vietnam food and culture tours

Warmly welcome upon your arrival in Hanoi. Your guide and driver will meet you at the airport for a transfer to your hotel located in the Hanoi downtown. Along the way, Vietsense travel’s tour guide will give you an overall information about the city of Hanoi. After check in you will have a free time to relax. Free at your leisure or wandering through the Hanoi old quarter to discover Hanoi. Overnight stay in Hanoi.

Meals: None

Hanoi, the present day capital of Vietnam is a city of tree-lined boulevards and lakes with a unique blend of French colonial buildings and Chinese inspired Vietnamese architecture. A full day to explore this fascinating city takes in the One Pillar Pagoda, the Fine Arts Museum, the Temple of Literature, the Lake of the Restored Sword and the bustling ‘Old Quarter’, with its 36 ancient streets. In the evening, hands-on cooking class you learn about the art of traditional Vietnamese cuisine in the Old Quarter with the locals in Hanoi. Visit a lively local market before donning a chef’s uniform for a hands-on cooking class demonstration. Learn how to make a number of regional delicacies, which may include some typical Hanoi food. After a half-afternoon session, enjoy a delicious feast of the dishes you created, and get to take a copy of the recipes home with you. Enjoy a cyclo head back to your hotel in this charming vehicle and then close by a water puppet show, a unique art performance in Vietnam. Overnight in Ha Noi.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Today leave Hanoi for Mai Chau Valley and have a first look at the mountainous scenery. At the tops of passes, enjoy the beautiful scenery and the superb panorama of Mai Chau, surrounded by a green valley and stilt houses. Up on arrival, take a short rest and explore the house-on-stilts before having lunch cooked by the host.

In the afternoon, you will have a walk wandering from village to village, learning and getting in touch with local people, trying some of the local handicrafts. Back to your local house for dinner. Tonight, you will spend the night in the house-on-stilts with a traditional mat, mosquito net, and blanket.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

A bit late morning you depart for Hoa Lu citadel which is located in the Ninh Binh province and surrounded by the Red River Delta villages. After checking in at the hotel, you can enjoy at leisure time. In the afternoon, you will visit Hoa Lu ancient capital and the Tam Coc caves. Your first stop of the day is the King Dinh Temple and King Le Temple. These two temples are constructed by local residents near the center of the old capital in order to honor Dinh Bo Linh, the first emperor of Vietnam and Le Dai Hanh who founded the Le Dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries. Then take a bicycle riding through the village paths and embark on sampan rowing to explore the Tam Coc caves. Dinner with Vietnamese rural cooks at local restaurant and Overnight stay in Ninh Binh.

Meals: Breakfast

In the morning, head to Halong Bay (a world natural heritage site) via the Red River Delta. Embark on board and enjoy the welcome drink by all the crew, check in the cabin while lunch is served. After lunch, take the panoramic view of the bay, swimming on a quiet beach or sunbathing on the sundeck. In the late afternoon, you will take a bamboo row boat to visit an interesting fishing village with the opportunity to interact with fishermen, who have been living in the bay for almost three generations or kayaking to discover a water tunnel with many coral reefs in a scenic lagoon. Get back on board to enjoy watching the peaceful sunset. The night will be spent on board.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Early birds will have a chance to join in the Tai Chi lesson on the sundeck and view the sunrise over the bay with a cup of coffee or tea. After brunch, take time to visit one of the most beautiful limestone grottoes. Later, join a Vietnamese cooking demonstration and later unwind at a restaurant. Your junk set sail while cruising back to the dock, in the meantime you enjoy a final glimpse of Halong Bay. Then, head back to Hanoi for stay overnight.

Meals: Brunch

Today is free at your leisure for last minute shopping or sight-seeing before driving to the airport to catch your departure flight home.

Meals: Breakfast