Trip overview
Ten days is enough time to string together the things most first-time visitors want from Vietnam: a capital worth walking, a night on Halong Bay, a different pace in the centre, and the energy of Ho Chi Minh City to finish. Two domestic flights carry the long jumps, from the capital to Danang and from Danang to Saigon, so the days themselves stay short on driving and long on seeing things.
Most of this route sits well outside the Mekong basin that our own trips are normally built around, and we say so plainly: book this one if seeing the length of the country matters more to you than staying within our specialism. The one stretch that does sit inside it is the final full day, a boat trip into the delta south-west of Saigon, closer in spirit to the mornings we usually build entire itineraries around.
Trip highlights
- A full day working through the Old Quarter and the capital’s major monuments
- A night aboard a traditional-style junk on Halong Bay, with a walk through Sung Sot Cave
- The Ba Na Hills cable car, the Golden Bridge and King Peak
- An evening on foot through Hoi An’s Ancient Town
- The Cu Chi Tunnels and a half-day boat trip into the Mekong Delta
- A colonial-era walking tour of Ho Chi Minh City before you fly out
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Landing in Hanoi (about 45 minutes / 25 km from the airport)
Landing at Noi Bai puts the Old Quarter about 45 minutes away by car, a grid of lakes and shophouses where colonial-era buildings sit beside pagodas centuries older still. Nothing is scheduled once you have checked in, so the choice is yours: rest up, or start finding your bearings among the shops and street stalls while the itinerary properly gets going tomorrow.
Day 2: Hanoi on foot, a full day in the capital
The capital’s set-piece sights take up the whole day: the Mausoleum grounds and stilt house first, then the One Pillar Pagoda before the Temple of Literature, founded as the country’s earliest seat of higher learning. Lunch gives way to the Museum of Ethnology, which sketches out the country’s ethnic patchwork, and the afternoon settles into an unhurried circuit of Hoan Kiem Lake and its backstreets.
Day 3: North to Halong Bay, boarding for a night on the water (3 hrs / 170 km)
Between 8:00 and 8:30am your guide collects you, and the road out threads through the rice paddies and hamlets of the Red River Delta before reaching the coast. Once you board, an old-style wooden junk carries you past the limestone towers of Dinh Huong, Ga Choi and Sail Island, pausing off Ti Top Island for a swim. As evening settles over the water, dinner is plated on deck, and anyone still awake can try squid fishing before turning in.
Day 4: Waking up on Halong Bay, cruise back to Hanoi (3 hrs / 170 km)
For early risers there is optional Tai Chi as the sun comes up; everyone regroups afterwards for a walk through Sung Sot Cave, roughly an hour on foot inside one of the bay’s biggest chambers. Brunch is laid out as the boat retraces its path past Ga Choi and Tortoise Island, arriving at Tuan Chau International Passenger Port where your onward transport is already waiting.
Day 5: A short flight to Danang, first evening in Hoi An (1 hr / 30 km)
Once you land in Danang, the afternoon runs to the Cham Museum and Marble Mountain before the road continues on to Hoi An for the evening. On foot through the Ancient Town, the route calls at the Tan Ky old house, the Assembly Hall, the Japanese Covered Bridge, the old communal wells and the riverbank market stalls, before doubling back to your hotel.
Day 6: Up to Ba Na Hills by cable car
Ba Na sits high enough that the air noticeably cools, reached by a cable car system rated among the most advanced anywhere in the region; some describe the hill station as Danang’s own version of Sa Pa or Da Lat. Once up top there is a French Village wine cellar to explore, the Golden Bridge cradled in its stone hands, Linh Ung Pagoda and the fairground rides at Fantasy Park. A further cable car climbs on to King Peak at 1,487m, where the city and the rest of Quang Nam province spread out below.
Day 7: South by air to Ho Chi Minh City
Tan Son Nhat International Airport receives you after a short domestic flight, and a driver takes over from there for the ride into the city. However you choose to spend what remains of the day, whether resting up or getting an early feel for downtown, tomorrow’s programme picks up fresh.
Day 8: Underground at the Cu Chi Tunnels (1.5 hrs / 70 km)
Few sites in the country pull the crowds the Cu Chi Tunnels do, a network resistance fighters dug and relied on across years of fighting. Walking sections of it with your guide, you hear how the system was engineered and what daily life underground actually involved, well beyond anything a glass case in a museum could convey.
Day 9: Out to the Mekong Delta by boat (2 hrs / 80 km)
The delta opens up about two hours southwest of the city, rice paddies stretching toward the horizon. A boat down the Vam Xep canal drops you on a small islet, where a footpath winds through orchards and hamlets, past a bee farm and a household hand-rolling coconut candy. The morning closes with a stretch by horse cart and a slow pass through a shaded backwater by rowboat, before the drive returns you to the city.
Day 10: A last half day in Ho Chi Minh City before you fly out
On foot for half the day, with a vehicle trailing behind for whenever you need it, the route covers the former Presidential Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, the old Saigon Post Office, Dong Khoi Street, the Continental Hotel and City Hall, the streets that make up the colonial quarter. Afterwards it is a direct run out to Tan Son Nhat International Airport for your flight home.
What’s included
- Hotels in the class you choose, twin or double occupancy, with breakfast each morning, or an equivalent property if the one named is full.
- All meals written into the day-by-day programme below.
- A private air-conditioned vehicle for every transfer and excursion in the programme.
- An English-speaking local guide at each stop on the route.
- Every boat trip, river crossing and cruise named in the itinerary.
- Entrance fees for the sites listed in the programme.
- Drinking water in the vehicle and on boat days.
- Government tax and service charge.
Not included
- International and domestic flights, and rail tickets.
- Visas, and any fee collected at a border post.
- Travel insurance.
- Meals and drinks that are not written into the programme.
- Personal spending such as laundry, phone calls, minibar, souvenirs and watersports.
- Early check-in, late check-out and room upgrades.
- Anything added on the day at your request outside the printed programme.
- Gratuities for your guide and driver.
- Costs arising from weather, flooding, road closures or other events beyond our control.
- Bank transfer charges.
Booking this trip
- Days
- 9 nights / 10 days
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