danjagrrl

I am wondering if I should include both in my itinerary, or if I should remove Sapa.

My current Itinerary is:
Day 1 - 2 Hanoi
Day 3-4 - Sapa
Day 5- Hanoi/Duonglam/KySon village
Day 7 & 8- Hanoi - Halong
Day 9 - Halong/Hanoi/Hue
Day 10 - Hue
Day 11 - Hue - Hoi An
Day 12- 13 - Hoi An
DAY 14 HOIAN/DANANG/HOCHIMINH
DAY 15 HOCHIMINH/MEKONG/HOCHIMINH
DAY 16 HOCHIMINH/CITY TOUR
DAY 17 HOCHIMINH/CITY /SIEMREAP
Day 18 - 21 SIEMREAP - Home

Thanks in advance for your advice.

crellston

I haven't been to Duonglam but it sounds as though it could be close to (or in) the Mai Chau valley which is about 60kms from Hanoi and one of my favourite places in the north and I much preferred it to Sapa. Photos of both can be found on our blog
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...ai/3/tpod.html

Another option from Hanoi would be Ba Be lakes but that is around a 7-8 hour drive from Hanoi but, IMHO well worth the trouble more deatail at
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...2280/tpod.html

sf7307

Crellston, on a similar note, if you could only do one of Halong Bay or the Mai Chau valley (1 day and 1 night), which would you choose? (I know Halong Bay is spectacular, but I'd like to get out into a more rural area where "real people" live and work....but maybe we can do that when we're in Hoi An, since we have "extra" time there -- meant for the beach, but a little side trip couldn't hurt....)

crellston

Mai Chau without a doubt. We were there in 2007 and things may have chaged a little but I doubt very much. It is an incredibly peaceful place and the people are so friendly. I can recall starting of at dawn from our homestay and walking along through a couple of villages and being invited in to omne of the house to share some soup - absolutely magical. One of teh nights we stayed a group of student from hanoi Uni were staying in the village to meet with teh regional political commissar (aka mr Big!) he invited us along to the party that evening for the students as his guests. Lots of singing and dancing. Unfortunately they insisted that I take part as well buy hey, a small price to pay! Halong is spectacular yes, but I found it to be over commercialised and teh various touts got to be a real PITA!

althom1122

crellston - interesting that you'd pick Mai Chau without a doubt. I went looked at your pictures from that blog (wonderful), but i thought the Sapa pictures were the most beautiful/interesting. What did you think of Sapa?

crellston

Sapa town itself was ok. we were there mid week and so missed teh sunday market which has apparently turned into a bit of a human zoo! We spent a whole day hiking around the villages in the Sapa valley and really enjoyed it. The scenery was spectacular as was the weather on the day ( a couple of days later we found out that it had snowed!). Mai Chau and Sapa are very different in some ways but I just preferred Mai Chau. The scenery is perhaps not quite as dramatic but it is (or at least was!) much less affected by tourism and seemed a much more tranquil place plus it is more easily reached from Ha Noi. Hopefully not too much has changed over the last 3-4 years! A further factor I suppose was that we were made to feel so welcome in Mai Chau where as in Sapa we were very much teh visitors to the area.
If you are visiting Sapa and have the time then I would recommend spending an extra day trekking out to one of the outlying villages and staying overnight in a homestay -I regret not doing this.

Lane_n

Hi there! I've checked your list and I think that dont need to get back to HCM and then to SEM REAP.

Here your list :
DAY 15 HOCHIMINH/MEKONG/HOCHIMINH
DAY 16 HOCHIMINH/CITY TOUR
DAY 17 HOCHIMINH/CITY /SIEMREAP

Let me explain that. after visiting Mekong Delta you can visit ChauDoc, Angiang province and you can get to SIEAREAP by boat, which takes you only two ours to get there and you save oneday wasting if you back to HCM.
if you need more information do not hesitate to send me a message.

linawood

bookmarking

lanphuong

duong lam village is worth to see, around 40 km from center of Old Quarter. It is oldest village in vietnam