This is a first trip to Vietnam, for travellers who have one week and mean to use all of it. You land in Hanoi, stay north three days, then fly south for the delta. Two of the seven days go on moving between regions. In exchange you see three parts of the country with almost nothing in common: a dense old capital, a flooded valley of limestone towers, and a river mouth where the roads run out and boats take over.
We run it privately, on any date, which is what makes a short week workable. Starts shift later if you arrive on a night flight or travel with children, and a morning of temples can be traded for a slower one by the lake. Tell us what you want to see and we rebuild the frame around it.
Day by day
Day 1
Your flight lands at Noi Bai and a driver takes you into the city, about forty-five minutes when the traffic behaves. Check in near the Old Quarter and sleep if you need to. If there is light left, walk to Hoan Kiem Lake in the late afternoon, when the paths fill with people exercising. Dinner is your own and your guide will mark a few places on a map. Overnight in Hanoi.
Day 2
A full day in the capital. The morning takes in the mausoleum and the stilt house behind it, the One Pillar Pagoda and the Temple of Literature, which served as the country's first university. You eat at a local restaurant at midday. Afternoon goes on foot through the Old Quarter, where streets still carry the name of the trade once worked there. Overnight in Hanoi.
Day 3
Two hours south to Ninh Binh. At Hoa Lu you walk through the temples of the tenth-century capital, small stone courtyards set against a wall of hills. Lunch follows, then a local rower takes you along the river at Tam Coc, through rice fields and three caves cut under the limestone. Many rowers work the oars with their feet. Back in Hanoi by evening. Overnight in Hanoi.
Day 4
Morning transfer to the coast, around two and a half hours by expressway, and you board your cruise boat in Halong Bay. Lunch is served as the boat pulls out among the islands. The afternoon usually holds a limestone cave and an hour in a kayak. Dinner is on board and so is the night. Cabins are compact; the top deck is where you will end up.
Day 5
Early light is the best hour on the water, and most boats run tai chi on deck before breakfast. You cruise back through the islands, step ashore late morning and drive across to catch the southbound flight, about two hours in the air. A driver meets you at Tan Son Nhat. The evening is yours. Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.
Day 6
South to the Mekong Delta, roughly two hours by road. The car stops at a jetty and a boat carries you on: wide brown water first, then a narrow creek under nipa palms where a rower takes over. Orchards and small family workshops line the banks, and lunch is by the river. The stops shift with the tide and the season. Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.
Day 7
Breakfast at the hotel, then the shape of the day depends on your flight. If it leaves late, leave your bags at reception and use the morning: the Reunification Palace, the war remnants museum, the old post office and the cathedral all sit within a few streets of each other. Your driver allows three hours for the airport run.
What the price covers
- Six nights in all: five hotels picked with you, one cabin out on the bay
- The internal flight south, Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, with checked baggage
- Air-conditioned car and driver for every transfer and excursion
- A licensed guide who speaks English at each stop on the route
- Breakfast every day, plus the lunches and the dinner listed above
- Entrance fees to the sites named in the itinerary
- Rowing boat at Tam Coc, the cruise fare, and the delta sampan
- Bottled water waiting in the car each morning
- Our Hanoi office on call by phone or WhatsApp throughout
Not included
- International flights into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh City
- Vietnamese visa or e-visa charges, and the photographs they ask for
- Travel insurance, which we ask every traveller to hold
- Drinks with meals, and any meal not listed day by day
- Gratuities, laundry and anything else you spend on yourself
- A supplement for sole occupancy of a room
Good to know
Nothing here is strenuous, but the week is full. Most days begin between eight and nine and run to late afternoon, and three include two hours or more in a vehicle. Walking is flat apart from the steps at Hoa Lu. The north turns cool and grey from December to February, hot from May to August. The south stays warm all year, with afternoon rain from June to October.
- The Halong cabin is booked on a shared boat unless you ask us to charter one. The boat keeps its own timetable.
- Domestic flights are moved at short notice more often than not. We rebook and rearrange the day around them.
- Hanoi traffic thickens between seven and nine in the morning and again after five in the afternoon.
- Bring shoes you can take off easily. Temples and some family houses are entered barefoot.
- Bad weather closes the bay to boats. If the port authority stops sailings we move the night ashore and rework the day.
- Seven days is a tight frame. With two more, Hue or Hoi An fits between the north and the south.
Plan this trip
- Days
- 7
Sending this does not charge you. We hold the space and confirm within 24 hours.
Send us your dates and the size of your party and we will come back with a written quote and a day-by-day plan you can mark up.