Vietnam Coffee Tour: Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Son La Farms in 5 Days

A local driver meets you in the arrivals hall at Noi Bai International Airport for the 27 km or so into the city and your Hanoi hotel. Check-in is from around 2:00 PM.

Today's included food and coffee walk takes three to three and a half hours with a local guide. It opens at St. Joseph’s, the cathedral the French finished in 1886, with a short talk on its history, then follows the Old Quarter backstreets past old houses and markets. On the way you compare a traditional phin coffee, dripped through a small metal filter, with newer specialty brews, meet the independent baristas and café owners behind them, and eat street food at the stalls locals favour.

An air-conditioned shuttle bus picks you up at your hotel for the two-and-a-half-hour expressway run east to the coast. The name Ha Long means “descending dragon”: in the legend, dragons flew down to guard the coast, spitting out jewels that hardened into the islands. UNESCO inscribed the bay in 1994, and since September 2023 the World Heritage site has also covered the Cat Ba archipelago further south.

Lunch on board is a buffet, with the limestone islets all around. The cruise makes three stops. Sung Sot takes its name from the Vietnamese for “astonished”: steps lead up from the landing to the mouth of the cave, and a path runs through chambers hung with stalactites. At Luon Cave you paddle a kayak, or let a bamboo boat carry you, under a low arch in the rock into the lagoon on the far side. On Titop Island the choice is yours: time on the beach, or the climb to the summit, about 110 metres above the water, for a view down over the anchored boats and the islands beyond.

As the light goes, the sundeck turns into a sunset party with tea, cakes and music. Count on a long day, around six hours on the water and roughly 13 hours door to door, ending at the same hotel as last night.

The morning is free in Hanoi. In the afternoon a private car takes you west to Son La province, a drive of about 5 to 6 hours. The usual road, National Road 6, winds up through Hoa Binh and crosses the Moc Chau plateau, tea and dairy country more than 1,000 metres above sea level, before it drops towards the Arabica farms you visit tomorrow.

Once you have checked in, nothing else is planned. Dinner is not included, but the hotel will prepare one if you order it at least 12 hours ahead (optional, 300,000 VND per person, paid locally).

Coffee from Son La has carried a protected geographical indication, Vietnam’s official mark of origin, since 2017, and today you see where it comes from. From 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM an English-speaking guide takes you through the farms and growing areas of Phuc Sinh Group and tells you how the company started and how it runs its work in the province. The harvest lasts from about September to February, so in those months the branches carry ripe red cherries.

Then it is your turn: in a hands-on session you prepare one coffee drink of your choice and taste it. Son La Arabica is known for a clean acidity, mild bitterness and a fruity aroma, and a cup you made yourself is a good way to notice them. In a local ethnic village you also taste the village’s own food and coffee.

From 2:00 to 5:00 PM you are up on the experimental hill for a roasting and brewing session with local coffee experts, seeing for yourself how heat and brewing method change what ends up in the cup.

There are no visits today: the tour ends at the hotel in Son La on the morning of day 5. The trip back to Hanoi is not included in the price. If you want a car for it, ask us when you book and we arrange it at extra cost; the drive takes about as long as the one on day 3. You can also make your own way to your next stop.