A rowing boat crossing the green water between the karsts of Ha Long Bay

15.8801 N, 108.3380 E / HIGH POINT 3 M

Vietnam

Mist in the north, lanterns south.

BEST SEASON: February to April
IDEAL LENGTH: 8 to 12 days
SLEEPS AT: 0 to 16 m
PACE: Steady
BEGINS IN: Hanoi

Vietnam is shaped like a journey, and the moving is half of it. You go from the grey water and karsts of Ha Long down to the yellow walls of Hoi An, and the boats, the night trains and the short hops in between end up carrying as much of the trip as the places do.

Vietnam runs from misty bays in the north to lantern-lit towns further south, and the journey between them is half the pleasure. Ha Long Bay still stops people mid-sentence, and Hoi An after dark glows like something out of a story.

We line up the boats, the trains and the small family-run places that make the difference, then leave space for the markets and the slow afternoons. It is a country that gives back more the longer you stay.

Silk lanterns hung along an old shophouse wall in Hoi An

What we plan here

Ha Long Bay cruises
Hoi An old town
Northern highlands
Family-run stays

Lantern-lit boats on the river in Hoi An old town, Vietnam

THE SHAPE OF THE DAYS

Eight days from the bay to the lanterns

North first, while the bay is still holding its mist, then south to the old port town for the slow half of the week. This is one shape the trip can take. Yours will be its own.

DAY 01
Arrive in Hanoi
We meet you at Noi Bai and drive into the old quarter, which takes about forty minutes and doubles as an introduction to the traffic. Once your bags are down, the first stop is a plastic stool and a bowl of pho near the lake.
SLEEPS AT Hanoi, 16 m
DAY 02
The old quarter on foot
The old quarter is still organised by trade, so you walk a street of tin-beaters into a street of silk into a street of votive paper. Your guide finds you an egg coffee upstairs somewhere, and a seat by the train line for when the afternoon train is due.
SLEEPS AT Hanoi, 16 m
DAY 03
East to Ha Long Bay
Two and a half hours east to the water, where we put you on a small boat rather than one of the floating hotels. There is time to kayak into a cave before dinner, and the deck is yours once it gets dark.
SLEEPS AT On the water, sea level
DAY 04
Morning on deck, then fly south
Coffee on deck at sunrise while the karsts come back out of the haze one row at a time. Ashore by late morning, a flight down to Da Nang, and forty minutes along the coast to Hoi An.
SLEEPS AT Hoi An, 3 m
DAY 05
Hoi An, unhurried
We walk the old town early, while the shutters are going up and the day trippers are still an hour away. Come back after dark and the same lanes are silk lanterns and river reflections.
SLEEPS AT Hoi An, 3 m
DAY 06
The fields and the river
Bicycles out through the rice fields to the water coconut palms, where a woman will spin you in a basket boat until you are dizzy. Dinner is by the Thu Bon, and we book the table that faces the water.
SLEEPS AT Hoi An, 3 m
DAY 07
A tailor, a beach, a long lunch
Nothing is scheduled today. We hold a fitting with a tailor we trust and a lunch table near the beach, and you use either, both or neither.
SLEEPS AT Hoi An, 3 m
DAY 08
Depart from Da Nang
Forty minutes back up the coast to the airport, with time for one last coffee on the way. Or you keep going south to the delta, and we will have planned for that too.
SLEEPS AT Hoi An, 3 m