Trip to Vietnam

Duberlin Chick

Hi guys, just looking for some advice.

Looking to do 10-14 days in Vietnam. Maybe making two stops. Our plan would be to stay in a 4/5 star resort on both our stops if not a nice recommend resort. We'd like to see a bit of Vietnam in between soaking up some sunshine.


For that time frame can anyone recommend a couple of stops which wouldn't eat too much into our holiday but to get the most out of the trip. A tall ask I'm sure.

Thanks in advance.

boredatwork82

Hi,
I am doing something similar myself in October.
No huge idea yet, but my general plan is work my way down from Hanoi to Saigon.

I am not sure what areas in between to do or how to split my time yet, so I will keep an eye on your thread.

rigamincedeal

Was there in January for about 16 days I think, up north the weather wasn't so warm and we actually hadn't prepared for it to well. We flew between places and generally didn't feel rushed at all. You'll probably find that you'll have better all round weather and warmer, good thing on our trip was that there wasn't any rain, however it was quite cool at times and in particular on the cruise around Ha Long Bay. Anyway here's what we done;

Arrived in Hanoi on a Sunday around 4pm, we settled into are hotel the Hanoi Elegance Diamond, brilliant accommodation and very well priced for what you got, the resturant was fantastic and breakfast was too, would highly recommend it. It was $130 for two nights for a double room with breakfast. In Hanoi was walked around the old town, took a guided tour of the city and had a look around the lake area. We felt that two full days was enough there and we were returning there after Ha Long Bay. The old town is beautiful, but the crowds and traffic can be a bit much after a while and you'd want to have your wits about you crossing the main roads.

Departed Hanoi on Tuesday morning for a Trip out to Ha Long Bay, this is difinitely recommended. We did a two days two nights cruise on the bay and it was fantastic even if it was a bit cool for our liking. Most the trips are the same, which are all inclusive. We Arrived back in Hanoi on Thursday evening and went back to our hotel, they looked after our main luggage, at no extra cost and had it left into our new room when we came back. We took a smaller bag with us for our trip to Ha Long.

Friday Morning we left Hanai and flew with Vietnam Airline to Hue. We stayed there for only a day and stayed in the moonlight hotel, (€35 for a night)we did the citadel tour and pagoda and had a nice walk around the old area of the town. There we book a full day motor bike tour over the Hoi Van Pas from Hue to Hoi An, this was an expectional tour with two riders and us as passengers, with many stops and amazing sights along the way. Highly recommended. It cost approx $200 for us. You'll find the company on tripadvsior in the Hue forum, they were brilliant and it was a full days riding, we arrived in Hoi An around 6/7pm that evening tired but delight with our trip. Id personally recommend only a day in Hue and definitely the motorbike trip down to Hoi An.

So having arrived in Hoi An we checked into the Essence Hotel Hoi An Hotel and Spa, this was our 'relaxing' stop and we really enjoyed our few days here, however the weather was plesent but definitely not the lay about sun bathing weather, we felt 4 days here was enough and maybe 3 would have been enough. We planned on getting clothes here as it's the main place in the Vietnam to literally have anything made. We went about getting stuff made but felt we were being over charged and didn't bother after that. Hoi An is beautiful but a little touristy, however really really good resturants and plent of markets and tailor shops. We did a cooking class with I think green bamboo cooking school and that was excellent, that was a full day of cooking and eating and was a great experience would highly recommend and advanced booking would be nessacry. If your caught for time I reckon two good full days here be enough, maybe one day doing an excursion ie cooking, cycling tour etc maybe a bit longer if your planing on getting clothes. The hotel we stayed in was really nice and cost $376 for four nights including breakfast. It was about a ten minute walk from the main town and you could borrow bikes from the hotel. Pool area was nice and so was there spa, breakfast was amazing. From there we flew to Hha Trang.

Nha Trang - we did 3 days 3 nights there, weather was excellent and we stayed at the Sunrise Nha Trang, it was definitely a little more expensive here accommodation was $460. Hha Trang is a very morden beach destination and is very built up. Again we chilled out here and enjoyed the Tet and the Chinese New Year with fireworks etc we were on the wind down as we spent the last month traveling on were on the final leg. I think if your looking for a nice relaxing few days there are some fantastic resorts (so I heard near or around Nha Trang) Mue Nui I think is the name of one such resort but I can get back to you on that. Nha Trang was very quite after there New Year and a lot of places were closed down as if is nearly a week long holiday and everyone gos home. Having spent 3 days 3 nights in Nha Trang we headed to Ho Chi Minh.

We booked into the Royal Lotus Hotel for 4 nights, wouldnt recommended it the breakfast was poor and the room very dated. Beds were rock hard too. Anyway in Siagon we did a day tour to the Cu Cu Tunnels, the war museum, the old post office and opera house. It was busy on the Main Streets with street parties for the new year ongoing, although most places were closed. We ate at a lovely resturant on two nights was fairly close to the opera house and we did some shopping around the shopping centres. Weather was very warm and humid compared to up north. Overall Siagon is lovely city and would definitely recommend at least 3 days there if you plan on doing the cu cu tunnels museums etc. From there we flew to Dubai.

Hope this post helps and sorry if I rambled on, if you've any specific questions about any particular place or that I'd be glad to help.

Mayo jonny

Hi, I was in Vietnam a few weeks ago, and i have 1,100,000 Vietnamese dong left. because it is a closed currency, i cannot exchange it outside the country. would be willing to give a great rate, if you were interested. think its worth roughly about 35 euro.

Nerdlingr

rigamincedeal wrote: »

There we book a full day motor bike tour over the Hoi Van Pas from Hue to Hoi An, this was an expectional tour with two riders and us as passengers, with many stops and amazing sights along the way. Highly recommended. It cost approx $200 for us. You'll find the company on tripadvsior in the Hue forum, they were brilliant and it was a full days riding, we arrived in Hoi An around 6/7pm that evening tired but delight with our trip. Id personally recommend only a day in Hue and definitely the motorbike trip down to Hoi An.

This wasnt with "Hue To Go" tours was it??
Did the same trip with them back in 2011. Great experience, I'd highly recommend it. Two lads pulled up beside us on bikes as we were walking back into Hue from the citadel. Said they'd give us a lift in, see how we liked it, go for a beer to chat about going for a tour... throught we were gonna get had by them but turned out to be the best few bob i spent. Safety maybe might not be a priority on the vietnam roads, and ya only wear a helmet and thats it - no bike clothing - but it was a great experience. Stopped off at a few places along the way. Sound ol schkins like!