sf7307

What time do you leave Halong Bay? It's about a 3-1/2 hour drive from Halong Bay to Hanoi, then about 45 minutes from city center to the airport. (We were on a 1-day tour to Halong Bay -- not recommended BTW -- and didn't get back to Hanoi until about 7:30 p.m.)

sek90

According to the itinerary at 11 am: Arrive at Bai Chay/Halong pier. Transfer by tender to the pier, relax inside the pier building while waiting for return transportation. I'm not sure what the wait will be here, but at the outside, I hope we leave by noon, which puts us back at city center around 3-3:30. Which puts us at the airport around 4:15. It doesn't leave us a lot of wiggle room. Do the Vietnamese airlines have strict check-in policies like the US? (e.g. must check in at least one hour before domestic flight?) Should I anticipate long security lines at the airport?

yestravel

We did an overnight on a junk at HB. We left HB around 12:30 and got back to our hotel mid afternoon (3:30 or so). As soon as we arrived at the pier our driver was waiting and we left pretty quickly. Since we had a private driver, we didn't make stops at other locations (hotel drop offs) once reaching Hanoi. Everyone seems to stop at large store/restaurant about halfway that sells a bunch of stuff. The drivers eat their meals there. I know that because we had no interest in stopping there let alone spending any time at the stop, but had no choice. And this was with a private driver. Perhaps if we had known about this mandatory stop, we could have arranged to have skipped. I mention this because it added about 30 minutes to the drive.

We had minimal if any lines at the Hanoi Airport, but we flew out early in the am after an overnight train. It's not a large airport.

sf7307

<<< I'm not sure what the wait will be here, but at the outside, I hope we leave by noon, which puts us back at city center around 3-3:30. Which puts us at the airport around 4:15.>>>

That assumes you have all your luggage with you, and that it actually takes 3-3-1/2 hours. For some reason, I think it actually took us 3-3/4 hours on the return drive. I think it's tight, but if you're flying on Vietnam Airlines, you can change flights without a fee (theoretically, you have to pay the increased fare if applicable - we paid on one changed flight, and not on the other). The line for checking in and for security was not bad for domestic flights (bad for international flights), but it was not non-existent either. So as long as seats are available, you could always take the 8 p.m. flight to Danang if you miss the 6 p.m. flight.

sek90

I would book the 8 pm flight, except there isn't one on Mondays, which happens to be the day we are traveling. I guess I will have to gamble a little bit, unless I can make some arrangement to get a private car for our return trip to Hanoi and avoid the hassle. I'm not sure why the travel company would not offer that, even though I specifically asked. Thank you for the information on the airport and Vietnam Airlines-it does ease my mind a little bit.

jgg

My notes showed that we were back at the dock by 11:45am. Our driver, unfortunately, was about 40 minutes late and got us back to Hanoi around 4pm (this did include the stop at the store). So, I would say that it takes about 3.5 hrs to get back (with stop). You should be fine, even if you left some of your luggage at the hotel, it sounds like they are requiring that they drive you back there anyway, so it shouldn't take that long to pick it up. It will be close, but I think you should be fine, I think it is unusual that the driver be so late as he was on ours.

yestravel

Maybe your hotel could arrange for a driver to pick u up from HB and take u directly to the airport.

ChristianReneFriborg

Here are some places you could visit while you are in Thailand.

1. The Grand Palace in Bangkok
2. The floating market
3. Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo
4. Nong Nooch Village
5. Bang Pa-in Palace
6. The Ruins