Grand Voyage From North To South Of Vietnam – 18 Days

Begin at the Ho Chi Minh Complex, where the granite Mausoleum stands beside the modest stilt house in which the country’s founding father lived and worked. Nearby, the One Pillar Pagoda rises from its pond like a lotus flower, and the yellow Presidential Palace shows the French side of the city. Continue to the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius and later home to Vietnam’s first university.

Head to West Lake for the ancient Tran Quoc Pagoda, set on a small island joined to the shore, and the Quan Thanh Temple nearby. Then choose one of the city’s museums: the History Museum for the story of Vietnam through the ages, or the Museum of Ethnology for the traditions of its many ethnic groups.

End the day at the water puppet theatre, a folk art born in the flooded rice paddies of the Red River Delta, where puppeteers hidden behind a bamboo screen make dragons, farmers and fishermen dance across a stage of water.

Your driver and guide collect you from your hotel for the drive west along Highway 6, past villages and pagodas scattered across the countryside. Along the way, stop to meet a Muong community, then pause at Thung Khe Pass for your first sweeping view down into the Mai Chau Valley.

Lunch is served in Mai Chau.

Set off on foot along the Song Ma River and away from the main roads, following paths through terraced rice paddies and small villages where you meet the White Thai people who have farmed this valley for generations.

Spend the night in a Thai village, sharing dinner with your host family and sleeping in their traditional stilt house.

Share a simple breakfast with your hosts, then take a short drive into the countryside to start a trek to the villages of Cum and Xam Khoe, along winding paths through the rice fields.

Stop for lunch in one of the villages and enjoy a closer look at daily life in the valley.

Drive back to the buzz of Hanoi and check in to your hotel.

After breakfast, your driver and guide collect you from your hotel for the drive to the coast, about three to four hours away.

Step aboard your junk around midday and settle in over a seafood lunch as the boat sails out among the islands.

Cruise past some of the bay’s best-known islets, among them Ga Choi and Dinh Huong, and step inside one of its great caves, such as Thien Cung, Dau Go or Sung Sot. Later, drop anchor at a sheltered cove with a white-sand beach and cool off in the warm water of the Gulf of Tonkin.

Dinner is served on board, and the night is spent on the water, with only the gentle rocking of the boat for company.

Rise early for tai chi on the top deck, or simply watch the sun come up over the islands with a cup of coffee or tea. Then explore the nearby islands by rowing boat.

Back on board, relax on the sundeck as the junk cruises slowly back to the harbour past more of the bay’s extraordinary rock formations, with brunch served along the way.

Your driver meets you at the dock for the transfer to Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport and your flight to Hue, where your driver and guide are waiting to take you to your hotel.

Begin at the Imperial Citadel, built in the 19th century and modelled on the Forbidden City in Beijing. Within its walls lie the palaces and temples of the Imperial Enclosure and, at its heart, the Forbidden Purple City, once the emperor’s private residence.

See the treasures of the royal court at the Imperial Museum, then find a quieter side of Hue at Tu Hieu Pagoda, a peaceful monastery set among pines and lotus ponds. Finish among the stalls of Dong Ba Market on the riverbank, the busiest in the city.

Board a private boat on the Perfume River to visit Thien Mu Pagoda, the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady, whose seven-storey tower has watched over the water for centuries. Continue to the tomb of Emperor Minh Mang, a harmonious complex of courtyards, pavilions and lakes. Lunch is at a riverside restaurant before you set off south.

Stop above Lang Co Bay, a long white-sand beach backed by the Lap An lagoon, where fishing boats drift across the still water. Then climb the Hai Van Pass, the Pass of the Clouds, with the East Sea on one side and forested mountains on the other. In Da Nang, visit the Cham Museum, home to the finest collection of Cham sculpture in the world, and the stone-carving villages at the foot of the Marble Mountains.

Arrive in Hoi An, a sleepy riverside town, and spend the evening as you like.

Meet in Hoi An’s Old Town and walk to the busy central market, chatting with the vendors as you pick up fresh ingredients for the day’s class. A leisurely 25-minute boat ride along the river then brings you to the Red Bridge Cooking School, where you wander through the herb and vegetable garden before learning to prepare five traditional dishes, followed by a fun demonstration of fruit and vegetable carving.

Sit down to lunch and enjoy the dishes you have cooked.

Stroll the winding lanes of the ancient town with your guide, from the incense-filled Chua Ong Pagoda to the ornate Chinese Assembly Hall, where traders once met and worshipped far from home. Step inside the 200-year-old Tan Ky ancestral house, then cross the Japanese Covered Bridge, the town’s best-known landmark.

As the light softens, take a gentle boat ride on the Thu Bon River and watch the old town glow at sunset.

Spend the day on the beach at An Bang or Cua Dai, or wander back into town to browse its galleries and boutiques and have something made to measure by one of its skilled tailors.

After breakfast, your driver takes you to Da Nang Airport for the quick flight to Nha Trang, and on to your hotel by the beach.

The rest of the day is yours. If you would like to see more, we can arrange a boat trip around the bay’s islands, a visit to a local village or a cyclo ride through town.

Drive inland from Nha Trang, pausing in the countryside for a glimpse of rural life, before the road begins its long climb into the Central Highlands. After about four hours, you reach Da Lat, the “City of Eternal Spring”, with its pine forests, lakes and colonial villas.

Visit the Art Deco summer palace of Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam, then browse the Central Market, piled with the flowers, vegetables and strawberries that grow in the highland air. Continue to the XQ embroidery workshop, where artisans stitch remarkably lifelike pictures in silk thread.

Take an easy stroll around Xuan Huong Lake at the centre of town to get a feel for this lovely city.

Visit Truc Lam Zen Monastery, high on a hill above the pines, then walk down the steps to Tuyen Lam Lake for a boat ride across the largest and loveliest lake in the area. On the way back to town, stop at Lat Village, at the foot of Langbiang Mountain, home to several ethnic minority communities with their own customs and crafts, and a good place to stop for lunch and pick up local handicrafts.

Transfer to Lien Khuong Airport for your flight to Ho Chi Minh City, still called Saigon by most of the people who live here. The rest of the day is yours to settle in or explore at your own pace.

Begin in Cho Lon, the city’s Chinatown, where generations of Chinese merchants have filled the streets with wholesale shops, temples and herbalists. Close by, the FITO Museum tells the story of traditional Vietnamese medicine through the herbs, remedies and tools used to prepare them. Then browse the stalls of Ben Thanh Market, piled high with everything from coffee and dried fruit to lacquerware.

After lunch, visit the Reunification Palace, the former Presidential Palace, where the war came to an end in 1975, and the War Remnants Museum, a sobering account of the conflict told through Vietnamese eyes.

End among the French colonial landmarks of the city centre: the red-brick Notre Dame Cathedral and, across the square, the old Central Post Office.

Drive northwest to Tay Ninh and the Cao Dai Holy See, a riot of pastel towers, dragons and painted ceilings. Caodaism was founded in the 1920s and blends elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam in the hope of uniting humanity in peace.

Watch the midday prayer service, when white-robed worshippers file into the great hall, then have lunch at a nearby restaurant.

On the way back to the city, explore the Cu Chi Tunnels, a vast underground network of passages, kitchens and meeting rooms used by the Viet Cong to shelter from air raids during what Vietnamese call the American War. If you are curious, crawl through a section of tunnel to feel how cramped life underground must have been.

After an early breakfast, drive to the riverside town of Cai Be. Along the way, stop at a family workshop to watch local sweets being made by hand, then relax in an orchard garden to the sound of traditional southern music.

Lunch is served at a riverside restaurant overlooking the Mekong.

Cross the river by motorboat to explore its quiet islands, then cycle along shaded country lanes past fruit gardens and village homes. Your driver meets you at Vinh Long jetty for the onward drive to Can Tho, the largest city in the delta.

Board a motorboat at first light for Cai Rang, where traders hang samples of their pineapples, pumpkins and melons from tall poles so buyers can spot them from afar.

Continue by boat to the delta’s orchards to taste fresh tropical fruit straight from the trees, then head deeper into the countryside, past traditional houses of wood and palm leaves, watching the locals at work along the canals.

Return to Can Tho for lunch, then drive back to Ho Chi Minh City, arriving in the late afternoon.

Enjoy a last few hours in Saigon at leisure, for some final shopping or one more coffee on a busy street corner.

At the agreed time, your driver takes you to Tan Son Nhat International Airport for your flight home.