Asia - 2 weeks Vietnam + 1 week beach - advice needed

Hello,

I've been reading for quite a while this amazing forum and I am here to see if someone can help me with my itinerary. I will have 3 weeks vacation in May and it will be my first visit to Vietnam. I would prefer to dedicate 2 weeks to this country and then the last week in Krabi Beach/Koh Samui (yet to be decided) or some other place with very nice white sandy beaches just to relaxe after all I'll be doing the first 2 weeks of my itinerary.

Your advice would be very much appreciated concerning how I should split my time and also if you have any suggestions regarding the one night 2 days tour to Sapa or if maybe I can spend more days in one place more than another. Places I really want to see: Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, Hoi An , Mekong Delta, nice train trip from the north to the south in the reunification line but avoiding the overnight stays in a train, and I really want to rent a bycicle because it is one of the things I love the most and just visit citys or places this way. I don't mind missing big touristy places if it means me having more time to spend walking around absorbing the culture and what I do care about is eating well.

I have also a good hotel deal at Nha Trang but I don't know if it really interesting for me to go there. I don't care about night life (for me that means sleeping) and I just want to visit beautiful places and taking my time in them.

Is it enough time in each place? Do you recommend any specific tour operators for Sapa and Ha Long Bay? If there are threads with these answers just direct me to them I don't want to be a bother asking always the same questions. Now for my itinerary and thank you in advance smileys/smile.gif

Day 1 - 13 may - Paris – Kuala Lumpur arriving at 6am
Day 2 - 14 may - Kuala Lumpur one night
Day 3 - 15 may - Kuala Lumpur – Hanoi with AirAsia arriving around 9am
Days 3, 4, 5 - 15-18 may - Hanoi
Days 6, 7 and 8 18-20 may - overnight train to Sapa and 1 night in Sapa plus overnight train back to Hanoi
Day 8 - 20 may - 1 night in Hanoi
Day 9 - 21 may - flight from Hanoi to Hue arriving at 7am + day trip train from Hue to Danang from 11am to 2pm + visiting Hoi An and overnight stay
Day 10 - 22 may - Hoi An taxi to Danang airport to Ho Chi Min with Jetstar
Days 10 and 11, 22 – 24 may - 2 nights in Saigon
Days 12 and 13 - 24-25 may - flight from Ho Chi Min to Singapura with Tiger Airways and 2 nights stay in Singapura
Day 13 - 26 may – flight Singapura to Krabi with Tiger Airways
Days 13 to 20, 26 may to 2 june - beach 8 nights
Day 21 - 2 june - fly back from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur to Paris (flight at 11pm)

I've added nights at Kuala Lumpur and Singapore because I don't know those places. Do you thing it is worth it? And how many nights?

I think you are needlessly making your trip more complicated than it has to be. Why don't you just put the whole trip in Vietnam including the beach part? Look into Phu Quoc island, or perhaps Mui Ne if you want something slightly more accessible. Most people prefer those over Nha Trang. Vietnam really needs more than 2 weeks if you want to accomplish that list of yours. If KUL is your gateway due to Air Asia budget flight, fine. It only needs a couple of days/nights--maybe one enroute to Vietnam and one on the way back. I'd tend to cut out Thailand and Singapore and leave them for another time.

I think you are needlessly making your trip more complicated than it has to be. Why don't you just put the whole trip in Vietnam including the beach part?

I had the same thought. Another beach option already on your itinerary is Hoi An. It has several beach resorts a short distance from the city.

Also, you'd be doing a whole lot of traveling for a very short stay in Sapa. I'd add at least another day there.

I had the same thought. Another beach option already on your itinerary is Hoi An. It has several beach resorts a short distance from the city.

Also, you'd be doing a whole lot of traveling for a very short stay in Sapa. I'd add at least another day there.

Sapa looks fine to me, given you take the overnight train there and back you get there about 7 am and don't leave until 5 so you get 2 full days really/

For beack option we went to Phu Quoc, unsure what it's like in MAy but when we went in December it was like Thaliand 20 years ago (i.e. somewhat better than Thailand today unless you like resorts which could be anywhere)