Explore the North of Vietnam 8 Days
Day 1: Arrival at Hanoi (D, GP)
Arriving at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. After a short rest, you will have a cyclo ride around the bustling streets of Hanoi and discover the city’s architectural mixture of French colonial style, pagodas and communal houses with many Chinese features, merchants’ residences, ‘tube’ dwellings, modern buildings…
In the evening, you will enjoy a water puppet show – an art form unique to the rural Northern Vietnam culture. After the show, you’ll have dinner at a restaurant in a restored French colonial building. You will spend the night in Hanoi.
Day 2: Explore the Capital Hanoi (B, L, G)
Today, you will visit some highlights of Hanoi. You will first visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum’s complex including Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh Museum, his simple house-on-stilt and the nearby One-Pillar Pagoda. You will then visit the oldest pagoda in Hanoi, Tran Quoc Pagoda.
After lunch, you will visit the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam dating back to the 11th century. You will then drive to the excellent Ethnology Museum for an overview of Vietnam’s 54 distinct ethnic groups in anticipation of your trip to Sapa. You will finish your day by a visit to the centre of Hanoi including Hoan Kiem Lake, Ngoc Son. You will finish your day by a visit to the centre of Hanoi including Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple. You will spend the night in Hanoi..
Day 3: Hanoi/Ha Long (B, L, D, G)
After breakfast at hotel, you’ll leave for Ha Long Bay, one of the most spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Areas and the world’s largest marine limestone ‘karst’ landscape. There you’ll board your boat, a wooden junk built in a traditional style. The boat cruise will take you to visit Sung Sot Cave (Amazing Cave) which is considered one of the biggest and finest caves in the Bay. The boat will then stop at a beach for you to swim before continue cruising to a quiet area for the night. All your meals will be provided on board, usually based on fresh seafood, and you’ll sleep in a twin cabin with an en-suite toilet and shower.
Day 4: Ha Long/Hanoi/Lao Cai (Brunch, G)
You’ll spend the morning cruising Ha Long Bay, followed by brunch just before docking around noon and leaving for Hanoi. In the evening, your car will arrive to take you to Hanoi railway station in time to board the overnight sleeper to Lao Cai.
Day 5: Lao Cai/Ethnic Market/Sapa (B, L, G)
Arriving in Lao Cai Station in the early morning, you’ll be met and taken to visit an ethnic market frequented by ethnic minority peoples. The ethnic market is considered one of the most wonderful and colourful markets in extreme North Vietnam where thousands of local people in their traditional attires busily buy and sell the local produces like dog, cat, pig, horse….
After a picnic lunch, you’ll continue your journey into the mountains to Sapa, a small town perched on the mountainside opposite Mt. Fan Si Pan, Vietnam’s highest peak. The rest of the day will be free to explore the town. You’ll spend the night in a Sapa hotel with good mountain views.
Day 6: Sapa (B, L, D, G)
After an early breakfast at your hotel, you’ll hike to visit the Red Dao ethnic minority people of Giang Ta Chai village, where you’ll have lunch. Later in the afternoon, you’ll be picked up by jeep to travel to Ban Ho village where you’ll have dinner and spend the night in a Tay ethnic minority group stilt-house.
Day 7: Sapa/Lao Cai/Hanoi (B, L, G)
After walking around Ban Ho village and a refreshing splash-around in a clear mountain spring, your guide will serve a stream-side picnic lunch. In the afternoon, you’ll be picked up to return to Sapa and, later in the evening, to Lao Cai station by jeep to catch the overnight train to Hanoi.
Day 8: Hanoi departure (B)
Arriving in Hanoi in the early morning, you will have a private car waiting for you and take you to the hotel for breakfast and refresh. Your time will be free until your driver arrives to take you to Noi Bai airport for your departure flight. Tour ends.
