Just starting planning our trip for Feb 2008, and have lots of questions and will surely have lots more.

1. Looking at booking hotels & internal air through Vietnamstay.com, which has rec'd good reviews on this forum. Should we book day tours through them or wait & books through our hotels once we get to Vietnam?

2. Trying to decide about Mekong Delta tour. Definately want to see the floating markets near Can Tho. The Victoria Can Tho looks like they have some nice boat trips. Should we drive to Can Tho & take the Victoria boat tours or take an overnight tour from Saigon using Vietnamstay or some other agency?

3. Trying to decide between Victoria HoiAn and Palm Gardens. We like the idea of being on the beach, even though the weather may not be warm enough to swim at that time of year. Victoria Hoi An looks like it has more local charm, but have heard that the beds are hard. Anyone have experience with Palm Gardens?

4. We want to get out in the countryside but not sure we are fit enough for a bike tour. Any day or overnight excursions that anyone would particularly recommend other than Sapa, which we just do not have time for this visit unless we eliminate the Mekong.

Thanks, and I know I will have many more questions.

looks like a nice trip carole...don't miss hanoi!!

bob

Since your trip involves places in the South/Central parts of Vietnam, concentrate on that and leave Hanoi for the next visit. No reason to rush around trying to see everything. VietnamStay is quite good. You can book day tours with them or Sinh Cafe www.sinhcafe.com.vn Booking through hotels can be expensive and I've read many reports of people not getting what they were promised by the hotel.

Also be aware that TET Holiday is in early February 2/7-2/16. If you plan on being in VN at that time, book your transportation early as everything fills up with locals trying to get home.

Hi, Bob. We're looking forward to it. We're trying to visit Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon & also an overnight in the Mekong. It's challenging to do it all in two weeks, but we don't know when we'll be back so we're violating our usual practice of only visitng 3 places per trip. We're cutting short time in Saigon to spend more time in the other locations. All advice and suggestions are welcome! Especially since our time in Hue is limited, we'd love suggestions on good tour guides for day trips. I had heard some negative things about sinhcafe.

I thought Hoi An highly over-rated! Local charm has been lost to every building another clothing store or other shop. It has good beaches but if you are not there for swimming..I think it is not worth going there. We found Hanoi the most interesting part and HangLon Bay better than we expected. We also used Vietnamstay and were very pleased with them. Not necessary to book day tours thru them.

If you have a few days up your sleeve and want to see a bit of rural life you might consider stopping in Ninh Binh, south of Hanoi. There are some class attractions nearby such as a boat trip through limestone caves at Tam Co, the ancient citadel of Hoa Lu and the floating village at Kenh Ga. You could probably get to all of these by bicycle. (I hired a scooter) further out is the cathedral at Phat Diem and Cuc Puong Natl. Park which also provides accomodation.

My favourite stop in Vietnam!

http://www.travelsinasia.com/Vietnam/NinhBinh.htm

There are multiple Sinh Cafes in VN. The link I gave you is the original and they are well respected in VN. The others I would stay away from.

Tam Coc felt like a Disneyland ride to me. An endless procession of boats in front/behind you and a hard sell from your boat driver to buy hand embroidered goods while on the boat. The scenery is spectacular, but the rest isn't. If you're going to HaLong Bay, you don't need to visit Tam Coc. You'll get enough rural life on your Delta visit. It would be a very long bike ride between Hoa Lu and Tam Coc.

As I mentioned before, don't forget about TET.

I agree with bisbee that you can skip Tam Coc. I found even the scenery disappointing after Halong Bay.

I also agree with Elainee that Hoi An is very touristy, although if you're lucky with the timing you can enjoy the buildings and the river without quite so many other visiotrs. But it is a base for visiting My Son, which I thought was magical - but arrange a car and driver so you can leave early and get there before the tour buses.

Hi de ho CFW

We did a similar trip to yourself last year. We booked through Vietnam Stay and we found them to be cheaper than the hotel tour desks when we arrived.

My 2 cents is to book ahead using vietnam stay.

So many options on the Mekong Delta tour but I would strongly recommend a mosquito net and strong repellant when heading down there. Those things are hungry and big!

Hope this helps

Eeek

Bisbee, thanks for the clarification about Sinhcafe. We are going after Tet, in the second half of February. Still can't decide what to do about the Mekong trip. Most of the overnight trips seem to be a bit of overload, but if we want to see a floating market that is the only way. We are thinking of just hiring a driver to go to Can Tho, overnight there & then do a boat trip from there to experience the floating markets and get a feel for the Mekong area. Will we miss too much if we do that? Another option is seeing if we can customize something with Ann Tours, which I heard was good.