Vietnam Travel Notes

I haven't been to Vietnam yet so these are notes from a friend.

Her comments: I loved Ha Long Bay.  Hanoi was cool, but not my favorite.  Others really enjoyed Ho Chi Minh City-

SD

Day 1-

Hotel: Hanoi Elegance Emerald Hotel

http://eleganceemeraldhotel.com/

Was only a 2 or 3 star hotel, but comfortable, nice, clean room and AMAZING customer service

Sightseeing tour in the afternoon.  Included:

Temple of Literature, Cyclo tour of Old Quarter, Lacquerware studio, Ngoc Son Temple

At night saw the Water Puppet show, which was a real highlight of our trip

We didn’t see, but other local highlights include:

Masion Centrale/Hanoi Hilton – the Prison where John McCain was held. It’s small so won’t take long to visit but worth it.

Ho Chi Minh’s mauseloeom – I think if you want to go in the mauseleeom, itself you have to get there early or book in advance but you can still see his house and gardens without booking.

Vietnamese Women’s museum – this is quite interesting as gives you an understanding of how many of the Vietnamese live

Day 2 & 3:

Halong Bay – Paradise Cruises. http://paradisevietnam.com/ They organize your transport and then take you over to Halong Bay. It is quite a long journey, 3 -4 hours.  You arrive and get on these gorgeous boats with beautiful bedrooms. Our food was amazing and the staff were so nice.  We only did one night, but I wish we had done 2 nights instead as one night felt rushed

Spent additional time in the afternoon on the 3^rd day wandering the Old Quarter.

Important Things to Remember:

·         Requires visa for US citizens

·         Currency – if you take USD then would be good to have small denominations as they will probably give you your change back in Vietnamese Dong and you’ll end up with tons of currency that you may never use again!