This is a continuation of my Vietnam trip review post from last week. Part 1 focused on the details and daily events of traveling with 2 kids. This followup is about some places we didn’t visit, some tips for planning your trip and a few thoughts on the weather and staying healthy.
ROADS NOT TAKEN
We didn’t get to go everywhere we wanted. Here’s an overview of a few places that looked great but that never ended up on our itinerary.
HALONG BAY
It sounds stunning. It looks stunning. It probably is stunning. But for a collection of reasons we didn’t make it out there. Time and money colluded against us to make the journey impracticable. We had set our sights on a mid-budget 1 or 2 night stay on a
boat, and talked to Handspan travel in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The cheapest they offered came to about $550 for one night on a boat (for the 4 of us). That seemed a lot for about 10 or 12 hours of day light while in the bay, and a lot of stop and go, and transfer time.
In talking to several people after the fact it sounds like a stereotypical travel tour – on the bus, off the bus, one tour guide, and then a different one – “until” you get out in the bay. And then when you’re in among the limestone karsts it all seems worth it. All the hassles. All the herding and queuing fades away and it’s a near-magical experience.
I think if I did a trip to Halong on a return trip, I would do it on my own: bus to Cat Ba and then arrange my own boat trip when you can inspect the boat and meet the guides. But of course, arranging it yourself is never as efficient and would probably add a day – or two – to a trip to the bay.
MAI CHAU
A short trip from Hanoi, that sounds like an incredible experience. Maybe if we weren’t having so much fun in Hanoi we would have made more of an effort to get out there. You can stay in stilt houses in this small village. It’s undeniably a little hard to get to, but that helps keep the daytrippers away.
SAPA
Sapa as well was on the short list of places to go, however it would have involved spending a full day – almost two – of backtracking to Hanoi and some what diminish the north to south feel of our trip. (Not a deal breaker in itself, but still a consideration.) Like many places we’d heard good and bad reports, but the bad ones universally stressed the hoards of tourists so we gave it a pass.
MEKONG DELTA.
We got a small taste of the region in My Tho and Ben Tre. I suspect the farther away from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) you go, the more rewarding it gets.
PHU QUOC
I’ve heard nothing but great things about this island. If you’re looking for the perfect island getaway this could be it. Take a close look at the climate variations as the weather seems to vary dramatically throughout the calendar.
TRIP PARTICULARS
Health:
The single biggest health consideration that stood out for me, was the fact that if we stayed away from the highlands, hugging the coast from Hanoi down to Saigon the kids wouldn’t have to take anti-malarials. This map of Vietnam shows where malaria risks are highest.
Staying healthy in Vietnam involves luck as much as anything. There are a number of different things you can do to stack the odds in your favor – wash hands thoroughly before eating, brush your teeth with bottled water, ensure meat dishes are hot when served – but anyone that tells you they know the secrets to avoid illness is misinformed or dishonest.
Getting There:
We flew with Delta Airlines. It was about $675/person for our Seattle to Hanoi, Saigon to Seattle tickets, which I found through a pretty extensive search on Kayak.com. I have no great complaints or raves concerning Delta. As long as they get me there I rarely even notice whom I’m flying with. Flying through Seoul was a nice change as I’m usually going through Taipei, Hong Kong or Tokyo.
If you’re considering making Vietnam part of a larger tour of SE Asia take a look at Air Asia as they have incredible prices and fly from Hanoi to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur and from Ho Chi Minh to Bangkok, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
Getting Around:
We used primarily train, plane and hired car as we made our way from Hanoi down to Saigon. The train was our favorite. Easy to book and use, low stress, relaxing for the kids as they had the luxury of walking about the train cars and meeting people. Check out Seat61 for great tips on train travel throughout Asia.
Air Vietnam is cheap and easy to book. Jetstar is even cheaper. These airlines can be an appealing option when confronting a long stretch of travel.
Costs:
Our daily expenses varied between $50 and $150 depending on where we were and how many meals, desserts and beers we had a day. Obviously being a family of 4 drastically changes your expenses. A single person spending modestly could get by on $30 or $40 pretty easily.
Weather:
We traveled through most of August and early September and our weather was great. The sea was calm and inviting, and everyday featured at least a few hours of sun. The only rain we got was when we ventured away from the coast (Hanoi, Saigon, Mekong Delta) and up into the hills (Dalat and the Central Highlands).
It’s very common, as you can tell from Pt.1 of the my trip review, for hotels with a pool to allow non-guests to swim for a small fee (usually less than $5). If you’re a family of 4 or 5 this can obviously add up, but it’s still usually much less than the difference in room price between comparable hotels with and without a pool.
Summary:
A fantastic country to tour with kids. We loved it. Will we go back? That’s a good question. There are so many places to go, and limited time and money. Honestly it might never happen. But, and I think this is just as important, I would enthusiastically recommend it to anyone, if they were looking for an interesting and exotic country that hadn’t yet lost its traditional non-western ways.
For a detailed account of our daily travels read my Trip Review: Vietnam With Kids Part 1.
[Photos by babeltravel, permanently scatterbrained, viajar24h, nurpax, stefan77dd]
My Favorite Websites
I get lots of questions about booking hotels. These are my favorite sites.HotelsCombined.com – The absolute best for finding hotel deals and discounts.
Agoda.com – A great resource for hotels in Asia.
What a great blog. I think its great that you are showing your kids the world. Thanks for sharing your stories.
Great blog! I had a couple questions. Did you have any concerns about degnue while you were in Vietnam? We’re looking at returning to Asia (Vietnam, Bali or Malaysia) in September with our daughter who will be nearly two then and I’m not sure how to process the risks.
Also – what camera are you using? Your pics are great!
Hi Bodie. We were more concerned with malaria than dengue fever, which led us to stay on the coast, in the big cities and away from the more rural places. Dengue fever is similar to malaria in that it’s transmitted by mosquito (I imagine you know that already) but is different in that travelers are at greatest risk in urban areas. So there’s a different calculation at work.
The best prevention for both however, is not to get bit. Wear loose clothing that covers most of the body and apply a mosquito repellent with 20%-30% deet. I imagine you’ll be staying in an air conditioned hotel which helps as well, as mosquitoes don’t really like A/C.
As for the pictures, the ones that are mine were taken with either a Canon Powershot SD1000 or SD600. Both small pocket sized cameras. But, I imagine many (all?) of the pictures you find so impressive are from photographers that submit to different web sites (usually flickr). You’ll see links to their work at the bottom of the post. i.e “Photos by:”
Let me know if you have any more questions.
David
Hey, FANTASTIC blog! Just great. I cant wait to go!
Great information. My husband and I live in Asia, don’t have kids…but your travel tips and info are very helpful! Thanks and happy travelling!
Great share, I love this country.
hi..great information..thx for sharing…
as a foreigner, we need to apply the visa before we go there…so, I have some info about this that I want to share with u guys..the info is from the Facebook page ‘Asia Travel Visa’
(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Asia-Travel-Visa/111803442201191?ref=sgm&v=wall)..check it out..
Most travellers who intend to visit Vietnam will require a tourist Visa and will need to get it ready before they take off. Typically, Visa applications would be made to the Vietnamese embassy in the traveller’s country, however, this can prove to be rather time consuming and costly. Plus, can you imagine going to the embassy only to find that they’re closed due to a Vietnamese public holiday? Not fun.
Thankfully, the Vietnamese Immigration Department has decided to issue Visas on Arrival, which means you can get your Visa when you arrive in the country. Before you pack your bags and fly in, though, you’ll need to get a Visa approval letter, which means your application details have been checked and verified online. You’ll receive the approval letter by email, and you can then print it out and bring it with you. It’s important to note that the airline won’t let you board the plane without the letter.
Vietnamese Visas on arrival are only available via airport entries, and not border crossings. For those who’ve decided to enter Vietnam via Cambodia, China or Laos, and are far away from home, don’t despair, you can make use of the ‘Visa Run service.’ This simply means your passport will be collected by a ‘runner,’ who will then have it processed at a Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia, China or Laos. This costs quite a bit more, but it will save you time. Some people swear by it, because it means you can go ahead and enjoy your holiday while a runner gets things done for you.
* Note: Worried about the idea of a Visa Run application? Allow us to explain it further. The application will actually be performed online and the service will be pre-arranged by a reputable travel agent. As such, you can be assured that everything is genuine and your passport will be safe. The runner will take your passport, bring it to to the embassy and then return it to you at the place you’re staying.
What a fantastic blog …thankyou so much for sharing. We are 2 families travelling to Vietnam in Oct – one family has 2 children and our family has 3 children (all aged between 7 – 12 ) We have been looking at one week up the top one week in the middle and then one in HCM. After reading your blog we now may reconsider the Nha Trang stay ( we were thinking that would be our relax by the pool resort bit ) what do you think ?? Also did you pre book hotels ? we are finding that with the 3 children we will have to book 2 rooms. So if you have any other suggestions with children then I would love to hear from you. Thankyou so much ……
Hi Emily. That sounds like a great trip you’ve got planned.
We booked a hotel for our first 2 nights in Hanoi and then booked or found the rest as we made our way south. In October I imagine you’ll have no trouble finding rooms so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. There are so many hotels in towns like Hoi An, Hue, Nha Trang and Mui Ne – if one parent parks themselves at a cafe with the kids while the other one hunts for accommodations you’ll find something quickly. It’s typically how you get the best deal too.
As for Nha Trang, that’s just my take – it seemed to lack something compared to the other places we saw. But we ran into another family (before we had visited Nha Trang) who was moving south to north and they raved about it – or at least quite liked it. They found there was lots to do there (ie kids attractions) that other places lacked.
That’s one plus about not booking. If you don’t like a place you can just move on. But if you’ve booked 5 nights at a hotel it makes it very difficult – or costly – to just pack up and take off to the next town.
That’s what happened to us. We arrived in Nha Trang, found a hotel, had a look around and said to each other “When can we leave?” We went to the water park in town that afternoon, spent the night at the Louisiane Brewhouse (highly recommended: great beer, good food and a nice pool to lounge around), the next morning at Vinpearl Land and then hired a car to Dalat and were there late that night.
Hope that helps. Good luck.
yes that does help …..once again thanks for your time, all really fantastic advice. I am now about to read “travel vaccinations for kids ” ………a thankyou in advance for that.
Thanks
We are following a similar route with our small children in september. Noticed that you had nothing mentioned about rabies. did you get your vacs for this? did you feel there was a high risk with all the dogs around? would like to avoid these vacs if possible. After reading your bog I am hoping we have given ourselves enough time in Hanoi! thank you for sharing. We too are doing the easy riders from delat to Mui ne but doing it in one day…. will we still be able stop and see enough, thought it was a 3-4 hour drive if going direct. Once again thanks
Hi Jane. We did not get the rabies vaccine but it is something to consider.
- For a great overview of vaccines take a look at this post travel vaccinations for kids.
- For a take on our experiences with rabies shots in Bali read trips to the hospital while traveling.
Great to hear you’re doing the Easy Riders. It’s a lot of fun. You will of course have less time, but I think you’ll be able to take in the highlights. One suggestion is to leave the Sand Dunes and Fairy Stream (both near Mui Ne) to visit on your own, so you don’t take time away from other attractions along the road.
Have fun.
Great blog, having a lot of fun reading it.
One probably stupid question….when you say “hire a car” do you mean you pay someone to drive you somewhere or do you mean you rented a car and drove yourselves?
Gracias!
Hi Brian. Yeah, I suppose that isn’t terribly clear. I meant pay someone to drive you somewhere. It’s often very cheap throughout southeast Asia, India, and Africa. Heck, we paid a taxi driver to drive us halfway across the Peloponnese in Greece and it wasn’t terribly much. The downside is you isolate yourself from the locals and miss out on meeting people as you would on the bus or train – so I wouldn’t over do it – but on occasion it can be worth it.
We are looking at a family holiday in Vietnam in January next year. We will have two teenagers and a 22 month old baby. Worried about suitable car restraints during our journey and interested in what other people have done; whether most vehicles have seatbelts and what would be good restraints that we could take with us. Not so worried about short taxi rides, more longer trips.
Hi Robyn. Yes, it’s a tough one. Most cars don’t have working seat belts. You can search about for newer nicer cars for longer trips but it’s easier said than done. On one of our trips from Dalat to Mui Ne, I looked around for a truck that had 4 working seat belts and finally found one. I made it clear that I needed a vehicle with working seat belts. Then the next day when he showed up there were no working seat belts. So we either had to cancel the trip or go ahead, and we chose to go ahead. In any case, you’ll need your own car seats as those definitely won’t be available there. Good luck.
Excellent blog. Really useful. I have two kids, aged 6 and 1, and we’re considering Vietnam from July-September, but still not sure which region to visit. You make Hanoi stand out. We prefer to stay in places for longer periods rather than keep moving, but that’s just our preference. However, I will certainly consider a train journey after reading your account. Any thoughts on house/apartment rental?
There are websites for rentals in Vietnam but a bit hard to find. You’ll find more rentals in Nha Trang and Hoi An than anywhere else. I’d go for Hoi An myself. Great town and close to the beach (but not right on it).