Sapa Halong 8 Days Tour: Two Treks, a Homestay and a Bay Cruise

Your driver is waiting in the arrivals hall at Noi Bai International Airport, and the ride to central Hanoi crosses the Red River and takes roughly three quarters of an hour. The rest of the day is unplanned, so sleep off the flight or go out straight away.

If you have the energy, the Old Quarter begins a few streets from most central stays: a knot of narrow lanes where each street once sold a single trade, and where the pavement kitchens fill up as the light goes. Hoan Kiem Lake, on its southern edge, makes a good first loop before the guided day tomorrow (optional, on your own, no extra cost).

The whole day is guided, with an air-conditioned bus between the stops. It opens at Tran Quoc Pagoda, a sixth-century foundation on an islet in West Lake, and continues to the Ho Chi Minh complex, where the mausoleum (seen from outside on the days it is shut), the stilt house where the president lived and the One Pillar Pagoda stand within a few minutes' walk of each other. Next is the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and its outdoor collection of houses from the country's ethnic groups; on Mondays, when it is closed, the group goes to the Vietnamese Women's Museum instead.

After a midday break the tour reaches the Temple of Literature, the Confucian academy of 1070, and ends at Hoa Lo, the French-built prison later used for captured American pilots. Back in the Old Quarter you can add a 45-minute cyclo ride, a water puppet show, or both together (optional, extra cost).

The cruise company's shuttle collects you in Hanoi and crosses the flat rice country of the Red River Delta to Tuan Chau, the island harbour at Ha Long, a drive of around two and a half hours. On board Le Journey Cruise there is a welcome drink and a short safety briefing before the boat sails out between the limestone islands, close to 2,000 of them in a bay that is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The afternoon is spent off the boat: paddle a kayak or ride a bamboo boat along the cliffs, swim from a quiet sandy beach and walk through a cave hung with stalactites. Back on deck the crew shows how to roll spring rolls, and the boat anchors in a sheltered cove for sunset and happy hour. You sleep in your cabin on the water.

Rise early and the deck is the place to be: the sun comes up behind the karst towers while the bay is still flat and quiet. The boat then calls at Surprise Cave, known locally as Sung Sot, a two-chambered cavern high in the side of Bo Hon island with a lit path through its formations.

When the weather and the tide allow, there is also a stop at Ti Top Island, for its small white beach and the stairway to a lookout over the bay, and a paddle through Luon Cave, a low arch that opens into a lagoon ringed by cliffs, by kayak or bamboo boat. The boat is back at Tuan Chau by late morning, and the shared shuttle returns you to Hanoi for a free afternoon and evening in the Old Quarter.

An early start, as the limousine bus leaves Hanoi in the morning for the long run north-west: the expressway to Lao Cai, then the climb into the hills to Sapa, which the French laid out as a summer retreat at around 1,500 metres. Expect five to six hours on the road, with stops.

The afternoon is yours, and the town is compact: the stone church of 1935 and the colonial villas near the square, the market where Hmong and Red Dao women sell indigo cloth and silver, and the viewpoints over the Muong Hoa valley at the edge of town when the mist lifts. Our team suggests packing a small bag this evening for the two trekking days: the main case stays in storage in Sapa and you collect it on the way back to Hanoi.

Today's walk is the longer of the two, around 12 km with a local guide who grew up in these villages and speaks English. From the edge of town the trail drops into the Muong Hoa valley, where terraced rice fields step down both sides to the river, green in summer and gold before the September harvest. The first village is Y Linh Ho, then Lao Chai, both home to Black Hmong families, named for the indigo-dyed hemp cloth they weave and wear.

You stop at midday with a family in Lao Chai, or at a cafe on the riverbank, then follow the river to Ta Van, a Giay village of wooden houses among the paddies. The evening is spent with your host family, helping or watching as they cook, and you sleep in their house.

After a morning meal with the family you set out on the second trek, about 8 km, from Ta Van across the river to Giang Ta Chai, a Red Dao village recognisable by the women's red headscarves. The path passes a waterfall, crosses the river on a rattan suspension bridge and climbs through a bamboo forest to Su Pan, a village higher up the valley.

A car waits where the trail meets the road and takes you up to Sapa town, where you collect the bags you left in storage. There is time to rest or walk around the town before the limousine bus leaves for Hanoi, with arrival in the capital in the evening.

Your last morning is free until the private driver collects you for Noi Bai International Airport, about 45 minutes from the centre. If there is time, three Hanoi send-offs are easy to fit in on your own (optional, extra cost): a cup of egg coffee, made with whipped yolk and condensed milk and served in a handful of old cafes near Hoan Kiem Lake, a turn through the Old Quarter for silk, lacquer, coffee beans or a conical hat, and a bowl of pho from a street stall.

With a late flight or a wish to see more of the north, we can add nights in the capital, a Ninh Binh day trip or a Ha Giang extension when you book.