Vacation packages for family

After falling absolutely head over heels for the city of Hoi An, I was very reluctant to spend any time outside of it while I was in the area. However, a persuasive tour group coupled with my weak will (and the fact that I suffer from FOMO) led me to sign up for a morning bike tour through the countryside around Hoi An. And I'm so glad I did. My Intrepid Travel group joked throughout our whole Vietnam tour that it really should have been advertised as an active or cycling adventure due to the number of optional bike tours we all went on. We spent roughly 12 hours on bikes over the course of a week, traversing the roads, ruts, and countryside lanes that are the *real* windows into Vietnam. On this particular bike tour, we were out of Hoi An by 7:30 a.m., making for the countryside for an easy morning jaunt. The sun was just high enough to glint seductively off the rice paddies that surround the the city, reminding me just how BEAUTIFUL Vietnam truly is. We rode through a maz...

There are times when I visit a city that I don’t know much of, and try to feel it the way it presents itself to me. So, it was such that I was in Hanoi for a few nights this week. Before leaving Singapore, I was already struggling to calculate their currency in my head (500,000 VMD = S$32)–– how do I even convert?!?). Because the trip was at really last-minute notice, 24 hours after booking air-tickets and accommodation at a newly opened boutique hotel, my plane took off for Hanoi. Now, I’d been to Vietnam (Mui Ne) once, few years back, for a beach holiday. My impression about Vietnam was – it’s very difficult to communicate with the locals because they can’t speak English. Houses at Mui Ne are old with grey concrete/stone as the flooring so I don’t think it ever feels clean. Children play outdoors and didn’t care that their clothes have been dirtied.  Vietnam to me felt like a place still stuck in time. I knew there’re many motorbikes in this city, but I s...