Customer Rating: 
Summary: Use This Excellent Guide and Avoid the Lonely Planet Hordes
Comment: My wife and I spent the entire summer of 2004 in Vietnam, and we found this guide to be the most complete. For the most part, we spent several weeks each in Hanoi, Saigon, Hoi An, and Sapa; not only did this guide provide just about everything we needed to know to get started in each locale, but as we explored on our own, it seemed like whatever we discovered was also consistently found in the guide. One key example of this guide's excellence: at the time, it was the only guide that guided travelers to the Ha An Hotel in Hoi An, by far the nicest place to stay in town (and very affordable as well). Over the weeks we stayed there, the Lonely Planet hordes were completely clueless about the place. That's the thing: Lonely Planet is great, but it seemed like 90% of travelers we saw had the LP guide tucked under their arms, so think about what that means for you--if you choose to join the LP stampede, or step to the side of it with this comprehensive guide. (By the way: we also liked the Vietnam, 5th: Tread Your Own Path (Footprint - Travel Guides), which isn't comprehensive but seemed to have great taste.)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A well-researched, reliable and valuable guide
Comment: I was in Vietnam (Jan/Feb 2008) and I took with me Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, and the better of the two guides is, by a thin margin, Lonely Planet.
However, there is much to commend Rough Guide Vietnam. It is worth buying just for the section that covers the history, religion (13 pages) and the overall culture of Vietnam. Excellent.
This guide is well laid out; breaking Vietnam into eight sections. Each section has a page that points out the places not to be missed. Each of these sections opens with a very good history and explanation of the area. Rough Guide has an excellent selection of restaurant and eateries (better than Lonely Planet's) with enticing write-ups that tell you what to try, "Goi bo, a salad of banana flower, star fruit and pineapple" or "try stir-fried beef with lemongrass for starters, followed by fried scallops and then che baba - grandma's sweet coconut soup." This guide has a better selection of the discos and clubs than Lonely Planet and it has eight (8) pages of recommended books to consider - Super.
HOWEVER, Rough Guides hardly has any maps, and those that they have are not as good or easy to use as Lonely Planet. It has a cumbersome "price code" system for accommodations, i.e. 1= under to $10, 2= $10-15, 3= $15-30, etc., thus, you have to memorize what the numbers represent or flip back and forth to the legend. Whereby, Lonely Planet shows you the cost in dollars. What an idea! Duh. Only a few accommodations (very few) have webpages. In today's world accommodations webpages are a must. All savvy travelers today want to "see" what a hotel or hostel looks like. R.G. does not breakdown restaurants by cost (Expensive, Moderate, etc.) nor does it give you any prices ranges ($10-15 etc.). Not Good.
In short, the better of the two guides is Lonely Planet, especially if you are going to explore Vietnam and want to get away from the "tourist areas". However, if you are staying in HCMC, Hanoi or other major cities and want the best clubs and restaurants with good eatery descriptions then this is your guide. Strongly Recommended. 4 Stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Comment: I just returned from a trip to Vietnam (Jan 2008) and was given this book last minute by a friend. This book was invaluable to my trip and compared to the Lonely Planet that I had been using, it was way better. The information was useful, concise and accurate.
The only 2 complaints about it are: the language section in the back does not do a phonetic translation which means if you are trying to ask for tea (tra) you end up saying 'tra' instead of 'ja'. You could flip a few pages to where they list all the proper pronunciations of the consonants but who has time for that? It's a guidebook not a dictionary.
The other complaint I have is that massages were cheap and very good over there and yet were never mentioned in the book (where, how much, what to watch out for etc) The LP book did both. However, comparing the 2 books overall, the RG was still much better!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best written travel book for Vietnam
Comment: Used Rough Guide for my 3 week trip to Vietnam. Information is accurate and helpful. Compared to Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide to Vietnam is much better written, has more in-depth historical information, and provides a non-partial perspective to this interesting and vibrant country.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rough Guide Vietnam - Good maps, crappy and biased commentary
Comment: This book was very good and detailed with accomodations and eateries. The walking tours were very easy to follow and the maps were easy to navigate. I loved the color section on food to encourage you to try some of the food that would otherwise be intimidating.
The biggest disappointment I found in this book is that it seemed that it was written SOLELY from a communist point of view. The book did not address South Vietnam and the effects of the war on the people there. It bashed the French and Americans. I FOUND IT OFFENSIVE AND WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER ROUGH GUIDE AGAIN! That's how's irritating and disrespectfuly it was.
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