OVERVIEW

Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) – Arrival

Day 2: HCMC – Full-Day City Tour

Day 3: HCMC – Vinh Long – Can Tho

Day 4: Can Tho – HCMC

Day 5: HCM – Cu Chi – Cao Dai Temple

Day 6: HCMC – Flight to Danang/ Hoi An

Day 7: Hoi An – Free day

Day 8: Hoi An – Free day

Day 9: Hoi An – Hue

Day 10: Hue – Half-day City Tour – Train to Hanoi

Day 11: Hanoi – Arrival

Day 12: Hanoi Full-day City Tour

Day 13: Hanoi – Mai Chau

Day 14: Mai Chau – Xa Linh Village – Hanoi

Day 15: Hanoi – Halong bay – On-board ship

Day 16: Halong Bay – Hanoi

Day 17: Hanoi – Departure

 

FULL ITINERARY

[*Notes]

- This itinerary is a privately guided tour, designed just to show you what is possible.
- We can tailor this trip, it's inclusions and the accommodations, to meet your requirements, budget, and interests.

DAY 1: HO CHI MINH CITY (HCMC) – ARRIVAL

Your driver & tour guide will meet you at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport and take care of your luggage as you step into a cool, air-conditioned vehicle. A wet tissue and a bottle of drinking water are available to refresh you.

The remainder of the day is at leisure. Tonight you will have your first dinner in a local restaurant and the chance to enjoy Vietnamese cuisine’s first taste.

Note: For the Vietnamese Visa on Arrival, please make sure you have 2 passport sized 4 cm x 6 cm photos and $25 for the stamping fee.

Overnight in HCMC
Meals: (_/_/Dinner)

 

DAY 2: HCMC – FULL-DAY CITY TOUR

After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up and take you on a full-day city tour of HCMC. Visit some famous places such as:

– Notre Dame Cathedral with its French colonial architecture
– War Remnants Museum
– Reunification Palace
– Dong Khoi, one of the city’s main shopping boulevards

Lunch will be at a local restaurant where you will be served delicious local HCMC cuisine.

After lunch, your full-day city tour continues with a cyclo tour, winding through Saigon’s vibrant streets to Chinatown and its bustling markets. You have chances to get closer touches with locals.
The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

Overnight in HCMC
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

 

DAY 3: HCMC – VINH LONG – CAN THO
After an early breakfast and check out, your private driver will pick you up at your hotel and take you to the Mekong Delta and the town of Vinh Long. En route, we board a boat and navigate through the intricate waterways and canals to visit some of the islands in this region stopping at some local cottage industries, tropical fruit orchards and rice paddies
Lunch will be provided at a local restaurant on the island and then dock, after which you can get some rest. From here you will be driven to Can Tho and check in your hotel. The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

Overnight in Can Tho
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

 

DAY 4: CAN THO – HCMC

After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up and take you to the water to witness Vietnam’s largest floating market – Cai Rang – where literally hundreds of boats laden with locally grown fruit and vegetables come to trade. Our boat arrives at the dock where we return to HCMC by road. Stop en route for lunch before getting back to HCMC. The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

Overnight in Can Tho
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

DAY 5: HCM – CU CHI – CAO DAI TEMPLE

After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up and take you to the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were mainly constructed in the American war and used by the Viet Cong. Upon arrival at the historical relics of Cu Chi, you will be shown a brief introductory documentary and then enjoy a sightseeing consisting of 2 walking on uneven mud paths through the bush. You also have a chance to crawl through some of the tunnels.

Quickly after that you are transferred to Tay Ninh to visit the Cao Dai Temple (travel time approximately 01 hour) and watch most of the Cao Dai service. This will tell you of a strangest religion in the world. Lunch will be served in a simple local restaurant with lovely southern Vietnam cuisine.

Your private tour guide will take you back to HCMC (travel time approximately 03 hours). The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure. .

Overnight in HCM
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

DAY 6: HCMC – FLIGHT TO DANANG/ HOI AN

After an early breakfast, you will be privately transferred by guide and driver to Tan Son Nhat airport to take the short flight to Da Nang. From here you will travel a short distance to the old merchant town of Hoi An in your private car. This former colorful trading port used to attract merchants from as far afield as China, Japan and Europe as far back as the sixteenth century. Lunch will be on your own.

Your private tour guide will help you check in your hotel in Hoi An. After that, your private tour guide will take you on a tour around the famous town. Below are the recommended sites, but of course, your guide will be happy to modify the list based on your preferences.
Visits:
– Old Chinese temples
– The symbol of Hoi An – the Japanese Covered Bridge
– One of the many tailors for the chance to have some made-to-measure clothes, or shop for antiques and ceramics in the heart of Old Hoi An all of which give Hoi An its unique and charming character

The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

Overnight in Hoi An
Meals: (Breakfast/_/_)

DAY 7: HOI AN – FREE DAY

Today you are free to stroll around town. You can visit the local markets and choose one of the many local restaurants for lunch. Hoi An is famed for its unique dishes such as Cao Lau noodle and White Rose. There is the opportunity to try your hand at cooking some Vietnamese dishes with a fun cooking class.

Overnight in Hoi An
Meals: (Breakfast/_/_)

 

DAY 8: HOI AN – MY SON SANCTUARY

 

DAY 9: HOI AN – HUE

After breakfast, you will be collected by your private guide and driven in a private vehicle to Hue, stop en route at the Marble Mountains before ascending the Hai Van (Cloudy) Pass stopping at the top for spectacular views of the coastline below. Generally the morning will be yours to explore at your leisure. Lunch will be on your own.
In the afternoon there will be a guided tour of the Royal Citadel and Forbidden City which was modeled on the Forbidden City in Beijing.
There’s the chance to be kings and queens for the night with an optional Royal Banquet (Optional).

Overnight in Hue
Meals: (Breakfast/_/_)

 

DAY 10: HUE – HALF-DAY CITY TOUR – TRAIN TO HANOI

After breakfast and check out, your private tour guide will take you to a half-day tour of Hue.
With the help of your private guide, driver and private vehicle you will get to explore the town’s major attractions.
Visits:
– A local workshop to witness the process of incent stick and conical hat making.
– Local Buddhist monastery where you will be treated a delicious vegetarian lunch.

– A dragon boat trip along the Perfume River to visit the Thien Mu Pagoda. Here you can offer prayers to Buddha and also to the pagoda’s most famous monk – Thich Quang Duc who set fire to himself at a busy Saigon intersection in 1963 as a protest against the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam’s regime. – The tomb of Emperor Minh Mang and the old Coliseum

This afternoon you are transferred to Hue station to board the overnight Reunification Express train to Hanoi. You can go and order some take-away food for our dinner. The overnight accommodation aboard the train is a four berth sleeper carriage.

Overnight on A/C train
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

 

DAY 11: HANOI – ARRIVAL

Morning
On arrival in Hanoi in the early morning, you will be privately transferred by guide and driver to your hotel. Check into your day-use room, then free at leisure. Lunch will be on your own.

Afternoon
In the late afternoon you will enjoy one hour cyclo (cycle rickshaw) tour through the Old Quarter, which is also known as the 36 old streets, this bustling area of narrow streets is home to literally thousands of small businesses and shopkeepers. We then enjoy the unique performance of the famous Water Puppet Theatre.

Overnight in Hanoi
Meals: (Breakfast/_/_)

 

DAY 12: HANOI – FULL-DAY CITY TOUR
After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up and take you on a full-day city tour. First stop will be the Ho Chi Minh complex. Ho Chi Minh was the founding father of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and is much revered in Vietnam to this day. The complex consists of his Mausoleum, the presidential residence and the One Pillar Pagoda. Our next stop is the Temple of Literature – Vietnam’s first university and now a temple dedicated to Confucius. We follow this with Hoa Lo Prison, better known by US POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton”. Lunch will be served in a local Vietnamese restaurant to sample Hanoi’s exotic cuisine.

In the afternoon your private tour guide will take you to the Museum of Ethnology, widely acknowledged as the best in the country and has an extensive display dedicated to Vietnam’s 54 Ethnic minority peoples.  You will enjoy a cyclo (rickshaw) ride of Hanoi’s Old Quarter, and then taken back to your hotel. After checking in to your hotel, the rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

Overnight in Hanoi
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

 

DAY 13: HANOI – MAI CHAU

After an early breakfast and checkout, you will be escorted by your private tour guide to leave the capital and head northwest to Mai Chau set in spectacular highland countryside. The area is 160km from Hanoi and home to several ethnic minorities including the White Thai.

You arrive at Lac Village where we spend the night as guests of a local family or stay in hotels and resorts in town. Following lunch your guide will take you to explore the surrounding local villages on foot or by bicycle.

Overnight in Mai Chau
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

 

DAY 14: MAI CHAU – XA LINH VILLAGE – HANOI

After breakfast you bid farewell to our hosts and travel to visit Xa Linh village, home of the Hmong people, one of the largest hill tribes in northern Vietnam. Enjoy a walk, meet and visit some local households where you can learn about the daily life and lifestyle.
You then wind the way back to Hanoi. On the way back you have a quick stop at a Muong village, another minority group to discover their style of housing and culture. Lunch will be served in Hoa Binh before returning to Hanoi in the afternoon

Your private tour guide will take you to your hotel in Hanoi. The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

Overnight in Hanoi
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

DAY 15: HANOI – HALONG BAY – ON-BOARD SHIP

8h00 – 08:20: Meet your tour guide at suggested places or your hotel for Ha Long Bay.

Get free wifi access while taking a 3-hour bus trip to Ha Long, have short break en-route.
Embark at Bai Chay pier, Ha Long City. Transferred by tender to The Vietbeauty Cruise.
Greeted by crew members followed by welcome drinks, get cruise briefing and check in cabin.
Free wife access is available onboard you have plenty of time socializing, chatting online.

Enjoy set lunch onboard while cruising through Stone Dog islet, Fighting cock islets… Stop at Soi Sim island one hour for swimming, sun-bathing, or experiencing water surfing. Have an unforgettable memory while doing kayaking among hidden parts and Bo Nau cave. Get back on cruise, relax on the sundeck for fantastic views, drinks and sunset photos. Join in a “cooking class” on board with our chef making some dishes with suggested recipe.

19:00 Delectable dinner is served. Overnight on cruise in the middle of Ha Long Bay. Entertain evening with karaoke singing, squid-fishing (optional) or massage (upon requests).

Overnight on board

Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner)

 

DAY 16: HALONG BAY – HANOI
06:30 Enjoy sunrise over the bay or take part in a Tai Chi session on cruise sundeck.
Relax with complimentary tea and coffee served. Have light breakfast on board.
Visit Sung Sot “Amazing” cave with millions of surprising stalactites and stalagmites.

09:30 Check out your cabin. Photograph wonderful Ha Long while cruising through other parts. Have Buffet Brunch on board while passing Bai Tu Long Bay, see Bai Tho Mountain. Disembark at Bai Chay pier. Relax at the lounge before bus transfer you to Hanoi.

16:30: Arrive in Hanoi.

Overnight in Hanoi

Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/)

 

DAY 17: HANOI – DEPARTURE

After breakfast and a leisurely morning on your own, you will check out by midday and your private driver will pick you up and take you to the Noi Bai airport for your departure flight home.

Meals: (Breakfast/_/_)

SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL PRICES (VALID: OCTOBER 15. 2017 – DEC 15.2017). THE QUOTATION CURRENCY IS USD.

 

HOTEL LIST (BOUTIQUE CHARACTER 3 STAR HOTELS):

3 star Hotels:

• Ho Chi Minh City – Beautiful Saigon Hotel (http://beautifulsaigonhotel.com)
• Can Tho – Kim Tho Hotel (http://www.kimtho.com)
• Hoi An – Betel Garden Homestay (http://www.betelgardenhomestay.com)
• Hue – Cherish Hotel (http://cherishhotel.com)
• Hanoi – Au Coeur D'hanoi Hotel (http://http://aucoeurhanoi.com/)
• Mai Chau – Local Homestay
• Halong Bay – Dragon Gold Cruise (http://www.vspiritcruises.com)

4 star Hotels:

• Ho Chi Minh City – Eden Star Hotel (http://www.edenstarsaigonhotel.com)
• Can Tho – Iris Hotel (http://www.irishotelcantho.vn)
• Hoi An – Silk Marina Hotel (http://www.hoiansilkmarina.com)
• Hue – Serene Palace Hotel (http://www.serenepalacehotel.com)
• Hanoi – MK Premier Hotel (http://www.mkpremier.vn)
• Mai Chau – Mai Chau Lodge  (http://maichaulodge.com)
• Halong Bay – Pelican Cruise (http://www.pelicancruise.com)

5 star Hotels:

• Ho Chi Minh City – Rex Hotel (http://www.rexhotelvietnam.com)
• Can Tho – Victoria Can Tho Hotel (https://www.victoriahotels.asia/en/hotels-resorts/cantho.html)
• Hoi An – Palm Garden Resort (http://palmgardenresort.com.vn)
• Hue – Indochine Palace Hotel (http://www.indochinepalace.com)
• Hanoi – Sheraton Hotel (http://www.sheratonhanoi.com)
• Mai Chau – Mai Chau Ecolodge (http://maichau.ecolodge.asia)
• Halong Bay – Signature Ha Long Cruise (https://signaturehalongcruise.com)