Vietnam Discovery

Highlights

• Overnight Halong Bay cruise
• Hanoi Old Quarter
• Hoi An ancient town

Day by day

1. Day 1Arrive Hanoi

   Into Hanoi and straight out into the Old Quarter, where thirty-six streets each once sold a single trade and the whole thing still moves on scooters and low plastic stools. Then a circuit of Hoan Kiem Lake with its red bridge and pagoda on the water.

2. Day 2Hanoi City Tour

   The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, austere and enormous, with the stilt house and One Pillar Pagoda in the grounds. Then the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university, laid out around a series of quiet walled courtyards.

3. Day 3Drive to Halong Bay

   East to Halong Bay and aboard an overnight cruise. Nearly two thousand limestone islands standing straight out of jade water, kayaking between them, and a cave on the way. Sleeping out on the bay is the point.

4. Day 4Halong Bay to Hanoi

   Morning on the water while the mist is still on it, back to Hanoi, then the flight south to Da Nang for Hoi An.

5. Day 5Hoi An Ancient Town

   Hoi An on foot. A UNESCO-listed old town of yellow merchant houses and lantern-strung lanes that survived the war almost untouched, the tailors who can make you something overnight, and the Japanese Covered Bridge at the end of the street.

6. Day 6Departure

   Transfer to the airport for the flight home.