Help with trip to Vietnam in February

L

leeg

Dryer sheet wannabe
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
23
Wife and I, along with another couple, have signed on for a Road Scholar trip to Vietnam next year. The trip is titled "Angkor Wat & the Mekong River: The Wonders of Cambodia & Vietnam." It starts in Siem Reap and ends in Ho Chi Minh city, and includes seven nights on a Mekong riverboat cruise.

However, I have issues with this trip :)

First, we live in Boston, and I hate flying coach. I have back pain issues, and nothing triggers them like an airplane seat. We flew London to Boston recently, and even a Premium Economy seat was too much for me. Such are the vicissitudes of aging, I guess. I need to sleep to be able to tolerate a long plane flight. My wife, on the other hand, seems to be able to fly coach without any discomfort. Go figure.

I'll spend whatever I have to to fly business class on a trip like this, children's inheritance be damned. :)

But, I'm not sure how best to do this. Boston - Honolulu with a couple of days stay over in Honolulu? Boston to Honolulu is an approx. 12 hour flight (ouch!). And then Honolulu to Vietnam is another 11 flight hours. 21 hours total.

Boston to Vietnam via Hong Kong is around 19 hours travel time.

I was thinking of going east, and Boston to Vienna is 8 hours, Vienna to Saigon another 14 hours. 22 hours total .....

Wow, this is going to be hard for me.

Would appreciate any advice on how best to handle this trip.
 
We live in the west. We have done 5 snowbird trips to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia.

It is a long flight. More often than not we fly to a west coast hub first. SEA, or SFO, or YYR. After that it could be with a stop in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Teipei, or Soeul. Flights are 10 hours and then another 8 hours or so, give or take, depending on departure and arrival airport.

No question it is long. We do it in economy. Last time we did SFO to Singapore 17.5 hours. We booked lay down seats in business. As to airlines. We prefer Korean Air or Delta....we avoid United if possible though Singapore was on United. Korean has been by far our best flight experience of the lot.

We went into Vietnam via land from Cambodia. Spent time on Phu Quok and then another 3.5 weeks travelling independently to Hanoi. My spouse loved it . We obtained our 30 day Vietnam visa while staying in Siem Reap. A TA in Siem Reap arranged it. Sent our passports of to Batambang. Had them back in 48hours.
 
Last edited:
How about Turkish Airlines or Qatar with a stopover in Istanbul or Doha. Both airlines have one stop flights with a connection to SGN. We flew SEA IST OPO earlier this year, spent the night at an airside hotel, and woke up refreshed and ready to go for our flight to Porto. Flying from Seattle to Sri Lanka next march and are spending the night in Doha.

Both airlines have free stopover programs on cash flights. Qatar's Q Suits are some of the best in the business and Turkish business class on their newer planes is very nice. We're sitting in a SEA lounge right now getting ready to board an A350-900. We like the product.

I prefer eastbound travel for sleeping, leaving the U.S. in the evening, I can get to sleep pretty easily. Highly recommend you arrive in SGN at least a few days early to adjust to the time change. HMC is a fascinating city and pretty easy to explore.
 
Last edited:
We did a similar trip last year. We flew from Atlanta on Qatar airways to Doha (13 hrs! spent a night in Doha airport (there's a hotel inside the secure area of the airport - Oryx airport hotel - so no immigration worries, or taxi back and forth to the airport), then Doha to Bangkok (6 1/2 hrs) on Qatar. The Qatar airways flights were business class Q suites. Great service and reasonable cost. We flew economy from Bangkok to Siem Reap on Bangkok airways (a 1 hr 10 min direct flight). Stayed at the Shinta Mani hotel in Siem Reap - a really nice hotel with a great breakfast included if you arrive early before your trip starts.
 
Our experience with time zones and air traffic? We typically arrive in Bangkok, etc at around 11-12PM. One hour or less to get through customs, an hour to get to hotel, check in, unpack. Then sleep until 9:30 AM or so.

Next day we have a good breakfast and are ready to go. No time zone or flight issues.

Returning home? A nightmare. Up in the middle of the night for at least a few days. Same for the last five trips.

IF you are apply for or need a Vietnam visa be very careful when entering the dates. Be mindful of entering the date that you plan to enter Vietnam. Visa for Cambodia is simple. You can get it at Siem Reap airport when you arrive. Takes all of 20 minutes.
 
I like going through Taipei when flying to SE Asia. It’s the quickest way from Seattle and there are now three airlines that fly non-stop to Taipei.

You could also fly non-stop to Singapore, but that’s a long flight and you’d have to backtrack to Vietnam.

But from Boston, it could make sense going through the middle east, either Dubai or Doha.
 
The Tet holiday is Jan 28 - Feb 3 next year. I had the fortune to be in HCM City during the Tet 8 years ago. It was an amazing experience to be a part of. However, be aware everything will be closed during the holiday. Only place I could eat was in the hotel I was staying, and even then, the hotel had the bare minimum staff working.
 
Our one regret about going to Vietnam (in Feb).......spending one month instead of six weeks. Weather was perfect. People were incredibly friendly.

We started in Phu Quok. Ended in Hanoi. We never got to Sapa. Next time!

Be sure and hire some private, independent guides.

We want to return......our feeling is that Vietnam is changing very quickly. If we go to Thailand this winter DW wants to skip Malaysia and spend time in Vietnam. And she was hesitant to go in the first place.
 
Last edited:
brett said:
Our one regret about going to Vietnam (in Feb).......spending one month instead of six weeks. Weather was perfect. People were incredibly friendly.

We started in Phu Quok. Ended in Hanoi. We never got to Sapa. Next time!

Be sure and hire some private, independent guides.

We want to return......our feeling is that Vietnam is changing very quickly. If we go to Thailand this winter DW wants to skip Malaysia and spend time in Vietnam. And she was hesitant to go in the first place.
Click to expand...
I'm excited to read these reports on experiences and logistics for Vietnam.

This is a trip I'm starting to plan, where my better-half has no interest in joining. Hoping to use Vietnam as a starting point to explore Cambodia and Laos, but I might just stick to Vietnam for a solo 2-3 week trip.
 
We flew in to Siem Reap from Bangkok. After that Phon Penh and Kampot.

We hired a private guide in Siem Reap for 1.5 days. Phon Penh and Kampot were fine but Siem Reap was the highlight. We would not bother with the other two IF we were on a tight schedule.

Did not get to Laos.
 
Wow, just catching up on this post, which I started. Thank you all for these great (and many) ideas!
 
I lived in Asia for 6 years and did the trip back to NY at least 7 times a year. Thankfully it was business class! In addition to all the great ideas, a thought or two. We liked to get the long leg done first. So NY to Tokyo or NY to Frankfurt (depends which was we went.). Look at the Asian Airlines. We found business class was a lot cheaper than the US airlines and the service was better. Favorites were: Singapore Air, Thai Air, Eva (Taiwan - fantastic). Even Vietnam Air was pretty good. Avoid China airlines. You may find a good deal and have the opportunity to take a long layover and explore a new city.
 
tpkinsl said:
I lived in Asia for 6 years and did the trip back to NY at least 7 times a year. Thankfully it was business class! In addition to all the great ideas, a thought or two. We liked to get the long leg done first. So NY to Tokyo or NY to Frankfurt (depends which was we went.). Look at the Asian Airlines. We found business class was a lot cheaper than the US airlines and the service was better. Favorites were: Singapore Air, Thai Air, Eva (Taiwan - fantastic). Even Vietnam Air was pretty good. Avoid China airlines. You may find a good deal and have the opportunity to take a long layover and explore a new city.
Click to expand...
After six snowbird trips....we absolutely avoid United/ANA. Delta so so. We will take a Korean Air or Singapore Air offer in a heartbeat. Much better service, on the ground and in flight.

We have always had a good experince with SE Asia flights...particularly the domestic flights.

Agree. We did one flight on China Airlines. Never again. Second only to the old Alitalia.

Our friends who also snowbird in SE Asia have EVA and Cathay at the top of their list, United/ANA at the bottom. But...they depart from a different NA hub than we do.
 
Last edited:
brett said:
After six snowbird trips....we absolutely avoid United/ANA. Delta so so. We will take a Korean Air or Singapore Air offer in a heartbeat. Much better service, on the ground and in flight.

We have always had a good experince with SE Asia flights...particularly the domestic flights.

Agree. We did one flight on China Airlines. Never again. Second only to the old Alitalia.

Our friends who also snowbird in SE Asia have EVA and Cathay at the top of their list, United/ANA at the bottom. But...they depart from a different NA hub than we do.
Click to expand...
Yikes! Found a China Airlines points/miles flight home from Singapore next April - SIN TPE LAX in business class with a long-ish layover in Taipei. Quick Google searches suggested that the flag carrier of Taiwan was a decent airline. Hope we didn't make a huge mistake but still have a few months to find something better. One of the nice things about points/miles flights, other than being cheaper, is that they often can be cancelled with little penalty.

Also flying Qatar, Air Malaysia, and Air Asia on that trip so it'll be interesting to compare.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Dream Vacation
2
nwsteve
N
C
How much is domestic first class worth to you?
2
CO-guy
C
S
Trusted travel agent
CardsFan
C
anethum
  • Poll
Poll: What will you splurge on when you travel?
2 3
motley
M
F
Allianz insurance emergency.
2
FFC1964
F

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom