When planning this part of our trip, Chad and I wanted a short stay to bridge Hakone and Kyoto so we could avoid being in Kyoto on the weekend. Kyoto seems to be crowded any day of the week – it’s an extremely popular destination. But weeknights were definitely cheaper for our Airbnb and it…
The Hakone Loop
Chad and I flew from Hanoi back to Japan in mid-April and spent a few days in Tokyo, which I’ll discuss in a future post when we make our last trip to Tokyo for this leg for Chad’s birthday at the end of May. When planning the leg, we wanted to take some time between…
Osaka: We’re Home Again!
Today marks the halfway point of our 30 days in Osaka, so I’m taking a step away from posting chronologically to record our experience thus far. But I promise to post about Tokyo, Hakone, Atami, and Kyoto, all of which we visited between Hanoi and here, in the next few weeks. We loved our time…
Happy in Hanoi
The last of our four two-week stays in Vietnam was in Hanoi, where we actually stayed for 17 days. Although we didn’t like Hanoi as much as Da Nang, our favorite, we still had a great time and a great quality of life. Though there were still plenty of motorbikes, there were also functioning traffic…
Sa Pa – The City in the Fog
In addition to Ha Long Bay, our other overnight trip from Hanoi was to Sa Pa. This was a very different kind of trip and not even on my radar before we arrived in Vietnam. But I kept seeing people mention Sa Pa online and after a little research, it seemed perfect for us. Sa…
Cruising Ha Long Bay
One of the must-do excursions from Hanoi is visiting beautiful Ha Long Bay by boat. You can do this as a daytrip but it is even better as an overnight cruise. Luckily we had a budget surplus from our weeks in Missouri that we could apply to booking the cruise, which is a little pricey…
Delightful Da Nang
Da Nang was our favorite of all the cities we visited in Vietnam. We spent two weeks here following our two weeks in adjacent Hội An. It helped a lot that we chose the perfect neighborhood as our base, Ngũ Hành Sơn, which has My Khe beach on the east and the Hàn River to…
Huế Getaway
Not long after arriving in Da Nang (more on that in the next post), Chad and I took off on an overnight trip to Huế, which was Vietnam’s national capital from 1802 to 1945 (when communism replaced imperial rule). In addition to being an important historic site in Vietnam, Huế (which is pronounced like “way”…
Hội An Ancient Town
After our mixed feelings about Ho Chi Minh City, we were eager to see if we’d like Hội An more. There was ample reason for hope – Hội An is a much smaller town at around 120,000 people, a UNESCO World Heritage site as “an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating…
Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon
I’ve written before about the travel phenomenon that Chad and I have dubbed “the Japan effect.” Basically, this occurs when you go from someplace that fits your preferences perfectly (Japan, Buenos Aires) to someplace with some challenges. After spending only a week in Japan prior to our arrival in Vietnam, our first days in Saigon…