The BEST website I've found yet for getting a real feel for places to visit!
 

Of course, we're leaving in 2 days and much of our trip is already planned. I just discovered the Virtual Tourist website with its photo tours which have both pictures and narrative.

http://www.virtourist.com/asia/vietnam/index.html

I have surfed for countless hours and read a ton of books, but this is by far my favorite of all. Actually, after visting the site I think we may add in 2 days in Hoi An and drop the northern mountains of Vietnam. Highly recommended site!

I didn't have a chance to look for other countries, but my guess is there are equally good tours for those.

Julies, another great one is www.travelfish.org but maybe you have already discovered it? I agree that virtualtourist.com provides some good info as well.

As for Hoi An, many of the people I met in Vietnam said that Hoi An was their favorite place.

Are you going to contact www.hellohanoi.com? If so, and if you hear back from a young girl named linh, please tell her hello from me!

What is your final itinerary or did you already post it?

julies,
We left for Hanoi keeping 5 open days to either visit Sapa or hue and Hoi An. We kept in contact with a local agent about the weather on the central coast. The weather forcast was excellent and since we had spendt time in the mountains visiting ethic villages and seeing the beautiful scenery in Laos. We went to hue and hoi An. Hue was historicaly very interesting. hoi An was a little too touristy for me, but we did do a biking trip to a local village. You could also go to My son.

For active pursuits I highly reccommend the Meking Delta. We stayed for two nights and biked through fruit orcards and charming villages on the Meking river. We took small boats up beautiful canals. We were definitely in areas with no other tourists.

I am sure you will be happy with whatever you choose. Sapa looked stunning from my 2 adult children's pictures.

You may want to email a tour operater to check space in both places and decide based on the weather.

I will post my trip report after our houseguests leave.

Also thanks for the information on the website. It i extremly informative.
Sally

Sallyho--we're still in the throes of indecision. One issue is that a private tour of the area around Hanoi that we thought we had lined up seems to be falling apart because the tour operator hasn't gotten back to me in a week. http://www.ethnictravel.com.vn/
Initially he was excellent with getting back to me, and I was very, very impressed because he offers something so different from any other tour operators I have found. Now, I just don't know. Weather is, of course, our other concern. I too wonder if Hoi An is too touristy and am vacillating. Actually, right now, since this guy hasn't gotten back to me, we have 9 days to play around with. I'm so glad you liked the Mekong Delta. We'll be spending 5 days biking there with a private guide. That is the only part of our itinerary that is set right now.

Tamara--

As you can tell, we still don't have a set itinerary. That's why I haven't contacted HelloHanoi yet. I don't want to just say that we'll be in the arrea sometime in the 2nd half of January.

julies, do remember that with the quake in Taiwan, internet access has been reduced for much of Asia. Capacity has been reduced dramatically due to breaks in fiber-optics cables.

Julies, you may want to e mail the itinerary in the north to the agency you are using for the Mekong Delta and see if they have any suggustions for a good adventure co.. in Hanoi.

I hope it all works out for you.

Sally

Thanks for all the advice at the last second here.

Kathie was right. I finally got an e-mail back tonight and the ethnictravel tour operator said something about the problems with the internet. So, all is well and we signed on for what will be quite an adventure I think. I'll make a separate posting of our itinerary so others who want to can take a peek for their own travels. And, I'll follow up with a trip report when we get back.

Thanks so much to all of you for your help! I used to hang around the Europe board a lot because we have travelled extensively in europe. There I could actually help other people out. Here I'm the novice.