Vietnam: real food from Hanoi to Saigon

Arrive in Hanoi

Noi Bai International Airport to the Old Quarter

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Hanoi
• Environ 45 min de route

Soir

In the early evening you meet your guide and the group for a short briefing, then we set off on foot for the first street food walk of the trip. The Old Quarter is a tight grid of narrow tube houses, many streets still named after the goods once sold on them, and after dark the pavements fill with low plastic stools. Your guide orders and explains as we go: a bowl of bun cha, grilled pork with rice noodles and herbs; crisp banh mi from a cart; fried spring rolls; and, to finish, an egg coffee, Hanoi's whipped yolk and coffee dessert served in a small cup. You also learn how to cross a road full of scooters calmly. If your flight lands too late, we meet you at breakfast instead.

Compris

• Pick-up at Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Old Quarter street food walk with dinner and an egg coffee

Hanoi: a pho morning

Breakfast pho, the Temple of Literature, then a bun cha lunch

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hanoi

Matin

Hanoi eats pho for breakfast, so we do too. Early, before the city heats up, we walk to a neighbourhood pho shop for a bowl of beef pho with clear broth, and your guide explains how the Hanoi style differs from the sweeter southern bowls you will taste in Saigon. Then we try pho cuon, fresh rice noodle sheets rolled around beef and herbs, near Truc Bach Lake. From there it is a short ride to the Temple of Literature as it opens. Founded in 1070 and home to Vietnam's first national academy, its five courtyards and stone stelae of doctoral laureates are quiet in the first hour.

Après-midi

Lunch is bun cha at a family-run shop, the dish Hanoi is proudest of. The afternoon is free: walk Hoan Kiem Lake, rest at the hotel or find a cafe on a balcony over the street.

Soir

In the evening your guide can book you into a water puppet show.

Compris

• Pho breakfast at a local pho shop
• Pho cuon tasting near Truc Bach Lake
• Temple of Literature at opening time, with entry
• Bun cha lunch

Activités en option

• Water puppet show in the Old Quarter. Evening, booked on the day.

Hanoi: market and cooking class

A morning market with a chef, then a cooking class

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hanoi

Matin

This morning belongs to a chef. We meet in the morning at a local wet market, before the best produce sells out, and walk the aisles together: the herb sellers with a dozen kinds of leaves, the noodle makers, the tofu stalls, the fish still in their basins. The chef explains what each herb goes with and how Hanoi cooks shop for one day at a time, and you help choose what we will cook. Then we head to the kitchen for a hands-on class: typically nem ran spring rolls, a green papaya or banana flower salad, a dipping sauce balanced by taste rather than by measure, and a northern dish such as bun cha or caramelised fish.

Après-midi

We eat what we cook for lunch.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free. Some guests use it for the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology or a slow lap of the Old Quarter; your guide is on hand with ideas for an independent dinner.

Compris

• Local market visit with a chef
• Hands-on cooking class with lunch

Fly to Hue

Hanoi to Hue by air, Dong Ba Market and a dinner in the imperial style

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Hue
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

We start where the cooks shop, at Dong Ba Market on the Perfume River, then sit down for lunch with a bowl of bun bo Hue, the city's spiced beef and lemongrass noodle soup. After time to check in and rest, we take a dragon boat up the river to Thien Mu Pagoda, founded in 1601, for its seven-storey tower in the late light.

Soir

Dinner is in the imperial style: a sequence of small dishes in the manner of the court, such as banh beo, steamed rice cakes in little saucers, and banh khoai pancakes, served with stories of the royal kitchens.

Compris

• Flight from Hanoi (HAN) to Hue (HUI)
• Dong Ba Market with your guide
• Bun bo Hue lunch
• Dragon boat on the Perfume River to Thien Mu Pagoda
• Imperial-style dinner

Hue: the Imperial City and a garden-house lunch

The Imperial City at opening, the tomb of Tu Duc, lunch in a garden house

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hue
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

Late morning we drive into the hills south of the city to the tomb of Tu Duc, a lakeside park of pavilions the emperor used as a retreat in his lifetime.

Après-midi

Lunch is the heart of the day: a meal in one of Hue's garden houses, family homes set in walled gardens of fruit trees and ponds, where the family cooks Hue dishes such as banh loc, clear tapioca dumplings, and com hen, rice with tiny river clams.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free; your guide can point you to one of the Buddhist vegetarian restaurants Hue is known for.

Compris

• Imperial City of Hue at opening time, with entry
• Tomb of Tu Duc, with entry
• Lunch in a Hue garden house

Over the Hai Van Pass to Hoi An

Hue to Hoi An by Lang Co and the Hai Van Pass

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Hoi An
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive south along the coast to Lang Co, a fishing village between a lagoon and a long sand beach, and then climb the Hai Van Pass, where a spur of the Truong Son range runs into the sea. It has long been the climate divide between the north and the south, and at the top stand the ruins of an old gate and a few wartime bunkers. Cloud often sits on the pass, so your guide picks the hour on the day; if it is hidden, we spend longer at Lang Co and take the tunnel underneath.

Après-midi

Lunch is seafood by the water, then on to Hoi An by mid-afternoon, about three hours of driving in all.

Soir

At dusk we walk into the Old Town for cao lau, the thick, chewy noodles with pork and greens that by local tradition are only made properly in Hoi An, and watch the lanterns come on along the Thu Bon River.

Compris

• Transport from Hue to Hoi An with your guide
• Lang Co
• Hai Van Pass, weather permitting
• Seafood lunch
• Cao lau dinner and an evening lantern walk in the Old Town

Hoi An: dawn streets and Tra Que farm

The Old Town at dawn, then the Tra Que vegetable village

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hoi An

Matin

At about 6.30 am your guide walks the quiet lanes with you, past the yellow merchant houses, the Japanese Covered Bridge and the Cantonese Assembly Hall, with breakfast from a banh mi stall on the way. Your Old Town ticket is included. Then we cycle about 3 km out to Tra Que, a village of vegetable gardens between the river and the lagoon, known across central Vietnam for its herbs.

Après-midi

A farming family shows you how they work the beds with seaweed from the lagoon and water carried in watering cans on a shoulder pole; you lend a hand, then cook and eat a lunch of the garden's greens in banh xeo pancakes and fresh rolls.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free: swim at the hotel, see a tailor, or go back to the river after dark.

Compris

• Dawn walk in Hoi An Old Town, with Old Town entry
• Bicycle ride to Tra Que vegetable village
• Farm visit with a cooking lesson and lunch

Hoi An: the market class

Hoi An Central Market with a chef, then a cooking class

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Hoi An

Matin

A slower morning. After breakfast we meet a chef at Hoi An's central market by the Thu Bon River, where boats still unload fish in the morning and the noodle sellers sell fresh sheets of cao lau and mi Quang. The chef talks you through the herbs, rice papers and fish sauces of the centre, and you buy what the class will cook. Back in the kitchen the class is hands-on: mi Quang, the turmeric noodles of this province, a fish dish cooked in a clay pot or banana leaf, and the white rose dumplings Hoi An is known for, finished with your own dipping sauces.

Après-midi

Lunch is what you make. The rest of the day is yours, with no plans: the beach at An Bang is about 15 minutes away by taxi, the Old Town is quieter in the late afternoon, and your guide can book a basket boat in the water coconut palms at Cam Thanh.

Compris

• Hoi An central market with a chef
• Hands-on cooking class with lunch

Activités en option

• Basket boat in the water coconut palms at Cam Thanh

Fly to Saigon: street food on foot

Hoi An to Da Nang airport, fly to Ho Chi Minh City, an evening food walk

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ho Chi Minh City
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive about 45 minutes to Da Nang airport (DAD) for the flight of about an hour and a half to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), which most people still call Saigon.

Après-midi

We check in to the hotel in the old centre and take the early afternoon to rest. In the late afternoon your guide walks you past the French-era City Hall and along the Nguyen Hue walking street to the riverside as the heat goes out of the day.

Soir

Then the street food evening, on foot and without scooters: across the canal to a street of seafood and snail stalls, where the cooks grill and stir-fry to order, then back for com tam, broken rice with grilled pork chop, and a southern banh xeo, the big crisp pancake you wrap in mustard leaves and herbs. Saigon cooking is sweeter and more generous with herbs than Hanoi's; by now you can taste the difference.

Compris

• Transfer to Da Nang International Airport (DAD)
• Flight from Da Nang (DAD) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)
• Walk past City Hall and along Nguyen Hue
• Street food evening on foot with dinner

The Mekong Delta and a family lunch

Ho Chi Minh City to Ben Tre and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ho Chi Minh City
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

The long stop is lunch with a local family at their home in the delta: river fish such as elephant ear fish, wrapped at the table in rice paper with herbs, and dishes the family cooks every day. Afterwards there is time to sit in the shade before the drive back.

Soir

We are in Saigon by late afternoon; the evening is free. The day has about four hours of driving in all, split by the morning on the water and the long lunch.

Compris

• Transport to Ben Tre and back with your guide
• Boat on the Tien River
• Sampan through the water coconut canals
• Orchard walk with tea and fruit
• Lunch with a family in their home

Saigon: a coffee workshop

A coffee workshop, Ben Thanh Market, a free afternoon and the farewell dinner

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ho Chi Minh City

Matin

This morning a coffee roaster shows you how the beans are grown, roasted and blended, then you brew with a phin, the small metal drip filter, and make the classics yourself: ca phe sua da with condensed milk over ice, egg coffee as in Hanoi, salt coffee from Hue and coconut coffee. Mid-morning your guide walks you through Ben Thanh Market for snacks and the food stalls inside.

Après-midi

The afternoon is free. For those who want it, your guide goes to the War Remnants Museum and walks the galleries with you, rather than leaving you at the door; entry is included.

Soir

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner of southern dishes together.

Compris

• Coffee workshop with a roaster
• Ben Thanh Market with your guide
• War Remnants Museum with your guide, with entry (optional to join)
• Farewell dinner

Depart from Saigon

A free morning, then Tan Son Nhat International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

Have breakfast at the hotel, or walk out for a final banh mi and an iced coffee from a street cart, then take the morning slowly until your airport transfer.

Soir

If your flight leaves in the afternoon or evening and you want one more outing, your guide can arrange a half-day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, the network dug under the farmland north-west of the city and used through the wars against the French and the Americans. Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) is about 8 km from the centre, usually 30 to 45 minutes by road depending on traffic. We drive you there in good time for your flight home; book a flight that leaves after about 11 am if you want the morning free, or any time if you are happy to leave straight after breakfast.

Compris

• Drop-off at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)

Activités en option

• Cu Chi Tunnels half-day trip. For afternoon or evening flights.