First trip to Asia - please advise
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Bangkok, Hong Kong , Siem Reap and Saigon in March. We have never visited this part of the world. We have 3 weeks to travel. Please advise how much time you would suggest we allow for each city and if you suggest any other areas to visit. Also, how important is it to have a hotel by the river in Bangkok? i have noticed that the rates are less away from the river.

imo, hong kong and bangkok are each worthy of 5-7 days each....SR is good for 3 full or 4 part days; plus saigon is worthy of perhaps 3-4 days... that is the ideal first visit to me.... now you can squeeze that into your schedule... bingo, it works perfectly with travel days added in....whatever is your first stop i would allow a couple of extra days there to allow for jet lague and adjustment...

check out bangkok air for moving around... look at their asia pass to save money using bangkok as a base...

choosing your hotels will make or break you visit....come back to us with a daily budget and we can help with that as well and also restaurants choices....we are here to help

You've listed 4 locations for your three locations. I'd suggest that you stick with those. You might do an out of town trip day trip from several of those places (from Hong Kong, spend a day in Macau, from HCMC spend perhaps an overnight in the Delta for instance). It takes three full days just to see the major temples at Angkor, so you'll need a minimum of 4 nights there. You'll want to count exactly how many days you'll have on the ground in Asia, allowing for your travel time and crossing the international date line (if coming from No. America). Travel within Asia can be slow, so figure it will take most of a day from checking out of one hotel to checking into your next hotel in the next city.

I agree with Bob that the choice of hotels in Bangkok makes a huge difference. Staying along the river IS Bangkok for me (and many others here). The river traffic is endlessly fascinating, the air is cleaner by the river and it's slightly less hot along the river.

With three weeks, you could actually add another location, for example Northern Thailand or a Thai beach. This will ease the big city feel of bangkok, Saigon and Hong Kong.

In Bangkok, I would definitely recommend a river hotel. It is very nice to watch the river traffic roll past your window. As RhkKmk says, your daily hotel budget will decide.

Personally I would change Ho Chi Minh city to Hanoi as I find Hanoi so much more interesting.

I agree with Hanuman. Unless you have a particular reason to go to HCMC, I'd choose Hanoi. You could than do an over night trip to Halong Bay or a side trip to Sapa.

Also agree that Hanoi is much more interesting than HCMC. River hotel in Bangkok and a quick beach break during the 3 weeks.

Kteitel, I would suggest you spend 4 or 5 days in Bangkok, 4 or 5 days in Hong Kong, and then 2 or 3 days in both Siem Reap and Saigon. If time allows, you may want to travel to the Mae Sa Valley to visit the Maesa Elephant Training Camp. It’s absolutely fascinating! Good luck planning the rest of your trip!

You have a very workable plan. rhkkmk has given you a good plan to start with. There are some great day trips from both Bangkok and Hong Kong so do give yourself enough time in these two cities.

I like both HCMC and Hanoi. They are different experieces though. HCMC, at least when we were there, had a lot more shopping than Hanoi did this spring. Hanoi has more interesting things to see though, I think. I loved both places for different reasons. You might want to read up on both.

We only spent two nights in Sien Reap and that was enough for us. It is only an hour's flight from Bankok, fly over early the first morning and back late the third afternoon. Unless you are really into temples and want to see alot of them (they do begin to look alike after a while) this will give you enough time to easily see the major ones and make a visit to the Lake. That was our plan with our guide, Dara. However, even though Dara was a great guide, my husband had enough by the end of the first full day and changed our reservations to go back to Bangkok for first thing that third day so we didn't do the Lake. That was OK with me because I saw the Temples I wanted to see.

You need to think about what you like to do when on vacation and how much heat, humidity and poor conditions you are willing to put up with. Bangkok, especially on the river, and Hong Kong make things very easy and non stressful, Cambodia and Vietman do not, but both are still worth the effort to visit! Just know your comfort needs when traveling.

We went Hong Kong, Hanoi and Bangkok with a side trip to Sein Reap this past March.

You can read our daily trip report with pictures at:

www.aroundtheworldin132days.blogspot.com/

Click on March on the right hand side and scroll down to March 14. That begins our 15 days in SEA begining with Hong Hong. This was our second time in Hong Kong and Bangkok so there are many more things to on your first visit, we were mainly just enjoying two of our favorite cities!

Enjoy!

Thanks to all for your advice. We now have the option of Shanghai or Hong Kong- any opinions? Would also appreciate moderate priced hotels in Bangkok-by the river, Siem Reap, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

You'll have to tell us what you consider to be moderately priced. Give us a dollar figure and we can be helpful.

Do your research first so you know how mcuh time you want to spend at Angkor. If you aren't very interested in temples, you might just want to skip it, as it's an expensive flight. Dawn Rooney's book, Angkor, is an excellent guide. It will help you decide how much time you want to spend there and lays out possible itineraries. Just to visit the major temples takes a full three days. There are dozens and dozens of accessible temples. We spent a week, would have enjoyed even more time.

Photos may be helpful: www.marlandc.com