Taylort771

Its our first visit to asia. it will be us and my grandsons 17,12

May 4th Fly From atl- Hanoi
Spen 11 days in vietnam

Day 1 Hanoi
Days 2-3 Halong bay
Days 4-5 Hue
Days 6-7 Hoi An
Day 8 Sai Gon (Ho Chi Minh City)
Days 9-10 Mekong Delta & Cu Chi tunnels
Day 11 Sai Gon

Fly to Beijing

Days 1-3 Beijing

Days 4-6 Xian

Days 7-10 Guilin/Yangshuo

Days 11-13 Shanghai

Fly to Phucket

3 days on Phi Phi island to relax on the beach

fly from Phucket to Bangkok
Spend 3 days in Bangkok before flying home
Total of 32 days with travel

Please critique this, it is def fine to take away a day or two where needed and either replacing them or dropping them. Any other suggestions ie where to go instead etc


Thanks so much

Kathie

Frankly, you are moving so fast, I don't know that you'll experience much of VN, China or Thailand. I'd recommend you decide what is most important for you to do/see/experience and cut some other places. For instance, you have one day in Hanoi. It will be your first day in Asia after a very long flight and you'll be exhausted. I'm not sure who much you can see/do in that day. And you haven't really figured in transport time. By the time you consider all the logistics of a move from one location to another, you've used up much of a day. So think of it this way, if you schedule two nights in a place, you have just one full day. I think three nights somewhere (two full days) is an absolute minimum. You have 14 locations and 32 days. You'll be spending a good portion of your time in transit. I'd say that 10 locations in that time is an absolute maximum, and I'd opt for more like 6 or 7 locations in that time.

While Phuket is easy to get to with international flights landing there, May is pretty rainy on Phuket. You'd be better off going to Koh Samui, but it will take longer to get there. But if you don't mind the rain and aren't worried about the beaches being red-flagged, you can get good rates at that time of the year in Phuket and PhiPhi..

hanabi

While I agree what has been said above, I'd add what I think about China. I'd definitely dedicate more time to Beijing (especially if it's your first time) instead of Xian - you have 'only' Terracota army there, and then couple of sights and places that can be managed in one day and overall, the city itself is not that great. I'm not sure about Shanghai either. Anyway, like that, you will see many things yet your experience will be limited.
How are you going to travel between the cities? Train or plane? It is a great experience to try out Chinese overnight trains at least once...

qwovadis

If you will have a look at an Asia map

your journey does not flow well lots of backtracking

and overflights... for me fly to Bangkok for

Thailand Cambodia Vietnam from there www.sawadee.com

add www.theangkorguide.net best temple complex in all of Asia

then head for China then head home www.airasia.com for flights

affordableasia.com smartours.com can save you a lot if budget

Happy Planning!

sf7307

We did almost the same itinerary as you in the same amount of time(the VN part). The only difference was we had 4 days in Hanoi and only 1 in Halong Bay, and we skipped the Mekong Delta and CuChi Tunnels.

I do think you're short-changing Hanoi. If it were me (and it was, last March), I'd add a day or two to Hanoi. Here's our itinerary, which worked out fine (we loved Hanoi, but could have survived with one less day there).

Our itinerary:

Arrive Hanoi late Sunday night. Having flown business class (unbelievable) and arriving in time for bed, we actually suffered no jet lag in this direction.

Monday-Tuesday: All day in Hanoi
Wednesday: Day trip to Halong Bay (should have gone overnight, but the weather was cold, so it didn't seem inviting)
Thursday-Friday: All day in Hanoi. Flew to Hue around 8 p.m. Friday night.
Saturday: All day Hue (took a great all-day moto-bike tour with Hue Riders)
Sunday: Half-day Hue, drive to HoiAn, arrived late afternoon.
Monday-Tuesday: All day HoiAn
Wednesday (we were supposed to be in HoiAn all day, and fly to Saigon in the evening, but it was pouring rain, so we left for Saigon in the morning instead). Half day Saigon
Thursday: All day Saigon
Friday: Morning flight to Siem Reap (arrived at our hotel before noon)

(the rest of the trip was Siem Reap and Hong Kong).

Sure, it was a whirlwind, what I call a "sampler", but that's the way we travel. We had a great time.

Taylort771

Thanks for the suggestions

krgystn

One other thing is that you are starting south, then going north then going south again. Maybe start in the south (Thailand) and work your way north (Beijing) or vice-versa.

rhkkmk

i too would skip the tunnels and halong, although the boys probably would like the tunnels..

any chance of skipping china and adding more beach time and time in bbk, hanoi and hoi an??

kja

The only places on your route that I've visited are Beijing and Xi'an. I think you are short-changing Beijing. I found more than enough to keep me happily busy in Xi'an for 3 days (it has FAR more than "only" the terra cotta warriors), but many people see the things they most want to see there in less time.

hanabi

kja: I know that there can be definitely more things to do. But when you compare that to options in Beijing, you get what I mean

kja

hanabi: I do understand, and I completely agree that it makes sense to devote more time to Bejing than Xi'an. I was just trying to offer a different perspective on Xi'an's merits.

One of the things I love about this forum is the evidence it provides that we all travel for different reasons and in different ways. I love that! I find it a wonderful testament to individuality, even among those of us who share at least some common interests.

Taylort771

Day 1-3 Hanoi
Days 3-4 Halong bay
Days 4-5 Hue
Days 6-7 Hoi An
Day 8 Sai Gon (Ho Chi Minh City)
Days 9-10 Mekong Delta & Cu Chi tunnels
Day 11 Sai Gon

Fly to KoH Samui
Spend 3 days here before flying back to Bangkok spend 3 full days in Bangkok
Fly from bangkok to Beijing

Days 1-4 Beijing

Days 5-6 Xian

Days 7-10 Guilin/Yangshuo

Days 11-13 Shanghai

Is this any better? Should we do china on our own or with a tour group? Which would be cheaper we will do Vietnam with a group of friends and thailand on our own. thanks

morewierd

Just my 2 cents worth!!!!!

SO many of the comments above make sense! We spent 28 days in VN in March 2005.Definitely add more time to Hanoi....and if you can get to the markets in Sapa and Baca that would be great. Perhaps eliminate Saigon and the Mekong and Cu Chi tunnels. DO an overnight on Halong Bay in a junk.

As for China....we've been there too...2004 for a month.....then taught in Guilin in 2006....and we're going back to Guangxi Province this coming October to see friends and "family" in Guilin and Nanning. I would eliminate Shanghai....we've been there twice.....have always had s good time.......but it's not REALLY China.

I don't know where you live......but if you live in the US and need to obtain a Chinese visa....the absolute best company to work with is China Visa Service Center. Just sed them and their customer service is extraordinary and the whole process is hassle-free.

Happy Planning.

rhkkmk

are you aware that you will be very tired on day1, making it useless?

in vn most of your stops are one day when you consider travel time...

i am afraid you will be disappointed with the result

Kathie

Your re-ordering of your itinerary doesn't solve the problem of too many stops. With this schedule, most of your vacation time will be in transit. If that's what you want, fine. If you rather see more of a place than getting from place to palce, you'll need to set priorities and cut some of your stops.

sf7307

My experience obviously differs from those of the above posters. First, we weren't at all tired the first day. We also didn't feel that we lost much time in transit. We flew from Hanoi to Hue at 8 p.m. Nothing lost. We flew from Danang to Saigon and from Saigon to Siem Reap in the early a.m., arrived at our hotel in each case around 11 a.m.. leaving plenty of time that same day for sightseeing.

IMHO, your itinerary is fine if you add a day or two to Hanoi and cut out the Mekong Delta and CuChi Tunnels day.

travelwheneverican

Just my two cents about the Cu Chi tunnels; I found them fascinating and one of the most interesting things I did in VN. I don't know how interested you are in war stuff, but the site is well organized and gives you a really interesting perspective on the war and what life was like for ordinary people in that time. I was there with a VC vet and family (the mother had lived two years in those tunnels), and we also visited the war memorial which is a beautiful counterpart to the one in DC. I think your grandsons would really enjoy exploring the tunnels and it would give them something to think about. Mekong Delta could be skipped if you need to cut a day, but in my opinion, the tunnels are unique.

rhkkmk

sf, i have never heard of anyone travelling to asia from the usa who was not tired on day 1, even in 1st class.. you are amazing

sf7307

rhkkmk, I'm sure it was because we flew business class and slept enough on the flight, plus we got to the hotel at 10 p.m., so after a shower, went right to sleep. As I recall, we did sleep in the first day, but not too late -- I know we got up for breakfast.

(This was a completely different experience from when we flew to Cairo a few years ago. California-Portland-Frankfurt-Cairo. Missed our connection in Frankfurt, so had to wait 6 or 7 hours in Frankfurt for the next flight to Cairo. Arrived in the evening. Then we proceeded to sleep through the entire, I am not kidding, next day -- 24 hours. We would wake up from time to time, watch some inane sitcom, and go right back to sleep! Good thing we built in an extra day for jet lag recovery).

Kathie

Come on, Bob, we always fly Biz, get in at midnight, and are fine the next day until about 7 pm when we turn into pumpkins. From then on, we're on Bangkok time. Everyone is different.

But I want to go back to the issue of transit time. Sf, it sounds like you were hasppy with how you got from place to place, but despite your protestsaions, you still spent a fair amount of time in transit - unless you are holding back on us and have figured out the secrets of teletransport.

So you flew from Hanoi to Hue at 8 pm - it's an hout to the Hanoi airport, you had to be there 90 minutes in advance, so you had to leave your hotel by 6:30 - figure in checking out time (we'll omit packing), you had to be ready to go by 6 pm. So you missed the opportunity for a nice dinner in Hanoi that night. The fabulous food in Hanoi may have been a low priority for you, but in any case, that is what you sacrificed for that flight.

The early morning flight that got you to Siem Reap at 11 may have felt like you didn't "miss" anyhting, but you had to get up quite early to make that flight, and you didn't get settled into your hotel in Siem Reap until about noon. So in Siem Reap, you missed a half a day of sight-seeing/photography. The prime times for both sight seeing and photography in SE Asia outdoor venues are sunrise until near noon, them after 3 or 4 pm until sunset.

These two examples are "easy" trnsit - short flights, no connections. Not all of Taylor's transit will be of that type. Connecting flights, long commutes to/from airport, etc can end up filling most of a day.

All travel requires compromises, places left unseen, things left undone. Better to do some cutting ahead of time so you are cutting a whole stop rather than being locked into flights you'd rather not take.