When we decided we were going to come back to Asia for this trip we were torn on what other countries to visit. We enjoyed so many of the South East Asian countries that we would have happily returned to all of them but given that we only had a few weeks we had to make some tough choices. We debated between the Philippines and Vietnam for quite a while. We have never been to the Philippines so that was both a major draw and setback. We really only had about a month to plan and execute the vacation and so while a new place sounded exciting, I just didn’t feel prepared to pull it off. It felt like it deserved some more care and attention that I had to give it.
Jacob had always placed Vietnam in his top countries – it really has a bit of everything – nature, beaches, great food, friendly people, cheap everything and a relatively stable tourism infrastructure. So while there won’t be any night buses or walking over borders this trip we felt we could still give the kids a good intro to another one of our favourites.
We landed in Hoi An 8 days after we left home excited for some real heat. We spent our first day getting from the airport into our home stay, the kids made quick use of the pool before we wandered off towards the beach in search of supper.
Our villa is tucked back by the river, about a 10 minute walk in the other direction to the beach. It’s run by a Vietnamese German couple and still operates on the honour system for the canteen. We made great use of the pool, the free bikes and the made to order breakfast. There were times when it might have been more convenient to be more central to downtown, but I think we made the right choice. As fun as the markets and old town are, they are hot and hectic. It was nice to have a calm place to return to at the end of the day.
Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids 
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