days.

By the time we left Hanoi, we were very ready for somewhere slower.

Ninh Binh: the moment we thought, “Ahhh… THIS is why we're doing it”

Ninh Binh completely changed the mood.

Even getting there was mildly chaotic because we'd arranged a transfer that turned out not to have enough room for seven people and all our luggage, so we ended up paying more for a larger private vehicle.

Classic Glassonburys.

But when we arrived?

Green mountains. Rice fields. Bikes. Space. A swimming pool.

The kids basically launched themselves straight into the water and suddenly everybody seemed to unclench.

This was the first place where travelling Asia started to feel how we'd imagined it would.

We were gifted a bike hire and explored the countryside, which is still one of my favourite memories from Vietnam. There is something pretty surreal about cycling along tiny roads surrounded by those enormous limestone mountains with five children trailing behind you.

We visited Mua Cave, where we discovered that hundreds of steep stone steps in Vietnamese humidity with children is an excellent test of a marriage.

The views from the top were completely worth it though.

We also did the Trang An boat trip, travelling through caves and between the mountains in little rowing boats. It was one of those places where you keep looking around thinking, how is this real?

And then, because travelling with children is all about balance, we also ended up at Tam Coc Pet Coffee Café.

Mountains one day. Pet café the next.

Everyone's happy.

There were afternoons spent around the pool, casual tea times and quite a lot of doing absolutely nothing.

And that was probably the biggest lesson Ninh Binh taught us:

We don't actually need to be sightseeing every day.

Hoi An: where travelling started becoming normal life

We arrived in Hoi An on 10th September and stayed until the end of the month.

This was our first proper longer stay.

Instead of constantly packing and unpacking, we suddenly had time to buy groceries, homeschool properly, do washing, work, cook meals and establish something resembling normal family life.

Except normal family life now involved palm trees and scooters.

We stayed near the coast around An Bang/Tân Thành rather than right in the centre of Hoi An.

That had pros and cons.

We had more space, were closer to the beach and could escape the busy Old Town, but we quickly realised that being slightly out of town meant paying for transport every time we needed groceries, activities or wanted to wander around.

With seven people, those little costs add up surprisingly quickly.

It was also during Hoi An that we started properly figuring out how we wanted to travel.

We don't want to race around ticking off tourist attractions.

We like markets, local food, little villages, cycling, beaches, ordinary family days and actually getting a feel for somewhere.

One of our favourite days in Vietnam

One experience that genuinely lived up to the hype was our gifted Farming & Fishing Life Tour with Jack Tran Tours.

It lasted around six hours and somehow kept all five children involved.

We cycled through the countryside, tried traditional farming, rode water buffalo, went fishing, travelled in basket boats and ate on the water.

At one point Ed and Kenny were dressed up and joined the fishermen in a traditional dance designed to encourage the fish towards the nets.

I don't think I've laughed that much in ages.

All seven of us went on the buffalo, the kids got involved with everything and it was exactly the kind of experience we'd hoped travelling would give them, a taste of a tradition.

It didn't feel like dragging children around an attraction made for adults.

They were part of it.

Gifted experience – Jack Tran Tours.

The less glamorous side

Of course, it wasn't all buffalo and beaches.

September was also the month we realised long-term travel isn't a holiday.

You still have to make lunches.

There is still washing.

Children still argue.

You still have work.

Homeschool doesn't magically disappear because you're in Vietnam.

And five children can apparently consume an entire supermarket within approximately 14 minutes of getting home.

We spent a lot of time figuring out where to buy things cheaply rather than paying tourist prices.

Fresh fruit and vegetables came from local markets. Packaged basics came from Vietnamese supermarkets. We learnt what things should roughly cost, how much bottled water seven people get through, and that going to Western supermarkets every time is a very quick way to destroy a travel budget.

We also experienced our first proper periods of travel money anxiety.

When you're on holiday, spending £30 or £50 on an activity doesn't seem that dramatic.

When you're travelling indefinitely and multiply every entrance fee by seven, suddenly everything feels different.

A “cheap” £7 ticket becomes nearly £50 before you've eaten anything or got there.

We started questioning whether every activity was actually worth doing rather than just doing things because they're on a Top 10 list.

That lesson became VERY clear at VinWonders.

We spent a lot of money taking everyone there expecting it to be this huge brilliant family day out.

And, frankly, we thought it was rubbish.

There. I said it.

The kids weren't particularly impressed, mainly becuase they were to small to do most things, we felt like we'd spent loads and we left feeling deflated.

That was one of the days where I genuinely felt like I'd let everyone down because I'd been the one pushing for us to go.

Looking back, obviously I hadn't.

Sometimes an expensive day out is just… shit.

Travel lesson number approximately 764.

Scooters changed everything

Later in the month we hired 50cc scooters.

And suddenly Hoi An felt completely different.

We weren't constantly opening Grab and calculating another journey.

We could nip to the shop, head towards the beach or just go for a little ride.

It gave us that sense of independence we'd been missing.

Vietnamese traffic still requires approximately 300% concentration, and we're definitely not pretending scooters are risk-free, particularly with children.

But having our own transport gave us a freedom that we'd struggled with before.

Some of my favourite moments weren't even destinations.

Just riding past rice fields, tiny local shops, people working outside their homes and seeing normal Vietnamese life happening around us. We would ride up next to each other singing Buffalo Soldier, and we still smile thinking about it today.

Beaches, villages and cheap little days

We quickly learnt that some of our best family days cost very little.

We explored Kim Bong Carpentry Village.

We visited the countryside around Tra Que Vegetable Village.

We found quieter stretches of beach away from the busiest parts of An Bang.

We wandered markets.

We looked for indoor play areas when the rain arrived.

We fed ducks.

We tried and tested Vietnamese coffee.

And there were plenty of days where our big outing was literally swimming and playing at the beach, getting something to eat and going home.

Before leaving the UK, I think I'd imagined travelling with children meant constantly showing them incredible things.

Actually, they are often equally happy with a swimming pool, an ice cream and somewhere they can run around.

Possibly happier.

Homeschooling on the road

September was also our first proper month of homeschooling.

This was probably one of the biggest adjustments for me personally because I went from Mum back into teacher mode.

We're currently aiming for around two hours of structured learning each weekday, covering the Math and English National Curriculum alongside reading for pleasure and phonics.

There are definitely benefits.

Lessons can happen around our life rather than our life happening around school.

Something we've seen that day can turn into writing, geography or discussion.

And I love having that extra time with them.

But homeschooling five different ages at once is no joke.

There are days where it feels brilliant and I'm completely convinced this is the best decision we've ever made.

There are also days where someone has no battery on their ipad, someone else doesn't want to participate or the two-year-old has decided this is the perfect moment to climb across the table.

We're learning.

The content pressure nobody really talks about

Something else I hadn't fully expected was how much pressure I'd put on myself to document everything.

We started this trip wanting to grow The Glassonburys and hopefully turn content and UGC into another source of income.

So suddenly every beautiful moment came with another thought:

Did I film enough?

Should I make a Reel from this?

Why isn't the account growing faster?

What should I post today?

There were days where I felt like I wasn't enjoying travelling because I was too busy worrying that I wasn't creating enough content about travelling.

Which is obviously ridiculous when you say it out loud.

I'm still figuring that one out.

I want to document our life because one day these videos will be absolutely priceless to us.

But I don't want the children remembering Mum constantly looking at everything through an iPhone screen.

So I'm learning to grab a few clips and then put the phone down.

Was Vietnam what we expected?

No.

But that's probably a good thing.

Hanoi was harder than expected.

Ninh Binh was better than expected.

Hoi An took longer to click than expected.

Some activities we thought would be amazing weren't.

Some completely ordinary days ended up being our favourites.

We realised accommodation matters much more to us than we thought it would, because when you're travelling long-term your accommodation isn't simply somewhere you sleep.

It's your home.

It's our school.

It's the office.

It's where five children spend enormous chunks of their day.

We've learnt that we need somewhere comfortable, ideally with outside space or a pool, and we need to be close enough to normal life that getting food doesn't become a military operation.

We're also learning that our version of travelling Asia is probably going to be much slower than we'd originally imagined.

Longer stays.

More routine.

Fewer expensive attractions.

More ordinary living.

So… did we enjoy Vietnam?

Yes.

But not in the uncomplicated “BEST MONTH OF OUR LIVES!!!” way social media sometimes makes travelling families look.

There were incredible days.

There were stressful days.

There were moments when I wondered what on earth we'd done.

There were moments when I looked at the children cycling through Vietnamese countryside and thought, this is exactly why we did it.

And maybe that's the point.

We didn't leave the UK to go on a year-long holiday.

We left because we wanted to see whether there was another way for our family to live.

September was month one of figuring that out.

Vietnam gave us chaos, mountains, beaches, markets, scooters, buffalo, rain, rice fields, brilliant food and our first real glimpse of what long-term family travel actually looks like.

Next stop: Thailand.

Two parents. Five kids.

Still figuring it out as we go.