Small Group Journeys
Highlights
Tour Details
Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Hanoi
You are met at Noi Bai and driven into the city, forty minutes or so depending on the bridge traffic. The rest of the day is yours. Hanoi is best taken slowly on the first afternoon — a coffee on a low stool, a walk around Hoan Kiem lake, an early night. Your leader gathers the group before dinner to run through the week and to explain how the road crossings work.
Day 2: Hanoi on foot
A full day, most of it walking. We start at the Temple of Literature, laid out in 1070 and still arranged as five linked courtyards, then the Museum of Ethnology on the western edge of town for the house reconstructions in its garden. The afternoon is the Old Quarter: thirty-six streets each named for the trade once carried on there, a few still keeping to it. Water puppets at the end of the day, then dinner together.
Day 3: East to Halong Bay
We leave after breakfast and take the Hanoi–Hai Phong expressway, then the Hai Phong–Halong road over the Bach Dang bridge — about 150 kilometres, two and a half hours with one stop. Boarding is around noon, lunch is served as the boat clears the port, and the afternoon runs through Sung Sot cave and the steps up Ti Top. Kayaks go out before dark. Dinner and the night at anchor.
Day 4: The bay, then back to Hanoi
Tai chi on the sun deck for anyone who wants it, then the boat works its way back through the islands with a stop at Luon cave, where a low arch opens into an enclosed lagoon. Brunch is served while we cruise in. We disembark around eleven and are back in Hanoi by mid-afternoon. The evening is free, and your leader will point you at the better places to eat near the hotel.
Day 5: Departure
What´s included
- 4 nights: 3 in 3–4 star hotels in Hanoi and 1 aboard a cruise boat
- Daily breakfast, 2 lunches and 2 dinners
- Halong Bay entrance and cruise route fees
- Kayaking and the cave visits on the cruise itinerary
- Road transfers in air-conditioned vehicles, Hanoi–Halong return
- English-speaking tour leader throughout, plus a local guide in Hanoi
- Water puppet theatre ticket and Temple of Literature entry
- Arrival and departure airport transfers
- Bottled water throughout, and all tipping for drivers, boat crew and guides
Excluded
- International flights into and out of Hanoi
- Vietnam e-visa, applied for online before you travel
- Travel insurance, which is a condition of joining the group
- Meals not listed above, and all drinks
- The Halong Bay Management Board suspends sailing in bad weather and decides on the morning itself; if the night aboard is cancelled we substitute a hotel and a day programme, but the difference in cost is not refundable by us
- Personal expenses, laundry and optional activities
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