Zinc_Saucier

Hello Everyone,

I've been reading through a lot of the information here and elsewhere about the pros and cons about various locations, but would like to get some feedback/suggestions/recommendations.

The future Mrs and I have traveled some in Asia, and we want to go back for our honeymoon. We would be traveling the end of May to early June (probably 5/24-6/6), and are thinking of spending 5-6 days in Hanoi exploring, and then 5-6 days in Bali relaxing.

Vietnam Questions:
-Is 5-6 days in Hanoi enough/too-much? We tend to pack in a lot of things each day when traveling (e.g. Hagia Sophia/Blue Mosque/Cisterns/Grand Bazaar/Taksim Square in one day in Istanbul)

-Is May an ok time to visit Hanoi? I've read conflicting information that either there will be a little rain or that its like living in a swimming pool...

-Is there a better option if we are looking for a place to explore? We like places with good food (street or otherwise) and historical/cultural sites to visit. We're not huge museum people (prefer to see the highlights vs. spending the whole day)

Bali Questions:
-Again, getting conflicting information on where to stay. We're looking for something very relaxing (ideally something with private pool) that is relatively close to both the beach and shopping/restaurants (don't want to eat all our meals in the hotel). The recommendations I've seen are for Seminyak/Kuta, but then also Ubud, does that sound right?

-We're not 100% sold on Bali, so any recommendations on other beach-y/relaxing destinations that would meet our requirements?


Thanks in advance!

L Lam

5-6 days for Hanoi alone is a bit much but you can include Halong bay (overnight trip) and maybe perfume river trip.

Re Bali, Ubud has hotels too but its not by the beach, being the capital. High end resorts are mostly in Nusa Dua and Jimbaran areas, away from the nightlife of Seminyak/Kuta. Other asian beach places are Phuket, Langkawi, Penang or Boracay. Take your pick!

invisible

6 Days inn Bali - you will just barely scratch the surface. I'd say 6 days won't be enough even for Ubud.

Trust me, you can easily spend two weeks in Bali and after will have a feeling that you have not seen much...

glennaa11

Partly because it takes a while to travel between places on Bali I think this is true. I spent a couple of weeks between Bali and Yogayakarta. I definitely felt like the surface was pretty well scratched for me. Depends what you are interested in and what you like to do.

I liked Ubud way more than Nusa Dua, Seminyak, etc. But I don't really like beaches much so that probably explains that to a large degree. The beach places are more crowded-feeling, more traffic, etc.

Central Vietnam has some nice beaches. So if you're going to Vietnam anyway it's easy to combine that with Hanoi. I don't know the weather that time of year. I was in Hanoi and then Hue and Hoi An in November a few years ago and it was very rainy in central Vietnam. I didn't do enough research into the weather. Hanoi and the north was nice though. I don't know about May but it seems like the weather websites should be able to give you averages and climate info.

Flyer2020

I think 5 days in Hanoi is too much but overall, I think you need to pick one country and do your whole trip in it. My suggestion would be to do, say three days in Hanoi then head to Da Nang or Hoi An and then three nights in Ho Chi Minh. My recommendations would be: Intercontinental Da Nang (it is amazing!), Six Senses Nha Trang (Nha Trang is further south from Hoi Ain) and then a great hotel in HCMC like the Park Hyatt or Intercontinental.

However, if it was my honeymoon, I would definitely go to Ubud in Bali over Vietnam. Ubud is incredibly relaxing and you will be spoilt for choice if you want a private pool villa. My recommendations would be: The Kayon Resort, Mandapa Ritz Carlton Reserve, any of the Komaneka properties, Bidadari Villa or Sankara Resort.

If you want to combine Ubud with a beach trip, I would head over to Lombok and stay at Qunci Villas. It's an easy 20 min flight from Denpasar airport to Lombok.

All the best and I hope this helps.

JonB110

I agree with the previous post that 5 days in Hanoi is too much. As someone else mentioned you could do a day or two in Hanoi and then an overnight cruise on Ha Long Bay, or visit Hội An. I have also heard great things about Da Nang, but did not visit on this trip.

We seem to have the same interests . . . my girlfriend and I were more interested in the food and culture then the museums. We used, and I would highly suggest, a student tour guide (hanoi kids). Our guide took us to hole in the wall restaurants throughout the city and provided us an insight into her daily life and culture. If you do Hanoi or Saigon, I highly highly recommend trying to book one of these student guides.

In terms of weather, we just visited at the end of June 2015 and it was HOT! It reached 110 fahrenheit one day and was in the high 90s at night. We were sweating after a couple of blocks.

If you have status with marriott, I would recommend a night at the JW Marriott Hanoi. They treated us very nicely as golds and had an excellent lounge. It is a bit far from the city (30 minutes by taxi). We only stayed on our last night before flying out.

As others have mentioned, Bali is amazing and I would probably choose it over Hanoi for a honeymoon. In fact, I am in the process of planning a destination wedding for this December in the northeastern part of the island. Nusa Dua is going to be your touristy area, a compound of world class hotels. I would avoid Kuta/Legein, and either stay in Sanur (laid back beach town) or Jimbaran Bay. You could easily split up the beach time with a couple of days in Ubud.

Good luck!

IceTrojan

Another vote for 5 days being too much for Hanoi, especially at the fast clip OP went in Istanbul. I would throw in 1-2 days in Da Nang. The Hyatt in Da Nang is also great, but the Intercontinental does have its own lounge at DAD.

airsupply

We have visited Hanoi in early June. We were pretty lucky with the weather, never about 95 degrees and it only rained twice, both times pretty quick thunderstorms. Both Sapa and Nimh Binh area were easy trips and much cooler.
The flight from Hanoi to Bali is more than 7 hours so I would stay with one country or look at nearby options.
Another option is to fly to SIN and hop on quick flight to Yogyakarta and then Bali or Bali and the beaches.

in2it54

If staying in Vietnam for your leisure/beach experience comes into calculation, have a look at Phu Quoc Island.
It has hotels and resorts on the beach, lots of seafood, markets and very little to do, but to lay around and relax.

Zinc_Saucier

Thanks for all the replies, and sorry for not responding sooner, I'd been checking to see when this post was approved, but stopped checking after several days.

Anyway, thanks again for all the info and advice. We have 13 days to explore, and are thinking that since we don't get to take many long trips we wanted to explore more than one country. I certainly understand that we wont be able to explore all that Bali has to offer in 6-7 days, but hopefully we'd be able to hit a lot of the highlights.

Thanks, the student guide is a great recommendation. Finding the local spots and learning more about the culture is right at the top of our list of to-do's. ^

Thanks, I think we'll be revising our plans to re-allocate more time in Bali and less in Hanoi (and throw in a visit to Ha Long Bay

Daawgon

I far prefer Hoi An to a cruise in Halong Bay, and I'm also a big fan of Hanoi city itself, but I would not pack too much into a very short visit to Vietnam.

I've also been to Istanbul, and the advantage there is that all of those points of interest are close together, and transport between them is very easy. In Vietnam the opposite is true - for instance, the trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay is 4 hours one way on the road.

I recommend one or the other - If you like interesting cities and people watching then go to Hanoi. If you like creature comforts and good food/shopping - then Hoi An would be for you. You can fly directly into either Hanoi or Danang (Hoi An is only 45 minutes away).