The Perfect Two Week Vietnamese Itinerary
Day 1 – Arrive in Saigon. Take your pre-booked airport transfer (via Viator or Get Your Guide) from the airport to Caravelle Saigon (or whichever hotel you end up choosing). Drop off your bags and grab some beers next door at the German-style beer garden. After you settle into your room, have dinner and drinks on the roof of Caravelle Saigon complete with live music.
Day 2 – For breakfast you will walk a couple blocks towards Saigon’s Notre Dame Cathedral and have breakfast at Cafe De La Poste. After breakfast take a stroll through the surrounding area and stop in a coffee shop or bar for a drink, before heading to Tao Dan Park. After exploring the park you will head to Ben Thanh and Binh Tay markets where you’ll do some shopping and grab some snacks. Finally, in the evening you will do your Vespa tour with Vespa Adventures which will take you all the way into the night.
Day 3 – Meet your tour guide in front of the Opera House for your full-day Mekong Delta Tour. You will arrive back in the early evening, giving you plenty of time to shower before dinner at Secret Garden where you will have made prior reservations.
Day 4 – Today you have time to explore the rest of the city, walking around and taking in the sites and hopping from restaurant to bar to specialty shop as you please. You can also add the afternoon cooking class or perhaps a show at the Opera House if you’d like for this evenings entertainment.
Day 5 – You will take a short, first class flight on Vietnam Airlines to Nha Trang where you will again have a private hotel transfer set up to take you to one of your lovely ocean-view resorts. That evening you will have a mud bath and massage scheduled at your hotel and then will eat dinner at the hotel. Following dinner you’ll take a nice relaxing walk along the beach.
Day 6 – You can lounge at the beach, take a taxi into the town and eat some of the delicious food options we outlined in our guide to Nha Trang, or head out to one of the mud bath spas or a waterfall hike if that’s what you prefer. Have dinner in Nha Trang’s town center at one of the restaurants we listed previously.
Day 7 – You will take another first class, Vietnamese Airlines flight to Danang and check into your Danang Hotel. Have a coffee at Cong Caphe, head out to the Ba Na Hills, check out the Golden Bridge and possibly check out some of the pagodas listed in our review of Danang before heading off to dinner.
Day 8 – You will have to schedule a private taxi service to drive you from Danang to Hoi An. Check in at either of the Vinh Trung hotels (make sure to ask about times for the free boat ride and schedule one for tomorrow at sunset if possible) and then head out to walk around Hoi Ans old city center. If you are having clothing made by a tailor while in Hoi An, it is best to do so as early in the trip as possible. While their turnaround times can be under 24 hours, the earlier you get your measurements done, the more time you have to make adjustments if the fit is not perfect. So, plan on grabbing a Banh Mi at Madam Khanh’s and immediately heading out in search of the right tailor. Check a couple shops as they all have different fabrics. This evening you will walk around the town popping in and out of all the fun shops, grabbing coffee and drinks as you go, before sitting down to eat dinner at any place that has Mi Quang on the menu. Ong Hai (Mr Hai) is known for serving some of the best in town.
Day 9 – You’ll get up super early today and head out on your sunrise photography tour. Grab some more Vietnamese coffee on the way back to town and then relax and have a light breakfast along the river or back at the hotel. Walk around that afternoon getting shoppers high while you splurge on $30 Louis Vuitton items and grab another Banh Mi at Phuong’s this time so you can compare it to Madam Khanh’s and decide which one you like best. Around sunset head back to the Riverside Hotel for your boat ride. You can have drinks at the Riverside Hotel’s outdoor garden bar while waiting for the boat to be ready. After your boat ride, walk through town to check out the pop-up nighttime markets before heading off somewhere for dinner. You really can’t go wrong, but if you’d like to have a place in mind before you go, please check out this excellent list of the top restaurants in Hoi An.
Day 10 – You will yet again take a first class flight on Vietnam Airlines, this time from Danang to Hanoi. Have your hotel transfer set up beforehand, take your taxi from the airport and check in at Hanoi Marvellous Hotel & Spa or whichever hotel inside the old city that you choose. That afternoon walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, stopping to grab drinks, snacks or lunch at any of the many parkside spots with outdoor seating. That evening you will have dinner reservations at Duong’s Restaurant.
Day 11 – This is a free day for you to explore Hanoi, check out it’s lovely pagodas, go to a museum or two, take a food tour, or just relax in the park.
Day 12 – Early morning Taxi from Hanoi to Halong Bay, you will board your ship around 1pm and head out into the bay. Depending on the ship package you book you can do 1-, 2-, or 3-nights. On your first night you’ll typically enjoy lunch and then cocktails on the deck of the ship while you sail out to the center of the bay. You’ll grab a shower and then the boat will have a cooking class or some sort of entertainment that evening depending on what you booked.
Day 13 – You’ll typically have a kayaking excursion or a paddle boat ride, again depending on what you booked, followed by lunch at one of the local fishing villages. That evening you’ll head back to the boat where you’ll have dinner, drinks and live entertainment.
Day 14 – You’ll typically have a short morning excursion to the caves before heading back to port. You’ll have a small lunch and then jump on the bus back to Hanoi. That evening you’ll have one last dinner in Hanoi before your flight out that night or the following morning.
If you are strapped for time you can easily get rid of the free day in Hanoi (Day 11) or skip the entirety of Danang, and just go straight to Hoi An from the Danang Airport. Other options include switching out Danang with a trip to Hue to see the ancient city which can be done in 1 day rather than the 2 the above itinerary has allotted for Danang.
If you have extra time, add a night to your trip and take a day trip to Hue from Danang. If you have even more time add a night or two to your trip and take one of the excursions to Hoa Lu we discussed at the end of our Hanoi guide.