Raising my family in Singapore has meant that air travel is second nature to my two young kids. Between long-haul flights to visit family back in the US to weekends spent exploring Southeast Asia, I frequently take advantage of living 20 minutes from Changi International Airport, which is consistently ranked among the world's top airports.
The affordable ticket prices on budget airlines can make a week in Bali or Phuket more economical than staying in the city-state — which, this year, was named the most expensive city in the world.
But while planes have been a constant, neither my 8-year-old daughter nor 5-year-old son had ever been on an overnight train. My experiences were also limited to one Amtrak Auto Train ride from Washington, D.C. to Florida as a teenager and a journey from New Delhi to Mumbai during an Indian adventure a few years later.
So when my husband brought up the idea of flying to Hanoi and taking a train up to Sapa, a mountainous region in northern Vietnam, I was excited to try something different.
It was a last-minute decision. The kids had a week off of school in late October, and I still had vacation days to use. The Vietjet tickets were 180 Singapore dollars each, or $131, despite being booked a mere two weeks before the departure date.
I also reached out to Ethos, a social enterprise and travel tour company in northern Vietnam, for help with arranging treks and a homestay in Sapa. When I asked for advice on booking transportation from Hanoi, they offered to book the train tickets.
And just like that, we were all set for an adventure in the mountains of Vietnam.