Day 1: Arrival in Ho Chi Minh City

Arrive in Tan Son Nhat airport – Ho Chi Minh City, pick up and transfer to the hotel. Starting the walking tour around your hotel, visiting the colonial streets, the Opera House, the City Hall, and Cho Lon (China town) where we will start visiting the herbal medecine street, Thien Hau temple, Binh Tay market. Back the hotel for resting. Overning in Ho Chi Minh City.

Day 2. Ho Chi Minh City- Cu Chi tunnel- Ho Chi Minh City

After breakfast, city tour of Ho Chi Minh City, also know as Sai Gon. Visiting the former Presidential Palace, the War Remnants Museum, the Notre Dame Cathdral, the Central Post Office, a lacquer ware factory.  Lunch will be served at a Pho noodle restaurant, Pho is one of the most famous Vietnamese dishes. In the afternoon, visiting the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, an incredible underground network of tunnels constructed by Vietnamese resistance fighters during the time struggle for independence. Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.

Day 3. Ho Chi Minh City-Caibe-Vinh Long- Ho Chi Minh City

After breakfast, driving to CaiBe, about 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City. Caibe floating market is a unique water trading of locals in Mekong Delta. Stop by local families to learn about the ways of making pop rice, pop corn, rice paper. Enjoy the rowing boat in a small canal. Lunch will be served at a local house with speciality of Mekong Delta elephant ear fish. Continue the boat trip to Vinh Long, visiting the local wet market before driving back Saigon. Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.

Day 4. Ho Chi Minh City- Danang-Hoi An

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for the flight to Danang. Upon arrival, visiting the Cham museum, marble moutain. Arrive in Hoi An in the afternoon. Hoi An was a major Asian trading port in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Take a walk of the ancient town center to visit former merchants houses, the Japanese cover bridge,visiting the tailor shops and the colorful market. Overnight in Hoi An.

Day 5. Hoi An-Biking tour-Cooking Class

After breakfast, we will enjoy cycling through the hinterland around the outskirts of town, stopping en route at the rural villages, paddy fields, farms. We will bike to the beach to enjoy the refreshing swim. In the afternoon, riding back hotel and relaxing before enjoying a hands-on cooking class hosted by one of the town’s talented chefs to learn the secrets of cooking some Vietnamese’s essential dishes.

Day 6. Hoi An-Hue

Today we will depart Hoi An and travel further north to the beautiful Imperial City of Hue. En route, stoping at Hai Van Pass where you can enjoy the great view between the Danang and Hue. Arriving in Hue this afternoon, we will start the walking tour along the Perfume river, Trang Tien bridge and Dong Ba market. Overnight in Hue.

Day 7. Hue City Tour

This morning we will start the tour of the famous and ancient Citadel. Hué was the capital of Vietnam until the early 20th century, and generations of royalty lived in the Forbidden Purple City, inside the walled exterior of the Citadel. This was also the sight of some of the most brutal fighting during the infamous Tet Offensive. Visiting Thien Mu pagoda, one of Vietnam’s oldest and most beautiful Buddhist temples. In a corner of the grounds, note the aged, pale blue Morris automobile, which transported a local monk to Saigon where he immolated himself in 1963, in protest against the anti-Buddhist laws of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. After lunch driving through the dreamy countryside and charming scenes of Vietnamese life to the Tombs of the Nguyen emperors. With their vast, lovingly tended botanical gardens, beautiful open-air pavilions and numerous shrines, the Royal Tombs provided seven Nguyen emperors with noble burials as well as comfortable afterlives. The tombs of Minh Mang and Tu Duc are the most elegant, while Khai Dinh’s is the most unusual, combining Western architecture with Vietnamese style. Stroll among the courtyard statues and stelae, and amid serene gardens and ponds.

Day 8. Hue-Hanoi

Fly Hué to Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines VN 1542, departing 10:40, arriving 11:55

On arrival in Hanoi meet your awaiting vehicle and transfer into the city to your centrally located, historic hotel for check-in. After getting settled depart enjoy lunch at Quan An Ngon. Quan An Ngon restaurant is designed with seating in a spacious courtyard surrounding a giant central tree, with food stalls on all four sides cooking food to order. Afterwards begin an in-depth exploration of Hanoi’s Old Quarter on foot and aboard bicycle rickshaws called cyclos. In this part of town each colorful street is devoted to a particular craft or ware. You’ll be pedaled amongst the quaint French buildings along Shoe Street, Silk Street and Banner Street (to name just a few), ending at historic Hoan Kiem Lake, the social center of Hanoi. Later this afternoon attend a water puppet show at the Thang Long Water Puppetry Theater, an ancient Vietnamese form of entertainment that enables the puppeteers to control their marionettes by levers hidden under the water. Skits generally enact ancient folklore and legends that are rural in origin, and the theme of water is often present, as it defines so much of Vietnam’s landscape.

Day 9 Hanoi City Tour

After breakfast, depart on a full-day exploration of Hanoi, beginning with its most famous and interesting sites. First, visit the mausoleum that displays Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body, then tour the modest wooden house on stilts where he lived during the last years of his life. Other sights this morning include the One Pillar Pagoda and the Temple of Literature, the site of Vietnam’s first university and shrine for Confucian worship founded in 1066. This afternoon, visit Hoa Lo Prison Museum, otherwise known as “the Hanoi Hilton.” Built by the French to house Vietnamese revolutionaries, it was later used to hold American POWs during the Vietnam War. Then visit Hanoi’s Museum of Ethnology, featuring informative profiles of the country’s 54 distinct ethnic groups. First opened in 1997, the museum proudly showcases Vietnam’s diverse cultures that have shaped and continue to influence Vietnam’s identity. Nearby is Craft Link, a not-for-profit organization specializing in the production of quality handicrafts from Vietnam’s many ethnic group. Return to the hotel late this afternoon with the evening at your leisure.

Day 10 Hanoi-Ha Long Bay

This morning after breakfast, meet your guide and depart on the approximately four-hour journey northeast of Hanoi to the famous and magnificent Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site. Drive through the fertile countryside. This fishing and mining town serves as the embarkation point for magnificent Halong Bay. Arriving before lunch time we will jump straight on our private sleeper boat to go cruising in this secluded bay with its numerous limestone peaks enjoying the views as our local guide explains the legends, myths and changes Ha Long Bay has undergone since becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. This afternoon we will have the opportunity to visit spectacular caves, go swimming and kayak. We sleep on board our boat this evening.

Day 11 Ha Long Bay-Hanoi (B)

Those up early this morning will enjoy a short time marvelling at this important geographical marvel before we slowly make our way back to port and view the amazing karst topography which makes up the dense cluster of monolithic islands.  Back on land, we will make our way back to Hanoi. Returning to the hotel this afternoon  with the evening at your leisure or shopping at the old quarter depending on your requests.

Day 12. Hanoi – Departure

Enjoying your breakfast then free your own until transfer to the airport for your flight home. End of th services!