Where to go in N. Vietnam to Beat the Heat?

[DividendGuy]

Hello.

My wife and I are planning a trip for one month in April/May to beat the heat here in Thailand. We are thinking about going along the northern coast above Hanoi, maybe all the way up to the Chinese border staying in a few cities along the way. We have never been above Hanoi and explored those cities dotted along the coast there. Has anyone gone to any of those cities and are they okay to hangout in? Just looking for a cool place to hang out for a month. We are not much interested in the bars or nightlife scene and want more of a relaxed style.

Thanks for any advice

[craigt3365]

Doesn't seem there's much up past Hanoi. Do you speak Vietnamese or Chinese? Many border towns are not nice places. Have you been to Vietnam before?

[Riley'sLife]

Head for Sapa in the NW. A great journey. Make sure you return to Hanoi in daylight hours early morning using the train as it's an adventure of its own passing through interesting countryside. It will definitely be cool.

Or, south of Hanoi, nearer Saigon is Dalat, also cool and interesting.

With the time you have available you could do both....use the trains and buses, and take in Hoi An which is different!

Maybe post in the SE Asia forum to get more ideas/responses.. this is not really a Thailand travel forum topic

Edited November 5, 2014 by Riley'sLife

[pomchop]

Cat Ba island is pretty remote and might be worth a look for you. Go via boat from Halong Bay...pretty remote, lots of hotels, apr/may would be off season so weather not all that great but for sure cool.

[doukee]

yes, Sapa for sure and quick before they build a Starbucks.

[DividendGuy]

Craig3365

I speak some Cantonese, but must admit I am rusty at it and I am not sure that is the correct Chinese dialect they speak there in the north. I have been to Vietnam many times, but only up to Hanoi in summer. How is the weather in Hanoi and the surrounding areas in April/May, is it cool there at that time of year?

Thanks for your reply

[DividendGuy]

Riley'sLife

Sapa, sounds interesting and I will read up on it. Yes, we have been to Dalat once and we prefer to go north this time because Thailand is so hot during this period and we are looking for places to stay in North Vietnam where it is nice and cool.

Thanks

[DividendGuy]

Pomchop

Cat Ba Island, sounds like a nice trip for us for a few days. I am starting to think that this trip is possible.

Thanks everyone for your input...please keep the ideas coming and I will post about the trip after we return.

[DividendGuy]

Monitor.

Could you please post/move this forum to the SE Asia forum?

[craigt3365]

Great idea. Moved to the SE Asia forum.

Topic Moved.

[asanee]

seems like you do mean cool as cold-and not some modern hype lingo. Then I have bad news: in that time of year its just as hot-if not even more oppressive, as here in TH.-along the coast. Just get yourself a guidebook-older ones will also do, along the coast beyond Ha Long bay is nothing really of interest for tourists and hard going, also beacuse there is no borderpost to China over there and thus no demand.

For cooler climes you have to go inland and up the hills-but exactly in that time of year is also no garantee-and it may also suffer from the ChiangMai style mountainfires. I cannot find any part of Vnam relaxed-mainly due to the incessant style of dealing of the VNese. Maybe change plans and swap for Yunnan-China-but of coruse no sea there, just a few small lakes. Eternal spring climate.

[DividendGuy]

asanee

Thanks for your post. My wife is Japanese and is nervous about traveling in China now so, for us it has to be N. Vietnam. The weather doesn't have to be "cold," but just cool enough to be pleasantly comfortable. We are not against going inland as long as it can be an interesting/comfortable trip with a few cities (maybe 3 cities) to hang out in for a week or so. I am not expecting anything plush or resort style, but want more of a relaxing travel either by bus or train once we fly into Hanoi. Any idea where to go inland or as you say "up the hills"?

[LawrenceChee]

Sapa is the sweet spot for the climate and there is enough for the active and inactive there to enjoy the spots there

[Aussieroaming]

I think North Vietnam was about 6 or 7 degrees hotter than Bangkok at that time of year when I was there. At least every time I called my wife it was usually cooler in Thailand.

In reality it is cool December to February and then rapidly heats up and 100% humidity and by June was regularly high 30s or low 40's.

[tutsiwarrior]

a lot of the coal mined in Vietnam comes from areas near the coast north of Hanoi...open pit coal mines, coal burning power stations, etc...never been there meself but a project I was on in the north was gonna source it's fuel from there...

[Cobragold]

Your best bet for a cooler climate with not much night life would still be dalat, it's cooling, but should have some rain during April to October. I was there last month and found the place wonderful and will be going back again next year. It's supposed to be around 21 c average through out the year, today it's 17 to 21 c.

[BangkokHank]

I realize that you asked about northern Vietnam (which I have never visited - aside from Hanoi), but there are some other places in the region that I like to go to beat the Thai summer heat. I have been twice to Mussoorie (in northern India) and once to Ooty (in southern India), as well as once to Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka. All of these places are former British hill stations at around 2,000 meters elevation. They all have daytime temperatures in the low- to mid-20s at that time of year - with little precipitation. They all also have the added bonus of being resort towns with plenty to hotels - BUT they don't experience their high season until around mid-April. This means that there is an abundance of cheap accommodation available in all of those places at that time of year. (Prices skyrocket after the high season starts.) This makes it affordable to stay for over a month at a time, which I did in each of those places - from early March to mid-April. During the daytime you can occupy yourself with walks/hikes in the beautiful surrounding hilly countryside. In the evenings you will have to entertain yourself, which I do by reading. All things considered, I think these are all great places to escape the brunt of the Thai summer heat.

[DividendGuy]

Thanks Cobragold,

I am not against going to Dalat and I will run this by my wife.

[DividendGuy]

Thanks BangkokHank.

I must admit I have never thought of going to India or Sri Lanka to beat the heat, but I will think about it. We would be happy to be away for several weeks and this is a good idea...now I have to talk to my wife and see if she is open to gong to those places.

Thanks again.

[recom273]

Yes, The wife and I first went there 7 years back.

We arrived to Hanoi in the first week of March and it was cold, my wife arrived in a hoodie and within a day bought padded 'eskimo' jacket. We first travelled to Sapa, rented a Minsk out of Sapa and rode for a week, ending up at Bac Ha market on a Sunday morning.

We just rode and I took some amazing photos of people - which is what we went to do, there was nothing else there - rice fields, temples, the odd waterfall and stream, beautiful scenery. There is no tourist industry when you get out of Sapa and head towards Lao Cai or Lau Cho. We stayed in dirty hotels with chinese travelling salesmen in the last town we rode through every day.

The food was bad to very good - just local fare, we didn't see any westerners for the week, people would try and speak Vietnamese to her and when they worked out she was Thai, they were totall confused that she had no comprehension. We ate by pointing or diving in peoples kitchens. The portions were huge, we ate lots of boiled cabbage everywhere, drank beer, and probably ate a seagull or two.

Its like the wild west on the roads leading to the Chinese border, just dusty one road towns, and then hundreds ethnic tribes everywhere outside. The roads out to the East of Lao Cai were pretty bad, some weren't even built, yet they were on the map, some were just partially built.

We then headed south by train, by mid-late March, the weather really warmed up.

We returned to avoid Songkran a few years later expecting the crisp winter weather from our previous trip, but the weather in Sapa was like a warm European late spring.

Yeah, the area to the East of Hanoi is pretty grim, its like Leeds or Sheffield in the dark ages, with the iron and coal industry, everything is stained black with coal dust.

If you have an interest in local foods, motorbikes, dust border towns, hill tribes or photography then its a great trip .. otherwise, forget it.

[recom273]

I second Sri Lanka, it can get a bit damp tho' .. Last there 15 years back - rather than hotels, I stayed in English style B&B guest houses, which were usually old colonial houses in amazing locations.

The one thing i didn't like was the constant attention, i seemed to be a walking scam target, and the national parks / religious historical parks were quite pricey.

[DividendGuy]

recom273

Thank you, for the informative information. You have made me realize that going north to the Chinese border is not for us and you have saved us from ruining a vacation.

Again Thanks for saving us from making a bad decision to go north.

[DividendGuy]

recom273

I will look at Sri Lanka. I have never been there so I don't know what it is like. Is it a more laid-back place or is it scam central and you have to watch everything closely like in India?

[recom273]

I only knew SE Asia before, so I was all about independent travel and just getting on discovering the culture. Maybe I was just naive. It just seemed everyone who approached me had a purpose of scamming me.

What I should have done was go for 2 weeks and rented a driver to take me on a tour and not worried about being a tourist.

[Tomtomtom69]

Craig3365

I speak some Cantonese, but must admit I am rusty at it and I am not sure that is the correct Chinese dialect they speak there in the north. I have been to Vietnam many times, but only up to Hanoi in summer. How is the weather in Hanoi and the surrounding areas in April/May, is it cool there at that time of year?

Thanks for your reply

Apart from at the border to China, any Chinese dialect is useless in Vietnam. Besides, with the current tensions, interest in Chinese language has plummeted and even near the border, you'd be hard pressed thinking you were anywhere near China as there are few signs in Chinese even.

You'll definitely find English speakers in hotels and the like, but otherwise it's Vietnamese, so bring a phrase book.

[LawrenceChee]

It's hot in April & May in Vietnam even up north and rains are starting to pour

Agree when in Vietnam speak Vietnamese just like in Thailand

Speaking the local language goes a long way in breaking the ice

[DividendGuy]

LaurenceChee.

Thanks for the weather information as we are/were planning to go to Hanoi in the first week of April. It is just too hot in April here in Bangkok so, we decided to try and find a cooler place to chill out for a few weeks other than staying in Thailand.

[DividendGuy]

Tomtomtom69.

Thanks for the input. It seems that we will most likely end up staying in the greater Hanoi area with a few short trips thrown in to the surrounding areas. Maybe next year we will go to Sri Lanka. If the weather is not cool in Hanoi during the first week of April then we will most likely cut our trip short and come back to Bangkok or go to Delat. We are looking for a cool place to go to every year when it is too hot here in Bangkok and I must admit that Siri Lanka is starting to sound more and more interesting.

Thanks again.

[stevehaigh]

i have 2 weeks planned in Sapa area in mid April. Since the altitude is about 1500m above sea level there, i'm hoping the weather is similar to the high altitude parts of Thailand that time of year, hot in the sun, but not so bad in the shade and at night.

anyhow, when i get back i'll post a trip report

[DividendGuy]

stevehaigh

Thanks Steve I am looking forward to reading your trip report, as I am interested in Sapa too. What's the easiest way to get there from Hanoi, and how long does it take to get there?