What an amazing trip that was! We combined Vietnam & Cambodia. We took 2.5 weeks off and since we were travelling all the way to Vietnam we thought of visiting Angkor Temples too. Since we only went for the temples we stayed in Cambodia less than 48 hours. For us, it was enough but if you want to see more of Cambodia consider staying more. Have in mind that Angkor temples require much walking so your legs might be tired the day after. We started from the northern part of Vietnam and then we crossed it all the way to the south. For sure, in 2.5 weeks we couldn’t cover everything in Vietnam but we believe we made a good selection of places. In one sentence summary, in 2.5 weeks we landed in Hanoi and then we visited Sapa, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, then we got a flight to Siem Reap to see the Angkor temples and from there we landed in Ho Chi Minh and we also visited Mekong Delta which is close to Ho Chi Minh.
There are so many options for accommodation, it really depends on how you would like to live the experience. We chose hotels, because I (Daphne here) am a bit picky and it was my first trip outside Europe, so I wasn’t feeling very comfortable to stay in hostels and homestays. I got a bit jealous of others though and I promised myself that next time we will spend some night in homestays, to get to know the locals better and understand their culture better. But to be honest, 4 star hotels in Vietnam and Cambodia are cheap and they are great value for money, so in 2-3 places we spoiled ourselves, for the rest we
In summary where we stayed:
Hanoi: Hanoi Babylon Garden Hotel & Spa. Its location worked great for us, only 5 minutes walk from Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square. We don’t really remember price/ night but it’s a 4 stars hotel with very polite staff.
Halong Bay: We booked a 2-nights trip with Vega travel. We spent the first night on the boat and we had booked one of the two suits, which means double bed and a slightly bigger room. The second night was in a hotel Vega travel had booked, very decent.
Sapa: Phuong Nam Hotel, 2 star-hotel. We booked the room with a view to the mountains. A bit old building but very decent room.
Hue: Cherish Hotel. It’s a 4 star hotel and voluntarily they upgraded our room, hurray! The room was spacious and clean but the buffet breakfast was even better! The location of the hotel was great for us, about 800m from the popular Trang Tien bridge and 1,5klm from the Meridian gate, the southern main gate, of the Imperial city.
Hoi An: Hoian Central Hotel. It’s a 3 star hotel about 6 minutes walk from the city centre. The breakfast there was lovely served by the pool, the design of the room was great and they also have bikes you can get for free and ride in the city.
Siem Reap: Apsara Residence Hotel. A 4-star hotel in Siem Reap in the city centre, very close to the central market. The design of the hotel was great, we loved our room and the food was really great.
Ho Chi Minh: It was a 2 star hotel and we booked it 2 nights before, when we were in Siem Reap. We were not very satisfied, you can find better options for sure.
Cambodia: Easy process, make sure you have passport photos with you and they will issue your visa once you arrive there.
Vietnam: When we were doing our research before travelling we were not sure what to do, as there are a couple of sites that mention eVisa. We went for the safest option and we chose to go to the Vietnamese embassy and issue our visa. We got the 2 entries visa since we flew to Siem Reap and then back to Vietnam again.
After much research from KK and him studying diagrams of rain in Vietnam we decided to go mid October. The weather was great, not too hot, no rain at all. It would be good to have some sun cream especially for the face, there is much sightseeing so you definitely need it. If you travel to the north don’t forget to take pack some long sleeve shirts, it gets quite chilly in Sapa and a waterproof thin jacket just in case. October and November are great months, dry days and in the most part of the country the temperature averages in 20 Celsius degrees. If you prefer cooler temperate winter is for you. You can even get snow in Sapa mountains. In Central Vietnam, the monsoon season ends in December and the temperature is between 15 and 25 degrees and in the south, the wet season ends in early November and you’ll find similarly warm weather there too. In Spring (March & April) it gets warmer but expect rain and high levels of humidity. Summer in Vietnam is very popular, while it gets very hot in the central of the country, south and north are in the midst of the rainy season.
Even during hot months locals cover their bodies, even their palms, they are not big fans of sun.
There is a risk that your phone won’t have signal after a few days in Vietnam and due to roaming, it’s better to get a local SIM card. We got ours at the arrivals in Hanoi airport. Be mindful that there are unofficial kiosks which would be good to avoid buying from there is high risk they are selling SIM cards registered to others. You can check who your SIM card is registered to by texting TTTB to 1414. Try to do that while you are still at the kiosk. The message you will receive will be in Vietnamese but all you have to check is the name and, birth date and passport details mentioned. If it has your name then it’s fine. The SIM card costs about 2 euros with no credit loaded. We compared different packages and we got the one that had the most data, 15GB valid for 30 days costed us about 9 euros. We got a Viettel card which proved to have great coverage everywhere we visited. Just be careful, your device has to be unlocked in order for the SIM card to work.
The 2.5 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, along with flights (London to Hanoi, Da Nang to Siem Reap, Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh and Ho Chi Minh to London), hotels, train tickets and everything we spent there, it costed us about 1,300 euros each. Vietnam is very low budget destination, almost half of the money went to our flights and have in mind that if you choose to stay in homestays the budget can go down by a lot.
We were using our Monzo card all the time. Monzo is very handy as we had the app for any update on our spend and currency exchange. We also got some cash from the cash withdraw machines from our Monzo card and that’s it. Some of the hotels we had booked before travelling we used our credit card and everything was fine.
Flight tickets
London – Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh – London
We travelled with Thai Airways via Bangok from London Heathrow. Very comfortable seats and nice food. We really enjoyed our flight.
Da Nang – Siem Reap & Siem Reap – Ho Chi Minh
We used Vietnam Airlines and we flew with a very small plane. There is no cabin crew service, as the flight is short but overall we were satisfied with the flight.
Train Tickets
We booked all of our train tickets via https://www.baolau.com/en. We would advise you to book your train tickets in advance if you have mapped out your trip, especially if you’d like to travel 1st class where there are not that many seats as in standard class. You will receive your tickets in an email. You don’t need to print anything out, we had our tickets on our phones and they were just checking them from there.
Clothes
We visited Vietnam and Cambodia in October, fall season when there is a possibility of rain, so here is the list of the must-have pieces. Raincoat, the first thing we packed. In fall, the temperatures are quite high so a thin raincoat was ideal. The first parameter when we choose our clothes is comfort. So we mostly packed sports clothes, many dry fit t-shirts, shorts for KK, shorts and leggings for me, one hoodie (that we never used) and a few long sleeve shirts that were useful, especially in Sapa. Sapa can get quite chilly at night or early in the morning when you start your trekking. So layering is important and more practical than a thick hoodie.. Trainers are a must because of the many, many, many kilometres of walking. Make sure your shoes are comfortable, they are more like a valuable equipment. We don’t think there is a need of trekking shoes, there are roads in Sapa so you trainers will be enough, just get ready to get muddy. Swimsuit of course! You will need it if you go to Halong Bay and most of the hotels have swimming pool, so why not? Thin long pants would also be a good idea, they were very comfy when it was warm and we were sightseeing.
Extras
A 60L backpack for each was enough for us. We were changing place every 1 or 2 nights so we had lightweight travel backpacks. Make sure you have something that is easy to carry, a typical suitcase with wheels would not be an ideal option, but up to you really, it depends on the type of trip you plan on doing. We also had small backpacks for our essentials when sightseeing or wandering around.
Mosquito Repellent cream could be proved useful. We needed it in Halong Bay but depending on the season you are visiting you might need it in more places.
Sun cream is something you should definitely have with you. The weather was warm and the sun was shining in most cases so take care of your skin and put some sun cream.