Planning a holiday to Vietnam and Singapore involved 2 countries, 6 flights, 4 hotels and a boat ! Apart from being a GCSE and Prom Princess mum I have been busy booking our family holiday.
An 11 day break involves going to Vietnam and Singapore, flying with Emirates on the new direct route to Ho Chi Minh City, staying at the Park Hyatt hotel and trying all manner of Vietnamese food. Apparently Ho Chi Minh is an amazing culinary destination. We then fly to Hanoi (2 hour flight to the North of the country) and stay at the Sofitel Metropole, taking in water puppet shows, cyclo rides in the old French quarter, the Temple of Literature and a visit to the Museum of Ethnology and walks around the Hoan Kiem lake. A 3 hour car journey takes us to our boat in Halong Bay where we spend 24 hours cruising, kayaking and visiting fishing villages in the Bay. A flight to the center of the country in Danang is our next stop for Hoi An where we stay at the award winning Nam Hai and explore the Unesco world heritage site of Hoi An and include a boat ride on the Tu Bhon river.
A flight to Singapore via Ho Chi Minh (1 and half hours) for the next destination involves of course more food, an incredible zoo, trips to Clarke Quay and drinks on Sentosa island (maybe at the Capela) and some catching up with Ranches friends who now live in Singapore. We chose the Grand Hyatt in Singapore on the strong recommendation from a friend in Dubai who stays there regularly although the Marina Bay Sands was a strong contender !
Booking holidays is fun but hard work if you have an itinerary as involved as ours ! I did everything myself and will report back in future posts about how things turned out. All my contact with the organisations in Vietnam and Singapore especially the hotels, visa booking companies and tour guides has been excellent. Living in the Arabian Ranches also meant I could find contacts that previously lived in Vietnam and Singapore to use as sounding boards if I was unsure about anything.
Holidays, Happy Days ! Please leave me a comment if you know a great place you think we should go for a meal or drink in Vietnam or Singapore, we’ll try and get there and report back in future posts. If anyone wants more information on any of the above destinations do drop me a comment, I’ll try my best to help !
From Monica, your South East Asian correspondent in Dubai. Thanks for liking this post on Facebook !
2 thoughts on “PLANNING A HOLIDAY : VIETNAM”
Thanks, I’ll report back in detail, have a great summer,
Monica.
Sounds thrilling!! Can’t wait to read more about it! Enjoy your holiday