Thailand and Vietnam in 14 days: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Ha Long and Hoi An

Thailand for six days and Vietnam for eight, joined by a two-hour flight. The temples and the night markets, then a limestone bay slept on and a tailoring town with lanterns — plus why this pairing beats the Thailand–Cambodia run, and the one month it does not work.

Southeast Asia
14 days
≈ AED 5,900 / person
Two of Southeast Asia's best countries without the Cambodia detour everyone else makes

Researched & checked by Nitesh Parasher Last verified 2 November 2026

Before you go

Thailand and Vietnam is the Indochina pairing people arrive at after ruling out the other two. Bangkok to Hanoi is under two hours, both countries are cheap once you land, and neither asks much of you administratively.

Six days in Thailand and eight in Vietnam. Vietnam gets the extra two because it is a long thin country and its best parts are far apart; Thailand is compact enough that six days buys Bangkok and the north properly.

Thailand in 14 days and Vietnam in 14 days are each country at full length.

Figure USD 1,600 (≈ AED 5,876) per person. November to March.

Before you go: the admin

Visas, which are easier than they were

Thailand: visa-free entry for a long list of nationalities, commonly 30 or 60 days. A digital arrival card is required before you land — it is free on the official site, and the sites charging for it are not official.
Vietnam: the e-visa is open to most nationalities, 90 days, single or multiple entry, applied for online. Allow three working days and apply two to three weeks out. Some nationalities are exempt for short stays; check whether yours is before paying.
Print the Vietnam e-visa approval. Airline staff at check-in ask for it on paper more often than they should.
Last checked: 2 November 2026.

The flight in the middle

Bangkok to Hanoi is about one hour fifty, flown many times a day by both full-service and low-cost carriers.
Fly into Hanoi, not Saigon. This route runs north-to-south inside Vietnam only as far as Hoi An, and starting in the north means the internal flight is short and the overland legs are short.
There is no sensible land crossing between them. Laos or Cambodia sits in between; the flight is the route.

Money, which behaves differently in each

Thailand is largely cashless now in the cities and cash-only in the markets. Vietnam is cash-first almost everywhere except hotels.
Vietnamese notes have a great many zeros. The 500,000 and the 20,000 are similar colours and the mistake is expensive in one direction.
Use bank ATMs in both. Decline the machine’s own exchange rate when it offers to convert for you — that is the one avoidable charge on this trip.

Day by day

Day 1 — Land in Bangkok

Arrive and do nothing structural. The flight in is long for most people.
Evening — a riverside dinner, or Chinatown’s Yaowarat Road, which is a street food market that runs until late.
Stay near a Skytrain or Metro station. Bangkok’s traffic is the single thing that eats days here, and the rail removes it.

Day 2 — The Grand Palace, and the river

08:00 — the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew at opening. Shoulders and knees covered, both of you, and they enforce it.
11:00 — Wat Pho next door for the reclining Buddha, then a Thai massage in the temple’s own school, which is where the practice is taught.
14:00 — the cross-river ferry to Wat Arun, which costs almost nothing and is the best few minutes on the river.
Avoid the tuk-tuk driver who says the palace is closed today. It is not; the trip ends at a gem shop.

Day 3 — Markets, then the night train or a flight

Morning — Chatuchak if it is a weekend, which is 15,000 stalls and genuinely overwhelming; otherwise the flower market at Pak Khlong Talat, which runs around the clock.
Afternoon — Jim Thompson House, a teak compound in the middle of the city, and the best hour of air-conditioned history in Bangkok.
Evening — north to Chiang Mai. The overnight train is the better story and the sleeper berths sell out weeks ahead; the flight is an hour and costs about the same.

Day 4 — Chiang Mai: the old city

Morning — the walled old city on foot. Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh, and the moat.
Afternoon — Doi Suthep, up the mountain, with the city below it. Go late and stay for the light.
Evening — the Sunday Walking Street if your day lands right, otherwise the Night Bazaar.
Chiang Mai is noticeably cooler than Bangkok and the reason people stay longer than they planned.

Day 5 — An elephant sanctuary, or a cooking class

An ethical elephant sanctuary — observation only, no riding and no bathing. The ones that advertise rides or washing are not sanctuaries, whatever the name says.
Or a cooking class, which starts at a market and is the single best half-day in northern Thailand.
Or Doi Inthanon, the country’s highest point, with waterfalls and two royal pagodas.

Day 6 — Back to Bangkok, fly to Hanoi

Fly Chiang Mai to Bangkok in the morning, then Bangkok to Hanoi in the afternoon — or fly Chiang Mai to Hanoi direct if the seasonal route is running, which saves most of a day.
Leave a real margin between the two flights if they are on separate tickets. A missed connection you booked yourself is entirely your problem.
Evening — arrive Hanoi, eat bun cha, sleep.

Day 7 — Hanoi: the Old Quarter

Morning — the Old Quarter on foot, which is 36 streets each named for the trade that once filled it.
11:00 — the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university, nine hundred years old and quiet.
Afternoon — Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple, then egg coffee, which sounds wrong and is not.
Evening — the water puppets, forty-five minutes, a thousand years old, and better than it sounds.
Crossing the road here is a skill. Walk at a steady pace and do not stop; the traffic flows around you. Stopping is what causes the accident.

Day 8 — Ha Long Bay, slept on

Morning — transfer to the bay, about two and a half hours on the expressway.
Take an overnight boat, not a day trip. The day trip gives you about four hours on the water, most of it in convoy; the overnight gives you the bay at dusk and at dawn with nobody on it.
Consider Lan Ha Bay instead, which is the same limestone and a fraction of the boats.
Afternoon — a kayak through a cave, then swimming off the boat.
Check the cancellation terms. The authorities close the bay in bad weather and the operator decides, not you.

Day 9 — Back to Hanoi, fly to Da Nang, drive to Hoi An

Morning — brunch on the boat, back on land by midday.
Afternoon — back to Hanoi, fly to Da Nang. The flight is eighty minutes; the train is sixteen hours and is for people with more days than this.
Evening — 45 minutes from Da Nang to Hoi An. Arrive, eat cao lau, which exists nowhere else.

Day 10 — Hoi An: the old town, and a fitting

Morning — the old town, a UNESCO site of yellow walls and a Japanese covered bridge. A ticket covers entry to a set number of heritage houses; you will not use all of them.
Midday — a tailor, if you want one. Order on your first full day — a good suit or dress needs two or three fittings and the one-day promise is how you end up with something that does not fit.
Evening — the lanterns. The old town goes vehicle-free and the river fills with paper lanterns.

Day 11 — My Son, or the beach

05:30 — My Son at dawn, an hour away: brick Cham towers in a jungle valley, ninth century, and almost empty before the coaches at nine.
Or An Bang Beach, fifteen minutes from the old town, with loungers and seafood.
Afternoon — a second fitting if you ordered one.
Evening — a cooking class, which here starts with a boat ride to the market.

Day 12 — The Hai Van Pass, or Ba Na Hills

The Hai Van Pass by car — the coast road north to Da Nang over a mountain shoulder, with the lagoon on one side. Hire a car and driver; the motorbike version is for people who ride properly.
Or Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge, which is a cable car, a French-themed hilltop and the hands. It is a theme park and it is busy; go at opening or not at all.
Or a third fitting and an afternoon doing nothing, which is what Hoi An is actually for.

Day 13 — The last day

Morning — collect the tailoring. Try everything on in the shop and say so if it is wrong; that is what the final fitting is.
Afternoon — An Bang, or the pool.
Evening — a last lantern-lit dinner on the river.

Day 14 — Out from Da Nang

Da Nang airport is 45 minutes from Hoi An and flies to Bangkok, Singapore and the Gulf, as well as back to Hanoi and Saigon.
Book the car the night before. Early departures from Hoi An are a known scramble.
Allow extra if you are carrying new tailoring — it is bulkier than it looks.

Costs and practicalities

Best time to visit

November to March, which is the only window that suits both.

November to February — cool and dry in Thailand, dry in central Vietnam, cool and grey in Hanoi. The best overall. Hanoi in January can sit near 15°C and people pack for the tropics and regret it.
March and April — hot in Thailand, building towards 40°C by April, and fine in Vietnam. Songkran in mid-April is a country-wide water fight and worth planning around either way.
May to October — Thailand’s wet season and central Vietnam’s typhoon risk from September to November. October and November are the worst months for Hoi An, which floods, and the old town has the high-water marks painted on the walls.
June to August is the compromise — hot and showery in Thailand, dry and hot in central Vietnam, and cheaper everywhere.

Travel tips

Fly Bangkok to Hanoi, not to Saigon. North-first keeps every onward leg short.
Apply for the Vietnam e-visa two to three weeks out and print the approval.
Do Thailand’s digital arrival card on the official site, free, before you fly.
Sleep on Ha Long Bay rather than day-tripping it.
Order tailoring on your first full day in Hoi An, not your last.
In Bangkok, stay on the Skytrain or Metro. Traffic is what eats a short stay.
Cross the road in Hanoi at a steady walk, without stopping.
Carry small notes in Vietnam and look twice at the zeros.
Agree a tuk-tuk or taxi fare before getting in, or insist on the meter.
No elephant riding or bathing. A sanctuary that offers either is not one.

What this trip actually costs

Two people, 13 nights, mid-range throughout, international flights excluded:

Item	Cost
Hotels, 13 nights across both countries	USD 1,100 (≈ AED 4,040)
Food and drink, 14 days	USD 540 (≈ AED 1,983)
Internal flights, two people	USD 520 (≈ AED 1,910)
Ha Long Bay overnight boat, two people	USD 420 (≈ AED 1,542)
Entries, guides and the cooking class	USD 340 (≈ AED 1,249)
Ground transport and transfers	USD 280 (≈ AED 1,028)
Total for two	USD 3,200 (≈ AED 11,752)

Roughly USD 1,600 (≈ AED 5,876) per person for fourteen days.
Three internal flights is what this route costs you — Bangkok–Chiang Mai, Bangkok–Hanoi, Hanoi–Da Nang. A direct Chiang Mai–Hanoi seasonal flight removes one of them and most of a day.
The Ha Long boat is the biggest single line and the one not to downgrade. The cheap boats are cheap for reasons you notice at two in the morning.
Tailoring is not in this table. A suit runs a few hundred dollars and a dress rather less; budget it separately if you want it.
Hotel picks here are chosen on location, not on commission — always check prices and recent reviews before booking.

What to pack

Modest clothing for temples in both countries — shoulders and knees, enforced at the Grand Palace.
A warm layer for Hanoi between December and February. It is genuinely cool and damp.
Slip-on shoes. You will take them off many times a day.
Insect repellent with DEET — dengue is present in both.
A rain shell rather than an umbrella.
Motion sickness tablets for the Hai Van Pass and the bay.
A Type A/B/C adapter for Vietnam, Type A/B/C/O for Thailand, 220V in both.

Part of a bigger trip?

Thailand in 14 days is the Thai half at full length.
Vietnam in 14 days runs the whole country top to bottom.
Vietnam and Cambodia in 12 days is the same region with Angkor instead of Thailand.
Thailand and Laos in 11 days is the quieter northern pairing.
Thailand’s islands in 8 days is the beach half this route leaves out.

FAQ

Why fly into Hanoi rather than Ho Chi Minh City? Because Vietnam is 1,600 km long and this route only goes as far south as Hoi An. Landing in the north means the internal flight is eighty minutes and the overland legs are under three hours. Landing in Saigon means doing the whole country in eight days, which is a different trip.

Can I cross between Thailand and Vietnam overland? Not directly — Laos or Cambodia sits in between, and routing through either adds days this itinerary does not have. The Bangkok to Hanoi flight is under two hours and is the route. If you want the overland version, Thailand and Laos is the trip to look at.

Is six days enough for Thailand? For Bangkok and the north, yes. It is not enough to add the islands — those need a separate flight, a transfer and at least four nights to be worth it. If the beaches are the point, do Thailand on its own and leave Vietnam for another trip.

When should I avoid this trip? September to November, because central Vietnam’s typhoon season peaks then and Hoi An floods most years. April if you dislike heat, since Thailand reaches 40°C. November to March works for both countries and is what this itinerary is written for.

Day trip or overnight on Ha Long Bay? Overnight, every time. A day trip gives you about four hours on the water in a convoy of other day boats. An overnight gives you the bay at dusk and at dawn, which is the only time it is quiet, and a kayak through a cave without a queue.

Prices and entry rules change, and what you need depends on your passport; last checked 2 November 2026, so confirm with the embassy or your airline before booking.