My husband and I have just booked tickets for our honeymoon in Decmeber - we're flying from New York into Hanoi, and back to New York out of Bangkok, for a three week trip. Right now, we're planning on the following itinerary:
1. Arrive Hanoi very early morning, day in Hanoi
2. Overnight trip to Halong Bay
3. Back to Hanoi
4. Fly to Hue
5. Hue
6. Fly to Hoi An
7. Hoi An
8. Fly to Ho Chi Minh City
9. Overnight trip to Mekong Delta
10. Back to HCMC in evening
11. Early drive to Mui Ne Beach
12. Mui Ne
13. Mui Ne
14. Late afternoon drive back to HCMC
15. Fly to Siem Reap
16. Siem Reap
17. Siem Reap
18. Fly early afternoon to Bangkok
19. Full day in Bangkok before 11:30 pm flight back to New York
How does this sound? I know we don't have that much time in Hanoi - we're from New York, so we were thinking we'd rather spend most of our time in non-cities, but is this a huge mistake? Is it worth taking out one of our beach days for something else - we're figuring that we might need the rest, especially before Siem Reap, and it is our honeymoon after all . . .
Any advice, info, experience, would be quite welcome.

As for the extra two days (21 vs. 19), they're spent in flight. Sorry for the miscommunication . . .

Sorry to say this but it sounds a lot like if its Tuesday this must be Belgium! Remember you will be jet lagged for the first full day or so- so figure that in. You don't allow enough time in these destinations especially Hanoi and Bangkok. You are trying to fit in far too mnay destinations- mark my words you will hear this again from other respondents. Cut down the destinations, allow more time in the few that remain- remember this is Asia it will be hot/humid and you will need to slow down!

This is a honeymoon?

You're trying to do WAY too much. You'll spend most of your time in transit. Slow down and enjoy some of SE Asia. I expect this will only be your first trip to SE Asia. And it is a mistake, I belive, to basically skip Hanoi and Bangkok. Both are amazing cities and entirely different from NYC.

Just a followup- if this is your first trip to SE Asia- then you may find the heat/humidity very debilitating- so slowing down, taking it easy will go a long way to ensure you have a honeymoon to remember. Do not under any circumstances eat food from the street vendors.

In terms of not having enough time in
Bangkok, that doesn't really bother me since we weren't originally planning on visiting Thailand at all on this trip, but it's where we could connect up to our flight home. As for everything else, where would you recommend cuts? Is the transit really that bad, the flights are only about an hour each?

S_rk- if you have not figured this out by now let me clue you in- this is really the Bangkok Board!! Yes you will see a few posts now and then about Bali, Japan, Angkor Wat mixed in. ( I even throw in a post about Manila now and then).

Also, will the weather be that hot in December? My understanding was that this should be a relatively mild time of year . . .

it will be hot in december, maybe not that bad in hanoi, although the last time i was there it was dec. and it was in the 80's as i remember...angkor will be very hot as will bkk..pare the trip down or you will risk not having much fun...

I had a quick question. I will be in Vietnam (Saigon) for a wedding near Christmas. After the wedding I am planning on going north to Hanoi and hopefully to Cambodia. I know I could easily spend more time in Vietnam. But I rarely get to go out there, and in my heart I would love to spend all those 6 days after the wedding in Bangkok, but it will be hard, as I am not finding any cheap specials from Ho Chi Min to Bangkok (unless i go via Singapore using Tigerairways). SO I am decing to stay in Vietnam. My question is how are you flying between cities in Vietnam. And Ho CHi Minh to Siem Reap, how are you getting there. What airlines and what are the prices like for the airfare.
Thanks

You lose most of a day each time you change locations. perhaps your flight is only an hour, but consider that you have to pack, get to the airport, be there at least an hour in advance (more for international flights), get to your destination airport, get you luggage (perhaps gp through customs and immigration) get a taxi to your hotel, get checked in and unpack again.

It may be December, but the only place where the weather will actually be mild is Hanoi/Halong Bay. Elsewhere it will be very hot and humid. You will also have flown many hours to get to Hanoi. Even if you're flying Business class, you'll be exhausted.

If you don't want to spend time in Bangkok, I'd still make significant cuts in the number of places you are visiting. I'd start by cutting out HCMC and the Delta. Note also that you won't be flying between Hoi An and Hue - those are driving distance. You will want more time in Hanoi.

Travel in SE Asia is slow. You have to slow down to experience a place. This isn't like travel in Europe.

I know that Vietnam Airlines flies between cities like Hanoi, Hui, Danang, HCMC - and they have flights from HCMC to Siem Reap. Pacific Airlines also has some domestic flights. Bangkok Airlines flies between Siem Reap and Bangkok. You can use bangkokair.com, travelocity and travel.asia.com to figure out the schedules/flight numbers for most of these flights, but the rates they quote are very high - often double what they should be. We actually contacted a few travel agents in Vietnam with the flights we were interested in, got quotes (which varied more for the international flights than the strictly Vietnamese ones), and then tried to get the lowest price we found for each flight matched by a single agent (so that we didn't have to book through multiple agents). The domestic flights are about $60/person, and the international ones were more like $120/person. I'm sure they would be even cheaper if we just waited to purchase them in Vietnam, but we're going in peak season and would rather not worry. Some of the agents we emailed were tnk travel vietnam, asean, and I don't remember the others (we're in the process of booking through tnk). Hope that helps.