So, do you guys remember how we were considering where to bring the baby on a trip during my maternity leave? At the time, we were really thinking about one long trip, and New Zealand was at the top of our list. We have finally decided where we're going, and it's going to be two trips instead of one.
We are headed to Niseko, northern Japan, for a week in the village of Hirafu in mid-March, followed by a four day trip to the beachside resort town of Da Nang, central Vietnam, in the first week of April. Michael's parents will be in Hong Kong and join us on the trip to Da Nang. This will give us the best of both worlds, cold and hot! Also, while traveling is stressful, and doing it twice in such short order with an infant may be a bit daunting, I couldn't help but feel more stressed when contemplating what to do in one place for three weeks. Packing for a longer trip somehow felt more stressful to me. In addition, neither of these flights are too long, which also helped me breathe easier.
We nixed Europe pretty quickly because the flights were long and we didn't feel ready to deal with baby jetlag (let's save that for the U.S., shall we? Joy!). Plus, the weather didn't seem that promising in late March/early April - just cold enough to be uncomfortable and just warm enough to mean no snow. Finally, it's really hard to take our helper with us because the visa process for Europe is a bit of a nightmare.
After a lot of deliberation, we nixed New Zealand as well, because the flights were long and we didn't feel like we would actually get to enjoy as much of the outdoor activities as we would have liked at this point. While a visa for our helper would have been easier than Europe, it was not as straightforward as Japan (and we don't need a visa for our helper for Vietnam). Hopefully a trip to En Zed will be in our near future.
We have been to Niseko before, and love it. Sure, it'll be really cold, and we'll have to get our tropical baby a whole set of snow gear, but we will be enjoying a beautiful apartment with fireplace and soaking tub, and expansive views of Mt. Yotei and the surrounding birch forest covered in a dense blanket of snow. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, I really don't expect to be outside that much. Ideally, Michael gets to fit in a few runs on the slopes, while I get to eat (I'm already dreaming of the sushi, ramen, and crab hotpot) and soak in an onsen. One can hope! Fingers crossed.
And while we haven't been to Da Nang before, it's a place I've wanted to check out for a while now. It's barely 2 hours from Hong Kong by direct flight. We found a beautiful villa in the Hyatt Regency complex with its own swimming pool. The resort is an easy 15 minutes away from the airport. The weather will be sunny and hot, with lows in the 60s and 70s and highs in the 80s and 90s. I would also like to take a day to visit the neighboring city of Hoi An, a charming, well preserved UNESCO site with lots of good shopping and eating.
In both places we plan to have a car rental, so that we can travel on our own time and not be at the mercy of the hotel shuttles. After Da Nang, my maternity leave will have come to an end. I hope these travels help ease the sting of the return, although I suspect it will just leave me moony eyed for more fun times with Lola!
We are headed to Niseko, northern Japan, for a week in the village of Hirafu in mid-March, followed by a four day trip to the beachside resort town of Da Nang, central Vietnam, in the first week of April. Michael's parents will be in Hong Kong and join us on the trip to Da Nang. This will give us the best of both worlds, cold and hot! Also, while traveling is stressful, and doing it twice in such short order with an infant may be a bit daunting, I couldn't help but feel more stressed when contemplating what to do in one place for three weeks. Packing for a longer trip somehow felt more stressful to me. In addition, neither of these flights are too long, which also helped me breathe easier.
We nixed Europe pretty quickly because the flights were long and we didn't feel ready to deal with baby jetlag (let's save that for the U.S., shall we? Joy!). Plus, the weather didn't seem that promising in late March/early April - just cold enough to be uncomfortable and just warm enough to mean no snow. Finally, it's really hard to take our helper with us because the visa process for Europe is a bit of a nightmare.
After a lot of deliberation, we nixed New Zealand as well, because the flights were long and we didn't feel like we would actually get to enjoy as much of the outdoor activities as we would have liked at this point. While a visa for our helper would have been easier than Europe, it was not as straightforward as Japan (and we don't need a visa for our helper for Vietnam). Hopefully a trip to En Zed will be in our near future.
We have been to Niseko before, and love it. Sure, it'll be really cold, and we'll have to get our tropical baby a whole set of snow gear, but we will be enjoying a beautiful apartment with fireplace and soaking tub, and expansive views of Mt. Yotei and the surrounding birch forest covered in a dense blanket of snow. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, I really don't expect to be outside that much. Ideally, Michael gets to fit in a few runs on the slopes, while I get to eat (I'm already dreaming of the sushi, ramen, and crab hotpot) and soak in an onsen. One can hope! Fingers crossed.
And while we haven't been to Da Nang before, it's a place I've wanted to check out for a while now. It's barely 2 hours from Hong Kong by direct flight. We found a beautiful villa in the Hyatt Regency complex with its own swimming pool. The resort is an easy 15 minutes away from the airport. The weather will be sunny and hot, with lows in the 60s and 70s and highs in the 80s and 90s. I would also like to take a day to visit the neighboring city of Hoi An, a charming, well preserved UNESCO site with lots of good shopping and eating.
In both places we plan to have a car rental, so that we can travel on our own time and not be at the mercy of the hotel shuttles. After Da Nang, my maternity leave will have come to an end. I hope these travels help ease the sting of the return, although I suspect it will just leave me moony eyed for more fun times with Lola!
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