The Sofitel metropole might be my favorite hotel in the world. I’d stay there in Hanoi.
After looking at flight and other options, I think my itinerary looks sort of like this:
April 8-arriving in HCMC in the evening.
April 9, 10, 11 in HCMC. I figure we’ll be pretty wiped out on the 9th from travelling on the 8th, but can knock out some of the sites. We’ll get a car and driver to go to Bien Hoa on the 10 so my Dad can drive by the airbase, then see more sites on the 10 and 11th. Fly to Phu Quoc on the evening of the 11th.
April 12 and 13 on the beach in Phu Quoc
April 14-fly from Phu Quoc to HCMC then to Siem Reap arriving in the early evening
April 15-16 in Angkor Wat-fly to Hanoi the evening of the 16th
April 17-21 in Hanoi with an overnight cruise to Halong Bay on the 19-20
Comments and suggestions are very much appreciated. The insights people have already provided have been extremely helpful.
Nice itinerary Craig. We’ll be there at the same time as you. Arrive HCMC in the morning on the 8th. Leave Hanoi on the 20th.
We are staying at the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi.
Does anybody have any food/restaurant tips for Hanoi and Hoi An?
I can’t recall the name of the restaurant(might be morning glory), but in Hoi An along the river there is restaurant that specialized in the little glutenous rice cakes with minced shrimp and fried shallots. Really good spot. When I was there, they were floating lanterns down the river. Pretty magical.
Phu Quoc is great. Eat a lot of crab in green pepper. Buy white and black peppercorns to take home. They produce really high quality fish sauce there as well.
Just returned from 3 nights in Saigon. As always a very interesting city that is rapidly changing. I highly recommend the half day tour with Tim Doling if you have any interest in the rich and turbulent history of Saigon.
Street Food tours in Hanoi are great fun.
We spent a day with Diem Kieu last year touring the delta. Was a terrific experience.
Sapa was my favorite place, Hanoi second and do not expect any good wines:) Enjoy, it is a beautiful country.
The restaurant in Hoi An is 100% called Morning Glory. I love that place.
There’s actually a pretty active wine culture there, with some serious collectors and a few nice wine stores. You can find quality french wine in particular, though prices vary wildly. There’s no Riesling to speak of, which is too bad considering how well it goes with the food. There are even some decent wine bars in Saigon now.
Going there for my honeymoon at the end of May.
Very helpful thread!
I went last summer. It was amazing. Blazing hot, especially in Hoi An (which I highly recommend). Everyone else’s recommendations of flying and NOT renting a car are spot on. Traffic is insane. And fun. 
Have a great time!
Fun note - In Hoi An, the pool at our hotel was so hot that I’ve taken colder baths. They evidently put huge blocks of ice in the pools during the day to cool it down for guests. So when I say, I mean dripping sweat every second hot as you walk around!
We just got back on Friday from our 2 weeks in Vietnam. Thanks for all the info people shared in this thread. I’ll share some highlights.
First, our outbound flight was on Cathay Pacific in first class. Awesome. After 14 1/2 hours on the plane, we did not want to leave. Between the bottomless Krug, the comfy seats/beds, the remarkable service and the food, it made for a spectacular experience. We are ruined for life for air travel, as evidenced by the fact that our return flight on Singapore in first class paled in comparison.
We were only in Saigon for 24 hours, but our scooter/street food tour with XO tours (XO Tours is voted #1 Vietnam Food Tour by Forbes Magazine!) was a great way to see the city, get our feet wet with the infamous Vietnam traffic and eat some great food. Highly recommended.
From there is was off to Hoi An, where we stayed at the Royal Hoi An Hotel. It’s relatively new and had lovely rooms/service and location. Hoi An was indeed very touristy and there was a consistent “badgering” by folks wanting to sell you something, but it was easily dealt with and none were unpleasant. Despite the touristy nature of Hoi An, it is beautiful and definitely worth a visit. The bành mi at Bánh Mỳ Phượng lived up to the hype and the cau lau we had (at several places) was great.
We then went to Hanoi, where we stayed at the Sofitel Metropole Hotel. Great old school, elegant hotel with fantastic service. I think I agree with Ryan Curry that this may be our favorite hotel ever. The French restaurant has a great reputation, but we found it exceedingly mediocre and overpriced. A highlight was our street food tour with Tú of www.hanoistreetfoodtour.com/. It was a great way to get introduced to the Old Quarter and to get some tips on how to navigate all the street food options in Hanoi. Again, highly recommended. Some street food highlights include Cafe Dinh for coffee, Phở Sướng for phở and a couple of places for bún chả include a place on 24 Hàng Than and a place on 1 Hàng Mành, and bánh cuốn nóng (a rice crepe filled with chicken and mushrooms, topped with herbs and the ubiquitous crispy shallots) at Bánh cuốn nóng Quang An,72 Hàng Bồ. Hanoi is a beautiful city and certainly ranks up there among the great cities in the world despite (maybe because of?) all the noise, traffic, chaos. It’s a remarkable place that is difficult to describe.
Our Ha Long Bay cruise was with Indochina Junk. They are not the cheapest of the bunch but we had great food, and a great guide and they concentrate the trip on Bai Tu Long Bay, which is much less busy than Ha Long Bay proper.
We fell in love with Vietnam and the Vietnamese people and will definitely return. The traffic was awesomely entertaining and crossing the street was more an art than a genuine challenge. What an amazing country…
Thanks again to all who shared their thoughts here. It was very helpful. I can’t recommend enough a visit to Vietnam.
Todd: Your trip seemed fantastic and your FB pictures were stunning! We are hoping to go in the future and we will definitely be in touch!
Cheers!
Marshall ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Good to to hear you had a great trip and enjoyed the street food tours.
Like Todd, we also just got back. I’m trying to recover from jet lag, but I’ll post my thoughts anyway.
We spent three days in HCMC, staying at the Nikko. It is nice and modern and typical of Nikkos, but is a bit away from downtown/District 1; about a ten minute cab ride for about 2 bucks. We did a street food tour there, which was interesting from a food perspective and took us into a local neighborhood. We also spent a day on a Mekong River tour which was not what I expected. It took us out into local villages and markets. The isolation and poverty was astonishing to us sheltered Americans. We spent a day walking the central area visiting the Cathedral, Reunification Palace, and some of the wartime hotels. HCMC is busy. The streets there and in Hanoi are amazing. As people indicated, just just put your head down and cross the street and hope everyone steers around you.
We spent a couple of days on the beach in Phu Quoc. There is a tremendous amount of development and a corresponding amount of trash. We stayed at Mai House on the beach. It was nice and relaxing, but there isn’t much to do there except sit on the beach and rest.
We spent two days in Siem Reap visiting Angkor Wat and other temples. We had a guide and a van to take us around. I have mixed feelings about it. Angkor Wat itself is astonishing (and huge). But two days in the temples was a bit much as they tend to be similar. My dad said that Cambodia was like Vietnam fifty years ago. And it was about 105 degrees by noon each day.
In Hanoi, we stayed at the Essence d’Orient in the Old Quarter. The city was interesting and fairly easy to walk around. We went to the Army museum, the revolutionary museum, and the history museum. They need to invest a bit in updating and organizing the materials. It is disorganized and clumsy propoganda for the most part. We went to Halong Bay with Paradise Cruises for a two day/one night cruise. The boat and staff were great. The trip was a bit short and it was cloudy/rainy while we were there.
My parents had a great time and my dad found it meaningful, so I’m glad we did it. Having done it once, I don’t think I feel a pressing need to go again. As Todd pointed out, the people were all friendly and great to deal with.
Todd and Craig: Glad you both liked it. I’m sitting here right now working on my next Vietnam trip. It’s addicting. Next time I’ve got to try and ferret out some wine action. There were some threads on eBob a couple years ago about a tasting group in HCMC. On my last trip I noticed a few new wine bars.
The XO tour in Saigon was a definite hit with my group in January. An excellent way to see the city and lots of entertainment for a half-day tour. Next time I will try the foodie tour.
Thanks for the notes.
Great notes Todd and Craig. The only differences is we lived Angor Wat, didn’t see the temples as similar even after 4 days. We will be returning to Siem Reap for more!
yep 2 days is the max. One day would even be okay.