Taste of Vietnam 12 Days

Arrive safely in Hanoi and proceed through the gates at Hanoi Noi Bai airport. Your driver will be waiting in the arrival lobby with your name card, ready to take you into the city. We drive to the central district of the Old Quarter, where you can check into your hotel and relax for a while.

In the afternoon you can discover Hanoi Old Quarter or Hoan Kiem Lake.

Take breakfast in your hotel and prepare for a full day of touring around the capital of Vietnam. We start this with a drive to the Ho Chi Minh Complex, located in the political and historical district of Ba Dinh. We take a look around some of the places of interest here, including the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the leader’s former stilt house residence and the city’s iconic One-Pillar Pagoda.

After this, we proceed to a museum of your choosing. This can be the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, Hoa Lo Prison Museum, The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology or the Vietnam Military History Museum. Before you make the decision, the guide will give you an introduction to each one, helping you to choose the aspect of Vietnamese culture that best suits your interests.

Once we have looked around the museum, we will have lunch and head over to the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s nearly 1000-year-old university. This was the first university in the country and a noble place of learning for the few students that were worthy of a place here. We take a walk around the manicured garden at the front and see the architectural marvel of the temple at the back.

We finish the day tour with a walk around Hanoi Old Quarter, Hanoi’s bustling central district and a focal point for the 36 guilds that historically set up shop here. The streets are laden with history and beauty, which our guide will point out on a stroll through.

Get back to your hotel and Hanoi City Tour Full Day end there. Stay overnight in Hanoi.

After breakfast, the guide and driver will arrive to begin the full-day Hoa Lu and Tam Coc tour with the 2-hour southward drive to Ninh Binh province. The drive is past golden and green fields of rice and your first views of Vietnam’s magnificent and unique mountain ranges.

We make our first stop at Tam Coc, where we will be rowed by a local along the Ngo Dong River in a wooden sampan boat. The scenery on all sides is of rising, forested mountains and watery rice paddies, as we cruise for 1.5 hours down a placid river that runs underneath evocative wet caves. 

Following this, we head to a local restaurant for a delicious buffet lunch. The tour continues afterwards at Hoa Lu, the capital of Vietnam for 43 years in the 10th and early 11th centuries. We take a walk around this small enclave, finding examples of 1000-year-old architecture in the temples and walls, as well as beauty around the wealth of greenery stretching skyward on all sides.

After this, we head back to Hanoi via the nature-flanked highway, enjoying the sunset en route and finishing at your central hotel.

Please Note: The 3-day itinerary listed below is merely an example of the itinerary that you may be following in Lan Ha Bay. Itineraries differ between cruises, but all follow the form of this example, with the only differences being to the destinations visited and some aspects of the cruise ship itself.

09:00 – 09:30: At your hotel in Hanoi, the driver will meet you and take you to Lan Ha Bay via the highway through the beautiful and ancient Red River Delta.

12:00 – 12:45: We arrive at Got Harbour and board the ship, enjoying the first sites of the magical mountain seascape in the distance.

13:00 – 15:00: Our cruise begins as we start our sailing, passing some of the most incredible scenery on offer throughout Vietnam. We have a few hours to relax on the sundeck or in the cabin and take in the majesty on display.

15:00 – 17:00: Our first stop will be to the area of Tra Bau, where we have much time to enjoy kayaking and swimming in one of the quietest areas of Lan Ha Bay. Admire the statuesque mountain ranges as we cut silently through the bay and speak to the local family who have this amazing area as their back garden.

17:00 – 18:45: Return to the cruise as a beautiful and vivid sunset descends on Lan Ha Bay. We have time to admire the scene on display over happy hour-priced drinks and a sunset party on board. A cooking demonstration by the chef will also be held during this time.

19:00: Sit down for a delicious dinner in the restaurant, which will be accompanied by a live music performance from our multi-talented staff. After this is an evening of relaxation on the cruise or on the tender boat for some squid fishing.

06:30 – 07:00: Head to the top deck for an energising session of tai chi, held directly in the new morning light covering Lan Ha Bay.

07:15 – 08:30: Enjoy breakfast in the restaurant before transferring to the day boat and heading to by far the largest island in the whole Halong area, Cat Ba Island.

09:00 – 12:00: Arriving on Cat Ba Island, we take the drive to Viet Hai Village, where rustic and ancient houses stand against a backdrop of incredible karst mountains. We explore the village on foot before proceeding into its natural outskirts on bicycle. Here, we find the best of Cat Ba’s beauty in mountains, jungle, lakes and caves, all with additional information provided by the guide. 

12:00 – 13:30: Enjoy a wonderful lunch on the day boat as we begin our cruising once more.

13:30 – 15:30: Our next stop today is Ba Ham Lake, an amazing creation of nature, featuring three lakes with a cave tunnel connecting them. We can spend the first half of the afternoon here through kayaking, swimming, and marveling at tree-topped cliff walls enclosing a beautifully tranquil area.

16:00: We rejoin the main cruise and relax on the sundeck, enjoying another happy hour and party during sunset.

19:00: Take dinner once more in the restaurant or on the sundeck beneath a blanket of stars. Relax into another tranquil evening on board after this.

06:00 – 06:30: Head to the sundeck for the final time to enjoy a beautiful and unique experience of tai chi in front of the rising sun in Lan Ha Bay.

07:00 – 08:00: We enjoy a light breakfast in the dining room as the boat pulls up anchor and heads to our final destination in Lan Ha Bay.

08:15 – 08:45: Arriving at the Dark & Bright Caves, we head through the beautiful system on a local sampan boat, marveling at the limestone stalactites hanging like chandeliers from above. We emerge into the lake on the other side of the Bright Cave, where we can soak up the serenity of this enclosed space and look out for the rare golden langur monkeys, sometimes seen eating the fruit from the trees here. 

09:00 – 11:30: Return to the cruise for the final time and relax into your final hours on board with a filling brunch and an open sundeck.

11:45 – 12:00: We disembark from the harbour. End your 3 day trip on Lan Ha Bay Cruise and you will head to Hanoi airport via a transfer from the driver. 

Once arrived in Da Nang, we proceed southwards to Hoi An with a new driver waiting with your name board. The day ends in Hoi An, the lively port town with architectural beauty dotted around its cobbled streets.

The guide and driver will arrive after your first breakfast in the centre of Vietnam. We take the drive to the verdant countryside of this port town, where we will find stretching rice paddies and the green and gold hues that accompany them.

Once arrived at one such rice paddy, we greet the farmer who will introduce us to some of the attractive aspects of farming in rural Vietnam. Your first activity will be riding a buffalo, which is integral to farming in the fields around the country. You will be led through the instructions by our local farmer and guide, who will teach you how to utilise these gentle giants for ploughing and other activities.

Next, we move over to the gorgeous forest of Bay Mau, where we find a fishing village and an array of basket boats. These round-bottomed boats are iconic of Hoi An and offer the perfect, humble fishing vessels for locals. We take one out on the water and learn how to paddle with the help of our guide, heading through gorgeous waterways flanked by nipa palm.

Enjoy the basket boat dancing by local people.

Have lunch in the local house.

We end the day with a drive back to Hoi An, where we will drop you off at your hotel to enjoy free time. You could spend this with some well-earned relaxation on the beaches of Cua Dai or An Bang, or with an afternoon on the Cham Islands, a sandy paradise lying just off the coast of Hoi An.

Plan your free time in Hoi An over breakfast. You could spend part of the day at My Son Sanctuary, an ancient and beautifully weather-worn complex of ancient Hindu temples in the jungle. You could also check out the 21 sites of the Ancient Town, which project the beauty and history of Hoi An across a huge range of Asian and European influences.

Following breakfast, the driver will arrive to take you back to Da Nang airport. Your flight from here will take you to Ho Chi Minh City, formally known as Saigon.

The driver will meet you at the airport and take you into the central districts to find your hotel. Once you have checked in here, you are free to explore or relax with some free time. You could spend this shopping in the local markets and up-market stores of the city, ending with a view of the modern metropolis from the Skydeck of the Bitexco Tower. 

After breakfast, the driver and guide will collect you to take you about 2 hours northwest of the city. Here we will find the Cu Chi Tunnels, one of the outstanding wartime relics left behind after the Vietnam War.

Once arrived, we head into the tunnels to explore the incredible feat of engineering, built by ordinary farmers and extending for a gargantuan 250 kilometres. Inside, we find examples of the hard life lived by the Viet Cong down here, while outside on the jungle floor, we see trap doors and entrance holes camouflaged to perfection.

We return to Ho Chi Minh City after this, where we will engage in a tour of the modern city’s best attractions. We head to the Reunification Palace, where the Vietnam War was ended in a brutal display of power by the communist North Vietnamese. We learn more about this event and the war before it at the War Remnants Museum, proceeding afterwards to the Note Dame Cathedral and the Saigon Central Post Office, both of which are attractive pieces of architecture left behind after French colonial rule.

After this, we return to your hotel around 5.00 – 5.30 PM. End of the full day to Cu Chi Tunnels and Ho Chi Minh City Tour. You are left to your own devices for the evening.

After breakfast, we head southward to the fertile Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s premier, tropical playground. We arrive on the banks of the mighty Mekong River, boarding a long-tail boat to explore the views of various fisheries and fruit orchards along the way. 

Following this, we disembark onto land to explore some of the wonderful local crafts, created in humble workshops of ceramic-making, coconut candy-producing and reed mat-weaving. After learning of these crafts, we head into a nearby village to see how life has developed in the Delta. We take a ride through the village on a xe lôi, a type of motorised rickshaw, or on bicycles as we discover the natural splendour of the Mekong Delta in all of its unrestrained greenery. 

We stop for lunch at a restaurant next to the Mekong River, trying out some of the local seafood famous in the region.

After this, we board another local boat and head along the canals of Ben Tre, one of the most beautiful provinces of the Mekong Delta. We skim between gorgeous forests of nipa palm and coconut trees, enjoying consistently beautiful jungle scenery in a tranquil atmosphere.

The tour finishes at your hotel, after the drive back to Ho Chi Minh City. The full day tour to Ben Tre in Mekong Delta ends.

Savour the last of your breakfasts in Vietnam before enjoying some time at your leisure. About 3 hours prior to your departure time, the driver will arrive at your hotel and take you to Tan Son Nhat airport for your onwards flight.

This signals the end of your 12-day tour through Vietnam. It was an honour and a pleasure to have you on board with us, and we hope that we can see you again soon!