divediva

we are planning our 2nd trip to s.e. asia in october. our itinerary includes Vietnam for 5 days, Luang Prabang 3 days, Siem Reap 3 days again...,then some beach time somewhere before returning to Thailand for 2 weeks. any suggestions for a more efficient itinerary???
hotels, travel routes, unmissable (is that a word?)
sites...
thanks in advance

Kathie

If you only have 5 days in VN, choose one city (I'd recommend Hanoi). Personally, I'd add a couple of days to LP. It's so charming and relaxing! Do some research on flights. Your itinerary only makes sense if you can easily fly from place to place. And where are you going in Thailand?

IsisMnroe

Vietnam: Hoi An
I'd recommend additional days in Vietnam; at least 3 days in Hoi An.
Hoi An has wonderful restaurants and very reasonable tailors.

In Hoi An, recommend Hoi An Hai San restaurant and order the won ton and white roses. White rose is "dim sum" made to look like a white rose.

Here's a website to an old article re Hoi An dated 12/2000:
http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_arti...ticle.968.html

divediva

to kathie and isis:

if we spend two weeks in vietnam
and lao...how would you recommend we set up our itinerary??/ which cities
besides Hanoi and luang prabang are worthwhile for a first time visitor??
should we fly bkk to hanoi, then take
regional airlines between cities?
other hotels and suggestions are requested. also websites for vietnam
and lao that are worth viewing.
thank you again...cant wait...
for our thailand weeks...we will probably go back to northern thailand...
sop ruak, mae salong deserve more exploring..and 2 nites each end of our trip in bkk at the marriott.

Kathie

In Laos, I'd suggest you just visit Luang Prabang, as I consider it the highlight. If you can stretch to fave days in LP, I think you'd enjoy every minute. I stayed at the Pansea Phou Vao (now La Residence Phou Vao) and loved it. There are many other options. If you do a search on Luang prabang, you'll find my comments as well as the comments of many others.

In addition to giving yourselves time in Hanoi, the Hoi An and Hue areas of VN are very interesting. The problem is weather. Check weatherbase, but the fall is the rainy season in central VN, and they can get severe flooding. (While most rainy seasons don't scare me away since I'm from Seattle, I was glad I didn't go to Hoi An and Hue the November I visited Hanoi. They had terrible flooding with many deaths.)

With just two weeks, I'd choose three locations to visit.

In Hanoi, we stayed at the deSyloia, a small boutique hotel which I really liked. Many people stay at the Metropole (a Sofitel) which is the "grand old" hotel. There is a Hilton which looks very institutional.

rhkkmk

the bkk marriott parent company wons a small but very nice hotel in hyphong, VN...i have stayed there....it is a great hopping off place for halong bay...you can go there from hanoi...old hanoi is a lot of fun and interesting with great shopping...

i'm told that saigon does not offer too much...

we are planning on staying at the pansea in june from kathie's previous posts...the villa santi resort also looks interesting but we fell we would like a pool....asiavouage24 has a good rate for the pansea...

i think using bkk as a hub works the best...i prefer not to fly on regional airlines in asia...

IsisMnroe

Divediva: While I wholeheartedly love Hoi An, Kathie makes a good point about the rainy season (fall weather) in Central Vietnam. Only been to North, Central and South Vietnam in Dec/Jan.
Hue had some rain in Jan.

Here are some articles on Vietnam:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4400768/

http://aol.nationalgeographic.com/tr...117_hanoi.html

Luang Prabang: Sala Prabang Hotel is in town, near the river and centrally located and very near to the night market. A 2nd floor, riverview room is better than 1st floor, so I hear.
Here's the website:
http://www.salalao.com/factsheet.htm

Also, there is an Apsara Dance show in Luang Prabang at the Royal Palace area that was enjoyable. After you visit the Royal Palace, there is another building where you can buy tickets to the show. Buy it early in the day and get a front row seat. The Palace and the Dance show is about a 10 minute walk from the Sala Prabang Hotel.

I flew United Airlines to BKK.
Then used BKK as the hub for trip to Chaing Rai, Chaing Mai, Laos, Cambodia and return to BKK. Then BKK to Vietnam,
Hanoi, Hue, Saigon, BKK.
Recommend contact a travel agent in BKK to help you with airline travel recommendations.

Also recommend getting your Vietnam visa before you go to Thailand.

What type of hotels to you prefer?
Centrally located? If so, then in Hanoi, I'd recommend staying in the Old Quarter as it is easy to walk to the many, many shops.

divediva

thanks for the recommendations....
we are hoping to go bkk to hanoi first..then hoi an ( mid october, you think it will be unsafe due to weather?),
fly to luang prabang, then to seim reap/
back to bkk to chiang rai (golden triangle area)
we like clean, affordable a/c hotels...in
hot areas, a pool sure helps so hopefully we can get find hotels that fit us. not too fancy
(except marriott in bkk,)
any suggestions on itinerary and hotels are welcomed

IsisMnroe

Here's a website on Hanoi weather.
Looks like Oct has the most rain of all the months.
http://www.southtravels.com/asia/vietnam/weather.html

Here's an article on the Hoi An flood:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...ent_395712.htm

Here an excerpt from a person telling someone who wanted to go to the Danang area (Hoi An is close to Danang):
"In terms of weather, you are actually traveling a fairly long distance down the costal area, so the weather can vary a bit as you travel. The Saigon area is very hot throughout the year (> 90F), but gets unsufferable around March. The drier months are between December and April in Saigon, but some people actaully prefer the summer months in Saigon because heavy rain can be a welcome relief. The central area is cooler in the winter than Saigon, but the Typhoon season will last into December. A good time to go is probably in February, which is warm and dry enough near Da Nang and Qui Nhon. I wouldn't go in October though because it's still in the midst of the Typhoon season." I found this excerpt on the Slow Traveler message board.

Divediva: This is a learning experience for me about the weather in Vietnam. We are planning to return to Vietnam in December.

divediva

we will stay in Hanoi for 5 nights..and
have a couple of extra nites to stay in the area. how would you get from hanoi to hue or hoi an??? if the weather is good, we will go south. any suggestions of places to stay? is there a train or can we hire a car and driver?