Meal provided: No meal

Welcome to Vietnam. Upon arrival at Hanoi Airport, obtain your Vietnam visa, and then clear Immigration and Customs. After collecting your baggage, exit the airport to meet a local driver only.

Settle in and enjoy the rest of the day at leisure.
Stay overnight in Hanoi

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner with a local family

Start a day by visiting the local food market to learn about Vietnamese very local daily life.

Continue to Ho Chi Minh Complex, an important place of pilgrimage. A traffic-free area of botanical gardens, monuments, memorials, and pagodas, it’s usually crowded with groups of all ages, from all over the nation, who has come to pay their respects. Within the complex, you can visit Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, Ba Dinh Square, the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh’s Stilt House, and the Ho Chi Minh Museum. Closed by, the famous One Pillar Pagoda which is built of wood on a single stone pillar 1.25 m in diameter. It is designed to resemble a lotus blossom, which is a Buddhist symbol of purity, since a lotus blossoms in a muddy pond.

Continue to the Temple of Literature which was built in 1070 in honor of Confucius, his followers, and Chu Van An, a moral figure in Vietnamese education.

In the afternoon, visit the Hoa Lo prison. It was a prison used by the French colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War when it was sarcastically known to American prisoners of war as the “Hanoi Hilton”.

Then take a cyclo tour (rick raw) in Hanoi Old Quarter – 36 streets and guilds to discover the ancient feature of Hanoi and daily life and the French Quarter with some signature buildings such as Hanoi Opera House. And the French architecture with the most typical Art Deco style can be seen in the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam. Many French architects and later Vietnamese architects created the Indochinese architectural style in which the traditional architectural details of Vietnam and Kh’mer were used to produce the roofs, porch roofs, and decorative patterns. The most typical works include the University of Indochina with another name National University (No.19, Le Thanh Tong Street).

***Dinner with local family (They are a family of 4, parents and two kids who speak English well)

Welcome to our home in Hanoi! Have you ever had any chance to join in Vietnamese family to have dinner with authentic Vietnamese food? If you have not done it before, this is the must thing to do before you leave Vietnam. This is not only about the good food & good time but also where we share and learn from each other’s culture. We will join a meal with the group & sharing all my family stories as well as the Vietnamese culture. We are sure to provide a unique experience while they visit our family

Back to the hotel.

Stay overnight in Hanoi

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, depart to Ninh Binh Province.

After an almost two-hour drive, you will reach stilt houses at Gia Van (Gia Vien District). There you will get your bike at around 10:00 to start your 7-kilometer cycle on a small road to visit the local villages, temples, pagodas, and local markets.

Stop at Cau Vang Hamlet, you will spend about one hour joining farming activities and experiencing the local daily life such as catching crab, fishing, transplanting rice, seeding or scooping water, or harvesting. You may find it confused and clumsy at first but the feeling of becoming a real farmer in rice fields will make you relaxed and interested.

After that, you’ll come to a local ancient house. Here, keep your soul in a cooking demonstration with traditional dishes. Don’t miss the chance to enjoy your food and the simplicity of furniture which bring you back to the peaceful atmosphere of the Vietnam farmer family hundreds of years ago.

In the afternoon, you will visit “Cat Scratch” mountain – the home of Delacour’s langurs (in Vietnamese, called Voọc) – the precious animal in the World Red Book and then reach Van Long Wharf where you will have a boat trip along the reservoir of Van Long Nature Reserve – the largest wetland of Northern Vietnam. The green poetic landscape with many kinds of animals will provide you with wonderful opportunities for nice photos.

After the boat trip, you’ll get in the car to come back to Hanoi.

Stay overnight in Hanoi

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Have breakfast at the hotel, meet your private transfer then head to the Bay

Subject to change without prior notice

11.45–12.15: Embark at Hon Gai International harbor.

12.30–13.00: Embark on the boat. Enjoy a welcome drink as the Cruise Manager gives you a brief overview of the itinerary and important safety guidelines. Check-in your cabin.

13.30–14.30: Have lunch while cruising to magnificent Bai Tu Long Bay; Start sailing among the famous Islets (Indochina studio, Am Islet…) of Bai Tu Long Bay, the wildest beauty with panoramic natural views.

15.00–16.30: Visit and explore the well-hidden Co Cave (known as Thien Canh Son Cave) where you can hike to the middle of the mountain to see the wild and mysterious beautiful cave, contemplate numerous sparkling stalactites that appear like ‘hanging lamps’  inside the  Cave.  (No swimming).

Return to the boat and enjoy Happy hour. You will have a 30% discount on the special menu drinks including of cocktails, mock-tail, and mixed drinks (from 16.30 pm to 19.00 pm.). 

16.30–17.30: Enjoy kayaking at Cong Do or relaxing on the cruise. (Kayaking rate is not included)

18:00–19.00: Attend our chef’s cooking demonstration and try your skills in the art of traditional Vietnamese cooking (spring roll).

19.00-21.00: Dinner is served in the restaurant. You can enjoy the charm of Bai Tu Long Bay at night.

21.00-22.00: Enjoy evening activities (Squid Fishing, Movie Night, Board Games, Massage & Spa services) or relax at the leisure then overnight at a private cabin in the Cong Do area.

Stay overnight on a cruise

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Brunch

Subject to change without prior notice

06.30-07.00: Welcome a new day with an amazing dawn on Bai Tu Long Bay. Refresh your body and soul with a Tai-chi session on the sundeck.

07.00-07.30: Catch the morning view of the seascape while enjoying breakfast with cookies and tea at a café in the restaurant.

07.30-08.30: Visit Vung Vieng fishing village – the famous fishing farm by bamboo boat and discover life of local people living on the surface of Halong Bay. (No swimming).

08.30-9.30: Pack up the luggage and check out of the cabin.

09.30-10.40: Enjoy the brunch in the restaurant while cruising back to Vinashin tourist harbor.

11.00: Disembark from the boat.

11.30 – 12.00: Meet your transfer, depart back to Hanoi at 14:30 – 15:00, and head to the airport for the flight to Saigon.

Meet upon arrival, pick up by private transfer and drop off at your hotel.

Stay overnight in Ho Chi Minh

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Lunch

This morning, transfer to visit the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, an incredible underground tunnel network constructed by Vietnamese resistance fighters during the long struggle for independence. The Cu Chi Tunnel system had been created a long time back, in 1948 to assist Viet Minh in the combat with French. During the American War, the entire area of Cu Chi has designated a free fire zone and was heavily bombarded. Since 1988, two sections of tunnels have been open for visitors.

Back to Saigon.

You are about to visit Reunification Palace formerly known as Independence Palace, built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, which is a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City.

Our next stop is the War Remnants Museum. Operated by the Vietnamese government, an incipient form of the museum opened on September 4, 1975, as the “Exhibition House for the US and Puppet Crimes, located on the premises of the former United States Information Agency building.

Stop to City Hall, Ho Chi Minh Monument, and Central Post Office which was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina in the early 20th century. Today, the building is a tourist attraction. Right nearby, you can see Notre Dame Cathedral, a magnificent building located in the heart of the city and established by French colonists.

Escort at your hotel.

Stay overnight in Ho Chi Minh

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Lunch

In the morning, we leave Saigon behind and head to Vietnam’s rice basket in the Mekong Delta. We will pass through idyllic, rural scenes until we arrive at My Tho, a peaceful town on the bank of the Mekong River, where we will visit the Vinh Trang Pagoda.

Take a leisurely boat ride along the river, and view the stilt houses, fruit plantations, and fishing villages along the river bank. Proceed to Tortoise islet and then enjoy a boat ride to An Khanh – a less touristy attraction in Ben Tre, enjoy cruising on a hand-rowed sampan under the shadow of the water coconut trees along natural canals, then enjoy seasonal fruit & honey tea to the sound of “Southern Vietnamese folk music“, performed by locals.

Visit a family business that epitomizes the idyllic rural lifestyle, taste the delicious coconut candy & observe the pastoral life as you roam through the fruit plantation and village

Check-in your resort. Then you will choose the activity or as a free leisure

The activity options (from 1700-18h30)

Kayak – this is quite fun and amazing to discover the river’s near at hotel

Cycling with the map and bicycle provided, your adventure can now begin

Local boat riding, – after a quick guide on how to ride, let’s explore the huge garden in a different way, the local boats are small but amazing to try, it is safe and so fun

Stay overnight in Mekong Delta

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Meal provided: Breakfast

The watery world of the Mekong Delta is home to many bustling floating markets. On this day we take a boat trip exploring the colorful Cai Be floating market, where you can observe all of the busy trading activities of local traders with several kinds of agricultural products from one boat to another.

Next stop, visit Xeo Quyt a basement among residential places which is preserved formerly containing: underground house, store, secret tunnel…Visiting there, tourists can view the scene of the tough life in the defending America period.

Heading back to Saigon for a flight to Siem Reap.

Meet upon arrival, pick up by private transfer and drop off at your hotel.

Stay overnight in Siem Reap

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Meal provided: Breakfast, Dinner with Apsara show

In the morning, pick up by tuk-tuk and visit the South Gate (with its huge statues depicting the churning of the ocean of milk), the ancient capital of Angkor Thom (12th century), Bayon Temple (unique for its 54 towers decorated with over 200 smiling faces of Avalokitesvara), the Royal Enclosure, Phimeanakas, the Elephants Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King. 

Afternoon, visit the most famous of all the temples on the plain of Angkor: Angkor Wat. The temple complex covers 81 hectares and is comparable in size to the Imperial Palace in Beijing. Its distinctive five towers are emblazoned on the Cambodian flag and the 12th-century masterpiece is considered by art historians to be the prime example of classical Khmer art and architecture. Angkor Wat’s five towers symbolize Meru’s five peaks – the enclosed wall represents the mountains at the edge of the world and the surrounding moat, the ocean beyond.

Sunset at Angkor Wat.

Stay overnight in Siem Reap

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Meal provided: Breakfast

Breakfast at your hotel; visit Kampong Khleang which is located on the northern lake edge about 55 km east of Siem Reap town, more remote and less tourist than Kampong Pluk. Visitors to Kampong Khleang during the dry season are universally awestruck by the forest of stilted houses rising up to 10 meters in the air. In the wet season, the waters rise up to one or two meters from the buildings.

Free & leisure at your own time for rolling at local markets or shopping until transfer to Siem Reap international airport for departure flight back to the next destination.

End of tour.

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