Luxury Vietnam Tours: 10 Days Private, Ha Long Bay to the Mekong

A driver holding a sign meets you as you come out at Noi Bai and brings you into the city centre, about 45 minutes across the Red River. Nothing else is planned for the afternoon, so unpack, rest or take a first walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, which is close to most central addresses.

The evening is the one fixed point. You are taken to Tam Vi, a small restaurant that holds a Michelin star for northern home cooking: ham cooked with periwinkle snails, a series of clear, herb-heavy soups and the other dishes the kitchen is known for. It is a quiet way to meet the food of the north before the village kitchen tomorrow.

A guide and car collect you after the morning rush for the drive out to the countryside west of Hanoi, below the Ba Vi hills. The first stop is Ri Village, where Mr Duoc grows tea: you pick leaves with him, then follow them through withering, rolling and drying to a cup of the finished green tea.

Moc Village comes next, and Mrs Chin's kitchen, where you cook a midday meal of northern dishes together and eat it at her table. The afternoon is slow: a walk through the lanes to call on a few families, a bicycle loop between the rice paddies, and a warm herbal foot bath before the car returns you to the city by late afternoon.

The cruise company's shuttle bus collects you from the city in the morning for the run east to Tuan Chau Marina, where a tender ferries you out to La Pandora Cruise. A welcome drink and a safety briefing follow, and the boat is already moving as the first seafood courses arrive, with the Con Vit Islets sliding past the windows.

The afternoon is in Lan Ha Bay, the quieter southern reach of the Ha Long seascape off Cat Ba Island, with a choice of kayaking or a swim from the boat. Back on deck the chef shows how Vietnamese spring rolls are made, and the sun sets with a glass of local wine and fresh fruit. After the evening meal you can try squid fishing, a film, the bar or the games on board (optional, extra cost).

The day begins on the sundeck with a tai chi session as the light comes up over the water, and coffee and tea follow. A day boat then carries you to Viet Hai, a village in a valley on Cat Ba Island that for a long time could only be reached by sea. Bicycles are waiting at the jetty for the ride in through the forest, a tunnel cut in the rock and the rice fields of the valley, with a stop at a house of straw, mud and bamboo built the old way.

Back on the day boat you eat while it moves through Lan Ha Bay, and the afternoon is free for kayaking, swimming and a landing on the sand of Van Boi Beach. The evening repeats the pattern of the first: a spring-roll demonstration, wine and fruit at sunset, and the same choice of games, films or squid fishing on board (optional, extra cost).

Sunrise over the bay, tea and coffee on deck, and then the last excursion: local rowers take you in a small boat through Dark and Bright Cave, a low arch in the limestone that opens into an enclosed lagoon on the other side. There is time to pack and sit on the deck as the boat turns back towards Tuan Chau Marina, with a farewell meal served on the way.

At the marina the shuttle bus is waiting for the drive back to Hanoi, around two and a half hours, and you are in the city by late afternoon. The evening is free. If you have not yet seen the Old Quarter after dark, the streets north of Hoan Kiem Lake are a short walk from most central addresses (on your own).

A driver takes you from the city to Noi Bai for the flight south to Da Nang, just over an hour of flying. At the other end a second driver meets you for the 30 km run down the coast to Hoi An, where you stay two nights.

The rest of the day is unplanned, which is deliberate after the bay. Walk the lanes around your room, or go into the old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999 and small enough to cross on foot in a quarter of an hour, where the lanterns along the Hoai River are lit each evening (on your own). The tailors, the Japanese Covered Bridge and the riverside cafes are all within a few streets of each other.

Your chef for the day meets you at the pick-up, and the first stop is a local market, where you choose the herbs, fish and vegetables for the class and learn what to look for. A short drive then brings you to Cam Thanh, the water-palm village on the river east of town, and a round bamboo basket boat takes you along the channels between the palms.

The class itself is private and hands-on, in a kitchen by the river: seven Hoi An dishes, from papaya salad and the town's spring rolls to a crisp rice pancake, grilled aubergine with spring onion oil, clams with egg and fish in a clay pot, ending with the fruit of the season. You eat what you cooked at a table by the water and leave with a recipe booklet so you can repeat the dishes at home.

A driver collects you in Hoi An for the 30 km drive to Da Nang Airport and the flight south, which lands in Ho Chi Minh City after roughly 75 minutes. In the south another driver brings you into District 1, where the last two nights are spent.

No programme is set for the rest of the day. Saigon is a louder city than Hanoi and the motorbikes never seem to stop, so an easy first outing is the walking street of Nguyen Hue, the French-built post office and cathedral on the square beyond it, and Ben Thanh Market a few blocks away (on your own). The rooftop bars along Dong Khoi are the usual place to end the evening.

A private car takes you southwest to My Tho, where the Tien branch of the Mekong spreads wide on its way to the sea. The first call is Vinh Trang, a pagoda whose 19th-century front mixes Vietnamese, Khmer and French styles, and then a sampan carries you out onto the river, where four islands carry the names Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise.

Unicorn is the one you land on, walking the country lanes between the orchards, tasting whatever fruit is ripe, before a smaller sampan, rowed by hand, takes you up the narrow Thoi Son Canal under the water palms. A bee farm and a family workshop that boils coconut candy come next, and after a meal at a local restaurant the choice is a bicycle along the Tan Thach lanes or a hammock in the shade. The car brings you back to Saigon in the late afternoon.

The final morning is free until your driver arrives. If your flight is late in the day there is time for the markets near District 1 for last gifts: coffee beans, lacquer, a conical hat or the dried fruit the south is known for (optional, on your own).

The transfer to Tan Son Nhat International Airport takes 30 to 45 minutes depending on traffic, and the tour ends when you are dropped at the terminal. If you would like extra nights in the city, a few days on Phu Quoc or a different end point, tell us when you enquire and we build it into the quote.