Vietnam and Japan Trip

by Neil · Published January 23, 2025 · Updated February 3, 2025

Recently my partner Alison and I went on a fantastic vacation to Vietnam and Japan.

I did all of the planning for the trip but I was very much helped by the numerous other blogs and commentaries from other travellers. So I have decided to write this blog with our experiences, thoughts, tips, etc. in the hope that some of these may be useful to other travellers, or even just entertaining. I have to say that I didn’t have this in mind for most of the trip so some parts may be a bit lacking in detail but actually I am kind of glad of this as constantly thinking about blogging the trip may have got in the way of my overall enjoyment.

Hope anyone who reads the blog enjoys it and possibly picks up some tips. Please feel free to pass comments. This is my first blog so any criticism of the blog or our travels will be welcome,

I would start by saying that the trip exceeded our expectations. This was especially true in Vietnam which was incredible. The people were very friendly and there was so many interesting and different things to see. While it is very busy it always seemed much more laid back than Japan. If I was replanning the trip I would have allocated more days to Vietnam to allow us to see more of the country, especially the south.

We visited in late March early April to make the most of the cherry blossom season, but more of that later.

Our Itinerary was as follows

Itinerary

General Comments

Day 1 – Travel from Glasgow to Hanoi

Day 2-3 – Hoi An

Day 4 – Ninh Binh Tour

Day 5 – Hanoi

Day 6 – Travel to Tokyo

Day 7-8 – Hakone Loop

Day 9 – Kyoto

Day 10 – Hiroshima