Vietnam suggestions

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by debs2028

We went July /August and had very little rain . We had an amazing time on Hoi An beach .
It's easy to get a flight from Saigon to Da Nang .
Visiting Hue , Danang and Hoi an makes sense as they are all close to each other .
The temples in Hue were the best we experienced outside Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat would also be a worthwhile trip from Saigon . Flights were not expensive and it was an amazing experience .

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Pleased to hear you had only a little rain. Our son says it can be variable and that even though it's rainy season we will still have plenty of good weather.
We are definitely planning Hoi An area as our 'break' from Ho Chi Minh as it looks so beautiful.

Do you remember what hotels you stayed in? I am now looking at possibilities, we are hoping for a pool in HCM, our son is suggesting District 3 as he says it's quieter than District 1 but still near to everything but most of the hotels we are finding are in District 1. Anyone have an opinion on area?

Hoping to find a nice beachfront hotel at Hoi An, but not sure which beach as there appears to be 2? Also want to be able to get to the town easily but not by cycling (I am useless on a bike 😀 ). So either by walking or maybe a hotel shuttle?

[justacey]

In HCMC we stayed at the Liberty Central Citypoint. The location was great, but there's an awful lot of works going on. Since it's a massive Metro, you'll probably be affected by it wherever you are. google/maps/place/...!4d106.7007249
Rooftop pool was great in the afternoon. No shade until gone 2.

As to which Hoi An beach. How much time will you spend on the beach as opposed to the pool? Our hotel ran shuttle buses to the beach all day with a stop in town. I assume most hotels will do that. When we are at the beach, we might go in the water for a dip, but it's salty and sandy and mucky and hawkers about. A pool is much more civilised

[justacey]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Just updating this thread as our original plan to go this year didn't happen. We had already booked Disney for DDs birthday in October so felt 2 long haul holidays in one year was too much.

We are thinking of booking a hotel in HCM for the whole stay and leaving some belongings there while we fly to our second stay location then return to HCM to end our stay with our son. Has anyone left their belongings in this way, and should we inform the hotel in HCM that we won't be sleeping in the room for 3 nights or not?


Sue

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We found HCMC the most expensive of our 3 stops. Rooms were in the £100-£120 region for a nice enough but not top quality. That's a lot of money for storage and unpacking. You could ask them for a price for storing your stuff, although you'd have to leave the room.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by justacey

In HCMC we stayed at the Liberty Central Citypoint. The location was great, but there's an awful lot of works going on. Since it's a massive Metro, you'll probably be affected by it wherever you are. google/maps/place/...!4d106.7007249
Rooftop pool was great in the afternoon. No shade until gone 2.

As to which Hoi An beach. How much time will you spend on the beach as opposed to the pool? Our hotel ran shuttle buses to the beach all day with a stop in town. I assume most hotels will do that. When we are at the beach, we might go in the water for a dip, but it's salty and sandy and mucky and hawkers about. A pool is much more civilised

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Thanks again for info. We have actually got the Liberty Central on a shortlist so pleased to have a recommendation.

Yes I guess you are right about the beach. Our daughter is not at all keen on beaches, always moaning about sand getting everywhere 😀, so a good pool would be better. Where did you stay in Hoi An? I should just find your trip report and re-read as it was really interesting and full of good information 😀

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by justacey

We found HCMC the most expensive of our 3 stops. Rooms were in the £100-£120 region for a nice enough but not top quality. That's a lot of money for storage and unpacking. You could ask them for a price for storing your stuff, although you'd have to leave the room.

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I think we have decided to check out when we go to Hoi An, leave our cases at our sons and just take hand luggage to Da Nang airport. Then return to HCM and recheck into the hotel for the last few days. Seems pointless paying for the room in HCM when we aren't there.

[justacey]

La Siesta Hoi An Resort and Spa. They were the loveliest people ever.
lasiestaresorts

Trip adviser has it at no 4 in Hoi An. tripadvisor/Hotel_..._Province.html

lasiestaresorts

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by justacey

La Siesta Hoi An Resort and Spa. They were the loveliest people ever.
lasiestaresorts

Trip adviser has it at no 4 in Hoi An. tripadvisor/Hotel_..._Province.html

lasiestaresorts

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Again, this hotel is on our shortlist 😀.

[anwad]

We just came back on Wednesday from doing just under a month there. We flew into Hanoi and out of HCMC. I must be honest, we weren't big fans of HCMC and only had 2 full days there which we were glad about.

Hanoi - absolutely lovely. A lake in the centre that lots of local families go down to and play shuttlecock, ride little electric cars etc down there. It is gorgeous. Although it is the capital city, it is more traditional than HCMC.

Hue - another lovely place with an ancient citadel. Brilliant restaurants and places to wander.

Hoi An - beautiful around the river. Lovely old town but is absolutely heaving at night around the river. I got 2 pairs of leather shoes made while there and they are so soft and fit like gloves. Leather uppers and soles - £60 a pair from a very reputable shop

Mue Ne - not worth bothering with, although some people like it. A lot of coastal erosion so beach is a bit hit and miss.

You cannot drive from Hanoi to Hoi An, it is too far. You would need to either fly or get a sleeper train. If I had to suggest an itinerary for you, I would say to fly into HCMC, then fly to Da Nang where there is a lovely beach and either stay there or Hoi An (the local beach is An Bang, which is nice but not as nice as Da Nang). Da Nang and Hoi An are about half an hours drive from each other so you could have a couple of days at each. I would then fly from Da Nang to Hanoi and fly home from Hanoi.

Nah Trang is also a beach resort but is heavily frequented with Russian tourists and you could fly to there from HCMC as well.

We loved our time there though and the people are absolutely lovely. We have done a lot of SE Asia and I think the Vietnamese are the nicest people that we have met.

[anwad]

We had 1 day where it rained for about 3 hours and probably 3 days where it rained for 15 minutes - that was it!

We managed to book Hanoikids for an afternoon tour - we got 2 young ladies (they are second year university students and have to go through a very rigorous application process) to take us on our tour. It was a really brilliant experience and would recommend them in a heartbeat. We were put on the waiting list and got an email 2 days before to say that they could fit us in so we were very happy.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by anwad

We just came back on Wednesday from doing just under a month there. We flew into Hanoi and out of HCMC. I must be honest, we weren't big fans of HCMC and only had 2 full days there which we were glad about.

Hanoi - absolutely lovely. A lake in the centre that lots of local families go down to and play shuttlecock, ride little electric cars etc down there. It is gorgeous. Although it is the capital city, it is more traditional than HCMC.

Hue - another lovely place with an ancient citadel. Brilliant restaurants and places to wander.

Hoi An - beautiful around the river. Lovely old town but is absolutely heaving at night around the river. I got 2 pairs of leather shoes made while there and they are so soft and fit like gloves. Leather uppers and soles - £60 a pair from a very reputable shop

Mue Ne - not worth bothering with, although some people like it. A lot of coastal erosion so beach is a bit hit and miss.

You cannot drive from Hanoi to Hoi An, it is too far. You would need to either fly or get a sleeper train. If I had to suggest an itinerary for you, I would say to fly into HCMC, then fly to Da Nang where there is a lovely beach and either stay there or Hoi An (the local beach is An Bang, which is nice but not as nice as Da Nang). Da Nang and Hoi An are about half an hours drive from each other so you could have a couple of days at each. I would then fly from Da Nang to Hanoi and fly home from Hanoi.

Nah Trang is also a beach resort but is heavily frequented with Russian tourists and you could fly to there from HCMC as well.

We loved our time there though and the people are absolutely lovely. We have done a lot of SE Asia and I think the Vietnamese are the nicest people that we have met.

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Thank you, I had noticed you had just returned from Vietnam on the October Florida thread. We are visiting Florida in October also 😀.

Our son is teaching in HCM so we are going to be spending a while there. I must admit I feel the city is a bit too hectic for us (although we do like city breaks, including NYC) But obviously, we want to see our son as we haven't seen him for nearly 3 years by the time we travel. We are considering a day trip to Vang Tau and another to the Mekong Delta while we are in HCM.

We are planning on flying into HCM first, then flying up to Da Nang. We had originally thought of spending 3-4 nights at Hoi An but may stay 2 nights in Hoi An and 2 in Da Nang as we thought it looked nice too, which you have confirmed 😊

We then plan on spending our last couple of days with our son before flying home. I would like to visit Hanoi as it seems a nicer city than HCM, but that may have to be another visit.

Our son loves living in Vietnam, having previously taught in South Korea, and says the Vietnamese are lovely people who are kind and welcoming. He has visited many neighbouring countries from Vietnam and has had an amazing 4 years teaching in Asia. We are looking forward to seeing the country ourselves too.