Taste of Vietnam

Upon arrival at Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi, welcomed by guide and transferred to your hotel in the city center to check in. Relax after a long journey. Overnight stay in Hanoi.
 
Optional: Home hosted dinner
Instead of having dinner in a fancy restaurant with perfect service, now tourists can choose to visit a typical imperfect Hanoian family, enjoy the atmosphere of a Vietnamese traditional home, sample traditional Vietnamese food and get to know the culture of Hanoian people. Hanoi Home Visit is designed to give tourists an in-depth understanding of Hanoi culture and an authentic experience that could not be found alone.
Duration: around 3 hours
Pick up time: 18.00 – delivery time: around 21.00
Pick up/delivery place: At your hotel in Ha Noi downtown.
Includes: Transportation (Car/minivan or motorbike), English speaking guide, home dinner with 01 soft drink, tea or coffee.

It is impeccable to fill your first or second day in Hanoi with visits to the major sites and explore amazing local food in the old streets. The street food tour brings you a deeper insight view of local life, and also many excited experiences about typical street cuisine of Hanoi. You have chance to wake up all of your six senses while walking along the narrow streets or quite little alley as well as the colorful markets –with full of most typical ingredients.
Continue with short trishaw (xích lô) ride around traditional merchandising streets to feel mixture of modern and traditions of how local earn their living on street pavement in front of their houses, then enjoy a stop by street side for a cup of tea like locals do!
Today we will have the whole day to explore Vietnam’s capital city. We first visit to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum from outside and his modest stilt house where he chose to live and work. We continue visit to the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam dating back to the 11thcentury. Nowadays, students come and pray for a good luck in their exams.
Next, we will experience the Street Cuisine on foot. You will see other faces of local life in its most authenticity.
We first take a walk in to the old quarter to discover the most charming area of the city to find out how local live by their traditional work generation by generation. Then, passing by road-side market where you can see many fresh herbs, local ingredients brought here since the very early morning by the farmers from out-skirt areas.
Hanoi Street food tour is similized as a meal with appetizers, main course, deserts. You would be amazed by the tastes of the local cuisine. Owners of the food stall will be very helpful to tell you how they prepare the dishes. Your lunch today included some specials of Ha Noi such as Bun Cha, Banh Cuon or Pho (noodle soup)
Don’t forget to take seat on a small chair and try a glass of Bia Hoi – local draught beer at a small corner, and watch how the local life moving around you, and conclude what you have got after a great experience in a little Hanoi Old Quarter.
Next, we hop on a traditional bicycle rickshaws move at leisure pace that’s perfect for photos and slow-moving sightseeing. Seat back and relax while your driver weaves through the busy streets, dodging speeding motorbikes and rolling past French colonial houses.
As the local do, we sit down at a local café by the Joseph Church, enjoy a cup of ‘Tra Chanh’ – green tea with lemon and chat with the youth. Go back to your hotel afterward.
Overnight stay at hotel in Ha Noi.
 
Optional Water Puppet Performance – a unique art form with puppets from Northern Vietnam depicting rural life scenes, national history episodes or country legends.
Show time: 17.00; 18.30; 20.00
Included: show ticket

Pick up by your local guide, depart from your Hotel for a three hour and a half transfer to Ha Long Bay – UNESCO World Natural Heritage – where thousands of spectacular limestone islets and grottoes rising from the clear emerald Gulf of Tonkin. Upon arrival, welcome drink on board prior to your check-in. Lunch with fresh sea food will be served while boat is cruising through many stone islets, floating villages, small beaches. Visit a floating fishing village, talk and meet with local villagers prior to your swimming or free time at your own on the sundeck. Dinner served on board. Overnight stay on board in Halong Bay.
Note: Itinerary is subject to change without prior notice according to weather conditions or local administration regulations

Breakfast is served while the junk cruises around Ha Long Bay, passes by many islets named by their shapes. Stop for a while to explore one of the most beautiful ones of the bay. The junk then continues cruising towards the wharf. Ready to disembark at about 10.30AM. Your vehicle is ready to take you back to Hanoi and then straight to the airport for a flight to Da Nang. Upon arrival, you will be welcomed by our guide and transfer to Hoi An town. Check in your hotel and overnight stay in Hoi An

Leave your hotel, and on bike to local farm in Tra Que village.
A short stroll will take you around the vegetable garden and then you can join the farmers in preparing the land and fertilizing it with seaweed from the local lake. Following steps are raking the ground, sowing, watering, and picking vegetables and other gardening activities.
After that, you will join the cooking demonstration with some local delicacies including ‘tam huu’ spring roll, banh xeo or local pancake of people in Viet Nam middle region. Enjoy your lunch at Tra Que Village.
In the afternoon, explore Hoi An Ancient Town, including the rich architectural fusion of 300 years old Chinese temple, 400 years old Japanese covered bridge, 200 years old Vietnamese former merchant home influences by visiting Hoi An narrow streets where each house façade is dangled with lanterns.
In the evening, you are suggested to join the unique activity for public at the outdoor stage along the Hoai River nightly: Bai Choi singing, a folk music genre practised in Viet Nam’s central region, has been added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. First learn the rule of the game and you are invited to join the performance or just being an audience. Overnight stay in Hoi An.
 

Have leisure breakfast at your hotel and before check-out.
Take a land journey to Hue Imperial City via the cloudy Hai Van Pass. From the top of the cloudy Hai Van Pass to grab your own Vietnam central coast panoramic view.
Upon arrival, take boat trip on Huong River, or better known as the perfume river. The boat drops us off at the beautiful Thien Mu Pagoda which is also home to many young people who want to try out and learn from life as a monk. Continue the boat trip to visit Minh Mang Tomb.
Overnight stay in Hue. 

After breakfast at hotel, you are free at leisure till check-out.
In the afternoon, visit Imperial Citadel of Hue – UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. 
After that, go to airport for flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Pick up by your local guide at airport and go to your hotel in the city for overnight.
Optional Hue Meditation
Situated gracefully at Thien An hill, one of the most beautiful pine forest in Hue, Cat Tuong Quan offers a wide range of spiritual service for your get-away. Meditation is a special method for familiarizing our mind with positivity, or virtue. Get your mind peace, calm and free from stress. Then refresh your body with a healthy vegetarian breakfast. Bid farewell to Zen house, we drive back to the city.
Includes: Transfer, tour guide in your language, services at the Zen House, bottled drinking water.

Leave bustling Saigon behind, head out to un-touched areas not well-known by tourists in Ben Tre. Board the comfort of your Apricot Cruise, we have a full day of interesting experiences: see how local traditional methods utilize every bit of the coconut, learn how to make local cakes, boat rowing through winding water-coconut canals, bike riding along lush rural roads, sample tasty local cakes, tea with honey, and enjoy lunch served with Mekong specialties at Apricot Riverside Restaurant. Relax, enjoy the tour and have memorable experiences
 

After breakfast, explore Ho Chi Minh City’s historic starting with visit to the War Remnants Museum - originally opened in September 1975, it displays old military equipment and other related items from Vietnam War. We continue to visit the Reunification Palace, former residence of the Indochina Governor General and late President of the Republic of Southern Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in Apr 30, 1975. Walk down to see Notre Dame Cathedral and General Post Office which are beautiful examples of architecture from the French colonial period and the last stop at the bustling Ben Thanh Market for shopping. Return to your hotel about noon time and rest of the day at your leisure. Overnight stay in Ho Chi Minh City.
Optional Saigon Street Eat by Scooter   
Saigon is absolutely a fantastic place for your food adventure. The principal of Yin & Yang is applied in every single dish even street food or home cooked meal. “The balancing act between warming and cooling ingredients, between heavier meats and lighter rice-based carbs, fresh herbs to round out the taste, never get old”- written on Legal Nomads. This evening, your food adventure will include a ride through many small alleys and sample many different dishes.
Includes: Round transfers by scooter with driver English speaking guide, bottled drinking water & coffee, local food & drink.

You will be free today until transfer to Tan Son Nhat Airport for departure flight.