Trip overview
Give the classic Hanoi-to-Saigon route one more day and Hue slots neatly into it: a night in the old imperial capital, a boat on the Perfume River past pagodas and royal tombs, and a road crossing over the Hai Van Pass in place of a third flight. Everything else, the bay, Danang, Hoi An and the delta finish in Saigon, stays exactly where it is on the shorter version.
Most of these eleven days run well outside the Mekong basin our own trips are built around, and that is worth saying plainly: choose this route if you want history and geography across the whole country, not only the delta. The one section that does sit within our specialism is the final full day, a canal boat trip south-west of Saigon, more a preview than the in-depth delta trips we usually run.
Trip highlights
- A full day of sightseeing in the capital
- A night aboard a traditional junk on Halong Bay, including Sung Sot Cave
- An afternoon on the Perfume River, with Hue’s pagodas and royal tombs
- An overland crossing of the Hai Van Pass into Danang
- The Ba Na Hills cable car, the Golden Bridge and King Peak
- The Cu Chi Tunnels and a half-day trip into the Mekong Delta
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Arriving in Hanoi (about 45 minutes / 25 km from the airport)
Noi Bai receives the flight roughly 45 minutes’ drive from the Old Quarter, where French-built boulevards run past temples several hundred years older and a handful of lakes break up the street plan. After check-in, nothing is fixed for the rest of the day, so rest off the flight or start exploring the trading streets whenever you feel like it.
Day 2: A full day exploring Hanoi
A full day works its way through the capital: first the grounds around the Mausoleum and the stilt house, then the One Pillar Pagoda, then on to the Temple of Literature, once the country’s earliest national seat of learning. Lunch is followed by the Museum of Ethnology and its survey of the country’s ethnic groups, and the day tails off with a slow walk around Hoan Kiem Lake.
Day 3: North to the coast for a night afloat on Halong Bay (3 hrs / 170 km)
Collection happens between 8:00 and 8:30am, and the road out cuts across the paddies and hamlets of the Red River Delta on the way to the coast. From the deck of an old-style junk you watch Dinh Huong, Ga Choi and Sail Island slide by, with time to swim off Ti Top Island along the way. Dinner comes out as the sun drops behind the karsts, and squid fishing is there for anyone not ready to call it a night.
Day 4: Cruising back from Halong Bay to Hanoi (3 hrs / 170 km)
Sunrise brings an optional Tai Chi class, followed by roughly an hour on foot through Sung Sot Cave, one of the larger chambers cut into the bay’s limestone. As brunch is served, the boat doubles back past Ga Choi and Tortoise Island to Tuan Chau International Passenger Port, where a car is already waiting to take you inland.
Day 5: Flying to Hue for an afternoon on the Perfume River
Phu Bai International Airport is a short drive outside the old royal capital, reached by a domestic flight. Check in, then step straight onto a boat on the Perfume River, which calls at Thien Mu Pagoda, Hon Chen Temple, the Forbidden City and Dong Ba Market on its way through the city’s religious and royal quarters.
Day 6: Over the Hai Van Pass to Danang, evening in Hoi An (2.5 hrs / 120 km)
South of Hue the road climbs into the Hai Van Pass, breaking at Lang Co Beach, with Minh Mang Tomb, the Cham Museum and Marble Mountain also worked into the drive. By evening you are on foot in Hoi An’s Ancient Town, past the Tan Ky old house, the Assembly Hall, the Japanese Covered Bridge and the riverside market, before heading back to Danang to sleep.
Day 7: Up to Ba Na Hills by cable car
A cable car system counted among the region’s more advanced carries you up into Ba Na, cool enough at altitude that some liken it to a coastal Sa Pa or Da Lat. Waiting up there: a wine cellar inside the French Village, the Golden Bridge in its stone hands, Linh Ung Pagoda and the fairground rides of Fantasy Park, with a second cable car reaching on to King Peak at 1,487m for views over the city and Quang Nam province before you head back down.
Day 8: South by air to Ho Chi Minh City
A short hop puts you down at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, met by a driver for the transfer into town. The remainder of the day is unplanned, whether that means resting or an early look around downtown before the programme resumes.
Day 9: Underground at the Cu Chi Tunnels (1.5 hrs / 70 km)
The Cu Chi Tunnels draw more visitors than almost any other wartime site in the country, a network resistance fighters excavated and used through years of fighting. Your guide brings you through parts of the tunnels, explaining the tactics behind the design and how people managed to live underground, the kind of context a display case cannot really provide on its own.
Day 10: Out to the Mekong Delta by boat (2 hrs / 80 km)
Roughly two hours southwest of Saigon, the delta’s rice paddies take over from city streets. A boat along the Vam Xep canal puts you ashore on a small islet, where a walking path threads past orchards, a bee farm and a household hand-rolling coconut candy in a hamlet workshop. A horse cart covers part of the return, and a rowboat carries you through a stretch of shaded backwater, before the drive delivers you back into the city.
Day 11: A last half day in Ho Chi Minh City before you fly out
The morning is spent on foot, a vehicle within reach for whenever you want it, taking in the former Presidential Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, the old Saigon Post Office, Dong Khoi Street, the Continental Hotel and City Hall, the cluster of streets left over from the colonial era. From there, the transfer runs straight to Tan Son Nhat International Airport for your flight out.
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
- 10 nights / 11 days
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