Re: Need recommendations in planning a trip Posted: Mon December 27, 2010 06:16 AM UTC
Fifteen days is a fair amount of time to see a good amount of Vietnam. My wife and I spent three weeks and felt we got a representative view of the country. In a country that is long and narrow like Vietnam, it often helps to fly into one city and out of another to save backtracking. In your case, arriving in February, it would be better to come into Saigon and travel north to Hanoi as the weather should be more favorable in both places. Saigon is a great city but it has been very westernized and sights are not its hallmark. The food however is excellent. The Mekong Delta is very nice but not sure it's a can't miss. We did it en route to Cambodia so we did not have to backtrack and it was "on the way." We bypassed Dalat though many people love it, we chose to hit the coast along that part of the trip. Hue and Hoi An are surely must see cities but I don't think you need much more than a couple days in each unless you are a real history buff. It seems you are willing to fly and that will cut out much of your travel time. It seems you should be able to "see" Saigon and Da Lat in four or five days and then fly up to Hue/Hoi An area and spend another four or five days there. Then fly up to Hanoi and you should have enough time to see it and do an organized trip to Halong Bay. Though the latter is touristy, it is stunning. It might not be a really relaxing trip but when are you going to be back in Vietnam again and they've waited 35 years for this trip so try and see what you can. It certainly does not sound like you are trying to see everything which is good as its far too big an area to cover in two weeks. Check out some of the pages on VT for more details. Have a great trip.
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