Tours in Vietnam

Start in the south, early, on the water. In the Mekong Delta the river is the road, and the day begins with boats loaded with fruit pulling alongside each other while someone haggles from a deck. Around Cai Be you can step off the main channel into narrow waterways where the palms lean in and the air smells of mud, ripe fruit and diesel. Ride a bike down a village lane, sit in the shade of a traditional house, and the delta slows you down quickly.

A day here is mostly about small things done by hand. Coconut candy gets stirred and cut in family workshops, and you can watch it happen before you taste it. Plates of tropical fruit arrive with folk singing, and lunch is never far away. It is an easy trip from Ho Chi Minh City, which is why so many people take it, but it feels like a different country once the boat engine starts.

Ho Chi Minh City itself deserves more than a stopover. Ben Thanh Market, the wide boulevards of District 1, the motorbike traffic you will have to learn to cross, and the street food that fills every pavement after dark all repay a slow day or two. Cu Chi and the tunnels sit just outside the city, and the Mekong is the other half of any southern trip.

Head north and the country changes shape. Hanoi has its Old Quarter lanes, its lakes, and coffee drunk on tiny plastic stools. Ha Long Bay and the limestone karsts around Ninh Binh are the landscapes people picture before they arrive. Hue has its citadel and tombs along the Perfume River, Hoi An its lantern-lit lanes and tailors, and Da Nang its beaches and the road over the Hai Van Pass. We only list the delta for now, but a local guide can take a request for any of these.