Vietnam Highlights From North To South – 8 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, and the One Pillar Pagoda rises from its pond like a lotus flower. Continue to the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius and home to Vietnam’s first university, and the Fine Arts Museum, with its collection of lacquer paintings, silk paintings and ancient sculpture.

Leave the busy city behind for the drive of about two and a half hours through the villages and rice fields of the Red River Delta to Halong.

Check in to your hotel by the bay, with the evening at leisure.

After breakfast, board your private junk for a cruise of about four hours between the towering limestone islands. Visit Dau Go Cave, the Cave of Wooden Stakes, where legend says the great general Tran Hung Dao hid the stakes he used to defeat the Mongol fleet in 1288. Close by is Thien Cung Cave, the Heavenly Palace, known for its glittering stalactites and stalagmites.

A lunch of fresh seafood is served on board as you sail back to the harbour.

Your driver takes you to Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport for the flight to Da Nang, then on to your hotel in Hoi An.

Wander the narrow, 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 house, then cross the Japanese Covered Bridge, the town’s best-known landmark.

After lunch, a short boat ride takes you to a nearby island village known for its ceramics, where potters still shape clay on the wheel by hand.

Return to your hotel in the late afternoon, with the evening at leisure to enjoy the town’s lantern-lit streets, cafes and tailors.

Leave Hoi An and drive north into the mountains to the Hai Van Pass, the Pass of the Ocean Clouds, which divides the climates of northern and southern Vietnam and looks down over sweeping views of the coast. Stop for a drink in the fishing village of Lang Co before continuing to Hue.

Explore Vietnam’s former imperial capital on a leisurely guided tour. Visit the Imperial Citadel, seat of the Nguyen emperors, and Thien Mu Pagoda, whose tall tower has watched over the Perfume River for centuries, then the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc, a peaceful complex of pavilions and lotus ponds that the emperor also used as a retreat during his lifetime.

After breakfast, transfer to Phu Bai Airport for the flight to Saigon. You arrive in the late morning, with a short orientation drive through the busy streets on the way to your hotel.

Have lunch at a downtown restaurant of your choice.

Your guided tour takes in the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace, where the story of the war comes vividly to life, then the red-brick Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office, the ornate Opera House and City Hall. Finish among the stalls of Ben Thanh Market, where vendors sell everything from spices to handmade crafts.

Your driver and guide collect you after breakfast for the drive to the riverside town of Cai Be. Here the river becomes a marketplace, and your boat weaves between barges laden with fresh fruit and vegetables.

On An Binh Island, visit small local workshops in the cool shade of the orchards, then sit down to a generous lunch at a local family home.

Switch to a traditional rowing boat and glide deeper into the countryside along narrow canals. At a nursery garden, learn how the delta’s farmers grow the fruit and vegetables the region is known for.

Your boat arrives in Vinh Long, where your driver is waiting for the return drive to Saigon.

Enjoy your last hours in Saigon at leisure, with time for some last-minute shopping or sightseeing.

Transfer to the airport for your flight home.