A magical city steeped in history

Every 2 September the city tilts toward the river. Families pack the promenades, motorbikes fill every side street near the water, and by early evening the best of the riverbank is already three deep with people waiting for the National Day fireworks. It is a wonderful, noisy, shared thing to be part of. It is […]

December in Saigon does not bring snow, but it brings its own kind of Christmas. The evenings turn a shade cooler, the streets in the centre string themselves with lights, and there is a warmth in the way the year begins to wind down. It is a lovely season for afternoon tea. A festive stand, […]

Ask your mother out to dinner and something happens: a big table, a full menu, the pressure to make an evening of it. Afternoon tea asks for none of that. It is a small, gentle thing, a pot of tea and a stand of little bites on a quiet Saturday, and somewhere in that hour […]

Dinner asks a lot of an evening. It runs long, it fills you up, and it tends to take over whatever you had planned around it. Afternoon tea asks almost nothing. It sits in the quiet middle of the day, it is light on its feet, and it leaves you free to talk for as […]

Two names, endless confusion. Most people assume high tea is the grander, fancier one, the champagne-and-chandeliers version of afternoon tea. It is almost exactly the opposite. Afternoon tea is the dainty, leisured spread; high tea was a working family’s evening meal. This guide untangles the two properly, from where they came from and when they […]

Ask travellers what they remember fondly about a stay, and the breakfast buffet comes up more often than you might expect. There is something quietly generous about it: a long counter of warm and cold dishes, a pot of coffee that keeps coming, and a whole morning that begins without a single decision that matters. […]

There is a gentle hour in Saigon, somewhere between lunch and dusk, when the heat begins to ease and the city seems to slow. It is the natural hour for afternoon tea, a pot poured without hurry, a tier of savouries and sweets, and a little time set aside for good company. This guide looks […]

Ho Chi Minh City is not just about international luxury. Over the last decade a home-grown fashion scene has exploded here, and for younger travellers it is far more interesting than another Gucci flagship: independent Vietnamese designers, a serious streetwear culture, and whole streets and basements devoted to local labels at prices that leave room […]

Past the luxury malls and the streetwear basements lies an older, warmer kind of shopping. Crowded markets. Artisan workshops. Little shops piled high with things made by hand. This is where you go for an áo dài cut to fit, a piece of lacquerware, a bag of freshly roasted coffee, or a souvenir that actually […]