• 5 Dinner (D)
• 11 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Lunch (L)

• Hanoi: Visit Ho Chi Minh’s house in Hanoi.
• Hanoi: Travel past the colourful shopfronts and street food vendors of Hanoi’s Old Quarter on a cyclo tour.
• Hanoi: On a sightseeing tour of the city of Hanoi, see the imposing Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature.
• Hanoi: Enjoy a traditional evening Water Puppet performance in a local theatre. This northern Vietnamese art form beautifully illustrates scenes of rural life and natural history and began approximately a thousand years ago, possibly in the flooded rice fields of Vietnam. Puppeteers stand in waist-high water and manipulate their charges in such a way that you can’t help but be swept up in the legend being told. Each short sketch in the performance relates to the daily life of the people.
• Ha Long Bay: Start your day on beautiful Ha Long Bay with a T’ai Chi class led by a Local Specialist. 
• Hoi An: Hoi An is famous for its bespoke tailoring, where skilled tailors create custom suits, dresses and more—often in just a day or two. Whether you’re after the perfect fit or a stylish design tailored to your preferences, your Travel Director will be on hand to ensure you’re well taken care of throughout your visit.   
• Hoi An:
  Red Bridge Cooking School is a culinary gem in Hoi An. Begin your learning with a welcome drink at Hai Café before you explore the bustling central market with your chef, where you’ll select fresh ingredients. Take a boat to the school to enjoy a private cooking class and dine on your creations overlooking the river. 
• Hoi An: Cruise down the scenic Cua Dai River on a local boat and experience the art of casting traditional Vietnamese fishing nets. Guided by friendly fishermen, you’ll learn this centuries-old technique, adding an authentic and unforgettable adventure to your journey.
• Hue: See Hue by land and water today. Enjoy a cyclo tour past the Imperial Citadel and Thien Mu Pagoda before boarding a local dragon boat. 
• Ho Chi Minh City: Enjoy the sights of the French colonial-era buildings and even a former CIA residential block as you partake in a walking tour of Ho Chi Minh City.
• My Tho: Cruise along the canals of Cai Be in a small sampan boat during your visit to this market town.
• After a stroll through the streets of Cai Be, meet a local family in their home. Hear stories from your Local Specialist about surviving the Khmer Rouge and learn about the family’s handicraft, making paper. 
• Ho Chi Minh City: Visit the home of the former American Ambassador to South Vietnam in the 1960s.
• Ho Chi Minh City: Gain insight into a challenging period of Vietnam’s history as you join a Viet Cong veteran on a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, built to protect Viet Cong guerrillas.

• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• 4-star hotel and overnight cruise stays
• Deluxe coach and cruise travel, and select flights

Join a guided Tai Chi lesson aboard the cruise boat as daylight reaches Ha Long Bay’s limestone islands. Gentle, deliberate movements provide an active but unhurried way to take in the morning air and the changing colours of the water.

Led by a Local Specialist, the session introduces a practice centred on balance and controlled movement. The open-air setting, with karsts around the boat, makes the bay itself an integral part of the experience.

Ride a traditional cyclo through Hanoi’s Old Quarter, travelling at street level past narrow shopfronts, food vendors and busy intersections. The three-wheeled bicycle taxi offers a close-up view of daily life without losing sight of the neighbourhood’s historic streetscape.

The quarter’s celebrated 36 streets recall the artisan guilds once associated with different trades. Its present-day mix of workshops, shops and pavement activity keeps that commercial spirit visible.

Choose how to explore another side of Ha Long Bay: visit Tien Ong Cave to learn about its archaeological heritage, or discover the Cua Van Floating Culture Center by kayak or traditional rowing boat.

The cave option brings the area’s human history into focus, while Cua Van offers a perspective on life connected to the bay’s waterways. Both choices take you beyond the views from the cruise deck and closer to the landscape.

Trafalgar

Explore the Temple of Literature, founded in the 11th century and long associated with Vietnam’s earliest national university. Walk among its courtyards and traditional buildings, then see the imposing Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum from outside.

Visit the distinctive One Pillar Pagoda and step inside Ho Chi Minh’s modest wooden house. Together, these sites offer contrasting perspectives on scholarship, Buddhist tradition and the life of modern Vietnam’s founding leader.

Meet artisan Mr. Liem Phan and discover the craft of Vietnamese water puppetry. Hear how the figures are made, enjoy a performance and try your hand at puppet-making for a closer understanding of the skill behind the show.

This northern Vietnamese tradition has roots in rural life and is thought to have developed around flooded rice fields. Puppets moving across the water bring village scenes and folklore to life through a form of storytelling distinctive to Vietnam.

Cruise Ha Long Bay aboard an overnight boat as limestone islands rise from the water. Paddle a kayak through the Ho Ba Ham area, where the quieter channels let you experience the bay’s scenery at a slower, more intimate pace.

Time on board reveals changing views of the karsts from the deck, including the softer light of evening. The combination of an overnight stay and an active excursion offers more than a passing glimpse of this celebrated seascape.

Practise preparing Vietnamese dishes in a cooking competition held on the cruise boat’s sundeck or in its restaurant. Working alongside fellow passengers adds a hands-on element to the time spent among Ha Long Bay’s limestone scenery.

Vietnamese cooking is known for balancing fresh herbs, contrasting textures and savoury flavours. This relaxed onboard activity offers a chance to engage with those culinary traditions while sharing the results and the experience with your travelling companions.

Walk the lanes of UNESCO-listed Hoi An Ancient Town, passing old merchant houses and crossing the Japanese Covered Bridge. Admire the carved details of the Chaozhou Assembly Hall and browse a market scented with spices and brightened by colourful textiles.

Hoi An grew as a trading port from the 15th century, drawing merchants from China, Japan and Europe. Its preserved buildings reveal those layered influences within a compact, walkable townscape.

Explore Hoi An’s central market with a chef, select fresh ingredients and travel by boat to the Red Bridge Cooking School. In a private class, prepare Vietnamese dishes and enjoy what you have made beside the river.

Beginning with a welcome drink at Hai Café, the experience connects market produce with the techniques used to turn it into a meal. It is a practical introduction to local food culture, from the bustle of the stalls to the cooking table.

Visit a fishing village near Hoi An and learn to cast traditional Vietnamese fishing nets with local guidance. Try paddling a round basket boat through coconut-palm waterways, and cruise along the Cua Dai River while hearing stories of the area.

These boats and fishing techniques reflect the close relationship between coastal communities and their waterways. The hands-on activities offer a grounded view of local working traditions as well as a different perspective on Hoi An’s landscape.

Take in coastal views from the Hai Van Pass, the mountain road between the Da Nang area and Hue. The crossing opens up broad views where wooded slopes meet the sea, with a stop at Red Beach adding a historical dimension.

American Marines landed at the beach in 1965 during the Vietnam War. Pairing that site with the pass’s dramatic geography offers a brief but meaningful look at both the scenery and modern history of central Vietnam.

Travel through Hue by cyclo and explore the UNESCO-listed Imperial Citadel, once the seat of the Nguyen emperors. Visit Thien Mu Pagoda, a landmark overlooking the Perfume River and an enduring symbol of the city.

Hue served as Vietnam’s imperial capital in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its fortified royal precinct and riverside religious monument reveal different strands of that heritage, from court life to spiritual tradition.

Cruise Hue’s Perfume River by dragon boat to a historic garden house associated with Princess Ngoc Son, daughter of Emperor Dong Khanh. Meet its current residents, the Phan family, for a Be My Guest lunch and hear about life in the house.

Family artefacts and mementos offer a personal connection to Hue’s former royal era. The visit combines a distinctive river journey with hospitality in a home that preserves part of the city’s living history.

Walk along Dong Khoi Street to see Ho Chi Minh City’s Opera House, former Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame Cathedral and Central Post Office. Continue through Ben Thanh Market, where traders and shoppers give the city centre its everyday energy.

The grand civic buildings recall the French colonial period, while the market reflects a longstanding culture of commerce. Together, these sights show how historic architecture and present-day street life sit side by side in the city.

Visit Ho Chi Minh City’s War Remnants Museum for a challenging examination of the Vietnam War and its effects. Explore displays that present the conflict and its human consequences through a Vietnamese perspective.

The museum offers important context for places and stories encountered across the country. Its subject matter can be confronting, but the visit provides space to consider the experiences of civilians and the lasting impact of war on Vietnamese society.

Dine at KOTO restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City and experience a meal with a social purpose. The organisation uses hospitality training and vocational education to create opportunities for young people affected by disadvantage.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience connects an evening out with a local initiative working to reduce inequality. Beyond the food, the distinctive element is the chance to support a pathway into skills, employment and greater independence.

Cruise the waterways around Cai Be by traditional boat and ride a small sampan through the Mekong Delta’s narrow canals. Visit a preserved 19th-century family house and share a home-hosted lunch featuring regional specialities.

Riverbanks, homes and canals show how daily life is shaped by the delta’s network of water. Meeting local hosts adds a personal perspective to the journey, alongside insight into family traditions and crafts passed between generations.

Explore the Cu Chi Tunnels with a veteran who shares firsthand perspective on the underground network used by Viet Cong forces. Learn how its passages functioned as hideouts, living spaces and hospitals during the war.

The visit makes the ingenuity and hardship of wartime life tangible in a way exhibits alone cannot. A private speedboat journey back to Ho Chi Minh City adds a contrasting view of the region from the water.

Visit the former home of US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Ho Chi Minh City. The residence offers a setting in which to consider the diplomatic history of South Vietnam during the 1960s.

Lodge served as US ambassador during a consequential period of the Vietnam War. Seeing a place associated with that role adds a more personal, site-specific perspective to the city’s wider wartime history and its political connections beyond Vietnam.

Visit My Son Sanctuary on an optional excursion from Hoi An to explore the remains of Cham temples set among wooded hills. The brick towers and sanctuaries provide a window into the religious and artistic traditions of the Champa civilisation.

This UNESCO World Heritage Site was an important spiritual centre for centuries. It offers a striking contrast to Hoi An’s trading-port heritage. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore the Ky Anh tunnels in Tam Thanh village on an optional excursion from Hoi An. Discover an underground site connected to the Vietnam War and consider how local communities lived through conflict in this part of central Vietnam.

The visit offers a village-level perspective on wartime history, distinct from the larger tunnel complex at Cu Chi. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.