maverick17

With respect to crazyinteg's experience, I think he misread that and you do not need a visa for HAN if you are on one ticket and one airline, and possibly even if on separate airlines and two tickets. SGN definitely has a transfer counter, and I believe that in the QR error fare it was established HAN does also. I am just a SGN regular though, not often to HAN, so OP should read that thread, and also the CX or HX one more recently might have first hand reports of transferring in HAN.

Sudin Bhatta

Stay 1 Night in Tam Coc

CrazyInteg

Yeah, I see what you mean. Oops!

EuroFlash, I thought you were saying that you wanted to go landside and were asking if you needed a visa to do that. Both of your flights are international, so you should be okay, but I'm not 100% sure.

EuroFlash

No worries, I should've written it more clear Thank you!
Anyone having experience transiting in Hanoi? (International to International)

jimmathin

Have you completed this trip yet? How did it go? I'm in the same boat and, although my second entry will just be going to Phu Quoc which is visa-free, I figured I'd play it safe by getting a second visa anyway since I have to go through SGN to get to PQC. So basically I'll just be getting 2 visas with the 2nd entry date being 20 days after the entry date of the first entry date.

whitethunder

Yeah it went fine I had used one evisa on first trip and the second one on second trip a week later and had no issues, piece of cake!!

golfingboy

We will be spending a week in Vietnam during the first week of October (hopefully not a bad time of the year weather-wise) arriving in DAD in the evening then most likely depart SGN exactly a week later in the morning.

I know one week does not do Vietnam justice, but we booked the CX New Year fare with a 36 hour turn in NYC. With the time limit I figure best to focus on the northern part of Vietnam and I want to bounce off some ideas on an itinerary.

Tuesday - Arrive in DAD; spend the night in the city
Wednesday/Thursday - Hoi An and An Bang Beach
Friday - Fly to Hanoi in the morning
Saturday - Hanoi
Sunday/Monday - Ha Long Bay spending one night on a cruise

Fly from Cat Bi to SGN Monday evening after disembarking from the cruise and book a hotel near SGN.

One possible tweak is to fly up to Hanoi Thursday evening after spending a day at the beach, but I figure we'd probably be icky.

Thoughts? The other spot I am interested in was Hue but I am not sure if time permits.

hxhbk

In general, I think your plan is a good one. I would not squeeze in Hue because of your schedule.
IIRC, the overnight Ha Long bay cruise typically ends around noon time. I have never flown out of Cat Bi so I don't know how long it takes to get from Ha Long cruise terminal to the airport. So you probably should time your departure flight from Cat Bi to avoid any un-necessary dead time between the end of the cruise and your flight boarding time, or plan for some activities to fill the time.

golfingboy

I am looking into Orchid Cruise and looks like they depart from Hai Phong so much closer to Cat Bi, but from Halong Bay its about an hour drive, so we probably will aim for 3-4pm departure.

NYTA

We did the Orchid cruise last October and it was great.

eneq

Hello! My partner and I are going to be spending 8 days in Vietnam at the end of July. Right now, our plan is to split our time evenly between the north and south. I know its probably not the best idea with our limited time, but we both want to see Hanoi and HCMC. Having said that, would this example itinerary be too much for such short time?

Days 1-3: Hanoi
Days 4-5: Ha Long/Cat Ba Island
Days 6-8: HCMC.

I want to just split our time between Hanoi and HCMC, but she would like to spend some time in Ha Long doing some outdoorsy things. Still, I don't want this to be a rushed trip. Unfortunately, our trip has to end in HCMC because she's already booked her flight out of Vietnam from SGN. Any recommendations or insights are greatly appreciated!

maverick17

This can work fine. Just be aware though that Day 6 in this instance though would pretty much be a travel day, unless you position near the airport on the evening of day 5. Either way, getting from Ha Long area to Saigon, how ever you split it up, will take a good 6 to 7 hours minimum I would say, with roads, airport, delays, and arrival into the city. But I still thing it's a very doable itinerary since you know it's a bit short beforehand.

LHG

maybe it would be worth a change fee to fly out of Hanoi? Go back and see the South another time. Just a thought

kat122

I will be a little bit tired because in 8 days, you travel in hanoi and hcmc with a long flight. But it will be ok
Hope that you have a wonderful trip

CrazyInteg

Looks like all Vietnam threads are just merged into this "master" thread, but I just wanted to update my recommendation to a guy going to Vietnam in August.

It seems like Van Don is not adding many new flights. It's a bit of a let down, been open for 5 months and only flies to a few places. Anyone heard any news about Van Don and their struggle to add new destinations and/or airlines? Any conspiracy about it being a private airport and airlines not wanting to play ball?