Trip overview
This is the longest itinerary in our Vietnam lineup, and the only one that treats the highlands and the coast as two separate stops rather than folding one into the other. Everything in the Hue-and-Danang route sits inside it, plus a hill-town stay at altitude, a beach stop on the south-central coast, and a Cham Island boat trip layered in before the drive south.
Two flights carry the long jumps, into Hue at the start and out of Danang towards the hills, while the rest of the country unrolls by road: over the Hai Van Pass, down from the highlands to the coast, and on to Saigon. Most of these fifteen days lie well outside the Mekong basin that is our actual specialism, and the trip suits travellers who have two weeks or more and want the country covered properly; the delta excursion closing out the final days is the one stretch that overlaps with the trips we know best.
Trip highlights
- A night aboard on Halong Bay, with Sung Sot Cave
- Hue’s Perfume River and its royal-era landmarks
- The Ba Na Hills cable car and the Golden Bridge
- A Cham Island boat trip and an evening in Hoi An’s Ancient Town
- Da Lat’s hill scenery and the dunes at Mui Ne
- The Cu Chi Tunnels and a boat trip into the Mekong Delta
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Touching down in Hanoi (about 45 minutes / 25 km from the airport)
Landing at Noi Bai, you are about 45 minutes by car from the Old Quarter, a tight, walkable centre where lakes, French-era shopfronts and pagodas older than the colonial period all sit within a few streets of each other. Once you have checked in the day is entirely open, whether that means sleeping off the flight or setting straight out into the trading streets.
Day 2: A full day taking in Hanoi
A whole day works through the capital: first the grounds around the Mausoleum and stilt house, then the One Pillar Pagoda, then the Temple of Literature, once the country’s earliest seat of national learning. Lunch is followed by the Museum of Ethnology and its picture of the country’s ethnic communities, and the day tails off with a slow walk around Hoan Kiem Lake and the streets behind it.
Day 3: Setting off for a night afloat on Halong Bay (3 hrs / 170 km)
Collection happens between 8:00 and 8:30am, and the drive to the coast crosses the paddies and hamlets of the Red River Delta on the way out. From the deck of an old-style junk, the cruise passes Dinh Huong, Ga Choi and Sail Island, with a swim stop near Ti Top Island. As the light drops away over the water, dinner is served, with squid fishing on offer for anyone before bed.
Day 4: Waking up on the bay, cruising back to Hanoi (3 hrs / 170 km)
There is an optional Tai Chi class on the sundeck at sunrise, then a walk of about an hour through Sung Sot Cave, one of the bay’s bigger chambers. Brunch is served as the junk heads 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 sits a short drive from the old royal capital, reached by a domestic flight. After checking in, a boat on the Perfume River works through Thien Mu Pagoda, Hon Chen Temple, the Forbidden City and Dong Ba Market, threading the city’s royal and religious sites into one afternoon.
Day 6: Crossing the Hai Van Pass to Danang (2.5 hrs / 120 km)
The road out of Hue climbs into the Hai Van Pass, breaking at Lang Co Beach, and folds in Minh Mang Tomb, the Cham Museum and Marble Mountain before you settle in for three nights on the central coast.
Day 7: Up to Ba Na Hills by cable car
A cable car system rated among the more advanced in the region carries you up into Ba Na’s cooler air, a hill station some liken to a coastal version of Sa Pa or Da Lat. There is a wine cellar built into the French Village, the Golden Bridge in its stone hands, Linh Ung Pagoda and the rides of Fantasy Park, and a second cable car climbing on to King Peak at 1,487m, with the city and Quang Nam province laid out below, before the ride back down.
Day 8: A speedboat to Cham Island, then Hoi An’s Ancient Town (1 hr / 30 km)
A twenty-minute speedboat ride out of Cua Dai harbour reaches Cham Island, where a local guide takes you round the Cu Lao Cham museum, the boat-shelter cove at Au Thuyen and Hai Tang Temple, nearly two centuries old, with lunch and a swim worked in at Bai Bac beach. Heading back, a stop in Hoi An’s Ancient Town covers the old houses, the assembly hall and the Japanese Covered Bridge before the return to Danang.
Day 9: Flying inland to the hill town of Da Lat
A domestic flight lifts you inland to Da Lat, built by the French as a hill station at roughly 1,500m. Once you have checked in, the afternoon takes in Lang Biang Mountain, Datanla Waterfall and the flower gardens, a distinctly cooler mood after the coast.
Day 10: Down from the highlands to Mui Ne (4 hrs / 170 km)
A four-hour drive brings you down off the plateau to Mui Ne on the south-central coast. After checking in, the rest of the day belongs to the beach.
Day 11: A jeep tour around Mui Ne
Nothing is planned for the morning, and a jeep takes over in the afternoon for a run round the area: Suoi Tien, known locally as the Fairy Stream, a working fishing village, then the White and Red Sand Dunes, saved for last so sunset falls while you are there.
Day 12: Back to Ho Chi Minh City by road (5 hrs / 220 km)
Roughly five hours of driving returns you to Saigon, where a driver meets you at the bus station for the transfer to your hotel, marking the shift into the tunnels and the delta that close out the trip.
Day 13: The Cu Chi Tunnels, then a half day downtown (1.5 hrs / 70 km)
The morning belongs to the Cu Chi Tunnels, dug and relied on by resistance fighters across the country’s decades of wartime conflict. After lunch, half a day on foot through the colonial-era downtown covers the former Presidential Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, the old Saigon Post Office, Dong Khoi Street, the Continental Hotel and City Hall.
Day 14: A boat trip into the Mekong Delta (2 hrs / 80 km)
About two hours southwest, rice paddies signal the start of the delta proper. A boat along the Vam Xep canal drops you at a small islet, and the walking route from there threads orchards, hamlets, a bee farm and a household coconut-candy workshop. The visit winds down with a horse cart stretch and a rowboat pass through shaded backwaters, ahead of the drive returning you to the city.
Day 15: Departure from Ho Chi Minh City
There is nothing planned for the final morning beyond shopping or one last walk, ahead of the transfer to Tan Son Nhat International Airport that brings this two-week journey, started at the opposite end of the country, to a close.
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
- 14 nights / 15 days
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