Itinerary Reality Check

I can't speak for this specific road, but 150 km can easiy be a 5-7 hour bumpy, dusty ride.

Hi Jaydee,

You are right, Lak lake is south-east of BMT, confused myself for a moment, I did mean to say from Pleiku to Dalat ,but the 150 km. left from the lake is practically all mountains. Not the big,big ones but enough to start worrying if your driver is good enough or not!! It is true that it is a very scenic ride but very long.The national park is off the Hwy 20,some 150 km. before HCMC. Hwy. 20 is the main road from Dalat to HCMC.

Good luck with your choice and happy travels. Whatever you choose the kids will be happy.

Hi Hongha - do you know if the direct flights BMT to Hanoi will have commenced by May?

When the Vietnam Television announced this news, they said "in April" if my memory was right. You'd better ask the booking agents in Vietnam, they will know better than I.

Thank you Hongha

Halong Bay return in one day is a big day - probably giving less than 4 hrs on the water. We overnighted in Cat Ba but I wouldnt go aywhere near the place agioan unless the weather was forecast to be pretty fine. Excellent pearl buys there.

cheers

We did a day trip to Halong , yes it was big day, but very very enjoyable and had about 5 good hours at Halong.
Enjoyed it , but enjoyed our few days in Ninh Binh and its treasures far more.

Shame you cant fit some time into Ninh Binh.

Cheers

Hi weez and sakya - I am allowing an for an overnight trip [with dragon's pearl] on Halong Bay. I didn't mean it to read as a daytrip - but thankyou for commenting.
Yes sakya it is such a shame about Ninh Binh, I've had great difficultly excluding it from our itinerary, but I think I probably shouldn't try to squeeze anything else in...... It's one of the reasons I'm kicking myself for not having booked more time.
Thanks to Hongha's tip re direct flights from BMT to Hanoi, I have decided to change the beginning and cut out Dalat in favour of having 2 nights at Lak Lake or somewhere near Buon Ma Thout. I think it will be exciting for the kids [and my husband and me] to see and ride the elephants there. Plus it's the one part of our itinerary that is a bit more off the beaten track than the rest. So apart from Halong and the Mekong, I'm trying to allow 2 - 4 nights in each place we visit.

Thanks again - I do appreciate people's comments and suggestions.