Vibrant Vietnam Adventure

This was my first visit to Vietnam in nearly 20 years and I was so excited to take the kids this time too.

I had booked flights a year in advance so had a great price for economy, but decided at the last minute to check for upgrades at check in, and Qatar had a good deal on, so we treated the kids and ourselves to Business class. I wanted to try out the Q Suite on the LGW to Doh leg and it didn’t disappoint.

Your own little cabin in the sky, with closing doors for ultimate privacy. Which was fun but a little disconcerting as I couldn’t see what the kids were up to. They absolutely loved it of course and I told them both not to get used to it! The Doha to SGN leg was a 777 and even though we didn’t have a Q suite on these, it was still very comfortable indeed and we loved the novelty of sleeping in our lie flat beds. The 777 legs also often have what Qatar calls Comfort +, and here’s a little tip, if flying economy and you want a bit more space, pay the £100 or so extra for these comfort + flights as you get seats which are actually old premium seats, so 38 seat pitch, 2 seats by the window and lots more room in a separate cabin. This I assume is due to these flights being a loaned aircraft from an airline with premium seats as Qatar does not officially have premium seats. You get extra comfort for a fraction of the cost of Premium on other airlines.

We realised on the way to Gatwick, that my daughter had left her contacts at home. This is one of the reasons I use good DMCS. Wide Eyed Tours, who I use as our ground handlers for Vietnam and Cambodia, saved the day by taking our prescription which I had emailed over to a local optician in Ho Chi Minh and on arrival we were taken straight there by our driver and guide and found the contacts ready for us. My daughter was delighted and loved the fact they were shinier than her ones at home!

Despite this detour, we arrived at our hotel refreshed and ready to jump in the pool. We stayed at very centrally located Silverland Ben Thanh Hotel and had a brilliant interconnecting room overlooking a great view of the hustle and bustle.

Ho Chi Minh is an amazing city, a vibrant and crazily brilliant combination of big billboards, beautiful architecture, amazing food, lovely people and fast traffic. Despite the traffic, we found it really walkable and our explored by foot for the first proper day, followed by a fantastic back of the bike food tour in the evening, which I highly recommended. We each had a wonderful lady guide/driver who took us on an culinary adventure, visiting five different food places. All the dishes were amazing and we tried things we probably wouldn’t have known to order.

We next flew to Danang and transferred to nearby Hoi An. Flying within Vietnam is really quick and easy. Domestic flights only need you there roughly an hour before and we were in and out of airports quickly. We stayed at Palm Garden Resort, a beautiful resort, situated on its own stretch of white sand beach, around 10 minutes by car from old Hoi An. Cabs are so cheap and easy to get in Vietnam and only cost around 2 USD to go to the centre, so we opted on a beach stay rather than a city stay here. We didn’t do tours every day in Hoi An as we wanted to relax by the beach for a few days, but we did spend one day on a brilliant tour organized via our DMC, visiting local villages, cruising on coconut boats and making lanterns, and we did visit old Hoi Ann on several occasions to eat in many of the amazing restaurants there. You have to try local specialities including some of the best Banh Mi you’ll ever eat! A special mention has to go to the massage shops near the hotel – I had several for around £3 each and my back thanked me for it!

Next on our itinerary was a flight to Hanoi and two marvellous nights at Tirant Hotel. The hotel was perfect for us, with a two bedroom family suite and roof top bar and pool. The whole building is in French colonial style, which echos Hanoi as a whole. We had a jeep tour booked in Hanoi which took us to all the major sites such as train street, and also the backstreets, the fact it was an old army jeep added to the fun. Sitting watching the train pass while drinking Vietnamese coffee is a must while in Hanoi, and the tour also took us to an army museum, train stations, backstreets where we tried delicacies and sugar cane, and ended up in a fabulous cafe. We went to Beer street in the evening for a quick sundowner before enjoying the Water puppet show which was spectacular.

Next stop on our trip was Ha Long Bay – roughly 2 hours by road from Hanoi. We went soon after some devastating storms where sadly people lost their lives. This did make us a bit apprehensive, but our ground handlers had reassured us that we would not be going if there were storms, and as it turned out we had perfect weather the whole time. Ha Long Bay is known to be a bit touristy, but this doesn’t deter from the beauty of the surroundings. The cruise was also fantastic and we were so well looked after. I don’t think any of us expected a gourmet 5 course dinner as part of this experience, but it turned out we were on a luxury junk cruise, so the meals were sublime and the service on par with a top cruise liner. Al, my husband who went 25 years ago as an impoverished student said this was an altogether different experience to his first time! As well as cruising and stuffing our faces with amazing food, we went canoeing and explored a mountain cave. The views from the ship and these experiences make Hal Lng Bay a must do on any Vietnam itinerary.

We then returned to Hanoi for our flight to Siem Reap. The next location on our itinerary and a new country for me, Cambodia!

More on this part of our adventure on the next blog….