hi and help...please!

My itinerary doesn't allow me to do justice to both Sapa and Phu Quoc. I need to cut out one or the other. (Or, could do both and just be exahusted!)

I am thinking of cutting out Sapa b/c of the length of the journey, mainly...

My husband is thinking about ditching Phu Quoc b/c we've been to beaches before.

I could spend all my time in the north, but one reason I wanted to go to VN was a Mekong Delta tour. We can go from HCMC, tour the Mekong, head out to Rach Gai, and fly to Phu Quoc. Other than that, we are just heading south for the Mekong....and to make it easier to fly to Siem Reap.

So, if you've been to both, and could offer some advice, I'd really appreciate it. Also, isn't it possible to take one or two day trip to minority villages closer to Hanoi?

I hope this makes sense....Thanks in advance for you help.

ciao, Ellen

I've not been to Phu Quoc, so I can't comment on that. We did the Sapa trip from Hanoi in December and it was pretty amazing. You do need 4 nights to do it though.....an overnight on the train to Lao Cai and then another on the way back to Hanoi, plus 2 nights there. You would not want to go all that way and then stay only 1 night.

If you can time your arrival to be on a Sun, you will be able to see Bac Ha market on the way to Sapa from Lao Cai. That's easier than going all the way to Sapa and then backtracking to Bac Ha on another day. Bac Ha was crowded, noisy, colorful, smelly and totally facsinating. Many different tribes come to this weekly market to shop and socialize. After Bac Ha, our guide took us a few local villages and a school before we headed up to Sapa. That was our first day. The next day we did a whole day trek through and around the rice paddies, visiting various hill tribe villages. The serene beauty of this area was absolutely other worldly.
We spent the fourth night on the train back to Hanoi.
Beaches are nice, but there are lots of them. I'm not sure you can really find the same experience as Sapa in many other places.

don't forget to buy some nuc mum while in phu quoc. the ladies on tudor street in old saigon told me it was the best.