Our Trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos was pl...

Vietnam | Oct 4 - Oct 20, 2024

It's a fantastic place to stay. The hotel, room, pool and restaurant & food were all great. Incredible views from our room. Staff & service nice, agreeable. Nothing to add but the fabulous sunset! I would stay here again.

This is a nice hotel with agreeable and helpful staff. We stayed there twice, two nights at the start of our October 2024 SE Asia visit and one night at the end since we used Hanoi as a gateway for our tour. The hotel is very conveniently situated in the old town and great as a starting point for that part of Hanoi and further afield. Staying there makes it easy to experience the local atmosphere! There is a nice rooftop bar and restaurant together with the breakfast room. Everything we ate there was good but not fine dining (breakfasts and evening meal). There are also plenty of places to eat outside too. For our first stay we had a 4th floor room which was a nice size and with a balcony (the shower was ok but had a slippery floor). For our second visit, we stayed in a 5th floor room which had a large balcony, nice bathroom and sauna. The rooms were very clean. A good place to stay when visiting Hanoi.

We used Doris Cruise for the Ha Long Bay part of our Vietnam tour. We had a "Junior Double Suite Sea View with Private Balcony" which we thought was very nice and comfortable with a good bathroom and nice secluded balcony. This was good since it was on the second floor away from the sea - from time to time there were small rowing/motor boats stopping and trying to sell drinks and souvenirs who did not understand "no thank you". The cruise ship was nicely designed and decorated and very clean. We liked the jacuzzi situated in the bow and had a good soak there whilst most other people went on the visits (we didn't do those). Staff were agreeable and extremely helpful. The restaurant was nicely designed and allowed good sight seeing whilst at lunch. The food was ok, we did find the buffet a little bit limited and it was not always replaced in a timely manner. There were two downsides for us, one was the cost of the drinks, in particular, the wine, even for Vietnam was ridiculously expensive, much of it at 40-60€ a bottle! The second, was the long tender trip out to and back from the cruise ship which ate into the stay somewhat (40-50 minutes each way). Overall though, the cadre of the visit and the incredible scenery made the trip certainly memorable!

The hotel has a "baroque" architectural style and we did appreciate the size and cleanliness of our comfortable room (and the view since we were on an upper floor). The rest of the hotel was clean and comfortable too, the swimming pool (top floor) was super with good views of the city, again nice to relax with a swim after a days' sightseeing! A pity the hammam and sauna were not working. The breakfast was good with plenty of choice. It was necessary to choose your breakfast timing a bit since there were several tour groups staying at the same time as us which sometimes made the breakfast restaurant crowded and tables were not always cleared away in a timely manner. However, that's a problem often encountered in hotels and I will say that the staff were quick to replenish the buffet - so avoided a downside of sharing with tour groups. The hotel was situated in a good location and a brief walk found plenty of restaurants to choose from in the evening. Overall our stay was a positive experience.

We stayed at the Riverside Villas & Apartments, Hoi An for one night on October 11 , 2024. Our hotel room was quiet but small and cramped (nowhere to store our cases conveniently) but it was very clean with a reasonable bathroom. The hotel staff were polite and it had a nice pool. The breakfast was fine. We found a nice restaurant (Firefly Garden) 3-400 m from the hotel (there were plenty of others around too). Overall our stay was ok - however, the hotel is 2-3 km outside the main tourist area of Hoi An and it was just a pity that it was so far from the town centre.

This hotel has an interesting modern stylish design and was very clean everywhere with very friendly & polite staff. We particularly liked our upper floor bedroom which was a reasonable size with a comfortable bed and decent shower & toilet. The hotel was well located in Saigon with easy access to the town centre and places to eat (~8-900 metres). The breakfast area was on the top floor with a spectacular view of the city and plenty of space - staff were very efficient and agreeable. Breakfast was decent with a good selection and choice. We enjoyed our stay in this hotel, It might apparently only have 3 stars but we were happy with our stay and it's certainly a good choice for a short touring visit of the Saigon area.

This really is an excellent hotel, possibly the best place we stayed in during our whole SE Asia tour. The style was modern, an elegant boutique hotel. Our room was a medium size but comfortable, well equipped and with a decent shower/bathroom; it was very clean. The hotel's staff were very polite and helpful with attention to detail. There were some nice touches such as the efforts they made for decorating the hotel for the fire boat festival. The pool and bar area was excellent and the restaurant agreeable to use with a nice atmosphere (it covered breakfast and all other meals). The hotel was conveniently located and a short walk or ride into the main areas of Luang Prabang and we would happily stay there again.

This is a decent hotel with friendly staff. Our room was a good size and was very clean. There were plenty of plugs! The restaurant and service was good (we only had breakfast). We particularly liked the pool which was in very agreeable, exotic surroundings and marvelous for cooling off after a day travelling and visiting! The hotel was in a good location, 2 minutes walk from the main road through Ninh Binh, good for a stroll and with lots of restaurants. I would definitely stay there another time.

As part of our SE Asia tour including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, we stayed at this hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia for two nights, October 14 & 15, 2024. We were extremely disappointed with the quality of the room in the Hari Residence, it was really bad. I've refrained from giving details because it doesn't come close to any of the other rooms we had during our tour and don't want to seen as overreacting - but I can supply those if you wish. The only reason I give this place one star is because of the breakfast room staff who were polite and courteous.

Another nice drive there with plenty to see. Lunch was interesting, our first try at Goat wraps! Following on, two great visits to the Mua Cave and those... steps.., and Tam Coc and the boat ride (watch your head in the caves...).

Boarding and sailing out to the cruise ship on the tender was rather long and slow if picturesque.

A visit to the water puppets was amongst the first activities of our Hanoi visit. We visited the Thang Long theatre opposite the Hoàn Kiếm Lake and old town. The visit lasts about an hour and has several different scenes each of a few minutes in length. An example would be the retelling of the Hoan Kiem Lake legend - the story of a magical sword together with the turtle. We were impressed by the skills of the puppet operators and this was really a wonderful experience and well worth a visit.

A lot of driving today. Traffic in Vietnam is somewhat slower than we anticipated and we were happy to take a break on the way to the mountain pass at Dừng Nghỉ Đèo Thung Khe (as per Google Maps). Here, we saw local food of all forms available to eat and we sampled some of those more to our taste such as sticky rice and Jackfruit. On our way again, we stopped for lunch with Jay and his family (the "Memories Homestay"). We were given a wonderful home cooked, authentic lunch and learnt about their family and the Hmong way of life. After lunch a great walk around the village to admire the scenery - amongst all that, we saw the local rice harvest being dried in the open air.

We started with a trip along the Perfume River to see the Thien Mu Pagoda and Buddhist temple. Next up the Hué morning market. This was followed by a good walk around the Hue Imperial City before lunch. In the afternoon we visited the Mausoleum of Emperor Tu Duc, then Huong Non Tram Huong Hue - Incense Village. All in all a good days visit and we saw and experienced many memorable things and sensations. The only downside was the torrential rain but that was certainly beyond anybody's control!

Our first city visit during our SE Asia tour in October 2024 was Hanoi. Our guide, Mai, provided us with a good overview of the sights. Our tour included, Tran Quoc Pagoda, the Museum of Ethnology (particularly interesting, including the village and houses outside section) and a Vietnamese lacquer art workshop and gallery. After lunch, our visit took us to the Temple of Literature before rounding off with the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The tour gave us a good overview of some of the major sites in Hanoi.

Just like boarding, this was a bit long... Our pick up and driver was good. The drive to Hanoi Airport was ok and there was plenty to see.

This day was mainly in two parts, 1) the drive from Hué to Hoi An and 2) sightseeing in Hoi An. We enjoyed the drive to Hoi An. This passed via the lagoon at Thua Thien where we stopped for 30 minutes for a coffee and sightseeing, via Da Nang (quite interesting to drive though) and finally with a climb to the mountain pass (~480 metres) at Hai Vân Quan where we stopped for 15 minutes sightseeing before continuing to Hoi An. We really the enjoyed this drive, our two stops were quite fascinating and culturally different to each other, so certainly worth the stops. The final part of our day was a three hour look at Hoi An including lunch and being dropped off at our hotel.

The whole evening experience (meal, location and the dance show) was very positive and definitely worthwhile. The dance show was divided into a series of set pieces related to local culture and fascinating; the meal was very good quality with excellent service. We can definitely recommend this experience to other travellers.

This was one of our favorite days during our holiday. We saw many temples but each totally different. Starting with our 5am first visit to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat following on to the other temples, all close by. Our guide, Su did a great job of explaining the differences between them and their history. It's difficult to identify a preference between views and experiences. maybe we have just a slight bias towards the Temple of Ta Prohm, AKA the "Tomb Raider Temple" which was particularly amazing! Or, just maybe the Hindu temple of Banteay Srei that we visited on the previous day... However, this was an unmissable day :)

Our flight was delayed so there wasn't time to see the Roluos temple. However, the Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre temples were frankly awesome. As our guide Su explained, Banteay Srei really is a gem! Later in the evening we finished with a walking tour around Siem Reap and the night market. Overall, a good day.

Our guide Johnny picked us up from our hotel at 8 am for our tour of the Mekong Delta. It was about a 3 hour drive, including a biobreak before our first stop to visit a brick factory at Lò Gạch Phú Tự (according to Google Maps). We saw how the local brick making was done, from the clay to the kiln firing process. Following that we transferred to a river boat along the Ben Tre River (and a fresh coconut drink!). In a tributary of the river we visited a small company making coconut based sweets and other products. There were demonstrations of the different processes- we also explored the craftsmen's shop including tasting the snake wine! (like strange saké). Continuing down the river we stopped and walked a couple of km to a Homestay for lunch (very copious it was too). Our final experience in Ben Tre was a short 15 minute ride in a longboat before heading back to Saigon. All in all, a great day out, made even better by our fantastic guide, Johnny who was a really experienced and helpful person. Possibly the best guide we have ever had on our travels.

Today's activities started with a 06h30 start to see the daily morning alms giving ritual to the Buddhist monks. This was quite particular and a very original experience. Following on from this we visited the morning market; this was one of the most diverse local markets we have seen and was a quite unforgettable experience. Following breakfast at our hotel we were driven to the Luang Prabang historic area to start our boat trip up the Mekong River to the Pak Ou Caves. On the way (1h20) we stopped at Chang Hai, a small village selling local whiskey and clothing. We continued for about another 30 minutes (1h50 and about 25 km total) to the caves. Pak Ou Caves are certainly an original experience since they are only accessible from the Mekong River, there are thousands of Buddha statues of all sizes to be found inside and on several levels, truly amazing to see! On the way back to Luang Prabang we stopped at the Nalongkone Shop where we learnt how to make "Sa" paper, their speciality. After lunch we drove to the Kuang Si Falls (about an hour). This was an incredible site - a series of cascading pools which were milky turquoise coloured. The whole site is very large with a spectacular water chute at the top and was well worth the visit.

We started the tour with a visit to the temple, "Wat May Souvannapoumaram" and after that the national museum to see another ornate temple "Haw Phra Bang" and the royal palace. The temples were very impressive and we liked the royal palace particularly which had plenty of historical information about the royal family (as was). After lunch we moved on to the very old temple "Wat Xiengthong" where the site has been developed since the 1550s. It was quite hot by then so we took a break for a few hours then met our guide again early evening to walk around the historical region downtown to the see the Fireboat Festival and animations. I must say we had a splendid evening there.