My husband and I did VN/Siem Reap in 12/06. We're planning our 2nd trip back to VN after 2008 Chinese New Year which is 2/7/08. We'd like to visit either Hong Kong/VN or VN/Bali, for three weeks total.

Which one would be more practical, route-wise? For Hong Kong/VN, I understand that we can fly into HK, then to VN, then back to HK before flying back to California. For VN/Bali, I'm not so sure which airline is best and how to plan out our route.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Hanoi and Bali are two of my favorite places in Asia. I was recently doing some research on a 2 week trip to visit both.

-An open jaw ticket (into 1 city, and fly out from the other) is probably the easiest way to go. The rates on Thai were actually pretty good for this as well.

- I would do around 12-14 days in Vietnam, and a week and a bit in Bali.

-You can connect between the 2 on discount carriers such as AirAsia (via KL) or Tiger Air and Jetstar (via Singapore). There have been many posts on the pros/cons of the discount carriers, but basically if you do not have a lot of luggage and are not connecting to an overseas flight, you will probably be fine with them.

Cruisinred, thank you for such a quick reply!

Just to make sure I understand. If we use Singapore Air (either buying it on our own or using a package), we can fly via Singapore to Bali. Then use Jetstar to fly Bali/Singapore, then Singapore/Vietnam?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Paige-

If you want to route the trip through SIN, JetstarAsia flies from Bali to SIN. TigerAir then flies from SIN to Hanoi. Both have good safety records and are resonably priced. Just check the flight schedules to determine what route makes the most sense given the flight times.

I should also mention that JetStar flies to HCMC....so you could use the same airline for BALI-Sin, and Sin-HCMC. I am not sure if the tickets can be purchased as connecting flights, though.

Thank you cruisinred! I will definitely check out Singapore Air.

If you visit Ha Noi, make sure you stay in Old Quarter -- lots of mini-hotels, restaurants and activities, and don't miss a trip to Ha Long Bay. We did a one-day tour with Sinh Cafe but wish that we had done an overnight tour instead.