Ho Chi Minh City, as it is officially called, is a sprawling city located on the delta of the Dong Nai River however even locals still call it by its original name, Saigon. With the rapid industrialization recently of Vietnam a number of port facilities have been built along the channels of the Dong Nai River and usually they are referred to by the name of the nearest town, like Phu My. Currently there are a number of locations where cruise ships can dock. These are all working industrial ports where cruise terminals are generally not available, but Vietnamese government is planning expansion to meet the growing demand.
Ho Chi Minh Skyline
The SPCT Port facility is one of the locations where cruise ships have docked and is about fifteen to twenty miles from Saigon’s CBD. Larger cruise ships are currently using the SP-PSA Saigon International Terminal which, by road, is over thirty miles from Saigon.
In either case there is virtually little within five miles of the cruise ship docking area to accommodate visitors and getting into Saigon will require either a tour or a taxi. Most cruise ships offer tours into Saigon along with excursions to the Mekong River and more.
Transportation – Most cruise passengers take advantage of buses arranged by their ships. Usually taxis are available and a one-way trip into Ho Chi Minh City will cost about 700,000 Dong or about US$30 (be sure and confirm the price before starting out). Additionally Grab (a Vietnam service similar to Uber) is popular in Vietnam so if you are inclined refer to their app (https://www.grab.com/vn/en/). We have heard that Grab drivers are a bit scarce near the port but common in the city.
Showroom on Đồng Khởi St.
Currency – Currently the US Dollar is worth about 23,000 Vietnamese Dong but the good news is the Vietnamese gladly accept American Dollars. Credit cards are welcome at many businesses but ATM’s can have major charges for transactions.
Attractions – The primary destination is Saigon where you will find notable landmarks like the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office, the War Remnants Museum, Independence Palace (former Presidential Palace) and many cultural centers. Saigon is also a shopper’s paradise with bargains found everywhere. The city has a number of major markets with An Đông Market being the most popular for general merchandise. There is also Đồng Khởi Street an upscale shopping and restaurant neighborhood.
Looking for a great bon voyage gift? Want some solid ideas to make your cruise experience even more enjoyable? We’ve curated a number of great items to help you make a splash!
Bon Voyage Ideas!
Our extended family has done some cruising and it is a family tradition to have a bottle of wine delivered to the cruisers stateroom as a bon voyage gift. That’s not a new idea and that tradition goes way back to the era of those famous trans-Atlantic liners. Todays cruise lines are perfectly happy to help you keep that tradition alive.
The cruise lines want to make it as easy as possible for you, just check out their web sites. Take a look at Royal Caribbeans Bon Voyage Shop for some gift ideas. We’ve got a few ideas of our own and ours just might give you a bit more bang for your buck.
Please note: We do not receive and fee or commission from Amazon.
Fun CruiseGiftsTo Give or Use Yourself
One of our favorite cruise bon voyage gift ideas is to give them a Cruise Specific Gift Card before they leave on their cruise. After all the money spent booking the cruise and getting to the ship it’s a nice way to help their money go further.
[Note clicking on an image links to the items on Amazon.com]
Door Magnets
Royal Caribbean Door Magnets
Let them know who’s cruising. Marking and decorating stateroom doors is becoming a fun way to show who you are and celebrate the occasion. This makes a great bon voyage gift too. This door magnet design is customized for Royal Caribbean cruisers.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Carnival Cruise Door Magnets
Marking and decorating stateroom doors is becoming a fun way to show who you are, where you are and celebrate the occasion. A great bon voyage gift idea too. This item is designed to be customized for Carnival cruisers.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Onboard Gift Cards
We can’t think of a better bon voyage gift than an onboard gift card. After spending all that money on a cruise what could be a better gift than extra money to spend onboard. Save money on board by applying this gift card to the onboard cruise account! Use it for drinks, a special dinner or to take a land tour.
Know someone taking a Princess Cruise? How about a little more fun on that cruise? This is a fantastic bon voyage gift! Get this gift card and apply the amount you select. These cards allow the guest to apply the money on the card right to their onboard charge account. They’ll love you for it!
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Know someone taking a Carnival Cruise? Get this gift card and apply the amount you select. A great bon voyage gift! These cards allow the guest to apply the amount on the card right to their onboard account. They’ll love you for it!
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Know someone taking a Holland America Cruise? Get this gift card and apply the amount you select. These cards allow the guest to apply the amount on the card right to their onboard charge account. They’ll love you for it!
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Gadgets & Helpful Ideas
Little things that make a big difference. These simple items come in handy when you cruise. After a couple of decades of cruising we’ve discovered a number of items that we think are worth their weight in gold. Nightlights, hooks, beach-towel clips and more.
There’s Never Enough Outlets
Most cruise ships have a pretty limited number of electric outlets and often they are difficult to use, especially with odd sized plugs like voltage converter plugs. Be prepared with a single device that provides three grounded outlets (125V/15A, Max 1875W）and three USB charging ports（3.1A Total) . It auto-detects charged devices to deliver optimum and fastest charging speed up to 5V/2.4A. Don’t cruise without this cube.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Some Ships Have Built-In Nightlights But Unfortunately Many Don’t – It’s Good To Be Prepared
These are great for cruising but also they’re a great travel accessory anywhere you go. From cruise staterooms to B&B stays, this will save a lot of stubbed toes and unnecessary middle of the night noise. Battery operated with charging by USB outlet they are motion activated. We put one on the bathroom counter wherever we travel.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Need To Stay In Touch While On Board?
Traveling with a family or group? Sometimes catching up with people can be a hassle. From pools to cafe to buffets, spa and games, where are they? Cruising with children adds a whole other challenge with missed meetings and kids not checking in. Here’s an easy answer. Carry a set of walkie talkies.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
All Cruise Lines Use A Keycard As A Stateroom Key And For Charging Onboard – Carry Your Seapass Card In Style.
Carrying your ship keycard (Seapass) on a lanyard is a convenient way to keep it handy. There are any number of clear cases available but this one has more style than any we’ve found. We also like that this one has a convenient pocket on the back that makes the card even more accessible. Order in pink, black or rose-gold.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Lots Of Fun To Be Had Lounging By The Pool
A packet of these little jewels are the perfect way to keep your towel clipped to your lounger while marking your space with bright tropical colors. No more towels sliding down just as you go to stretch out. Comes in packs of eight. They also come in real handy holding clothes to dry in your stateroom. Enough said…
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Extra Secure Luggage Tag Holders Help Make Sure You Get Your Bags Onboard And To Your Cabin
Gone are those days when the cruise line sent luggage tags to you before the cruise. Today when you register for your cruise the website provides a set of printable screens to create your tags. The job is now yours to print, fold and attach those to your bags. Keep a set of these secure luggage tag holders handy and feel secure that you bags will make it to your stateroom. This set is designed to hold tags from Carnival, Princess, P&O, Norwegian, Costa, and Holland America.
This design was created to match tags from Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity. Travel secure knowing that your bags will find you on time.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Freshen Up Your Clothes While You Travel
These items don’t just save money but time too. We travel over a quarter of the year with an average trip being around thirty days. Over the years we’ve developed a system that involves easy to rinse out cloths, travel detergent and accessories to hang up items and prevent wrinkles.
Our Favorite Inflatable Travel Hangers
These rugged hangers pack flat and inflate providing a broad shape to prevent those puckers that flat hangers can produce on shoulders of blouses, shirts and T’s.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Wash Out Clothes On The Road
Handy packets of mild laundry detergent to rinse out clothes in a sink. There are a number of choices but these are easy to carry and meet our requirements.
Click the image for a direct link to Amazon.com
Spray Away Those Wrinkles
No Matter how carefully you pack there always seem to be a few unsightly wrinkles when you unpack. Here’s a quick way to deal with those wrinkles without spending much.
You can buy and carry a commercial wrinkle release product or you can make you own for just pennies. We carry a small 30ml spray bottle when we travel with just a small amount of ingredients inside. When we need to use it we just fill with water, shake and mist the wrinkles. Here’s the recipe:
To a 30 ml Bottle add the following ingredients
1 Teaspoon rubbing alcohol
1/4 Teaspoon uncolored fabric softener
Shake
Once you get to your room and start unpacking, just fill the bottle with water, shake and spray. If you run out, just plain water can also do almost as good a job. Just mist lightly and hangup the clothes to dry.
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If Seasickness Is A Concern – Stop Worrying
While issues with seasickness on a cruise are usually mild and short lived there are actions you can take to greatly reduce the likelihood of it occurring. My wife has a long history of suffering from motion sickness and was very concerned before our first cruise. She went to the doctor to get a prescription for a patch but received some good advice as well. The doctor also had a problem with seasickness but while boating in Australia he was told about taking ginger and claimed it worked great for him.
My Wife Swears By Ginger
Before our first cruise she went to the doctor to ask for a prescription for the patch. The doctor gave her the prescription but recommended she try ginger capsules first. She starts taking them a day before the cruise and takes three a day with meals (very important unless you want to taste ginger all day) during the cruise. Problem solved. She’s taken over fifty cruises with a few through high seas with barely a problem with seasickness.
Click the image to link to this item on Amazon.com
What Exactly Is Seasickness?
It results from a conflict in the inner ear, where the human balance process resides. The inner ear actually senses motion without relying on our sense of sight. Inside a rocking ship the inner ear detects changes in both up-and-down and side-to-side motion as the body moves along with the ship. Since the ships interior moves along with the us, our eyes register a relatively stable unmoving scene. Confused by this perceptual conflict, the brain reacts with a release of stress-related hormones that can ultimately lead to nausea, vomiting, and vertigo.
The first approach to lessoning the symptoms is to settle the stomach which is why Darmamine and ginger help. Another approach is to demonstrate to the mind that the perceptual conflict is real. Going somewhere where you can look out at the sea is and effective way to resolve the perceptual conflict. Going out on deck also provides fresh air which also helps.
More Motion Sickness Options
Over the counter options to consider just in case. It’s always better to be prepared…
Want to keep those travel photos where they will be safe and easy to access years from now? Have concerns about recollecting details of that great trip? Want to remember names and addresses of favorite restaurants. B&B’s, wineries, that you can recommend? We have the answer that fits those concerns perfectly.
After each trip we take time to compose a book about the trip. We’ve discovered these are great alternatives to boring our friends and relatives with a slide show. If guests seem interested, it is easy to pass around our trip books. We also look forward to sharing them with our grandchildren and refreshing our own memories as time goes by.
While we keep a couple of shelves in a bookcase full of cases of travel brochures, maps and notebooks the collection we like to share with family and friends is our printed travel books.
There are a number of services that allow you to create a custom designed book from your own photographs and have it professionally printed and mailed back to you. People use these services to create wedding albums, family photo albums, special occasion records and unique gift items. While we have created books for a number of reasons, our favorite is to keep a record of our travels.
The process is simple and easy. You create an online account, upload photographs to the online site and use the website to pick your format, design each page and add copy. These services also offer numerous styles to pick from and decorative accents you can add to the pages. When you finish, simply order, pay and expect a finished book to come in the mail in a few days.
Probably the largest of these services is Shutterfly but you should also check out PrinterPix, Snapfish along with Google that provides a similar service. Some popular photo software like Apple’s Photo also have direct links inside their apps to create a photo book.
If you travel west on Florida State Road 24 from Gainesville to where the road ends, you find yourself in a bit of old Florida. Out in the middle of nowhere on Florida’s northwest coast is the little village of Cedar Key with its’ population of around 700.
A post office named “Cedar Key” was established here in 1845 and by 1860 Cedar Key became the western terminal for the Florida Railroad, connecting it to the east coast of Florida. The town grew as a result of the railroad but in the late nineteenth century when shipping terminals and a railroad line where built in Tampa, the town got passed by.
At the start of the twentieth century, fishing, sponging and oystering had become the major industries but, when the oyster beds played out, the town became primarily a draw for sport fishing. It probably looks much now the way it did sixty years ago but, behind the façade, there have been some changes. The town now has a thriving art community and attracts tourists to the galleries and shops while fishermen are drawn the Gulf.
We made our first ever visit to Cedar Key in July of this year and, while the town has its’ appeal, summer is not the time to go since a good deal of the town is actually closed. When we went looking for a cup of coffee in the morning we simply could not find anything open. The town has a few coffee shops and a donut shop and they were all closed for vacation when we were there. There are only a few hotel/motels in town and none of them received much in the way of inviting reviews. The one we chose, The Beach Front Motel, was basic and nowhere near a swimming beach.
You arrive in the town as Florida 27 turns into D Street. It crosses 2nd Street which is the main thoroughfare with a number of nice shops. If you turn left on 2nd Street and in a block make a right on C Street you will find yourself heading toward the Gulf and Dock Street.
Back in town at the corner of D and 2nd is Tony’s Seafood Restaurant which is famous for award winning clam chowder. That was where we went for our first meal and we were not disappointed as the chowder was remarkable. You can also take some cans home with you or mail order later. If you are looking for white tablecloths and atmosphere in Cedar Key you’re probably going to be disappointed.
Along the waterfront on Dock Street there are a number of gift shops and five or six restaurants worthy of consideration. One popular with locals is Steamers Clam Bar and Grill offering a fairly extensive menu including lots of fresh seafood in both small plates and entrees. They also featured a nice selection of local craft beers and a full bar.
Cedar Key is not the sort of town you just discover since it is so far off the beaten track. There is very little in the way of a beach to draw people and nothing like a resort area vibe. Unless you are into fishing, it’s hard to think of a reason why you would spend more than a day here. There is one recommendation we would make, however. If you are spending time in north central Florida say near Gainesville, Cedar Key is an excellent choice for a day trip. It is less than an hour and a half drive. It has a character that reminded us of the Florida Keys thirty years ago – a laid back place with good seafood, fishing and salt air. The town has a vibrant art colony and the galleries and craft/gift shops are worth perusing. Also, in winter when more things are open, we were assured that we would find more to make this trip off the beaten path worth the time.
2022 UPDATE: The Keukenhof is currently scheduled for 2022 starting March 24th through May17, 2022 and tickets will go on sale in November 2021. This year the Keukenhof is requiring online ticket purchases to be for a specific date so you may want to pay attention to scheduling and dates.
Spring in Holland means flowers and the world’s largest garden and showplace is the Keukenhof Gardens with over 7 million spring flowering bulbs on display. There are also acres of commercial tulip fields around the gardens for as far as you can see.
The gardens are located in Lisse only a short distance southwest of Amsterdam. The festival runs from mid March thru mid May and is serviced by special buses from Amsterdam airport with a combined ticket that includes entry and return fare. If you are staying in Amsterdam it’s easy to get there. Take a bus or tram to the Amsterdam Central Station and catch an express train directly to the airport. Once there it isn’t hard to figure out – just look for the crowds and the Keukenhof buses. Usually there are combination tickets at the airport that include round trip bus and admission. You can check with tour agencies or your hotel but that will probably cost you an extra $5 to $10 and you will end up traveling the same route regardless (bus, train, bus admission and return).
The Keukenhof is actually a trade fair where over one hundred growers display their flowers. The name actually means “kitchen garden” and the place is fondly referred to as the Garden of Europe. The annual event features restaurants and coffee shops along with gift shops. If you enjoy visiting gardens, do not miss this as it is like a theme park dedicated to flowers. The best thing is to anticipate a lot of people, go early in the day and be patient.
At the Keukenhof and the flower markets in Amsterdam, many people question if they can buy tulip bulbs and bring them back through U.S. Customs. The answer is yes and no. Some vendors sell bulbs specifically with U.S. and Canada certificates that allow them through customs. These are a small selection and many of the same items are readily available back in North America and often at a better price. Unfortunately a majority of the Dutch bulbs will not have the certificate and are not allowed to be brought back to North America legally.
If you are cruising across the Atlantic on a spring repositioning cruise headed for northern Europe, there is a good chance you will end up in Amsterdam around tulip festival time. Besides the Keukenhof, Amsterdam also has a city wide tulip festival around the same time that features dozens of gardens and grounds to visit, so be sure and add these to your plans.
Cruising Alaska has been gaining in popularity for a number of years and it doesn’t seem like interest will taper off any time soon. All the major cruise lines offer itineraries as do a number of the smaller cruise lines.
A cruise ship approaches Hubbard Glacier
Cruising up The Misty Fjord towards Dawes Glacier
If you’re looking for a cruise recommendation Alaska’s glaciers is high on most lists. Alaska has a lot to see and almost any cruise will be a memorable experience but there are differences to understand.
First, some information on the general environment. Coastal Alaska has a limited number of ports and locations so there is a lot of cruise similarities. The major cruise ports are Skagway, Juno, and Ketchikan and each has a lot to offer and all are very popular with passengers. There are also a couple of less visited stops with the most common being Hanes. Another common stop on Alaska itineraries is Icy Straight Point. Both of these are more opportunities to take tours than an actual destination port. There are also a couple of “cruise only” destinations. The first is the Misty Fiord which is usually a half day of cruising up thru the narrow fiords. The other is Hubbard Glacier where the ships cruise up near the face of the glacier. There is also the port of Seward and it is the farthest north of the itineraries with most one-way cruises going it up to Seward with it being a jumping off point for trips to Denali with it being a start of the Alaska Rail Tours.
Hubbard Glacier calving
Mendenhall Glacier
Cruising Alaska has a lot to offer from coastal mountains, to whales and wildlife but the most spectacular sights are the glaciers. You should make that a prime consideration when selecting a cruise line and its itinerary. Because the number of ships allowed to go up near Hubbard Glacier are limited, it’s recommend that your first priority is to select a cruise that includes either Hubbard or Dawes glaciers. Hubbard is a huge glacier that terminates into a bay and is famous for “calving” huge chunks into the water constantly. In addition the bay is filled with icebergs and flowing chunks of ice with seals being a common sight.
Mendenhall Glacier
Mendenhall Glacier is another popular destination and usually all you need is a bus ticket from Juneau. The glacier is a National Park with a good visitor center and great hiking trails and it really is only a half hour bus ride from town. Almost all Alaska cruise passengers have an opportunity to visit Juneau and this glacier.
Dawes Glacier
Up on the Juneau Ice Field
A third glacier of particular note is Dawes Glacier located at the end of Tracy Arm Fjord. It also terminates into water with calving being a frequent event. Unfortunately it is not on many ship itineraries because there is also a limit on ships allowed all the way up this fjord. Tracy Arm Fjord is a branch off the Misty Fjord and while cruises often include Misty Fjord, few make it up to Dawes Glacier.
A fourth frequent glacier opportunity is a helicopter tour up on the Juneau Ice Field. These tours are available from Juneau as well as Skagway. One tip that can save you some money is to book the tour on your own rather than thru the ship. You can call using U.S. cell service at most points near the popular towns and often book at the last minute. The tours only take a couple of hours so it is easy to fit into a port day as well.
Landing on a glacier
Again regardless of which cruise line you prefer you need to pay attention to the available itineraries and try to get a cruise that includes either Dawes or Hubbard. Most cruise offers will list Hubbard on the cruise itinerary but you will probably have to make some inquiries regarding if Dawes glacier is on an itinerary.
Helicopter tours up to a glacier in the Juneau ice field are usually available in Juneau or Skagway.
The Intentional Travelers 