Highlights
Meet warm, welcoming people on the crowded pavements of Hanoi and Saigon, Vietnam's two biggest cities.
Sail Halong Bay's clear jade water aboard a wooden junk boat.
Walk through old Hoi An and Hue, where Vietnam's past is still lived in daily.
Take in the Mekong Delta: quiet villages, markets held on the water, mixed cultures.
Tour Details
11 Days / 10 Nights
Departs every other Sundays
Trip Grading: Easy
3 - 5 Star Hotels
Group Size 16 PAX (Maximum)
Includes Daily Breakfast, 4 Lunches, 2 Dinners
Guaranteed Departure with minimum of 2 PAX
Itinerary
A driver meets your flight and takes you to the hotel. In the evening, gather with the group over welcome drinks; your Tour Leader then walks you through the logistics of the days ahead.
The day belongs to Hanoi. You pass Long Bien Bridge, St Joseph’s Church and the Opera House by car, then continue on foot into the Old Quarter, the 36 streets where traders still work the markets much as they always have. Next comes the Ho Chi Minh Quarter, laid out around the man Vietnamese call Uncle Ho: his mausoleum, the Presidential Palace, the stilt house he lived in and the One Pillar Pagoda. A short drive after that reaches the Citadel and Flag Tower, listed by UNESCO in 2010.
Lunch is at KOTO, after which you visit the Temple of Literature, founded as the country’s first university and now a place of Confucian worship. The Women’s Museum follows, a clear-eyed look at how Vietnamese women live and what they carry. Tran Quoc and Ngoc Son temples come next, then the jail American pilots knew as the Hanoi Hilton, kept today as a small museum, before the drive back to your hotel.
Note: Fridays and Mondays bring no entry to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and the Citadel plus the Ho Chi Minh Museum are also closed each Monday. Only the exterior of the Presidential Palace can be seen. Once a year the Mausoleum shuts for upkeep, usually from September for a span of 2 to 3 months; through that period it too is visible from the outside alone, though the rest of the Ho Chi Minh complex stays open.
Head roughly 90kms south this morning to Hoa Lu, which served as Vietnam's capital back in the 10th century. Here stands the sanctuary honouring Dinh Tien Hoang, an emperor from the Dinh Dynasty, plus a temple raised to the Le Emperor; when the Le line came to an end, the seat of power shifted to Ha Noi.
Lunch is at your own expense, and Trang An Landscape Complex is next, a maze of limestone peaks and valleys, parts of it under water and walled in by near-vertical rock. Caves here hold traces of people living in the area without a break for over 30,000 years. The site won UNESCO world heritage listing not long ago, and you cross it by small boat. Ninh Binh follows, where you spend the night.
The drive to Halong City, where boats leave for the bay, runs past rice paddies and rising limestone towers. Halong Bay counts some 3,000 of those karsts and ranks among the country's great natural sights. You step aboard a well-fitted junk boat and set off across the jade water, with a generous lunch served before the boat pauses at quieter inlets for you to look around. Come evening, settle into your own cabin, stretch out on deck or take a seat at the bar.
An early start brings the option of a Tai Chi session on the sundeck; otherwise simply sit back and take a last look at the scenery before a buffet brunch. Once ashore, the drive returns to Hanoi for your flight to Hue, the old imperial capital set beside the Perfume River.
A half day is given to Hue, once the seat of Vietnam's emperors. First the tomb of Tu Duc, fourth ruler of the Nguyen Dynasty, laid out among lakes and frangipani trees. Then Bunker Hill, high above the Perfume River, where the plains run west towards the mountains, and a quick look at the Tiger Colossium. The Citadel comes next, the Nguyen emperors' own residence, listed by UNESCO in 1993; the Tet Offensive of 1968 flattened much of it and repair work continues. A short drive ends the morning at Thien Mu Pagoda, the oldest and finest in Hue.
Lunch is at your own cost, then the road to Hoi An climbs the Hai Van Pass, the line that splits Vietnam north from south in both map and mind, its summit almost always under cloud. Check in on arrival; the evening is yours to wander Hoi An.
Set off by bicycle early for Cam Kim Island, riding roughly 13km along narrow paved lanes across its interior, between rice and corn fields and past quiet hamlets. Kim Bong carpentry village is the first stop, where woodworkers have long turned out boats, timber houses and furniture for the old town, some of it standing since the 18th century. A household here makes noodles and rice paper, and you watch the process. On to Tra Nhieu, a fishing village, for a conversation with a family about how they live and what they keep; try your hand at throwing a net for shrimp, crab and fish. A boat then returns you to Hoi An town, about an hour on the water.
The afternoon is spent on foot in the UNESCO listed Old Town. Hoi An was once the busiest trading port in the country, and centuries later most of its fabric survives. Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, British and French merchants all left their mark on the buildings. It was here that Alexandre De Rhodes, a French missionary, brought Catholicism to Vietnam, along with the Roman alphabet now used to write the language. The route takes in an old family house, a Chinese Assembly Hall, the Hoi An Museum, the Japanese Covered Bridge and Chau Ong pagoda, finishing in the Ancient Town with free time on your hands.
A transfer to Danang is followed by a flight into Saigon, the commercial heart of Vietnam. From the airport you head for the Cu Chi Tunnels, where guides explain how this warren beneath the fields was used during the Vietnam War. Most of the layout has been rebuilt at ground level, though anyone who wishes can drop below and feel what conditions were like. Back in the city, the rest of the day is free for its noise and colour.
Leave the hotel early for Cai Be, roughly two hours from Saigon and well into the Mekong Delta, with green countryside and easy-going people along the way. A wooden boat is waiting at the Cai Be pier to take you out onto the floating market. It is not the region's largest, yet it stands as a symbol of the delta and is one of the best places to understand how the river works as a marketplace, which is why so many visitors come. Drifting between the vendors you sample fresh tropical fruit in the cool breeze, and the day slides by at a pace worth settling into. Step off for a while to look at workshops and small craft factories in town, and watch the odd, effective ways sellers call out their goods, then take a sampan through the canals at an unhurried pace. Lunch is home cooked and served in an old house, with Mekong specialties on the table. Afterwards the boat heads upstream on the Mighty Mekong towards Vinh Long, past everyday rural life in the delta, pausing at a brick and pottery works and at a floating fish farm. Back on the mainland a car is waiting to drive you to Can Tho for the night.
Three rivers meet at Can Tho, a university town in the middle of the delta. This land belonged to the Khmer Kingdom long ago, and a sizeable ethnic Khmer population remains. Another early start takes you to the Cai Rang floating markets, busiest around 0700. A small boat threads the channels, crowded with sellers who have come in from the farms around with fruit and vegetables piled high. It makes for loud, bright viewing. You are back in Saigon by mid-afternoon to check into the hotel, and the group gathers for a farewell dinner in the evening.
The last morning starts on foot among the landmarks of central Saigon: Dong Khoi Street, the Municipal Theatre, the Rex Hotel, the Hotel de Ville, the Post Office, Nguyen Hue Boulevard and Notre Dame Cathedral. A vehicle then carries you past the old US Embassy, now the country's consulate, and on to the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. Binh Thanh district follows, with the Ba Chieu wholesale market on Saigon's eastern side, and finally the Ngoc Hoang (Jade Emperor) Pagoda, 124 years old and packed with fine carving in wood and stone. The tour closes at your hotel; a transfer runs out to the airport in time for your onward flight.
What´s included
- 9 nights in described Hotel or similar
- 1 Night Cruise Accommodation
- Daily Breakfast for 2 Persons
- 4 Lunches and 2 Dinners
- Transport in air-conditioned vehicles
- Small group touring
- All Entrance fees
- English speaking tour leader
- All Tipping
- Arrival and departure transfers
Excluded
- Any Personal Expenses
- Visa fees
- Porters
- Travel insurance, plus private costs like drinks, laundry, telephone calls and the mini-bar
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