North Vietnam Discovery with Pu Luong

Once you have landed in Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport, proceed to the arrival gate, where you will find our driver standing with your name card. Together, we take the drive into the centre of Hanoi, where you will enter your hotel and check-in.

Relax at your leisure after this with some free time in the capital, perhaps best spent discovering Hanoi Old Quarter along its many streets and its central attraction of Hoan Kiem Lake.

As the afternoon turns to early evening, the guide will arrive at your hotel and introduce themselves. They will take you to a local restaurant, where you will receive your official welcoming to Vietnam, and the North Vietnam Discovery with Pu Luong tour, over dinner.

Take breakfast this morning and await the arrival of the driver and guide. We start our northern Vietnam tour at its wildest and most off-the-beaten-track destination – Pu Luong, which is reachable by the incredibly scenic and historic Ho Chi Minh Highway.

We arrive around midday and check into the Pu Luong Retreat, our exquisite accommodation, to enjoy a delectable lunch and the views of mountains and rice paddies around.

After we have relaxed for a while, we take the drive to the Cham River, where we find some of Pu Luong’s iconic waterwheels standing proudly in the water. These are intelligent designs of bamboo coupled with wooden aqueducts that transport Pu Luong’s river water to its rice paddies.

We explore the wheels and begin our walk afterwards, treading past humble dirt roads flanked with jungle-clad hills and outstanding fields of gold or green rice. We will experience the raft trip along the river. These rafts are totally safe and a joy to ride, as the calm river and the world of greenery around us make for a remarkably peaceful experience.

After arriving at Tan Lap Bridge, we head back to the Pu Luong Retreat via the car that will be waiting for us. Here, we have dinner and the opportunity to enjoy a truly tranquil setting in a wonderful silence.

Enjoy a highly scenic breakfast and prepare for our first activity. This is an easy walk into the verdant valley bordering the Pu Luong Retreat, into which we will descend, along with the steeped rice paddies around us. 

We follow winding paths through picture-perfect scenery to Uoi Village, an incredible and tiny wooden commune built into the foothills of a dark green mountain. After some time to take photos here, we continue onwards to Lan village, another wonderful enclave of stilt houses with wild nature blooming around.

If we have time here, we will visit a brocade-making workshop, one of the traditional and beautiful crafts of the ethnic minorities who live here. If time is lacking a little, we will continue onwards on our path, eventually arriving at the main road, where the car will pick us up.

The transfer to Ninh Binh follows this, with lunch served at a restaurant on the way. Once arrived in Ninh Binh, we check into the hotel and you can enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening as free time.

Take your breakfast in Ninh Binh before the driver and guide arrive at your hotel. The first stop on our Hoa Lu - Tam Coc Day Tour will be to the ancient capital of Vietnam, operating as the seat of power for 42 years over the 10th and early 11th centuries. Walking around Hoa Lu, we see fabulous architecture nestled amongst the mountainsides, most noticeable at the temples of King Dinh and King Le, who ruled the country from here before the capital was moved to Hanoi.

After our guided tour of Hoa Lu, we move onto Tam Coc, a village of outstanding natural beauty. We take a buffet lunch in Tam Coc once we arrive, followed by a serene cruise down the Ngo Dong River. For reasons that will become clear to you on this 90-minute boat ride, Tam Coc is often referred to as ‘Halong Bay on land’; while gliding across the smooth water, in between towering limestone mountains and underneath cave ceilings, visitors can see exactly why.

We return to the dock after this and start a 45-minute cycle ride. This will pass along the flat ground of Tam Coc and its surrounding areas, all of which showcase the beauty of Ninh Binh province in grand limestone towers jutting out of the rice paddies lain across the countryside. 

Our cycle will end in the mid-afternoon and our driver will take you back to the hotel in Ninh Binh City, where you have free time to explore the town, or stay in Tam Coc to soak up the magical atmosphere.

Enjoy breakfast at your hotel – one of the highlights of your northern Vietnam tour awaits! We start the trip to Halong Bay when the driver arrives at your hotel and drives you in a northeastern direction across the beautiful Red River Delta.

We arrive at the harbour at midday, where we find the boat awaiting out boarding. We climb on board and listen to the itinerary briefing from the new tour guide before a fabulous lunch sets us on our way.

Please note: From this point onwards, this itinerary is merely an example of the places you may visit in Halong Bay. The destinations and aspects of the cruise depend on the one that you select during your booking with us, so they may not match the itinerary listed below. Check Halong Bay Cruises and choose a suitable one for your group.

Our wooden junk boat cruises for a while through the water, allowing us to relax into the beautiful and utterly unique scene surrounding us. We make our first stop to Titop Island, a gorgeous spot for relaxing on the beach, swimming in the sea or hiking to the peak for a panoramic view of the bay beyond.

After this, we re-board our boat and head just across the waterway to Sung Sot Cave, one of the largest and most impressive cave systems in Halong Bay. Our walk around its interior will reveal the magical, mystical shapes of the rock formations within, all subject to various legends created by the locals.

We follow up the day’s activity with a wonderful party back on the cruise, which is held during happy hour at the bar and golden hour as the sun descends in the distance. Dinner will follow this, along with an evening of quiet relaxation in whichever way you see fit.

Our second day in Halong Bay begins on the top deck of the cruise, which will be hosting a tai chi session led by our onboard teacher. After this serene start to the day, we will enjoy a light breakfast downstairs and head out into the bay once more.

Our final stop today will be to Cua Van fishing village, an amazing series of coloured houses tethered together by floating barges. We kayak or take a resident-rowed sampan boat around the village, finding out how life works when floating atop the surface of Halong Bay.

Back on board, we have a quick cooking class with the chef as we begin our cruise back to the harbour. This comes before a buffet brunch, which will fill us up nicely before we head to Hanoi.

We reach the harbour and begin the drive to Hanoi on the bus. You will be dropped off at your hotel in the late afternoon ending 2 day 1 night in Halong Bay, giving you the freedom to enjoy your last evening in the capital.

Have your final breakfast in the hotel. About 3 hours before your scheduled flight, the driver will arrive at your hotel and take you to Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport.

Your tour of northern Vietnam finishes here. We would like to thank you for joining us and we wish you safe passage to your next destination!