Vietnam Uncovered

Arrive into Hanoi, where your driver and guide will be waiting to welcome you into the city in comfort. Settle in and get your first taste of the city's energy before the journey begins in earnest tomorrow.

Hanoi rewards a slow look: centuries-old temples sit blocks from motorbike-thronged boulevards, and quiet lakeside mornings give way to markets that never quite stop moving. Spend a full day uncovering its layers with a private guide, beginning at the sixth-century Tran Quoc Pagoda on the shores of tranquil West Lake, then the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university, founded in 1076 to educate the country's royalty and elite for eight centuries. Choose between the Vietnam Women's Museum, celebrating the role women have played in Vietnamese society, or the Museum of Ethnology, home to a rich collection charting the country's 54 ethnic groups, before a break for lunch. In the afternoon, visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, the stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived from 1958 to 1969, and the eleventh-century One Pillar Pagoda, before losing yourself in the tangled lanes of the Old Quarter, where the trades of Hanoi's historic 36 guilds still echo through the shopfronts. The day closes with a performance of the ancient art of water puppetry at the famed Water Puppet Theatre, a tradition dating back to the eleventh century.

Leave the capital behind for the quieter countryside of Ninh Binh, around two hours south of Hanoi. At Tam Coc, meaning ‘three caves,’ board a private sampan through a UNESCO-listed landscape often nicknamed Halong Bay on Land, drifting beneath towering limestone karsts jutting from the rice fields and gliding through the river caves themselves. After lunch, continue to Hoa Lu, the ruins of Vietnam's first capital, for a guided look at the Dinh and Le dynasties and the remains of its once-imposing citadel. From here, choose your own pace: climb into the karst hills for spectacular views over Hoa Lu, or take a scenic bike ride through emerald rice fields and villages to Thai Vi Temple, tucked into a peaceful valley, with the option to continue further to Bich Dong Pagoda and its three cave pagodas dating to 1428. Return to Hanoi in the late afternoon.

Drive from Hanoi to Halong City to board your boat, the perfect way to see the UNESCO World Heritage waters of Halong and Lan Ha Bay. Here, close to two thousand islands and islets crowd the bay, their limestone peaks rising steeply from the water and topped with pockets of forest, a landscape that feels like nowhere else in Vietnam. Settle into your cabin as lunch is served, with the afternoon free for onboard activities before the boat anchors for the night among the karsts. Round off the day with a sunset cocktail on deck and dinner as evening settles quietly over the bay.

Wake to the still waters of the bay for a final breakfast onboard before disembarking and transferring to the airport for the short flight south to Danang. From there, it's a scenic drive to Hoi An, one of Vietnam's most beautifully preserved towns, its lantern-strung streets and ochre-walled houses tracing its history as a major trading port in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The rest of the afternoon is yours to explore at leisure.

Spend the morning uncovering a different side of Hoi An's old town with a local guide: former merchant houses, colourful communal halls, and the narrow backstreets tourists rarely find, including the iconic Japanese Bridge. Meet a local family who have passed down a martial-arts-based healing practice through several generations, blending Qigong, Tai Chi and traditional Vietnamese Vo, with the chance to try a few basic steps yourself. The morning closes with a visit to a cosy local home to taste a traditional Hoi An dessert. The rest of the day is free to relax or continue exploring at your own pace.

After a morning at leisure, depart Hoi An for Hue, the former royal capital of the Nguyen Dynasty. The road climbs along a forested ridge with the coastline dropping away below, past hidden bays and waterfalls, on what's widely regarded as one of the world's great coastal drives, with sweeping views over Lang Co Lagoon on the way north. Arrive in Hue with the evening free.

Spend a full day tracing the story of Vietnam's former royal capital, starting within the walled grounds of the UNESCO-listed Imperial Citadel, including Kien Trung Palace, once home to Vietnam's last emperors and beautifully restored in recent years. Continue by cyclo, a form of rickshaw unique to Vietnam, past a tranquil lake where kings once rested through the summer heat, to a private museum of royal treasures, then to Thien Mu Pagoda on the beautifully named Perfume River, perhaps Hue's most iconic landmark. After a local Hue-inspired lunch, journey into the outskirts to the tomb of Emperor Minh Mang, a ruler known for his opposition to French rule and his decadent tastes, its imposing architecture set within a gorgeous forest setting. Continue to the very different tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh, where traditional Vietnamese design meets European influence in a way found nowhere else among Hue's royal tombs.

Fly south to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial capital, still known to locals as Saigon. Once called the Pearl of Indochina, the city wears its colourful history in layers, from pagodas, museums and grand colonial architecture to a fast-growing skyline of glass and steel. In the afternoon, join a local guide for a walking tour through the historic centre, taking in the architecturally splendid City Hall, historic Dong Khoi Street, the Continental Hotel and the Saigon Opera House, then step off the main road into a heritage building reimagined by the city's creative generation, now filled with independent shops, cafes and art spaces. Continue on foot past the Central Post Office and the former CIA building to leafy 30 April Park and Reunification Palace, its war rooms and basement preserved like a moment frozen in time, before finishing at the bustling Ben Thanh Market, still a working neighbourhood market at its heart.

Leave the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City behind and head south to Ben Tre, known as the land of coconut in the heart of the Mekong Delta. Board a local boat to wind through a maze of canals, sipping a freshly picked coconut as the scenery slips by, before stopping at a traditional brick kiln and a coconut workshop to see every part of the fruit put to good use. Meet local families still making coconut candy by hand, then relax over lush tropical fruit and honey tea in a garden setting. Explore the riverside promenade and narrow lanes by bicycle or aboard a motor-tricycle, once the iconic vehicle of southern Vietnam, before a riverside lunch of Mekong Delta specialties. Finish with a sampan ride through a hidden maze of narrow, palm-draped canals, for a last, unhurried look at delta life, before returning to Ho Chi Minh City by mid-afternoon.

Transfer to the airport for your onward flight, bringing your journey through Vietnam to a close.