Vietnam Tour 10 Days Hanoi to Saigon: Ninh Binh, Ha Long, Hoi An

Your driver waits in the arrivals hall at Noi Bai and brings you into the centre, a drive of around 45 minutes. The rest of the day is yours. If there is daylight left, the Old Quarter is the place to begin: 36 streets once named after the goods sold on them, still packed with small shops, street kitchens and motorbikes.

Hoan Kiem Lake at its southern edge is the easiest landmark to find your way back from. Take the first crossings at a slow, even pace: the traffic looks worse than it is, and a steady walker is what the riders expect.

Your guide begins by West Lake at Tran Quoc, the city's oldest pagoda, which sits on a tiny island reached by a causeway. The Ho Chi Minh Complex is next: the mausoleum, the plain stilt house he preferred to the palace, and the One Pillar Pagoda in its lotus pond. Then comes the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, where the 54 peoples of Vietnam are explained room by room and full-size village houses stand in the garden. On Mondays the museum is closed and the Vietnamese Women's Museum is visited instead.

A midday meal at a local restaurant breaks the day. The afternoon takes in the Temple of Literature, where scholars sat exams from 1070 onwards, and ends at Hoa Lo, the French colonial prison that held Vietnamese revolutionaries and, decades later, American airmen.

A drive of about two hours south brings you to Hoa Lu, the capital of Vietnam in the tenth and eleventh centuries. What stands today are the temples to the Dinh and Le kings, rebuilt in the seventeenth century, inside a ring of limestone hills that served as the old city walls.

At Tam Coc you take a sampan along the Ngo Dong River, which runs between rice fields and passes under three low caves (Tam Coc means three caves). The rowers here work the oars with their feet, a local habit you notice at once. A buffet meal follows, with the local goat dishes and vegetarian choices, and then you cycle for about 45 minutes through the village lanes before the drive back to Hanoi.

The road east to the Ha Long jetty takes around two and a half hours on the expressway. You board Le Journey Cruise and eat while it sails out past the first of the bay's limestone islands, around 1,600 in all.

The afternoon follows the boat's own programme: kayaking, a swim from the boat or a cave visit, depending on the route that day. The sundeck is the place for the last light on the water, and the evening meal is served on board before you sleep in your cabin.

You wake on the water, and the deck is the place to be as the sun comes up behind the karst. The boat cruises through a quieter corner of the bay and an early meal is served before it returns to the jetty around the middle of the morning.

Your driver takes you back past Hanoi to Noi Bai for the afternoon flight south to Da Nang, roughly 80 minutes of flying. Hoi An is then a 30-kilometre drive down the coast, and the evening is free to walk the lantern-lit lanes of the Old Town.

Today has no guided programme. Hoi An's Old Town, a UNESCO site since 1999, is small enough to cover on foot: the Japanese Covered Bridge, the Chinese assembly halls and the merchant houses along the river. The tailor shops will measure you for a suit, a dress or a pair of shoes and deliver within a day or two (optional, extra cost).

For the afternoon, hire a bicycle and ride the flat road to the riverside or to An Bang beach for a swim (optional, extra cost). After dark the lanterns come on along the river and street performers set up in the lanes.

Depending on the flight time, there may be a last hour or two in Hoi An for souvenirs before your driver takes you to Da Nang Airport. The flight to Ho Chi Minh City takes about an hour and twenty minutes, and a driver meets you at Tan Son Nhat for the transfer into District 1.

The rest of the day is free. The change from Hanoi's narrow lanes to Saigon's wide boulevards is the first thing you notice; the second is the heat, as the south stays warm all year.

The morning covers the French-built centre: Independence Palace, where a tank broke through the gates in April 1975 and the rooms are kept as they were, then Notre Dame Cathedral and, across the square, the Central Post Office under its long iron roof, and lastly the War Remnants Museum, whose photographs are hard to look at and worth the time.

After a meal at a local restaurant you drive northwest to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 60 kilometres from the city. A short film explains how the network was dug, and your guide then leads you through the living areas, kitchens and command posts and down a widened section of tunnel. You finish with boiled cassava and tea, the food of the people who lived here underground. A firing range on site is open to those who want it (optional, extra cost).

Two hours by road brings you to My Tho, where the Tien River, the Mekong's northern branch, is wide enough to hold four islands. You visit Vinh Trang Pagoda first, then board a motor sampan that passes all four; they are named Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise after the sacred animals.

The boat lands on Unicorn Island, where you walk the orchard lanes, taste the fruit in season and sit for a short set of southern folk music. Next comes a narrow canal, Thoi Son, where a rower paddles you under the water palms, before a honey tea at a bee farm and a stop to watch coconut candy being boiled and cut.

A bicycle ride around Tan Thach Village is part of the day, or you can rest in a hammock instead if you prefer (optional). You are back in Saigon by evening.

The morning is free until your transfer. Ben Thanh Market, a short walk from most central streets, is the usual place for last gifts: coffee, dried fruit, lacquerware and more conical hats than anyone needs. Your driver then takes you to Tan Son Nhat Airport for your flight home.

If you have days to spare, we can add nights in the city or a few days on Phu Quoc Island, a short flight from Saigon.