Vietnam is a long country. Book it in the right order.
Two weeks gets you from the Red River to the Mekong if the fixed days are locked in first. Bay cabins, loop riders, cooking tables and the morning at Cu Chi, priced and reviewed before you commit to any of them.
01The bay dayHa Long Bay Day Cruise – Swimming, Meal, KayakingHa Long and back inside a day out of Hanoi, with a kayak hour and a swim stop before the boat turns around.
02Limestone inlandFull-Day Ninh Binh Highlights Tour from HanoiThe same rock as the bay, with rivers instead of sea, plus five hundred steps up Mua Cave for the view over it.
03The city at nightHanoi Jeep Tour: Food, Culture and Fun by Vietnam Army JeepSomebody else drives the Old Quarter traffic in a restored army jeep, and stops wherever the food is.
04Into the deltaMekong Delta Tour with Sampan JourneyA sampan through the coconut creeks at My Tho, a long day south out of Ho Chi Minh City.
The four days a first Vietnam trip gets built around.
A day out on Ha Long, the karst rivers at Ninh Binh, Hanoi from the back of an army jeep, and a sampan in the delta. What each one costs, and what travellers made of it.
Hanoi and Saigon at the ends, the good bit in the middle.
Six bases, north to south: an Old Quarter with a bay beyond it, a lantern town on the Thu Bon, a beach that pays for the Marble Mountains, the citadel at Hue, rice terraces up at the border and the delta city at the bottom.
Three kinds of Vietnamese water, and what a seat on each costs.
Ha Long and Lan Ha for limestone standing out of the sea, the Trang An rivers at Ninh Binh for the same rock with caves rowed through it, and the delta creeks for coconut palms over your head. Pick the water first, then pick the boat.
Hanoi pays out for an early breakfast and a late walk.
All of Hanoi →
Pho before eight, the Old Quarter on foot while it is still cool, coffee thick with egg yolk in the afternoon, and two wheels once the lights come on. These three carry more travellers than anything else here.
Street food, and where Train Street fits
Bun cha, banh cuon and a bia hoi stool, walked between the Old Quarter lanes. The better walks time the Train Street stop for when the barriers are still up.
Ha Long, and whether one day is enough
A day boat buys you the limestone, an hour in a kayak and lunch on board. A cabin buys you the bay after the day boats have gone home, which is the version people talk about.
Army jeep, or a vintage Vespa
Somebody else takes on the traffic, which is the whole point of booking it. Food stops are built into the route, so turn up hungry rather than fed.
The days out most of Vietnam books.
Every Vietnam review →More travellers take these than anything else on the site. What each one actually is, how long it runs, and what it costs to get on it.
1
Cu Chi Tunnels Tour from HCM City – Morning or Afternoon
Visit the Cu Chi Tunnels from Ho Chi Minh City on a morning or afternoon group tour. You’ll see trapdoors, kitchens, living areas, supply routes, and narrow tunnel sections, with guides such as Joe, Minh, Nelson, and Tuan praised for clear storytelling. District 1 pickup, entry, transport, and water are included.
From · $15
Read our review →2
Hanoi Jeep Tour: Food, Culture and Fun by Vietnam Army Jeep
from $55
3
Mekong Delta Tour with Sampan Journey
from $16
4
Ho Chi Minh City Street Food Tour & Sightseeing By Motorbike
from $28
5
Full-Day Ninh Binh Highlights Tour from Hanoi
from $79
6
Cu Chi Tunnels-Tapioca Small Group Tour Morning or Afternoon
from $14
7
Ha Long Bay Day Cruise – Swimming, Meal, Kayaking
from $41
8
Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta Signature Tour
from $33
Hoi An is a lantern town with a river and a beach attached.
The Ancient Town shuts to cars and is best after dark, so the daylight goes somewhere else: a cooking table that starts at the market, a round bamboo boat in the coconut palms, or the ride north over Hai Van to Hue.
All the Hoi An days →
The best cooking in Vietnam is served on a pavement.
Pho at breakfast, bun cha at noon, egg coffee at four, and a class that starts in the market and ends at a table you cooked. Book the walking ones for the evening, when the stools come out and the lanes fill up.
What a day out in Vietnam costs, in three brackets.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what you pay. A good share of the country’s best days land under the price of the taxi that took you to the airport.
Street food walks, city rides, cooking tables and the day boats that run out of Hanoi.
Full days and first nights away: bay cabins, private drivers over Hai Van, the long delta run.
Three days on the loop, chartered boats, private guides, and the trips that take the planning off you.
Three Vietnamese days you cannot book anywhere else.
Limestone bays and street food turn up all over Asia. Three days pillion on somebody else’s motorbike, a round bamboo boat spun in a coconut creek, and a puppet stage flooded with water do not.
The Ha Giang Loop
The road runs to the Chinese border and back through Ma Pi Leng, a pass cut into the cliff above the Nho Que river. Most people ride it pillion behind an easy rider, which is the sensible call on wet hairpins. Beds are homestay mats, dinner comes with rice wine, and the full circuit takes three days.
- 1Ha Giang Loop 3 days Small group- From Ha Noi★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,114 reviews
- 2Ha Giang Loop 3D/2N Private Room+Free Dorm Hotel 1N before tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 993 reviews
- 3Ha Giang Loop 4 Days 3 Nights Motorbike Tour with easy Rider★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 972 reviews
The coconut creeks at Cam Thanh
A thung chai is a woven bamboo bowl, by local account a way around a French tax on boats. It carries two people through the water palms outside Hoi An, and the rowers spin it on the spot for anyone who claps. Crab traps and a net demonstration usually come with the ride.
- 1Basket Boat Ride in the Coconut Forest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 4,956 reviews
- 2Cooking Class Hoi An:Local Market, Basket Boat, Fishing & Cooking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,660 reviews
- 3Mekong Delta, My Tho & Ben Tre Coconut Village★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,304 reviews
Water puppetry
Puppeteers stand waist deep behind a bamboo screen and work lacquered figures across a flooded stage, an art the Red River villages built in their own paddies. The band plays from the side, the dragons throw sparks across the water, and the whole thing runs under an hour.
- 1Water Puppet Show Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 7,029 reviews
- 2Water Puppet Show Ticket with Hotel Delivery Add-On★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,554 reviews
- 3Thang Long Water Puppet Show Ticket – Skip The Line★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 836 reviews
Four Vietnamese bookings that run out of room.
Most of this country can be sorted from a hotel desk the night before. These four run on cabin counts, show times and departure days that take no interest in when you land.
- 01Water Puppet Show TicketsSeats are sold by session and the theatre runs only a handful each evening. The early ones go first.
- 02Featured: All-Inclusive OVERNIGHT Halong Cruises – many optionsA boat has a fixed number of cabins, and the dry months fill them a long way out.
- 03Ha Giang Loop 3 days Small group- From Ha NoiThree days, and the rider you get is most of the trip. The riders people ask for by name are booked well before arrival.
- 04Hanoi Cooking Class: Culture, Local Market & Meaning CSR ImpactA class caps at whatever the table seats. When the seats go, the market trip that opens it goes too.
Vietnam is never in season everywhere on the same day.
The north sits cold and grey through February, the central coast floods in October, and the south only does wet afternoons. Whatever the sky is doing where you are, the answer holds: get under a roof and eat, then go back out when it stops.
Saigon works as a base, not just a night before the flight.
Cu Chi is a morning, the delta is a long day, and the city itself is for walking before nine and eating after seven. Nearly everything leaves from District 1, which makes it the one place worth paying up for a bed.
- 1Cu Chi Tunnels Tour from HCM City – Morning or Afternoonfrom $15
- 2Mekong Delta Tour with Sampan Journeyfrom $16
- 3Ho Chi Minh City Street Food Tour & Sightseeing By Motorbikefrom $28
Places, north to south
By kind of day: boat, bike, kitchen or cave
Two weeks, top to bottom, in the order the trains and the flights actually go.
Just reviewed in Vietnam.
More just-added Vietnam →
Half-Day Guided Street Food Walking Tour at Hue
Read our review →
Dinner Cruise on Saigon River with Private Table
Read our review →
Saigon Evening: Water Puppet Show & Dinner Cruise Experience
Read our review →
Phong Nha & Paradise Cave – 1 Day All Inclusive
Read our review →
Da Nang Food Tour Motorbike & Sightseeing By Ao Dai Lady Rider
Read our review →
Motorbike 1 Day Off The Beaten Track, Hidden Villages, rice field
Read our review →