I took the night train Hanoi to Hue a couple of years ago - I nice experience and saved a lot of time (you will easily loose half a day or more when flying between Hanoi and Hue).

Nha Trang is a tourist trap IMO. I would stay/visit elsewhere.

Thanks. I was planning to go from HCMC to Nha Trang to Da Nang but I skipped past Nha Trang. I thought about doubling back if the train ride was something spectacular, but from reading elsewhere, it seems like the best views are north of Da Nang, so I might end up skipping Nha Trang entirely.

If I do any train rides, I’d want them to be during daylight hours. Flying into HAN is really that time-consuming?

You underestimate the time used for transfers to/from the airports, check-in time, time wasted waiting at the gate, at the luggage carousels etc.

I’ve been bouncing around SE Asia for a few weeks now with only a carry-on, and I’ve had great luck with flights. A lot of the airports are basically in the city. Hanoi looks like it will be the farthest airport from the city center, so I see your point there.

Hi I'll be in HCMC this Fri and thinking of doing a food / street food tour, do you have any recs for good food guides or agencies? Or any pointers in general for successful pigging out in Saigon? Many thanks.

Backofthebike is good

Booked a 2D/1N on a cruise to Bai Tu Long Bay. This is in mid Feb. How cool temperature-wise does it get seeing how HAN and Halong is in north Vietnam?

As for Nha Trang, have 3 full days there. Staying along the main beac hroad. Read tripadvisor list of things to do. What would you recommend for those days?

I just recommended Street Food Man on another thread - we used them in August and had a fabulous time! We did the walking tour as my husband wouldn't do a motorbike. No worries - still had a blast!! The guide picked us up at our hotel, we took a Grab to the first place, walked from there, then a Grab back to drop us off at the hotel (our hotel was in District 1 and I think most of the places we ate were in 3...)

https://streetfoodman.com/

These of you who live or know Hanoi, what would you recommend for group of three adults who will visit the city for four days at the end of December, inducing New Year Eve and Day?

All of us have been in Vietnam number of times, but not in Hanoi. Interests - street food, architecture, history, how locals live, live music (would be great for NY celebration spot, if possible), nature/parks, interesting, not well known museums or exhibitions.

No interest - propaganda/war museums of any kind, shopping, organized tours with NNN other people and going crowded tourist places.

One of our day will be for Cat Ba NP. For other three days I would be happy to hear suggestions/recommendations - walking routes, sites, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Just one thing to keep in mind...
This forum and other traveller forums generally only talk about the Old Quarter of Hanoi. This is the part with the "culture" or whatever the latest buzzword is. Hanoi is a large city (over 8 million people), and the Old Quarter is just a part of the overall city. Hanoi definitely has modern buildings, large highways, and walkable sidewalks, you just won't find those in the Old Quarter.

An appropriate analogy would be Bangkok. Staying on Khao San Road or Sukhumvit will not give you an overall view of Bangkok, how locals live, history, etc.

I'm looking for a company to book several airport transfers while we are in Vietnam in about a week. Does anyone have any recommendations? Here's the transfers I need (there are only 2 adults traveling):

• HAN to hotel in Old Quarter (one way)
• DAD to Victoria Hoi An Beach Resort (round trip)
• SGN to Le Méridien Saigon (round trip)

Thanks for these recommendations, we went with Backofthebike in the end after a coin toss they both look great. It was a lot of fun, did the motorbike tour and despite being a bit wary of crazy Saigon traffic it felt pretty safe. There was a pretty good green mango salad, some kind of fried pancake dumpling thing with a prawn in the top which you roll up in a leaf with bits and pieces, a quail place you picked off the meat and stuffed into baguettes with optional quail and duck egg balut, a bbq pork and noodles place and dessert place. Great way to spend half a day, will definitely do another one if / when I get back to Saigon.

Vietnam Airline
 

I booked a round trip to Hanoi by vietnam airlines and I misplaced my last name and middle name in wrong order. I contacted airline and they said they accept that passport name is correct. Is that true?

Welcome to Flyertalk.

It's really not for certain. So be prepared for anything. But usually the airlines in Vietnam are more strict with name order for locals and lenient with foreigners. So assuming you're holding a foreign passport you're probably ok. If you have a Viet name or document you might get hassled.

Good luck.

Suggestions for a two-week itinerary.
 

Hi all,

We are looking at a ~2 week trip to Vietnam sometime this summer - probably July. Our itinerary is wide open (to the point we haven't decided where we're even starting the trip), we have a bit of flexibility in length and we're looking for suggestions and ideas. Some information that might help guide:

- We're in our late-30s/early-40s.
- We're looking for cultural, historical and site-seeing activities - especially nature. We are not really into the party scene.
- We're fit, but not athletic (biking around town is great, biking across the country is not).
- At some point we'd like to enjoy a nice quiet beach for 2-3 days.
- Ideally we start or end the trip at a place that has easy access to Siem Reap (we'd like to either go US-Siem Reap-VN-US, or US-VN-Siem Reap-US.)

Any suggestions?