Trip overview
Mountains lead this one off, not heritage sites: a long drive north to Sa Pa for the Fansipan cable car and highland scenery, back to Hanoi for a night on Halong Bay, then a flight south for two beach nights at Nha Trang before Saigon closes the trip. No other itinerary in this range gathers a highland leg, a night on the water and a beach stay into one route.
There is real driving involved, around twelve hours in total on the Sa Pa road alone, offset by two domestic flights further south, and the route sits almost entirely outside the Mekong basin that is our actual specialism. It suits travellers who value variety of landscape over a tightly packed, city-based schedule and who don’t mind a long drive with a view; the one stretch that touches our own ground is the boat trip tacked onto the final days in Saigon.
Trip highlights
- The Fansipan cable car and Sa Pa’s terraced mountain scenery
- A night aboard on Halong Bay, including Sung Sot Cave
- Two beach nights at Nha Trang, with Ponagar Temple and Vinpearl Land
- The Cu Chi Tunnels
- A half-day boat 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 puts you about 45 minutes from the Old Quarter, a walkable centre where colonial-era buildings, older temples and a scatter of lakes sit close together. Nothing is arranged for the rest of the day once you have checked in, so use it to rest or take a first stroll before the programme starts properly tomorrow.
Day 2: Driving north into the mountains, to Sa Pa (6 hrs / 315 km)
Heading northwest on the Noi Bai–Lao Cai highway takes around six hours with a break partway, terraces climbing the hillsides on either side as the elevation builds. Once you have checked in, the town itself is yours to explore for the evening.
Day 3: Heaven Gate, Silver Waterfall and the Fansipan cable car
Fields of rose and chayote line the morning drive up to Heaven Gate and the Tram Ton Pass, the country’s highest road crossing at 2,047m, with a break at Silver Waterfall to take in the Hoang Lien Son range spread out below. From there, one of the world’s longer and higher cable car lines finishes the climb to the 3,143m summit, locally called the Roof of Indochina, in about 25 minutes.
Day 4: Back down from the mountains to Hanoi (6 hrs / 315 km)
Heading back the other way on the Lao Cai–Noi Bai highway takes another six hours, with a stop along the route and the same terraced scenery now visible in daylight. Check in once you reach the capital, with the evening left open.
Day 5: A full day exploring Hanoi
A whole day is given over to the capital: the grounds around the Mausoleum and stilt house to start, the One Pillar Pagoda next, then the Temple of Literature, once the country’s earliest national school. The Museum of Ethnology fills the afternoon after lunch with a look at the country’s ethnic communities, and the day winds up with a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake.
Day 6: North to the coast for a night afloat on Halong Bay (3 hrs / 170 km)
You are collected between 8:00 and 8:30am for the drive out across the paddies and villages of the Red River Delta. From an old-style junk you take in Dinh Huong, Ga Choi and Sail Island, stopping to swim near Ti Top Island along the way. Dinner is served on deck as the sun goes down, with squid fishing available before you turn in for the night.
Day 7: Halong Bay by morning, Nha Trang by night (3.5 hrs / 190 km, then 1 hr / 50 km)
There is optional Tai Chi at sunrise, then a walk of roughly an hour through Sung Sot Cave, among the bay’s bigger grottoes. Once brunch is cleared away, the junk heads back past Ga Choi and Tortoise Island to Tuan Chau Port, where a car takes over for the run to Noi Bai Airport and the flight south to Cam Ranh. A further hour along the coast from Cam Ranh International Airport brings you into Nha Trang, checking in for two nights by the sea.
Day 8: A day around Nha Trang
First stop is Ponagar Champa Temple, 8th-century Hindu towers set above the Cai River, before the day moves on to the Nha Trang Aquarium and out to Vinpearl Land, the cable-car resort island with its rides, water park and stretch of beach. A gentler day, ahead of tomorrow’s flight south.
Day 9: Flying on to Ho Chi Minh City
A domestic flight lifts off from Cam Ranh International Airport and puts you down at Tan Son Nhat, where a driver is waiting for the transfer into town, the point where beach days give way to city sightseeing for what is left of the trip.
Day 10: Underground at the Cu Chi Tunnels (1.5 hrs / 70 km)
Few wartime sites anywhere in the country pull the numbers the Cu Chi Tunnels do, a network dug and used by resistance fighters across decades of fighting. Walking parts of it alongside your guide, you get an explanation of both the tactics and the everyday reality of life below ground, detail a display case on its own could never give you.
Day 11: A boat trip into the Mekong Delta (2 hrs / 80 km)
Rice paddies replace city streets about two hours southwest, marking the edge of the delta. The Vam Xep canal carries a boat to a small islet, where the walking route passes orchards, a bee farm and a hamlet workshop turning out coconut candy by hand. Before the drive back, there is a horse cart stretch and a slower pass by rowboat through the shaded waterways.
Day 12: A last half day in Ho Chi Minh City, then departure
The morning runs on foot, a vehicle nearby whenever needed, past the former Presidential Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, the old Saigon Post Office, Dong Khoi Street, the Continental Hotel and City Hall, all part of the same colonial-era quarter. From there, the transfer to Tan Son Nhat International Airport is direct, in time 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
- 11 nights / 12 days
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