Trip Report: 30 days in Vietnam part 1

Hi,

my husband %26amp; I just got back from a 30 day trip in Vietnam, we had a great time while we were there. I have to say, I am glad to be back in the US where people are driving on the side that they are suppose to and traffic is somewhat orderly. Our itinerary:

HCMC 7 nights:

Hanoi 2 nights

Sapa 1 night

Halong Bay (on Bhaya junk) 1 night

Hoi An 2 nights

Hue 2 nights

HCMC 1 night

Can Tho 1 night

HCMC 1 night

Dalat 3 night

Nha Trang 3 nights

HCMC 2 nights

Okay, this is what we did, we basically had 4 weeks. so we left week 1 and week 4 open and did a 14 day tour in the middle. We used Tonkin travel based on the recommendations of other reviewers on this forum %26amp; they did an excellent job. All in all I was happy with their service.

Okay the first 7 nights we booked ourselves thru expedia. We stayed at Park Hyatt Saigon. We were there for the Tet festival. It was really neat. It was very festive with all the flowers, we saw the dragon dance %26amp; parade. It went on for 3 days after Tet, on the 4th day is when they cleaned up all the flowers %26amp; business as usual. A lot of the restaurants were closed the first 3 days of tet. We pretty much walked everywhere from the Park Hyatt,walked to Ben Thanh Market, we saw a comedy at the opera House (in vietnamese only). We took a little boat tour on the Saigon river, it came with a seafood buffet, food was good %26amp; it was cheap. taxis are amazingly cheap in vietnam. We took the Petro Express to Vung Tau. The seafood is good, although, you get bombarded with vendors on the beach. I don%26#39;t think tourists will like Vung Tau very much.we took the boat back to saigon the next day.

We pretty much just explored saigon on our own.

We took a flight to Hanoi (start of tour). I don%26#39;t really care for Hanoi itself, the people in general aren%26#39;t very friedly and the traffic is just very chaotic. It is very stressful just walking around in Hanoi %26amp; they drive a lot closer to you than they do in HCMC. We also got harrassed by this cyclo driver, he kept following us from store to store for a couple of blocks, so my husband told me to go into a store %26amp; shop while he wait outside to call a cab. Not all of Hanoi was bad though. I thought the Tran Quoc Pagoda was nice%26amp; the temple of Literature %26amp; Ethnology museum was nice. We saw the water puppet show, it was neat. we took a drive to Ninh Binh (100 km) its kind of a long drive but I thought it was worth it. we went on a small boat thru this river %26amp; saw people working on the rice paddies, went thru the grottoes of Tam Coc Caves, it was really neat that area is called the ';HaLong of land'; b/c you have the large limestones like Ha Long Bay except its on land.

we then took an overnight train to Sapa (booked a private cabin-strongly recommend)

the scenery in Sapa is absolutely AMAZING. It is just very different from anything I%26#39;ve ever seen. When we were there it was foggy, but I think the fog kind of made it look even better (more mystical)

So we went trekking in Sapa. Hmong people are very friendly and the children are just absolutely adorable. We have so many kids come up to us trying to sell and they will ask ';please buy one for me'; and they are very persistent too. Its not recommended to buy from the children, b/c if they see that they can make money selling stuff, they won%26#39;t want to go to school. It was just really hard to tell them no, b/c they are just so cute! We did bring some toys to pass out to the kids that we saw along the way %26amp; it was just overwhelming to see their cute little faces light up to get a simple toy like a ball or toy car. alright, I am getting tired now, so I will have to pick this up at another time. I hope you guys enjoyed this or hope its somewhat helpful to those who are planning a trip to vietnam.

Trip Report: 30 days in Vietnam part 1

I read with interest your great report. I look forward to hearing the rest.

I am going to Hanoi (Sofitel Metrople)

Halong Bay (either Bhaya, Emeraude or Ginger or Jasmine (the last 2 seem to have the best rate)

Hue- Le Residence

and Hoi An- The Nam Hai.

I actually am not doing HCMC. Most people I know prefered Hanoi, but I see you did not. I will probably due HCMC and Siem Reap on another trip.

I look forward to hearing about Halong,Hue and Hoi An from you.

Trip Report: 30 days in Vietnam part 1

I forgot I am also going to Sapa overnight Victoria train.