We flew Jetstar Pacific from DaNang to Hanoi paying about $40 per person for the one way flight. We arrived at the Hanoi Hilton Garden Inn near the Old Quarter at about 7pm. We used 10,000 Hilton Hhonors points per room per night and booked 3 rooms for 2 nights (one night, then 2 days in Halong Bay, and a 2nd night back at the Hilton). They let us leave our bags at the hotel when we left so we didn't have to lug everything on our cruise, so that was nice. As both Eliza and Cody had Hilton Gold status, the rooms were upgraded to large suites on the top level of the hotel and breakfast both days was included, which was great and made the hotel even more of a bargain.
Hyatt Regency DaNang, Ocean suites, had to return because it's our favorite spot in the world. Peaceful, no crowds, beautiful beaches, awesome pools, excellent accommodation and service, club lounge, Northface gear for nothing in Hoi An. Surfing, flying kites, kayaking, waterside, pool, Kip kiteboarding,
Traveling from Kuala Lumpur, we were headed to Phu Quoc, which is a small island off the southwestern side of Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand. We had heard great things about Phu Quoc and didn't make it there last year, so we were determined to get there this time. It is a little inconvenient since you pretty much have to fly from and back to Ho Chi Minh City to get there.
The travel times were tight, so instead of going all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Phu Quoc, we decided to stay the night in Ho Chi Minh City. We stayed at the Sheraton Saigon Hotel and Towers, redeeming 11,000 points/night (33,000 points total for 3 rooms) for club rooms that got us breakfast (that we didn't use since we were leaving too early the next morning) as well as drinks and appetizers in the lounge.
We pretty much hit the lounge for appetizers and then went to bed. Cody and Kip went out wandering in Ho Chi Minh City to some of the shops, but didn't really do anything. We woke up early the next morning, headed to the airport and the next thing we knew we were sitting right on the beach in Phu Quoc just outside our bungalows at the Sea Star Resort. We booked 3 water villas right next to each other just steps from the ocean for $85/night which included breakfast and airport transfers. We spent the rest of the day by the beach in the resort getting $5 massages, pedicures, braids put in hair, and lounging by the beach. We had some pretty good Vietnamese food at the hotel restaurant...the pork and vegetable spring rolls and the butter curry were the consensus favorites. A huge storm had just blown through over during the past week and there was a lot of wood, coconuts, and stuff on the beach. The kids loved picking up all of these collections and building sandcastles and structures with them.
Cody and Scott paid $2 to rent a moped for an hour and rode into the town, primarily to get some money from the ATM, but they ended up taking a wrong turn or 2 and riding on narrow back roads that were going right through people's homes, and trying to have the front tire span canal after stinky canal. At one point we broke up a cock fight where all the men were gathered and excitedly getting ready to have 2 roosters go at it. When we drove up, they all backed away, guiltily and rushed us past them so they could get on with their business. Luckily, we made our way back to the main road and bought some Mangoes and Pepsi to bring back to the bungalows.
We decided to get out and explore the next day so we booked everyone on an all day tour that had us visiting a pearl farm, touring a rehabilitated Vietnam War prison turned into a museum, hanging out at an awesome beach, taking a private boat excursion out to do snorkeling, swimming, fishing, and jumping off the boat. We also went to an amazing beach - Sao Beach and hiked to a waterfall and had a swim.
