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…
Author: Jaime
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…
Nagano Snow Monkeys
I am about five weeks behind on blogging, but I’m choosing to view this as a good thing. It means I’ve been really, really busy with both work and travel. Travel is the goal and work makes it possible, so those are the best priorities. Still, our two nights in Nagano feel like a very…
Tokyo Twice
We were more than halfway through an immensely hard 2024 before we even started planning this leg of our travels. In light of how challenging the year was, we decided a more dramatic trip was in order and so we decided to return to Asia for the first time since 2019. Our one and only…
FAQ – What Did We Learn on Leg 15?
Leg 15 was another short one (similar to Leg 13 in 2023), but we still managed to learn a few things during our eight weeks in Europe. Here are my top three lessons to share: It can pay off to fight the power The EU has relatively strict airline rules for delayed and cancelled flights…
FAQ – How Did Our Abbreviated Leg 15 Add Up?
Like Leg 13, we ended up having to adjust this leg to accommodate family health issues. With the added time in America (where we have free accommodation in a family home), I was able to give us a very generous budget for our eight weeks on the road for Leg 15. Here’s how the numbers…