-
Thanks for all the tips!
I’ll look to book with Jadesails for our December trip as we only want to do a day cruise. We are planning to head straight from Ha Long Bay to Ninh Binh after the cruise – is it be easy enough to find a driver at the dock or would you recommend pre-booking with someone?
This is exactly what I’m doing.
I have a provisional booking with a guy recommended on Tripadvisor:
https://ninhbinhpuluongtours.wordpress.com/tour-services/Tuan Chau to Ninh Binh – $85 – 3.5 hours. Private car.
We’re also doing some tours around Ninh Binh with him for a couple of days and then getting a private car transfer to Hanoi ($60)In the end, I booked a couple of tickets on a so called ‘luxury VIP limousine van’.
It was essentially one of those airport Mercedes people carriers that you often see (but some other manufacturer), with fewer but larger seats.
Cost around £11 pp from across the road from the Jadesails boat, at some place called ‘Mojito Station’.
Book it on 12go asia.
You an specify a number of drop off places in Tam Coc or elsewhere in Ninh Binh.
Journey time was just over 3 hours, non stop. Let the driver know in advance if you need a toilet break.
He may also agree to drop you directly at your accommodation so long as it isn’t too far from one of the official drop off places in town.
They will officially accept 1 large suitcase pp, but didn’t seem to mind taking an additional cabin size bag too.Cost us about £21 total for the 2 of us. This compared very nicely with the $85 USD quote for a private transfer.
I don’t think the van was any slower than a private car.I’m trying to put together a central Vietnam itinerary for wife, 6-year-old son, and me for next year and wanting to go to Hue, Danang, and then Hoi An in that order.
Unfortunately, I can’t find suitable flights that would allow to get us into Hue airport, so looking to go to Danang and then take a taxi/private transfer to Hue.
The only viable flight options for us for Danang though get in at 17:20 or 20:30.
Are there any issues with travelling from DAD to Hue city into the evening/night? I’ve seen conflicting reports on how long this drive would take (e.g., anywhere from 2-4 hours) and the road conditions.
Basically, is this a modern and safe route (so nothing for us to worry about for booking a transfer upon arriving in Danang) or should I be rethinking these plans?
Hi @Aston100
Thanks for the limo tip. Seeing as there are four of us anyway, we may opt for the private transfer direct to our hotel in Ninh Binh (currently thinking we will stay at Tam Coc Horizon Bungalow)
How was the day trip with JadeSails? Would you recommend it?
Hi @Aston100
How was the day trip with JadeSails? Would you recommend it?
Definitely, though the number of off-boat activities are limited. However, we saw very few other boats as we were on Lan Ha Bay
We travelled from Hue to Hoi An last November and used the limo bus and would definitely recommend. Also used it to travel from Hanoi to Sapa. Can book either through hotel, small travel kiosks (everywhere in Hanoi) or 12GoAsia. We also used Grab a lot, which was very cheap and reliable. We spent 3 months travelling throughout SE Asia and found 12GoAsia brilliant for looking at travel options and making bookings. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think we’d have been able to book train tickets from Vientiane to Luang Prabang.
We used Vietnam Airlines a number of times for domestic and inter Asia flights. A lot are tag flights, so can often be late, especially towards the end of the day. It was also rather odd to find passengers getting to the door of the plane to disembark with all their hand luggage to find they wanted the next stop! Chaos ensued which made planes even later. We found that internal flight prices didn’t change very much even closer to departure unless there was some kind of event/festival taking place, so made last minute bookings. The rain was so bad in November that we cancelled hotels along the coast and spent more time at Sapa which was really worth it. Definitely paid to be flexible.
A question about weather and advisbility of visiting Hue & Hoi An in November & wet season. I have seen variable info about the conditions and likelihood of the rain having an impact. On one hand the tour agencies seem to generally say “you may get a bit of rain but it will be fine and most travellers enjoy it” – we can cope with that! On the other hand some guidebooks and websites warn about road and trains being cut off, and Hoi An not infrequently have knee- and waist-high flooding. This sounds less fun!
We have a 5 week trip going to Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos, so can easily find things to do elsewhere if we dont visit the central region, but it would be a shame to miss it due to being over cautious.
Anyone have any experience of travelling at that time? (Notwithstanding you cant predict weather!)
TIA
A question about weather and advisbility of visiting Hue & Hoi An in November & wet season. I have seen variable info about the conditions and likelihood of the rain having an impact. On one hand the tour agencies seem to generally say “you may get a bit of rain but it will be fine and most travellers enjoy it” – we can cope with that! On the other hand some guidebooks and websites warn about road and trains being cut off, and Hoi An not infrequently have knee- and waist-high flooding. This sounds less fun!
We have a 5 week trip going to Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos, so can easily find things to do elsewhere if we dont visit the central region, but it would be a shame to miss it due to being over cautious.
Anyone have any experience of travelling at that time? (Notwithstanding you cant predict weather!)
TIA
Me and my son, did a month tour of Thailand and Vietnam 9 years ago, in November, I can appreciate that the climate has changed since my trip, but we traveled to Hue & Hoi An, on the overnight train from Hanoi, we took a day trip and duplicated a classic a top gear, by riding motorbikes over the Hai Van Pass (I would thoroughly recommend this, booked through a company) we experienced a few light showers, but nothing more.
We will be returning Q4 2025 for a grand tour of SEA, for several months, so I will also need to brush up on the weather in certain areas?
I normally find live web cams, for a destination I am interested in, (like the one’s in Times Square NY) to get a true unvarnished clearer picture of the weather, but I can appreciate you don’t have a year preview, as you are traveling in around 3 months.
There may be other posters on here that have visited that time of the year, recently that could give you a clearer picture.
Good choice of destination, have a great time!
So we have decided to do a few days in Hue & Hoi An
However a couple of further questions for the Vietnam fans….
HCMC: any advice/views on District 1 vs District 3 as places to stay? We are there for 3 nights, will be doing the tunnels 1 day, and probably self guiding around the sites the other day. We also dont have any particular hotel status/points (apart from GHA, but their hotel looks a bit far out from things) so arent needing to focus on redeeming points etc.
Also, we are flying into Hanoi from Laos ~8pm. It looks like I can buy fast-track through Barclays Premier for ~£25ea. Any experience of fast-track entry at Hanoi? Does it make the whole process quicker?
We are in Vietnam in January. I was wondering about staying on during Tet, rather than moving on to Cambodia. Has anyone been during the celebrations? We would probably be in HCMC.
Hi again @Aston100
Not long now before our trip!
A question came to mind – we will check out of Hanoi and drive to Ha Long for a day cruise and then around 5pm drive from there to Ninh Binh – similar to your itinerary. What did you do with your luggage? Did you load it all onto the cruise and off again? Or store it somewhere?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
