Hi, personally I love your itinerary. It is the exact one I wanted for our trip in June but you have 1 more night. Because of this and folks advice on this forum we took out LP. So even though we will see it another time, enjoy! I think your choice of towns and timing seem pretty perfect. But listen out for the forum experts too of course. They helped me a lot.

Thank you!

I think it looks like a great trip! There is no perfect timing, everyone is diffferent what they enjoy -- a day here or there doesnt really make a huge difference.
An alternate to your plans re Hanoi and Halong Bay is to spend time at HB at the end and then return from HB and go directly to the airport and fly to Hoi An without spending time in Hanoi on that end. You would eliminate one hotel move and that would give you an extra day which I would add to Luang Prabang which we loved.
Have a great trip!

Thank you yestravel, that makes a lot of sense, assuming our we have a flight late in the day and our hotel keeps our luggage. I've read that you can't take it all on the boat.

I would really like to spend more time in Luang Prabang - I have a feeling it will be wonderful there!

An alternate would be to spend the extra day in Hoi An, which also looks charming. Any thoughts?

Your hotel in Hanoi should keep your luggage if for some reason you can't take it on the junk in HB. I don't recall being told any restrictions re luggage when we did our overnight on HB. How much luggage do you have? Cabins are not large on the junks so that would be a limiting factor, but it would depend upon how much luggage you have.

I enjoyed Hoi An, its a delightful place to kick back, but I think another night there might be too much. An alternative would be to spend a night or 2 in Hue which is a few hours drive from Hoi An. There is lots to c in Hue and you can do a great tour on a motorcycle with Hue riders if that interests you. Check out my TR which describes our time in these places.

I know Hue is supposed to be lovely too, but we don't want to move around too much. Our new itinerary is:

1/1 Depart NYC
1/2 Arrive Siam Riep late night - 4 nights in Siam Riep
1/6 Fly to Luang Prabang, 3 nights in Luang Prabang
1/9 Fly to Hanoi, Hanoi - 3 nights in Hanoi, 1 night on Halong Bay
1/13 Fly to Hoi An - 4 nights in Hoi An
1/17 Fly to HCMC, HCMC - 3 nights
1/20 Fly back to NYC

The tour company we are booking our itinerary with suggested we add to Hoi An. She didn't seem too keen for us to add time to LP. She actually suggested we take a night out of Siam Riep (so 3 nights in Siam Riep) and Hanoi (3 nights) and add 2 nights to Nha Trang, which I thought would be too much moving.

At this point we are between having 4 nights in LP or Hoi An. Is one area better for day trips? Maybe we can do that on the extra day.

Everyone has different tastes and wants different things from travelling. Tinkering with your itinerary is fine but only you know what it is you really like doing. Siem Reap is great if you are into temples and history, but it is very busy these days. 3 nights there would be enough for me. In your previous post you say "like a mix of sightseeing, eating/drinking, meandering around" in which case LP is seems like your kind of town. There are plenty of places to see outside of the town, the waterfalls and the caves are the usual tours pushed in the town but it is far more rewarding to get out into the countryside to see some of the villages or, if you are into activity such as canoeing etc., there is plenty of choice. Hoi An is similar in some respects to LP but IMHO is way to touristy and busy, unless of course you want to get out of the town to the countryside. 4 days would be 2 too many for me. I prefer Hue to Hoi An but it is not so pretty so does not get as much hype as its neighbour.

Hanoi is a great city with absolutely loads to see and do but Halong Bay would not be high on my list. With just one night to spare, I would choose an overnight in the Mai Chau valley, just a few hours from Hanoi and one of the most beautiful places I have stayed in in many visits to Vietnam. A home stay there is great fun and provides an insight into Vietnamese rural life and the people are so hospitable. In some respects, it is like a mini Sapa, not so dramatic maybe, but just as special.

Some photos of both Sapa and Mai Chau on my blog:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/candcthai/3/tpod.html

Whatever you decide, have a great time it is a wonderful part of the world.

I enjoyed Halong Bay, but you don't have enough time in Hanoi. I also agree with crellston in much preferring Hue to Hoi An, and I imagine it's even more touristy now than when I was there last.

Hmmm...interesting the tour company suggested adding time to Hoi An rather than Luang Prabang. Did they explain the reasoning behind this? In some ways they are similar types of towns. Both very charming Unesco sites. They both are nice places to kick back and sit in cafes. Enjoyed the food in both towns and enjoyed exploring the towns. From Hoi An we did a half day with a driver to visit Son La. Not sure what else is there to see outside the town. We went out to the beach, but it was not a a particularly great beach day. I think as described by crellston, LP has more to see and do.

Agree with crellston re Mai Chau - it's a wonderful place if you want to add another destination. It's a couple hours drive from Hanoi.

We stayed 3 nights in Siem Reap and that was fine for us. We were also there in January and it was unbearably hot seeing the ruins. The time you spend there really depends upon how into temples you are, but I would agree to drop a night there.

So you're suggesting:

3 nights in Siam Riep
4 nights in LP
4 nights in Hanoi + 1 night on Halong Bay
3 in Hoi An
3 in HCMC

I think the reason we had 4 in Siam Riep was because we thought we would be jet lagged and want to take it easy the first night/day. We initially had it at 3. I would think Hanoi would deserve more nights than Hoi An. I am not sure why our agent is pushing for 4. All she said was her prior customers have really liked Hoi An and to spend more time there.

I just looked at Mai Chau. It looks gorgeous! Maybe we'll try to get it in.

Mai Chau is completely different from what you will be seeing, so it would add an extra dimension to your visit.

I think 4 nights is overkill in Hoi An. When I first looked at your post and saw the 4 nights in SR, I assumed an extra night was good for jet lag and that may be the case.

Whatever u decide, you will have a great trip in a lovely part of the world.

One more option would be to cut a night in HCMC, since we are not doing the Mekong excursion...

Than you all for your help so far. Much appreciated!

Final itinerary below, hotels and flights have been booked! Thank you all for your suggestions!
We decided to do one night less in Siam Riep and add it to Luang Prabang.

1/1 Depart NYC
1/2 Arrive Siam Riep late night - 3 nights in Siam Riep
1/5 Fly to Luang Prabang, 4 nights in Luang Prabang
1/9 Fly to Hanoi, Hanoi - 4 nights in Hanoi, Last night on Halong Bay
1/14 Fly to Danang - 3 nights in Hoi An
1/17 Fly to HCMC, HCMC - 3 nights
1/20 Fly back to NYC

Hi Suzy Q -- glad to see you finalized your trip. Can you tell me what implant you used? I am alo coming from NY and have a very similar itinerary except for LP. I am looking at quotes and itineraries from 3 companies righ now. Would love to know who you used if it was a good planning experience.

Thanks.

I think you are shortchanging Hanoi. With 3 nites there, how much time will you actually have? Remember to take into account your traveling time. We liked Hanoi far more than hcmc. You can eliminate a nite there. Also, hoi an is magical but can easily be seen in 2 days. It is a shame that you will miss hue.

Hi dgunbug, we actually have 4 nights in Hanoi, not counting Halong Bay. So it's 1-1-3. And we couldn't do Halong Bay on our last day and go straight to the airport for Danang - the last flight was still too early - the Monday flight schedule is limited.

This gives us two full days and two half days in Hanoi. I know a few days is never enough in most places, but it's the best we can do. We've thought about (and edited) our itinerary a lot, and we are finally happy with it.

Lolazanhra, I worked with Ly at Tonkin Travel. She is really helpful and very responsive. Her email is: ly-tonkin@fpt.vn. Please tell her Ms. Dharia referred you. I would definitely recommend her, but definitely do your own research and be firm if she is pushing you in a certain direction and you don't like it (e.g. she wanted us to do 4 days in Hoi An).

Ly is arranging our international flights once we are in Cambodia, regional flights, our Vietnam visa and all transfers. She has great rates for Vietnam hotels, but I booked hotels in Laos and Siam Riep on my own because her rates there were more expensive. We used Agoda.com and Starwood points for our reservations. Happy planning!

Thank you. I actually have a quote from someone at Tonkin.

This is very, very helpful as I will check their hotel rates against website deals.

And I know what you mean about how hard it is to choose your cities and number of days. I'm now up to 4 nights in Siem Reap. It is not something I anticipated but with a desire to see the temples, Tonle Sap, and volunteer, its necessary to do it right.

Have an amazing time. Your trip sounds fantastic.