Vietnam 2 weeks with young kids - Itinerary
Hi all, I'm heading to Vietnam in December and would like your advice on our travel schedule. We haven't been to Vietnam yet, but are definitely looking forward experiencing this amazing country!
In December will be traveling with my family: My partner and two younger boys of 5 and 7 years old. Important is that we simply do not want to travel around too much: With young kids it is exhausting to move from place to place every 3 nights. We specifically want to have only 2 to 3 'basecamps' where we will stay. This worked absolutely amazing during several other holidays, with the acceptance that we'll be missing quite some other beautiful parts of the country. Potentially save them for a future trip.
Important note: I won't be driving myself, we will be checking with the hotels for pick-ups with a minivan with our luggage. This also worked perfectly in Thailand, I hope we can copy the logistics a bit. Grab also works perfectly.
This is our current draft planning with three basecamps: Hanoi, Tam Coc and Cat Ba Island. Main reason is that these are all drivable with a taxi / mini-van, a couple of hours distance. No hassle with domestic flights. Question: Can you let me know if I may be missing something in our trip or have any other advice? This draft planning contains three 'basics' around Hanoi area, I am concerned I am missing amazing activities or other highlights.
Day 1 to 3: Hanoi
After reviewing the internet, I think 3 days would be sufficient to visit Hanoi. We'd prefer to spend most time in nature instead of the city. We'll visit below places in these three days:
- Example Day 1: Hoàn Kiếm Lake Walk / St. Joseph Cathedral / Train tracks / Old Quarter / Thong Nhat Park
- Example Day 2: Puppet Show / Tran Quoc Pagoda (West Lake) / One Pillar Pagoda. Fri-Su: Hanoi Night Market
- Example Day 3: Lotte World Aquarium Hà Nội. VinKE & Vinpearl Aquarium + Mega Mall or re-visit the Old Quarter
- Weekend Night Market included somewhere of course
- Would be fun to do some kind of night tour to spot some animals, such as insects & frogs etc.
- Unfortunately they don't have the fun coconut basket boats in this area, the kids would've loved that!
Day 4 to 9: Tam Coc
A lot of people may visit Tam Coc as a daytrip from Hanoi, or only stay for 2 nights, but I have the feeling we will have an absolute blast in this area if we take our time with the kids. And yes: My partner absolutely loved cycling.
- Example Day 1: Cycling around, including Mua Cave & viewpoint + Bich Dong-pagode
- Example Day 2: Half day Trang An boat tour, including caves (Remainder of the day relax)
- Example Day 3: Cycle day 2: Thung Nham Bird Garden
- Example Day 4: Spare day for whatever
Day 10 to 14: Cat Ba Island
The final stretch of the holiday is meant to explore a different side of nature, including relaxing at the pool for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Understandable that in December, it isn't really 'pool weather'. The big Ha Long cruises aren't really my cup of tea, our family would love a more secluded jungle lodge at Cat Ba and do some daytrips from there.
- Example Day 1: Cycling Viet Hai Village
- Example Day 2: Half day hike: Ngu Lam Peak
- Example Day 3: Monkey Island day trip
- Example Day 4: Day cruise / speedboat
- Optional: Kayak Bioluminescense tour
- Of course we'll visit the Cat Ba Promenade and restaurant area