A full day in Hanoi. You walk the shore of Hoan Kiem Lake at the middle of the city, then Dong Xuan market, before moving on to the Ho Chi Minh complex: Ba Dinh Square, the Presidential Palace and the residence behind it, and the One Pillar Pagoda, which dates from 1049.
Lunch is taken locally. The afternoon covers the Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo Prison – the jail American pilots called the Hanoi Hilton – St Joseph’s Cathedral and the Opera House, closing with time on foot in the Old Quarter.

The road out of Hanoi runs to Halong City, the way into the bay, passing village fields and the ordinary work of the countryside. A comfortable junk is waiting; lunch comes aboard as you set off between a scattering of the 3,000 islands that push up out of the sea. Later there is your own cabin, or the open deck, or the bar.

Tai Chi on the sundeck at first light, then brunch while the boat makes its way back to port. Disembark, and the road leads to Hanoi airport for the flight south to Hue, once the seat of the emperors. Check in at the hotel; the afternoon is free.

A guided morning covers the tomb Emperor Tu Duc built for himself, along with the Imperial Palace, the Citadel and Thien Mu Pagoda. The drive south to Hoi An then takes in some of the finest country in Vietnam. Once checked in, the afternoon is yours to explore alone.

Half an hour on a bicycle brings you to Tra Que, the herb village. You walk the beds, hear how the place began, then get to work: turning the soil, laying seaweed as fertiliser, raking, sowing, watering and picking. A foot soak follows, and then lunch, which you help cook at a restaurant in the village. On the menu are 'Tam Huu' spring rolls and 'Banh xeo', the local pancake. Afterwards there is a lesson in cutting and wrapping the greens before the ride back to your hotel.

The afternoon goes on foot through a town that UNESCO lists as world heritage. Its buildings still show what French, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and British traders left behind. You look inside an old family house, then the Hoi An Museum, then Chau Ong pagoda, one of the Chinese assembly halls, and the covered bridge the Japanese built, finishing in the Ancient Town with time left over.

A short drive to Danang, then a flight to Saigon, the country's commercial engine. You check in, wash off the journey, and head out again to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Getting into part of that underground network makes the Vietnam War stories concrete. Back in Saigon, the rest of the day is your own.

Out to Ben Tre, deep in the delta country Vietnam calls its rice bowl. A boat carries you onto the river and then into the narrow canals off it. There are small workshops to look in on, and a pedicab ride to lunch. Heading back, you stop at a Cao Dai temple, loud in colour and unlike anything else. A farewell dinner with the group closes the evening in Saigon.

Breakfast, then a guided walk through Saigon. Dong Khoi Street first, then Notre Dame Cathedral and its heavy colonial front, then the Reunification Palace, and finally Ben Thanh Market, where the stalls and their owners take over. In the afternoon you are taken to the airport for the next leg.