11 Days in Vietnam: Saigon to Hanoi via Hoi An, Hue and Ha Long

A driver holds a sign with your name at Tan Son Nhat and brings you into District 1, 30 to 45 minutes away depending on the traffic. Nothing is scheduled today, so land at whatever hour your flight allows.

If you arrive with daylight to spare, the blocks around Ben Thanh Market and the Nguyen Hue walking street make an easy first stroll, and the pavement kitchens open from late afternoon (on your own). Saigon runs on motorbikes, and the knack of crossing is to walk at one steady speed and let them go around you.

You leave Saigon early for My Tho, 70 km southwest, where the Tien, one of the big branches of the Mekong, spreads into the delta. After Vinh Trang Pagoda a motor boat takes you out on the river past the islands the delta people call Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise.

Unicorn Island is where you go ashore, for a walk between the orchards, the fruit in season and a few southern folk songs sung by the people who live there. Next comes Thoi Son Canal in a sampan rowed by hand, under the nipa palms, to a bee farm and a family workshop where coconut candy is boiled, cut and wrapped.

The last stretch is a bike ride through Tan Thach Village, or a hammock in the shade if you would rather sit it out, before a meal in a delta kitchen and the drive back to the city.

A driver collects you for the short run to Tan Son Nhat and the flight to Da Nang, roughly 80 minutes gate to gate. At Da Nang another driver meets you for the 30 km drive south along the coast to Hoi An, your base for the next three nights.

The day is then free. The old town of Hoi An, on the UNESCO list since 1999, is small enough to walk end to end in a quarter of an hour, so an evening wander along the Hoai River and over the Japanese Covered Bridge is the natural start (on your own). The lanterns come on at dusk, and the riverside is at its best once the day-trippers have left.

Your guide hands out bicycles and you ride out of town along flat lanes between rice fields, vegetable plots and the river, at an easy pace with stops to look. The ride ends at Cam Thanh, a village east of Hoi An where the nipa palms grow in dense stands along the channels.

Here you climb into a round bamboo basket boat, the craft the fishermen use in this shallow water, and are rowed into the palms. The villagers show you how they cast a net and how they pull purple crabs from the mud of the banks, and you have a go at both. Back on land you see what the village makes from the palm leaves, from roofing to small woven pieces, before a meal of local dishes and the transfer back to town for a free evening.

No programme today, and this third night in Hoi An is what gives the trip its slower middle. Many guests hire a bicycle and ride the flat road to An Bang Beach, a few kilometres from the old town, or follow the river out past the vegetable gardens (on your own).

In town the tailors can measure you in the morning and have a jacket, a dress or a pair of shoes ready for a fitting by evening. Leave time for a cafe by the water too; the old streets are quietest before nine. After dark the centre is closed to traffic and lit by lanterns, with folk games and music in the open spaces along the river.

The drive north to Hue is around 130 km and takes most of the morning, because the road climbs the Hai Van Pass beyond Da Nang: some 21 km of bends with the sea below on one side and jungle on the other. Your driver stops at the top, where the old brick gate still stands and, on a clear day, you see Da Nang Bay and the Lang Co lagoon at the same time.

You reach Hue by early afternoon and the rest of the day is unplanned. Hue was Vietnam's capital under the Nguyen emperors until 1945, and the walled Imperial City sits on the north bank of the Perfume River, while the walking streets on the south bank are the easiest place to spend the evening (on your own).

A driver takes you to Phu Bai Airport, about 15 km south of Hue, for the flight to Hanoi, a little over an hour in the air. At Noi Bai another driver is waiting for the 45-minute run across the Red River into the Old Quarter.

The afternoon and evening are free. The Old Quarter's streets are still named for the goods once sold on them, and the lanes around Hoan Kiem Lake are liveliest after work, when the low stools come out on the pavements. This is the place to try bun cha, grilled pork with rice noodles and herbs, which Hanoi does better than anywhere else in the country (on your own).

It is about two and a half hours by expressway from Hanoi east to the coast. At the pier you board Le Journey Cruise, and a seafood meal comes to the table while the boat heads out through the limestone islands, around 1,600 of them in a bay that UNESCO listed in 1994.

What you do in the afternoon follows the boat's programme for the day: a paddle in a kayak between the rocks, a swim from the boat, or a walk through one of the lit caves. The boat then drops anchor in a quiet corner, the evening meal is served on board, and the islands go dark all around you.

You wake at anchor with the islands around the boat. The first meal of the day is served while the cruise makes a slow loop through another part of the bay, and an early second meal follows before you step off at the pier around midday.

The drive back puts you in Hanoi in the middle of the afternoon, and the rest of the day is unplanned. Dong Xuan Market at the north end of the Old Quarter, a glass of egg coffee in one of the cafes above the lake, and the lanes west of the old citadel are all within reach on foot (on your own).

Today is yours to fill. The Old Quarter rewards an aimless morning, with the coffee houses, the souvenir streets and the small neighbourhoods north of the lake (on your own).

If you would rather see the sights with a guide, a full-day Hanoi city tour can be added (optional, extra cost, with a midday meal included). It takes in Tran Quoc Pagoda on West Lake, the Ho Chi Minh Complex and the One Pillar Pagoda, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (or the Women's Museum on Mondays, when the Ethnology museum is closed), the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university, and Hoa Lo Prison, which the American pilots held there called the Hanoi Hilton. Tell us when you book so the guide and car are arranged.

The morning is free, and your driver comes for the run to Noi Bai, 45 minutes to an hour from the Old Quarter depending on the traffic. With an evening flight you have time for the stalls near the lake, which sell the things that travel well: lotus tea, dried fruit, silk and lacquer.

The tour finishes at the terminal. Anyone who wants more of the north first can add a few days in Sapa, Ninh Binh or Ha Giang before flying home; tell us when you book and we add it to the booking.