Vietnam is a small Southeast Asian nation, picturesque and beautiful, and is recognized more for its fighting spirit during the one and a half decade long Vietnam War and the Nobel peace prize winner nationalist leader Aung San Su Chi. Though Vietnam is relatively a smaller country geographically, there are sixty four Vietnam provinces existing presently along with five municipalities existing at the same level. Historically however there were five Vietnam provinces. A brief idea about these provinces will act as a Vietnam travel guide of provinces to the visitor.
The largest municipality in Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh City which is the most populous city with over 5 million people living there as well as the top level administrative unit. Among the Vietnam provinces, while Thanh Hoa is the most populous one with over three and a half million people, the mountainous Vietnam province of Lai Chau is the least populous. The largest province in terms of land area in Vietnam is Nghe An covering an area of 16,487 Sq Kms while Bac Ninh is the smallest with 804 sq Kms of area.

The provinces of Vietnam are grouped into eight regions for the convenience of administrative work. These regions are
- North west called the Tay Bac
This region contains four inland provinces, two of which are along Vietnam’s border with Laos and one with China.

- North east called Dong Bac
This region holds eleven Vietnam provinces, many of which are mountainous, lying north of the Red River Lowlands which is highly populated.

- River Delta called Dong Bang Song Hong
This region holds nine small but populous provinces and two municipalities based around the Red River. The municipalities are Hanoi, the national capital and Haiphong.