Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Da Nang: a Seven-Day Route North to Center

Trip overview

The opening days follow our usual pattern up north: a full sightseeing day in the capital, then a night spent aboard a junk on the bay. What sets this route apart comes after — instead of pressing on to a third or fourth region, one short flight puts you in Da Nang, and you keep the same room there for two nights while day trips cover both the coast and Hoi An after dark.

None of it — the capital, the bay or the central coast — belongs to the Mekong basin, and it's worth being upfront about that: the river trips we're mainly known for run further south, through the delta provinces and on toward Cambodia and Laos. This route is for anyone wanting a broader look at Vietnam beyond that core business, not a substitute for a delta trip. On the water, expect the central anchorage to fill up with other cruise boats by evening, and know that a departure can be rerouted or called off with little warning if conditions turn — operators put safety ahead of the printed schedule.

Trip highlights

• A full sightseeing day in Hanoi followed by a night aboard on Ha Long Bay
• One flight and one Da Nang hotel carrying you through both final nights
• Sandstone carvings at the Cham Museum and the caves of Marble Mountain on arrival
• An evening walk through Hoi An's Old Town under lantern light
• A full day at Ba Na Hills, riding a long cable car line up to the Golden Bridge

Your day-by-day itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Hanoi (about a 45-minute, 25 km transfer from the airport)

Shophouses under old shade trees, streets that still carry a colonial-era stamp, and a scatter of small pagodas around quiet lakes set the tone for the capital from the moment you arrive. Since most flights come in during the afternoon or evening, plan on little more than a settling-in walk through the Old Quarter's narrow lanes and food stalls before the first full day begins.

Day 2: Hanoi city tour

A full circuit of the capital's landmarks fills the day, opening at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex and his wooden stilt house before moving on to the One Pillar Pagoda and the Temple of Literature. West Lake accounts for the next stretch, with Quan Thanh Temple and Tran Quoc Pagoda on its shore, and after lunch at the Museum of Ethnology the day settles at Hoan Kiem Lake, leaving time to wander the Old Quarter around it.

Day 3: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, board overnight cruise (about 3 hours / 170 km one way)

Guests are usually picked up around 8am for the drive east through the paddy fields and small settlements that make up the Red River Delta. Once the wooden junk gets underway, the course weaves between named formations that include Dinh Huong, Ga Choi, Dog and Sail Islands, with a working pearl farm and a paddled detour into Luon Cave along the way; a swim off Ti Top Island fills the late afternoon before dinner is laid out on deck at sunset — expect the central bay to be crowded with other boats by nightfall, and know that the route can shift at short notice if the weather turns.

Day 4: Ha Long Bay to Hanoi, Surprise Cave (about 3 hours / 170 km one way)

The morning opens gently with Tai Chi up on the sundeck before the junk pulls in at Surprise Cave, where a climb of roughly a hundred steps leads to a chamber that takes about an hour to walk through in full. With brunch cleared away, the return leg passes Ga Choi Island, Binh Phong Mountain and Tortoise Island on the way to Tuan Chau port, where transport is waiting for the drive back to the capital.

Day 5: Fly to Da Nang, Cham Museum and evening Hoi An walk

The short domestic hop from Noi Bai Airport to Da Nang covers the distance in roughly ninety minutes gate to gate. Hotel check-in comes first, then the sandstone carvings held inside the Cham Museum and the cave shrines and viewpoints tucked through Marble Mountain fill out what's left of daylight.

After sunset, a walking route through Hoi An's Old Town covers Tan Ky House, the merchant assembly halls built by Chinese trading communities, the Japanese Covered Bridge and the old market stalls, with a drive back to your Da Nang hotel closing out the evening.

Day 6: Ba Na Hills excursion

Ba Na Hills draws frequent comparisons to a cooler, central-coast answer to Sa Pa or Da Lat, reached here by one of the longer cable car rides anywhere in Southeast Asia rather than a mountain road. The day on top covers a wine cellar built into the French Village, the widely photographed Golden Bridge held aloft by its two oversized stone hands, Linh Ung Pagoda and the rides at Fantasy Park, closing with the coastal view from Linh Tu Pagoda at the summit, 1,487 metres above the city — strong wind occasionally shuts the cable car for short spells, somewhat more often between September and December than the rest of the year.

Day 7: Departure from Da Nang

Nothing is scheduled on the final morning before your transfer to Da Nang International Airport, wrapping up a week that swapped a fourth destination for two settled nights on the central coast.

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

Full details on visas, payments and what happens once you land are gathered on the [Vietnam travel information page](vietnam/travel-information).

Let us know when you’d like to go and how large your group is, and we’ll check space and come back with a plan and a price by email.

Request this itinerary

See also