Vietnam Exotic Tour – 12 Days 11 Nights

Your journey will begin in Saigon, just as you land! Your English speaking tour guide will take you through Saigon’s bustling streets through to your hotel. Enjoy the rest of the day at your leisure to recover from jet lag and explore the city on your own. Make sure to get some rest, though!

Today is a full day dedicated to seeing Saigon’s diverse and highly unique attractions. It’ll all kick off with a visit to Saigon’s China Town, giving you the chance to witness and learn about Vietnamese medicine at the FITO Museum, and it’s followed by the chance to get the souvenir of a lifetime at the Ben Thanh Market!

And that’s not all! It’s accented by a visit to the War Remnants museum, and the former Presidential palace after a hearty lunch!

With an introduction to Vietnam in style, you will leave Saigon today, heading to the Mekong Delta. On the way to Cai Be, you’ll be stopping at a candy factory and orchard garden, where you have an opportunity to listen to traditional music and see the industries in action! Lunch is to be experienced right on the beautiful riverside, giving you a great view, as well as great food! You’ll then cross the river by motorized boat to visit some fluvial islands. To round off your journey, your driver will meet you at Vinh Long pier and take you to Can Tho City for the night.

It’s an early start, so make sure you’re well rested! You’ll be visiting the famous Cai Rang floating market by boat, before continuing onwards on your boat ride to see and experience the Mekong Delta’s famous orchards and sample the fresh, exotic fruit. It’s a sight that you’ll never get anywhere else, and the views from the boat are spectacular! And as you venture deeper and deeper through the country side, you’ll sail by some beautiful traditional houses made of wood and palm leaves, and you’ll get to see the local people going about their day to day business. You will be returning to Saigon for the night.

After a hearty breakfast, you will be driven to the airport for your internal flight to Da Nang, the next leg of your journey. From there, you’ll be met with an English speaking tour guide who will take you to Hoi An, a beautiful little riverside village that’ll set the scene nicely. A half day walking tour awaits, taking you through the narrow, yet highly tranquil and charming winding streets of the ancient quarter, stopping by the Chua Ong Pagoda, the Chinese Assembly Hall, the Tan Ky ancestral house and the famous Japanese Bridge. And to take the weight off your tired legs, you’ll round off the day on a relaxing cruise on the river by boat.

Today, you will explore Hoi An’s surrounding farmland and economic driving force amid the breathtaking countryside and even get the chance to try your hand at fishing using local techniques, taking you to the very heart of their culture as you learn from the best! All the while, you’ll learn how to navigate a basket boat through the narrow waterways. Return to Hoi An in the afternoon for a private cooking class. Now you can learn how to cook up a storm at home and bring authentic Vietnamese cuisine to your very own kitchen!

First activity of the day is experiencing the amazing views from the 500m-high Hai Van pass as you are driven on your way to Hue City. Though don’t worry, you’ll be stopping to a beautiful, scenic Lang Co Beach for a drink before continuing on to Hue. You’ll spend the afternoon on tour of city on foot, paying visits to many of the cities biggest attractions, including the Royal Citadel, the Imperial Museum, as well as the Mausoleum of King Tu Duc.

It’s time to take to the waters today, aboard a private boat cruise down the romantic Perfume River to visit the Lady Pagoda (Thien Mu Pagoda). And after that, you’ll have the chance to do some retail therapy, Vietnamese style, amid Dong Ba Market. And it’s all leading up to the next leg of your journey, as you’ll be driven to the airport in the afternoon to catch a flight to Hanoi. It’ll be a short trip to your hand picked hotel for the night!

You’ll find Hanoi to be a beautiful city, adorned with tree-lined boulevards, a mix of French and Vietnamese traditional architecture, a myriad of peaceful, emerald surfaced lakes and ancient oriental pagodas, and it’s all yours to see today. This city tour will take you to Hanoi’s must-see attractions, including the Ho Chi Minh Complex, the Presidential Palace and One Pillar Pagoda, the Temple of Literature, West Lake and even the Quan Thanh Temple. You’ll find that no stone has been left unturned on your view through the city.

Later in the afternoon, to round off an evening and bring it to a peaceful close, you’ll enjoy a traditional Water Puppet Performance – a unique Vietnamese art form hailing from Southeast Asia ’s wet-rice culture.

With a great breakfast to kick start your day, it’s a three to four hour drive to what some may consider the very highlight of the tour… Halong Bay.

It will be a great 24 hours cruise on the amazing Halong Bay. It in itself is an international beauty spot of sparkling, turquoise waters, and thousands of all natural rock formations visible above the surface, and a place where one can experience some of the most amazing scenery and sunsets anywhere in the world. It will be early afternoon as you set off with a fresh seafood lunch. See the natural islands of Dinh Huong and Ga Choi as well as one of the bay’s 3 largest caves. You’ll even get the chance to take a swim in the warm waters of the Gulf of Tonkin (weather permitting). Pass the night onboard your ship in our comfortable little cabin.

For those of you who enjoy martial arts, you have the opportunity to enjoy a spot of Tai Chi on the top deck or simply kick back and enjoy the beautiful sunrise over the bay. And with a cup of tea or coffee to start your day off properly, you’ll set out to explore the nearby islands by rowboat. You’ll be out for much of the morning, returning to the junk for brunch, and then using the sundeck as your front row seat, admiring the amazing rock formations of Bai Tu Long Bay on the way back to port. Your driver will meet you there to take you back to your hotel in Hanoi.

Unfortunately, even the best of holidays and journeys must come to an end at some point, and today will be your departure. But not until you’ve had some time on your own to revisit some of your favorite places in Hanoi and enjoy yourself for one last day before your journey back home.

Be sure to visit us again soon!