North Vietnam 8 Days: Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Two Sapa Treks

A driver with a name board meets you at Noi Bai International Airport for the ride into the city, about 45 minutes. Nothing is fixed for the rest of the day, so you can sleep off the flight or head out as soon as you have dropped your bags.

If you land with energy to spare, there is an evening street food walk in the Old Quarter (optional, extra cost): a guide takes you between six or seven stalls for the city's staples, pho, banh mi and bun cha among them, with a Vietnamese coffee on the way, and finishes at Train Street, where the railway runs right past the front doors of the houses.

The guided day begins at the Ho Chi Minh complex in Ba Dinh, where the mausoleum, the presidential palace grounds, the stilt house the president lived in and the One Pillar Pagoda all sit within one walk. The mausoleum itself closes on some days, and the guide then shows you the grounds from outside. Next is the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, which covers all 54 of Vietnam's ethnic groups and has full-size traditional houses in its garden, a useful primer for the villages you will walk through in Sapa. On a Monday the museum is shut, so the Vietnamese Women's Museum takes its place.

The afternoon is given to coffee. In a workshop in the Old Quarter you hear how coffee came to Vietnam, then brew five of the country's own styles yourself, from the slow drip of the phin filter to egg coffee, with small snacks served alongside.

You leave Hanoi early and drive east across the delta to the harbour at Ha Long, where you board the cruise boat and sail out among the limestone islands. The bay holds close to 2,000 of them, which is why UNESCO lists it as a World Heritage site. The first stop is Surprise Cave on Bo Hon Island, a large cave with stalactites lit along a walkway, then you paddle a kayak, or sit in a rowed bamboo boat, under the low rock arch at Luon Cave and out into an enclosed lagoon.

Later the boat moors off Titop Island, where you can climb the steps to the summit for a view across the bay or stay on the small beach and swim. At dusk the crew sets up a sunset party on the top deck, wine, tea, cakes and fruit laid out while the boat finds a calm anchorage for the night.

Rise early and the bay is at its best: the islands appear out of the haze one after another and the water is flat, with only the fishing boats moving. The crew runs a short morning activity on deck before the boat gets under way, then it cruises back through the karst towards the harbour by a different channel, so the view keeps changing until you dock.

On the quay your driver is waiting for the run back to Hanoi, roughly two and a half hours on the expressway. The late afternoon and evening are free, and this is a good night for an early rest, as the drive to the mountains starts the next morning.

Today is a travel day. The expressway northwest from Hanoi crosses the Red River plain to Lao Cai on the Chinese border, around five hours in all, then the road climbs for the last stretch into the Hoang Lien Son range and arrives in Sapa, a former French hill station at about 1,500 metres. The air is noticeably cooler than in the capital, and the town sits above the Muong Hoa valley you will walk through tomorrow.

The rest of the day is yours. Sapa's centre is small enough to cover on foot: the stone church the French built, the market where Hmong and Dao women sell textiles, and a lake with a path around it. Rest your legs for the two treks ahead.

The long trek of the tour: around 9 kilometres and three and a half hours on foot, from Y Linh Ho down the Muong Hoa valley to Ta Van. Our guides take the first descent from the road slowly, as it is the steepest part of the day; after that the trail levels out along the Muong Hoa stream, with terraced slopes rising on both sides and the peaks of the Hoang Lien Son range above them, often in cloud.

The path passes through Lao Chai, a Black Hmong village named for the indigo-dyed hemp the women weave and wear, and ends at Ta Van, a village of the Giay (Dzay) people, whose houses stand near the river at the bottom of the valley. A car meets you at the Ta Van bridge for the short ride back up to town.

A second, gentler trek before you leave the mountains: about 4 kilometres and two hours, through rice paddies and a stretch of bamboo forest to Giang Ta Chai. This is a Red Dao village, the women known for their large red headdresses and embroidered trousers, and a viewpoint above the settlement looks back over the valley you walked yesterday. The trail ends at the Giang Ta Chai bridge, where the car waits.

Back in Sapa you collect your bags and begin the descent to the plain, with the same expressway bringing you into Hanoi by evening. The last night is in the capital, so you can go out for a final bowl of pho in the Old Quarter if the drive has not worn you out.

The final morning is free until your driver collects you for the airport, about 45 minutes away. If your flight is late there is time for a lap of Hoan Kiem Lake, where the city does its morning exercise, or for souvenirs: lacquerware, coffee beans and the indigo cloth you saw woven in Sapa all turn up in the Old Quarter shops.

Want more of the north? We can add a day trip to Ninh Binh or extra nights in Hanoi at either end, or extend the trip to Ha Giang for the mountain loop; ask when you book.