Vietnam Culinary Tour, 10 Days: Saigon, Hoi An, Hanoi, Ha Long

Your driver waits at Tan Son Nhat International Airport with a name board and drives you to the centre of Ho Chi Minh City, which everyone here still calls Saigon, 30 to 45 minutes depending on the traffic. No programme is set for the day, so a late arrival is no problem.

If you have energy left, Ben Thanh Market is the natural first stop (optional, on your own): the covered hall sells dried fruit, coffee and spices by day, and food stalls set up around its walls after dark. The Independence Palace and the Notre-Dame Cathedral are a short walk north of it, and Bui Vien Street fills with bars and pavement tables in the evening. Tomorrow the eating starts in earnest.

A local driver takes you pillion through the parts of Saigon the tour coaches never reach, helmet on and at an easy pace; if you would rather go on foot, a walking version is arranged on request. The morning opens on Nguyen Thien Thuat, a backstreet of old apartment blocks where families still cook at the kerb, and continues to Ban Co Market for a bowl of che, the southern dessert of sweet beans, jelly and coconut cream over ice.

From there you cross Districts 10 and 5 into Cholon, the Chinatown. Trieu Quang Phuc and Hai Thuong Lan Ong streets smell of dried roots and bark from the traditional medicine shops, and Thien Hau Temple, with its coils of incense hanging from the roof beams, is the quarter's best-known shrine. The round ends with a southern-style midday meal at a neighbourhood eatery.

A shared minivan leaves Saigon for My Tho, about two hours to the southwest, on the Tien, the northern of the Mekong's two main branches in Vietnam. A traditional sampan takes you past the four islands named for the sacred animals, Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise, and lands at Unicorn Island, where you walk through the orchards, taste whatever fruit is ripe and listen to southern folk songs performed live in a garden.

A sampan rowed by hand then carries you along the narrow, palm-lined channels of Thoi Son. On the way back you stop at a bee farm for a cup of fresh honey tea and at a workshop where coconut candy is cooked in wide pans, cut and wrapped by hand. Later you choose between a bicycle ride around Tan Thach Village and a hammock in the shade, both included, before the minivan takes you back to the city.

The morning is free in Saigon before your driver takes you to Tan Son Nhat; if you want to shop, the markets around District 1 sell coffee, cashews, dried mango and fish sauce that travel well (optional, on your own). The flight to Da Nang takes about an hour and twenty minutes, and the ticket is not in the tour price.

At Da Nang Airport another driver meets you and drives south along the coast to Hoi An, about 45 minutes. Nothing else is planned. The old town, a trading port from the 16th century and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is small enough to cross on foot: old merchant houses, the assembly halls of the Chinese congregations and the covered bridge the Japanese built, with lanterns lit along the Thu Bon River after dark. An Bang Beach is about 4 km away by taxi or bicycle if you would rather see the sea first (optional, on your own).

The day starts at 8:30 am with a market walk alongside the chef, who shows you how to judge the fish, herbs and rice paper for the class. A boat then takes you out past rice fields to Cam Thanh, where you climb into round bamboo basket boats and learn to paddle them through the water-coconut channels. Our guides' tip: your feet will get wet.

The class begins at 11 am. You cook seven dishes of the region, from the town's own rice pancake and spring rolls through a papaya salad, grilled aubergine, clams baked under an egg and a fish stewed in a clay pot, to fruit at the end, and from about 12:20 you sit down to eat what you made. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and nut-free menus are possible if you ask when you book.

The afternoon moves north: steps through the Buddhist and Hindu grottoes of the Marble Mountains, a descent into Am Phu Cave, where the Buddhist hells are modelled in stone, and Son Tra, the Monkey Mountain, for Linh Ung Pagoda, its 67-metre Lady Buddha and Da Nang Bay below at sunset.

A driver collects you in Hoi An for the run back up the coast to Da Nang Airport, and you fly to Hanoi, around an hour and a quarter in the air; this ticket, like the first, is not in the tour price. At Noi Bai another driver brings you into the capital, about 45 minutes across the Red River, to the Old Quarter.

The rest of the day is open. Hoan Kiem Lake is the city's front room, with locals walking its shore from late afternoon and the red Huc Bridge lit after dark, and the Old Quarter's street-food alleys begin a few steps away (optional, on your own): bun cha over charcoal, banh cuon steamed to order, a low stool at a bia hoi corner. Or simply rest; the coffee class tomorrow deserves a fresh palate.

Coffee reached Vietnam with the French in the 19th century, and the country is now the world's second-largest grower; the morning explains how. After a welcome drink and snacks at the workshop studio, the instructor gives a short session on the history and culture of Vietnamese coffee, then puts you behind the brewing bench to make five of its classic forms yourself, with a taste of each.

Then everyone sits down to a set menu of five dishes drawn from the three regions, among them Vietnamese sausage, a traditional rice cake and chicken with rice, with beer, soft drinks and local wine on free pour. A printed recipe booklet and digital coffee books go home with you. The afternoon is free, and in the evening you can add a three-hour street-food walk through the Old Quarter with a local food guide, moving from pho to bun cha, banh mi, banh xeo and egg coffee (optional, extra cost).

An early start on the shared shuttle bus east across the Red River Delta, flat rice country the whole way, to Tuan Chau pier, roughly two and a half hours by the expressway. Your cruise boat is waiting with a welcome drink and a safety briefing, and once you have settled into your cabin it moves out among the limestone islands of Ha Long Bay, close to 2,000 of them, on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1994.

The afternoon is set by the crew according to the tide. A cave visit is in the price, and you pick a kayak or a bamboo boat into lagoons ringed by rock, with a swim from a quiet sandy beach as the other choice. Back on board there is a tai chi session and a happy hour as the sun drops behind a sheltered cove, and the chef shows how to roll spring rolls, with a go for anyone who wants one. Anyone who would rather watch has the loungers on the upper deck.

The bay is at its quietest at first light, before the day boats arrive from the pier, so the top deck is worth the early alarm. The cruise team then runs one short morning visit, a cave or an island depending on the day and the weather: Sung Sot, the Surprising Cave, full of stalactites and stalagmites; Ti Top Island, with a white sand beach and a summit viewpoint; or a kayak or rowed bamboo boat through the lagoon at Luon Cave.

The boat heads back to Tuan Chau before midday, and the shared shuttle bus takes you from the pier to Hanoi, about two and a half hours. The afternoon and evening in the capital are free (optional, on your own): the Old Quarter for a last round of the pavement kitchens, or a lakeside cafe for an egg coffee.

The drive to Noi Bai is the only fixed item, timed to your flight, and the airport is about 45 minutes from the Old Quarter. Until then the morning is yours (optional, on your own): a final loop through the Old Quarter streets, a cup of egg coffee, the Hanoi invention of whipped yolk and condensed milk over strong coffee, at a corner cafe, and a stop for the things that pack well, lotus tea, cinnamon from the northern hills, a set of ceramic bowls.

Your driver drops you at the terminal and the programme closes there. If you have days to spare, we can extend the stay in Hanoi or add Ninh Binh or Sapa before you fly; ask when you book.