adoher

Today I have booked the 3 week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia . We are 2 women in our fifties and it is our first trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.Thank you to the people who have helped me put this trip together so far .I do appreciate your advice.
January 8th arrive in Hanoi at 630 am from Dublin Ireland via Paris
Day 2 Night train to Lao Cai
Day 3 Visit Bac Ha market and maybe stay overnight or should we go straight to Sapa?
Day 4-7 Trekking around Sapa area .
Day 8 Return to Hanoi on overnight train
Day 9-10 Hanoi and ? Halong Bay. We were thinking of a day trip to Halong Bay or should we just
stay in Hanoi ?
Day 11 -13 Hanoi - Dan Ang - Hoi An.
Day 14-16 Dan Ang - Siem Reap
Day 18-21 Siem Reap - HCM city ... Mekong Delta

We have not booked any tour guides for the Sapa region. Can anyone recommend a good guide ?
We have given ourselves 3 days in Siem Reap as I think we will have seen enough temples by then.
I would like to see the Paddy fields around the Mekong Delta is 2 days there enough ? as we want to have 2 days in HCM city before our departure.
We have not booked any internal flights .Should we book them from Ireland or wait and book them when we arrive in Vietnam.

LancasterLad

January is peak holiday period, so get your flights booked. But be aware that between booking and the day, that flight times could and do change. If you book online with Vietnam Air or Vietjet then you'll receive e-mails if there are any changes.

If you are flying between Da Nang and Siem Reap then I noticed a few weeks ago on the departures board at Da Nang that an Angkor Cambodian Air flight had been cancelled for 'technical reasons'. So I'd check on their reliability record beforehand if you're thinking of using them.

You can cycle just outside of Hoi An and see Paddy Fields, obviously not as extensive as in the Delta.

Use Vinasun or Mai Linh taxis in Vietnam. The metered fare from Saigon Airport to District 1 will be about 170k dong, and between Da Nang-Hoi An it'll be around 340K dong.

There's plenty of v.good budget places to stay. Have a look at Hong Han and Duc Vuong in Saigon [District 1], and Travel Lodge in the centre of Hoi An. Just about everywhere has breakfast included. Rooms have a fridge.

Opposite the Duc Vong is an excellent inexpensive restaurant called Five Oysters, and on the roof of Duc Vuong is a lovely terrace restaurant bar on several levels.

A 5 litre bottle of water costs between 20K-25K in a mini-market, decant the bottle into 50cl bottles and keep them cold in your room fridge.

jgg

Drive from Hanoi to Halong Bay is about 4 hrs, so I would not do as a day trip. If you don't have time to spend at least one night in Halong Bay then I would stay in Hanoi.

We made all of our internal flights from home (US) without any problems. I did decide to change one flight while we were there and went to the Vietnam Air office in Hanoi and found it very easy and they were very helpful.

Agree with LancasterLad that there are a lot of great rice paddy fields outside of Hoi An that we saw on bike ride. Our second day in Mekong Delta was not a wow for us (but that may have just been our experience), so for me 2 days would be more than enough.

3 Days in Siem Reap should be great!

Here are some links to my trip reports including pictures:
http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/0...nd-angkor-wat/
http://www.fromhometoroam.com/catego...hristmas-2011/

adoher

LancasterLad and jgg thanks for the advice re booking the flights from home .We will look at booking throughVietnam Air or Vietget this coming week.
We are excited to hear we can go biking in Hoi Ann to see the Paddy fields.
Yes it probably is a good idea to stay overnight in Halong Bay so if we are running out of time sightseeing in Hanoi we will give it a miss .
Now that its November the trip is fast approaching .I will let you know how I get on.
Oh jgg I loved your trip report.