Vietnam essential tour

Arrival at Noi Bai airport and transfer to the hotel. Free time and overnight in a hotel in Hanoi. 

After breakfast, take a city tour - the current capital of Vietnam, a unique city in Asia with its tree-lined boulevards, French colonial architecture and oriental temples. You will visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (HCM Mausoleum is closed on Monday & Friday and from Sep 20 to Dec 10 as annual maintenance), the house of Ho Chi Minh, one Pillar Pagoda, the Tran Quoc Pagoda and Temple of Literature. Lunch at a local restaurant.

After lunch, visit Ethonology Museum and Hoan Kiem Lake. Then  take a ride cyclo ride (45minute max) to the Old Quarter of Hanoi.
 At the end of the evening attend a traditional water puppet show in Thang Long Theatre.
 
Overnight in Hanoi.

After breakfast leave Hanoi for an overnight boat trip on Halong Bay. Journey there through the rich farmlands of the Red River Delta, observe everyday life of Vietnamese villagers as they work the rice fields, take pigs to the market on bicycles and plough the fields with their water buffaloes. Arrive in Halong City late morning and board your traditional wooden junk for the overnight journey into the Bay. En-route lunch will be served. Following cruise by rock formations with such names as Sail, Dog and Dinh Huong (incense pot). Towards the end of the day set anchor for the night. As the sun sets over the bay dinner is served on board with fresh seafood, salads, and fruits. Overnight on the junk.

On your return to Halong City enjoy a full breakfast (or brunch) as your boat weaves its way back to the dock. Upon disembarkation your driver will meet you for the transfer to Noi Bai Airport for the flight to Danang. Transfer to hotel in Hoian upon arrival.
Overnight in Hoian.

At 8:00, local guide meets you at hotel lobby. Go to a bicycle shop to choose a bicycle. Then ride to a local farm in Tra Que Village. You will take a trip around the vegetable garden and join with the farmers in preparing the land and fertilizing with seaweed from the local lake. Continue doing some next steps such as: raking the ground, sowing, watering greens, picking greens and many more gardening activities.

Spend the rest of the morning working the land in honored way, before having a break to prepare lunch with your host family. Your lunch consists of many local delicacies including ”tam huu” spring roll, 'banh xeo' or local pancake of people in middle region. After lunch, take a traditional Vietnamese post-prandial nap before learning how to harvest and wrap the vegetables in the afternoon. 13:00 Farewell to your host family, ride back to Hoi An.  

In the afternoon, take a half day walking tour  in Hoi An, a destination with two faces – the charming, old-world trading port of narrow streets and traditional houses, and the beach with its new resorts and long stretch of clean white sand. In keeping with Hoi An’s heritage as a trading port, the town’s tiny shophouses now host a range of craft shops and artisans including some of Asia’s best bespoke tailors.

Despite the passing of 200 years and the ravages of weather and war, the centre of Hoi An remains much the same as it was in its heyday. Take a walking tour of the ancient town centre to visit former merchants’ houses, the 400 year-old Japanese Covered Bridge, a Chinese communal hall and the colorful market. Overnight in Hoi An.

You will depart Hoi An for Hue via Danang, the guide and driver will take you over the beautiful Hai Van Pass - Vietnam's geographical and psychological boundary between north and south. The peak of the pass lies perpetually shrouded in clouds. Stop en route at the beautiful Non Nuoc Beach and the Cham Museum, which contains the finest collection of Cham sculpture in the world. In Danang you will visit the Marble Mountains, five sacred hills containing dozens of Buddhist shrines before proceeding to Hue. 

In 1687 the Viets made Hue their capital, and continued their expansion into Cham territory. It remained the capital under the Nguyen dynasty, which had thirteen emperors, the last of whom ruled until 1945. Hue is still the intellectual capital of Vietnam with 12 schools of higher learning. Overnight in Hue.

After breakfast, take a boat trip on the romantically named Perfume River takes you by tranquil settings of gardens and lakes where Hue’s best-known religious sites, the Thien Mu Pagoda. Then take a visit to the elaborate mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh and the Imperial Citadel, from where the Nguyen Dynasty ruled between 1802 and 1945.

End the tour with Dong Ba market. Overnight in Hue.

Transfer to Hue Airport after breakfast for the short flight to dynamic Ho Chi Minh City, still called Saigon by the locals.  
 Upon arrival, take a visit to the War  Museum and the former Presidential Palace. From the palace you will go on foot (your car will be available at all times) to visit the major sights of colonial Ho Chi Minh City including the red-brick Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame, the nearby 19th century Empire-style Post Office, and the next door ‘Hotel de Ville’ or City Hall all look indomitably European, Dong Khoi Street (formerly Rue Catinat), Opera House. 

Lunch at local restaurant.
 
Enjoy spectacular street food tour by motorbike in the bustling city of Saigon in the evening.  Saigon is absolutely a fantastic place for your food adventure. Where the principal of Yin & Yang is applied in every single dish even street food, where Jodi Legal Nomads once wrote: “The balancing act between warming and cooling ingredients, between heavier meats and lighter rice-based carbs, fresh herbs to round out the taste, never get old”. Now it’s your turn to discover it. This evening, we will thread way through many small alleys of district 1, 3, 4, 7 and relish a mouthwatering menu of different kinds of food.
 
Overnight in Saigon.

Escape from the high-rise hotels, shopping malls and chic restaurants of Ho Chi Minh city, we drive to My Tho with paddy fields, thick orchards and canals. Upon arriving,  we get on our private boat, which shall start off by driving us to Turtle island, a beautiful island with many orchards.  Here we can enjoy a variety of tropical fruits while listening to traditional South Vietnamese folk songs performed by local artists. Then, we are going on a short horse cart ride to a Bee Farm, where we can play with the pythons, try some honey tea, and taste local confectionery. After that, we will have a short rowing boat ride to our main boat, which in turn will take us to Phoenix island that was the lonely bastion of Coconut Monk. We have lunch here before go back to the harbor. Drive back to Ho Chi Minh.
 
Lunch at local restaurant. Overnight in Saigon.

Breakfast

Free time till airport transfer. End of tour.