Hi - I am actively planning a 2 week solo trip to North Vietnam in early November- super excited, and thrilled to read the experience of other fellow travellers on this forum. Thanks, Chris, for your detailed posts on your Vietnam experiences- so fun to read and they certainly made me very much excited to visit.
Here is my rough itinerary so far, I'd love to get some suggestions on this, and perhaps help me plan this out a bit better! So please let me know what you all think. Will appreciate all your suggestions, and thank you all, in advance.
Arrive into Hanoi, stay in the Hoan Kiem Lake area. 3 Nights.
Private Car to Mai Chau- 2 nights stay? where?
Return to Hanoi for Ha Long Bay tour (2 nights, 1 days tour) or should I do the Lan Ha Bay tour? How do I get from Mai Chau to Halong Bay?
Fly to Hoi An for 5 nights. Day trip to Hue, Marble mountains/My Son etc.
Fly back to Hanoi, overnight stay
Travel back to the US.
Posted by
DinHo Ecotour (Mekong Delta, Vietnam)
32 posts
How do I get from Mai Chau to Halong Bay?
It is a long car drive.
Fly to Hoi An for 5 nights. Day trip to Hue, Marble mountains/My Son etc.
Hue deserves more than a day trip so you can consider staying 1 or 2 nights there (You can fly to Hanoi from either Danang or Hue).
Having said that Oct/ Nov is the flood and typhoon season in the Central part of Vietnam.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you! It would make sense to fly to Hoi An from Hanoi and spend more time there. So you're suggesting not doing Mai Chau/Ha Long Bay at all?
Posted by
583 posts
Glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to DM w specific questions.
Posted by
DinHo Ecotour (Mekong Delta, Vietnam)
32 posts
“So you're suggesting not doing Mai Chau/Ha Long Bay at all?”
Both Mai Chau and Halong Bay are worth a visit (Back Hanoi for a connecting bus between the two or do directly by private car or even add one more place, Ninh Binh in between, also do easily by bus).
It is your call!
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you!
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
130 posts
We were in Vietnam late March through late April 2023. We loved our time in Hoi An and from there we went by private transfer to Hue, definitely worth a couple of nights and then by private again to Phong Nha which we would also recommend. We only spent a few hours in DaNang but wished we had spent a bit more time there, it’s easy to do as a day trip from Hoi An. We spent 2 nights in Cat Ba/Ha Long Bay and it was very disappointing, we whisked that we had added the time to Tam Coc/Ninh Binh and Hanoi. Hanoi is definitely worth 4/5 nights.