Justin Hà

👋 Who I Am

My name is Justin Hà(Hà Vĩnh Quốc Anh), as written on my ID card. I was born in 2002 and currently live and work in Ho Chi Minh City. I came here to build a life, and along the way, I found something I hadn't expected: a genuine love for exploring the country I grew up in.

I'm not a full-time tour guide. I'm not a professional photographer with a studio setup. I'm just someone who gets genuinely excited when planning a trip, who spends too much time reading about local streets, and who believes that the best travel advice comes from people who actually live there not from polished brochures.

In June 2026, I made the shift to full-time freelancing. That decision gave me the time and freedom to take this blog seriously, to write properly, publish consistently, and build something that actually helps people explore Vietnam.

✍️ How This Blog Was Born

Justin Travel Guide launched in November 2025. But honestly, the idea had been sitting in the back of my head for a lot longer than that.

I had done content work before. I understood how websites work, how to write for the web, how SEO functions. But I never had a project that was fully mine, built around something I actually cared about. Most of what I'd done was for other people's brands.

Three things pushed me to finally start:

• I kept noticing that most English-language travel content about Vietnam was either outdated, generic, or written by visitors who spent two weeks here and called it a guide. Something written from inside Vietnam, by someone who lives here, was missing.
• I had real experiences worth sharing: places I'd been to, things I'd figured out the hard way, local spots that don't show up in top-10 lists. Those stories deserved to exist somewhere.
• I wanted to build something sustainable. AdSense and affiliate income are not a get-rich scheme, but if you write genuinely useful content, they can support the kind of life where you keep traveling and keep writing.

🏝️ The Island That Started It All

If I had to point to one trip that made travel feel different, not just fun but genuinely meaningful, it would be Phu Quy Island.

Phu Quy Island, Binh Thuan. The island that changed how I think about travel.

Phu Quy is a small island off the coast of Binh Thuan province, not Phu Quoc, which everyone knows. This one is quieter, rawer, and far less covered in travel guides. Getting there takes effort. Most international tourists have never heard of it.

That trip taught me something: the places that leave the biggest impression are rarely the ones everyone else is talking about. Vietnam has dozens of these hidden corners. Places that don't trend on social media, don't have slick hotel websites, but deliver something far more real.

That realization is at the heart of what I write about here. Not just the famous destinations, though those deserve honest guides too, but the full picture of what traveling in Vietnam actually looks like when you go beyond the surface.

🗺️ How I Travel

I've explored fewer than 20 provinces across Vietnam and I haven't been abroad yet. I say this not as a disclaimer, but as context: my knowledge comes from depth, not breadth. I'd rather know a place well than visit it once and write a listicle.

My travel style changes depending on the trip. Sometimes I go solo, which is the best way to slow down, talk to strangers, and actually absorb a place. Other times I travel with friends, which changes the energy completely: more spontaneous, less planned, more fun.

What stays the same across every trip:

• I always try the local food first. Street food, wet markets, family-run restaurants. The kind of place with no English menu.
• I pay attention to how a place actually works: transport, pricing, timing, what locals do vs. what tourists are told to do.
• I document what I find. Not to perform having a good time, but because useful information shouldn't disappear when the trip ends.
• I look for the cultural layer underneath the tourism surface: history, local life, the everyday things that outsiders often miss.

📍 Google Local Guide

I'm a Level 5 Google Local Guide. This matters more than it sounds. Being a Local Guide means contributing real, verified reviews, photos, and information about places: hotels, restaurants, attractions, transport points, based on actual visits.

It's part of the same impulse that drives this blog: accurate information, honestly shared, helps real people make better decisions. A misleading review of a hotel or a ghost review of a restaurant wastes people's time and money. I take that seriously.

If you use Google Maps to plan your Vietnam trip, the reviews and photos from contributors like me are part of what makes it useful. That's a responsibility I don't take lightly.

📖 What You'll Find Here

Justin Travel Guide is built around one goal: giving international travelers the kind of Vietnam information that's actually useful. The kind you'd get if you had a local friend who happened to also be good at explaining things.

• Destination guides: real information about places, how to get there, what to do, what to skip.
• Food guides: where to eat, what to order, how to navigate local food culture.
• Practical travel tips: transport, costs, timing, what to actually expect.
• Itineraries: realistic day-by-day plans built around how travel actually works, not how travel blogs make it sound.
• Honest recommendations: hotels, tours, and gear I'd actually suggest to someone I know.

I don't write about every destination in Vietnam. I write about the places I know. As I travel more, the coverage grows, but never faster than my actual experience does.