DAY - DEPARTURE Take your direct flight to Hanoi.
DAY 2 - ARRIVAL IN HANOI Transfer to the five-star Melia Hotel for three nights with breakfast. With three restaurants and a lovely pool, it has all the facilities you would expect from a major international property. Your afternoon trip into the city’s Old Town by cycle rickshaws is a great experience and the perfect way to start your tour.
DAY 3 - HANOI The French created the gorgeous colonial heart of Hanoi, full of tree-lined avenues, Belle Époque villas, grand public buildings and an Opera house, all built around a dozen enchanting lakes. This graceful scene blends beautifully with its old quarter, a tangle of narrow streets full of tiny shops, pagodas and the ever-present populace astride their bicycles and mopeds. You will also see the Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucius, plus the imposing marble mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh himself, embalmed and eerily on display. Your afternoon is free to explore this beautiful city as you wish.
DAY 4 - HALONG BAY CRUISE You visit Vietnam’s greatest natural wonder, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Halong Bay. Leaving Hanoi, you enter a timeless landscape of rice paddies, following the Red River delta to the emerald seas of the Gulf of Tonkin. Just offshore, some 3,000 limestone islands rise almost vertically from the sea, forming one of the most extraordinary bays in the world. As you board your converted Chinese junk and glide along the jade-green waters, you’ll visit some of the vast and beautifully illuminated caves and grottoes, before having lunch on board. You return to Hanoi late afternoon.
DAY 5 - HUE Fly south to Danang and then drive over the stunning scenery of the Hai Van Pass, before descending into Hue, Vietnam’s last royal capital and traditional centre of religion and culture. Hue is bisected by the serene Perfume River and dominated by its immense Citadel, housing the ancient capital, encircled by six miles of high, 65ft-thick walls and a moat. You stay two nights with breakfast at the excellent five-star Imperial Hotel.
DAY 6 - HUE IMPERIAL CITY This morning starts with a leisurely river cruise to the magnificent seven-storied Thien Mu pagoda, a working Buddhist shrine. You then visit the incredible complex of the Citadel and within it, the Imperial City. You see the Palace of Supreme Harmony, where everything is painted in the royal colours of red and gold – a stunning example of the magnificent lifestyle enjoyed by the Vietnamese royal family. In the afternoon, you visit Emperor Tu Duc’s mausoleum. Tu Duc’s lifestyle suggests he had plenty of free time – he had 104 wives, 50-course meals and tea made from the dewdrops of lotus blossoms! It took 3,000 workers three years to build his amazing mausoleum, which includes a large lake, pavilions and a theatre. Lunch is included today.
DAY 7 - SAIGON Today you fly to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as the locals still insist on calling it. Built by the French on a bend of the Saigon River, you stay three nights with breakfast at the five-star Equatorial Hotel. Saigon is Vietnam’s culinary capital, offering a wide variety of dining experiences, from top class restaurants in luxury hotels, to French, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese options.
DAY 8 - CU CHI TUNNELS This morning we visit the Cu Chi tunnels, a complex
underground network stretching for 200km, which included hospitals, meeting rooms, sleeping quarters and kitchens. Vastly expanded during the 1960s, the tunnels provided a base for the Vietcong from which to attack US forces within just 30 miles of Saigon. Your visit here is an intriguing insight into these times: you see the tunnels themselves and examples of the mantraps which protected them. Your afternoon Saigon city tour includes the colonial-style central post office, the Cathedral and the Reunification Palace, where famously in 1975, a tank burst through its gates in the final defining moment of the Vietnam War. You also see the lively Ben Thanh market – a fascinating glimpse into Saigon daily life.
DAY 9 - MEKONG RIVER DELTA Today, you drive out of Saigon towards the great Mekong River delta. We stop at one of the many islands, where you walk through a typical village and try out several different types of tropical fruit grown in the area. Travelling in small boats, you explore the narrow canals and visit the aptly named Coconut Island, where locals specialise in producing rice paper and coconut cakes. Dappled sunlight filters through the wide leaves of the mangroves as you arrive at a typical local restaurant for lunch of local Mekong specialities.
DAY 10 - FLY TO PHNOM PENH Fly to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, stopping for two nights in the four-star Himawari Hotel with breakfast.
DAY 11 - PHNOM PENH You will visit the majestic Royal Palace, with its silver pagoda and the fascinating National Museum. After lunch at a local restaurant, you visit the Tuol Sleng Museum – originally a school, it was turned into the country’s most notorious prison by the Khmer Rouge, and today it charts the terrible suffering during their occupation of the city. Following the final stop of the day, at one of the local markets, you return to your hotel for the evening.
DAY 12 - FLY TO SIEM REAP After your short flight to Siem Reap, you stay three nights at the five-star Angkor Palace Resort, with breakfast. It’s extremely comfortable, with two restaurants, a large pool and spa.
DAY 13 - ANGKOR Surrounded by jungle, shrouded in mist and with a tropical dawn chorus reverberating in the air, you’ll never forget your first sight of the temples of Angkor. You visit the huge, fortified 13th century city of Angkor Thom, with its five monumental gates and 300-foot wide moat – its centre containing one of Angkor’s most remarkable sites, the temple of Bayon. Crowned by more than 50 towers, each with four enormous carved heads, this is an awe-inspiring masterpiece of Khmer art. You’ll also visit the temple of Ta Prohm, which has been left in its natural, unrestored state, with giant tropical trees bursting through the ruins, their roots clinging like vast tentacles across the walls and roofs. Late in the afternoon, you see the massive temple of Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious structures in the world.
DAY 14 - FREE DAY A day at leisure. You may return to the monuments of Angkor, explore the attractive town of Siem Reap or relax around the hotel pool. Alternatively, you could take an interesting tour to the nearby Tonle Sap Lake to visit a floating village.
DAY 15 - RETURN FLIGHT Return flight via Saigon (change of aircraft) connecting to your homeward flight to Heathrow.
DAY 16 - ARRIVE BACK HOME You arrive back in the UK.
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