Vietnam / Thailand Itinerary Help~
Hi Folks,
I am currently planning a trip for my family (Husband, Sister and her husband, my parents as well as 4 children (7, 10, 11, 13) for 3.5 weeks to Vietnam and Thailand. My husband and I have both been to SE Asia (myself, I have been to Thailand 3 times, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia). I have always wanted to make my way to Vietnam so hence the plan. My family has all decided to jump on board so there's a lot more pressure to plan everything out logistically (rather than wing it a bit like my husband and I like to do with our own well traveled kids). Please let me know if this is doable or if I should add/remove etc: 1. Hanoi (2 nights) 2. 3 day/2 nights Ninh Binh and Halong Bay Cruise Tour - Connect back to Hanoi to fly to Danang 3. Hoi An (5 nights) - Plans to see surrounding areas as well, but just wander the streets and also give our kids some pool/beach time 4. Fly to Ho Chi Minh (3 Nights)
a) Go straight from Krabi airport to Koh Lanta
b) Stay in Krabi for the first half
Thoughts, opinions, ideas? Thank you! |
Day trips to Mekong Delta and Cu Chi tunnels, it depends on your interests. But if you do not have enough time, a day trip to Mekong Delta is still fine.
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Hi Shanna,
My immediate thoughts are that the Vietnam part of your itinerary is extremely rushed and that the travel logistics of including so many destinations means that you will spend a LOT of your time in transit. This maybe ok for a couple but for such a large group it could become very stressful, especially for you, the organiser! Two nights in a place only allows for one full day of usable time to explore. in the case of Hanoi, this is nowhere near enough. I would suggest 3 nights and two full days minimum. I confess I am not a great fan of Halong Bay - too polluted and too crowded. Bai Tu Long or Lan Ha bays may be better though I would probably sip the bays completely and add the time to Hanoi. Ninh Binh is great once you get away form the heavily touristed areas and avoid weekends. I don't think we have ever been to Railay so that may be another option. Saigon is one of my favourite cities in Asia but very different from Hanoi. One of the fastest changing cities in Asia. 3 nights /2 full days is a good amount of time to explore the city and its main sights. I don't think a day trip to the delta is a good use of time. Far better to spend at least a night there. Ben Tre is close to Saigon and is all about cruising the smaller rives of the delta and the cottage industries there. A little further away is Can Tho which is the wider Mekong and home to Cai Rang floating market. You could get a limo bus for your group out there to arrive after lunch, spend the night in Can Tho or at a homestay outside of the city (Green Village is good) and visit the market in the early morning (i.e. 05:30). You would be finished by 09:30 and head back to Saigon for your next destination . Hoi An beaches I found disappointing but some love them. Hoi An town is very quaint but only needs a day and when the Chinese resume traveling to Vietnam it will once again become unbearably crowded. for some a price worth paying. Personally , I prefer Hue, 60km along the coast. If you didn't want to go to Thailand , I would suggest heading deeper into the delta to Chau Doc and then getting the boat to Phnom Penh and spend some time in Cambodia. As far as Thailand is concerned, I stopped visiting the south some years ago as it just got too touristy. The last time there was when we took my wife's parents for the wedding anniversary when we took them to Khao Lak and Khao Sok. Khao Lakhad changed out of all recognition since our prior visit pre tsunami and had become very busy. Not the best beach destination down that way. Koh Lanta would be better I feel for beach time. Anyway, just a few thoughts and my apologies for rambling on! Here is a link to the Vietnam section of our blog which covers some of our travels in the country. https://accidentalnomads.com/category/vietnam/ There is also a Cambodia section but very little on Thailand I am afraid. One further thought is that given the numbers you have travelling with you, it could prove cost and logistically effective to book a private small group tour with someone like https://www.intrepidtravel.com/uk/vietnam who have a good reputation (though I have never used them myself. |
Hi Crellston,
Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful responses. I completely agree with you on the Vietnam portion feeling a bit too rush and in fact, if it were just my family of 4, we would forego Thailand altogether this time and just do Vietnamfor the 3.5 weeks, but alas, our family wants to do both. 1) Halong Bay being too polluted and crowded - I have been reading this a LOT and I would happily miss out on this and spend more time in Ninh Binh as I feel that Krabi with its Limestone Karts would have been similar, but on a smaller scale so I don't feel entirely drawn to this area. 2) HCMC - I have read so many conflicting views on this city. People seem to either love Hanoi and hate HCMC or the opposite. What I will say is that we don't like to spend a ton of time in large cities. We just did France and Spain and our least favourite days were spent in Paris and Barcelona. We much rather wander smaller towns and villages. - Do you think HCMC would be a big miss if we spent more time elsewhere? 3) If I COULD convince my family to forego Thailand and just focus in on Thailand, would you recommend adding Dalat? Nha Trang (this reminds me of Phuket in that it seems built up and busy - which I hate, but- perhaps I am wrong?)... Or how about Phu Quoc? We have to have beach time in there at the end which is the whole reason we were going to hop over to Thailand. 4) Cambodia - I loved my travels in Cambodia - but for my sister, husband and her two kids, I feel that would be a bit too much of a culture shock. Siem Reap is fine, but even I struggled with the poverty and history in Cambodia so I think baby steps for the rest of the family lol I have been taking a look at your forum and there's a ton of good stuff in there so thank you. I plan to go in and read through in more detail. Thanks again for taking time out of your day to assist me! Shanna |
You are very welcome Shanna.
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I must admit to being somewhat conflicted about Halong bay. We did go to Lan Ha bay and saw little pollution in November. I am glad we went and it is pretty but guess I am not a cruise type person. Would not need to go back. Was disappointed with the western food served aboard our boat. Would have preferred local food.
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A few years ago the Vietnamese government banned the selling of fish from the bay as the pollution have become that bad it was health hazard. I am pretty sure that ban has been lifted due to improvements in water quality. If you were there last November then it seems as though the actions taken by the authorities are working. We we in Bai Tu Long Bay, supposed to be one of the more pristine options but it was still pretty bad but that as 5 years or so ago.
I too am conflicted about Halong Bay, not just for the pollution but the overcrowding of boats boats but mainly because there are places in the country that I enjoy way more. I guess it is all a question of personal preferences, priorities and style of travel. |
Western food in halong
Originally Posted by mjs
(Post 17463815)
I must admit to being somewhat conflicted about Halong bay. We did go to Lan Ha bay and saw little pollution in November. I am glad we went and it is pretty but guess I am not a cruise type person. Would not need to go back. Was disappointed with the western food served aboard our boat. Would have preferred local food.
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I agree with Crellston on Halong Bay. We were there on an overnight junk tour in February and I found it disappointing. It is very crowded, even though we were on a small junk and were able to go to some places bigger boats cannot. After about 30 minutes, it all looks the same and we would have been better served staying in Hanoi, especially since we had to cut our trip short and rush back to the US from Hanoi. We're going back in January and this time we will spend at least 4 nights in Hanoi, since we did no sightseeing at all there and haven't been there since 2000. (I'll be starting my own thread for advice soon.)
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"It all look the same " ? Small limestone peaks, big ones, in small chains or isolated, rocks with strange shapes, grottoes, tunnels, small and larger fllatinng fish farms, doesn't look all the same to me !
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Originally Posted by Larsay
(Post 17471699)
"It all look the same " ? Small limestone peaks, big ones, in small chains or isolated, rocks with strange shapes, grottoes, tunnels, small and larger fllatinng fish farms, doesn't look all the same to me !
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Originally Posted by Larsay
(Post 17471699)
"It all look the same " ? Small limestone peaks, big ones, in small chains or isolated, rocks with strange shapes, grottoes, tunnels, small and larger fllatinng fish farms, doesn't look all the same to me !
Originally Posted by Larsay
(Post 17471709)
Read FLOATING fish-farms and small houses
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"Nice" ? I am curious to know why it is considered as "unique in the world", classified by the Unesco as a World Heritage site, and attract millions of visitor a year, to a point where the Viet government has built an airport not far from the Bay !!!!
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Originally Posted by Larsay
(Post 17471967)
"Nice" ? I am curious to know why it is considered as "unique in the world", classified by the Unesco as a World Heritage site, and attract millions of visitor a year, to a point where the Viet government has built an airport not far from the Bay !!!!
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I deeply apologise for thinking that I have the RIGHT to contradict an opinion on this site !
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Originally Posted by Larsay
(Post 17472189)
I deeply apologise for thinking that I have the RIGHT to contradict an opinion on this site !
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Originally Posted by Larsay
(Post 17472189)
I deeply apologise for thinking that I have the RIGHT to contradict an opinion on this site !
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Originally Posted by crellston
(Post 17472293)
Don’t waste your time Laurieco. People like Larsay that descend to sarcasm and bullying just make themselves look pathetic.
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"contradict", My Dear, is simply to say the contrary of what somebody says : A says "Halong is no big deal", B says" I do not agree, it is fantastic" ; B contradicts A and there is NOTHING wrong with that. Or should B says to A : "You are right, don't bother to visit";. Obviously, some people here DO NOT accept that one expresses an opinion different from theirs. Never mind !!!!
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Absolutely noyt a "Must" if you do not have enough time the North and the Center are much more interesting, unless you like to see endless water and rice-fields, with a very few historic centers like in Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, etc. (Saigon is no big deal !) This is MY opinion and I share it.
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