• Joshua Zukas has spent 12 years in Hanoi, writing about Vietnam and contributing to 10 guidebooks. • He continues to see travelers make the same mistakes when visiting the country. • Zukas outlines seven sins, including skipping street food and relying on travel influencers.

Vietnam, the official tourism website insists, is a country of "timeless charm" — a tropical paradise of "untrampled landscapes and seascapes." The promo reels promise irresistibly Instagrammable moments, like skipping through the surf in flowing linen, raising Champagne flutes to the sunset, and basking in a subterranean sunbeam cradled by a moss-coated cave.

I've worked on 10 guidebooks to Vietnam and written hundreds of articles. I can say with confidence that the Vietnam of glossy screens is not the Vietnam

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