Vietnam, a thousand miles long and three different climates
Go East plans private, tailor-made Vietnam trips, built day by day by a Vietnam specialist around your dates and pace. Most run 12 to 16 days. Start with a $39 trip plan: the route within 24 hours, then every day in your trip app.
Plan my trip · $39 Read the complete guide
- Best time to go
- Feb to Apr, and Oct to Nov
- How many days
- 12 to 16
- Entry
- E-visa, up to 90 days
- Getting around
- Flights, private car with driver
Go East plans private, tailor-made trips to Vietnam: a custom Vietnam itinerary built day by day around your dates, your pace and your hotels, rather than seats on a coach. Most of the trips we plan run 12 to 16 days, and a comfortable two weeks costs about $2,520 per person, land only, two sharing (October 2026 estimate). It starts with a $39 trip plan: the outline of your trip within 24 hours, then every day in detail in your trip app.
Who this is for: couples, families and small groups of friends planning a first or second trip to Vietnam of 10 to 21 days, who want a private tour with their own route rather than a fixed group departure.
Updated October 2026 · Osnat Engerman
Why plan Vietnam with us
We have planned trips across Asia since 2018. Thousands of travellers have gone with us. Our Vietnam specialists work with our team on the ground, so a cancelled bay cruise or a flooded road into Hoi An is solved locally, usually before you hear about it.
A named specialist, not a queue. One person owns your file from the first message to the day you land home.
Start with a $39 day-by-day plan, written for you, not a template. You see the actual hotels by level, the actual flight legs and drive times, and the reasoning behind the order of the days, in a phone app that works offline.
A WhatsApp group while you travel. When we also arrange your ground services, your consultant and our team in Vietnam are in one group with you, from take-off until you are home.
How long should a Vietnam trip be?
Fourteen days for a first trip, because it is the shortest length that fits the north, the centre and the south with two nights or more in each place. The country runs about 1,025 miles (1,650 km) from the Chinese border to the Mekong Delta, so the real limit is hotel changes, not sights.
| Question | Short answer | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Best time to go | Feb to Apr, and Oct to Nov | No month is ideal in all three regions at once. We fit the route to your dates. |
| How many days | 12 to 16 | Ten days means two regions. Eighteen or more opens Ha Giang, Phong Nha or a second country. |
| Entry | E-visa, up to 90 days | Applied for online before you fly, single or multiple entry (evisa.gov.vn, checked October 2026). Some nationalities have shorter visa-free stays. |
| Getting around | Flights, private car with driver | Two weeks north to south means flying twice. The train is a pleasure on one stretch and a lost day on the rest. |
| Typical budget | $110 to $450 per person per day | Land only. The hotel tier decides most of your total. |
The full breakdown is in our complete guide →
What does a custom Vietnam itinerary look like? Three sample routes
Each route below is a real itinerary we build, published day by day. Start from one and we rebuild it around you: your dates, your hotel level, the days you want to yourselves.
| Days | Route | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 11 days | Romantic Vietnam, 11 days | A slower trip for two: three hotel changes, two nights on a bay with a boat to yourselves, and beach time |
| 14 to 16 days | Classic Vietnam, 16 days | The first-visit route north to south: Hanoi, Lan Ha, Ninh Binh, Hue, Hoi An and the Mekong |
| 21 days | Indochina, 21 days | Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in one trip, with Angkor and the slow pace of Laos |
Other lengths and themes: 14 days in the centre and south for a second visit, Ha Giang and the north, 14 days, Vietnam with children, 12 days, food and culture, 13 days and boutique Vietnam, 12 days. For what 7, 10, 14 and 21 days each hold, night by night, read how many days you need in Vietnam.
How much does a private trip to Vietnam cost?
Between about $110 and $450 per person per day, and the hotel tier decides most of the gap. These are the planning anchors from our Vietnam trip cost breakdown, in US dollars, per person, two sharing a room, land only, excluding international flights (October 2026, estimates):
| Style | What it looks like | Per person, per day | Two weeks, per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Careful | Good local 3 star hotels, mostly independent days | $110 | $1,540 |
| Comfortable | Strong 4 star hotels, two nights on the water, guides where they matter | $180 | $2,520 |
| Boutique | Small, distinctive hotels, private car throughout | $290 | $4,060 |
| Luxury | Top-tier resorts, private guiding throughout | $450 | $6,300 |
Not included: international flights, the e-visa, tips and personal shopping. A solo traveller pays more per person, because a private car costs the same with one passenger, and a family of four sharing rooms pays less. The month moves the total too: Tet and the Christmas fortnight carry a premium on hotels and domestic flights.
Group tour or private trip?
A group tour fixes the dates, the hotels and the pace for everyone on the coach; a private trip fixes them around you. Every trip we plan through this page is private. Here is how the two compare in Vietnam:
- Dates. A group departs on set dates. A private trip starts the day you choose, and in Vietnam that lets us order the regions so each one meets its better weather.
- Pace. Group days follow the coach schedule and the slowest member. A private route uses a car and driver on transfer days and keeps the hottest hours of the afternoon for rest when you want it.
- Hotels and boats. Groups need large hotels and large bay boats on the busiest cruising routes. A private trip can use a restored townhouse in Hoi An or a small vessel in Lan Ha or Bai Tu Long.
- Guiding. On a group tour the guide is there every day. We book a licensed guide on the days where context changes what you see, and leave the rest to you.
- Cost. A group tour can cost less for a solo traveller. For two or more, a careful or comfortable private trip often lands in a similar range, with the money spent on the hotels and the days you actually wanted.
Vietnam in the magazine
What does a trip to Vietnam cost? · How many days do you need in Vietnam? · The best time to visit Vietnam, region by region · Ha Long, Bai Tu Long or Lan Ha? · Northern Vietnam: motorbike or car? · Eating your way through Hanoi · Vietnam for the first time · Walking in northern Vietnam · Hoi An and the centre · What we would skip in Vietnam
Plan your Vietnam trip
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and what you want from Vietnam, and we build your $39 day-by-day plan: first the route and recommended hotels by level within 24 hours, then every flight and transfer step by step in your trip app. Then, if you want, we quote the ground services and you choose what to take.
Vietnam itineraries
Every one of these is a starting point, not a fixed departure. We change the length, the pace and the hotels to fit you.
Classic Vietnam in 16 days: Hanoi to the Mekong
The first-visit route, built north to south so the country unfolds in the order it makes sense in: the old capital, the karst, the…
Vietnam with children: 12 days that work for everyone
Vietnam is one of the easiest countries in Asia to travel with children and one of the easiest to get wrong. The problem is…
Ha Giang and the north: 14 days in the mountains
The far north of Vietnam is the part of the country that has not been smoothed out. Ha Giang province runs along the Chinese…
Romantic Vietnam: 11 slow days for two
Built on the principle that a honeymoon is not a sightseeing trip. Three hotel changes in eleven days, two nights on a bay with…
Vietnam food and culture: 13 days, three kitchens
Vietnamese food is not one cuisine. A bowl of pho in Hanoi is clear, restrained and served with almost nothing on it. The same…
Boutique Vietnam: 12 days, and where the money actually goes
The word boutique is used very loosely in Vietnam. A large number of hotels marketed that way are forty-room business hotels with a good…
Vietnam in 14 days: the centre and the south
Most Vietnam itineraries of 14 days run the whole country and spend two of them in the air. This one does the opposite. It…
Indochina in 21 days: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
Three countries that share a river, a colonial century and almost nothing else. Vietnam is fast, loud and commercial. Laos is the slowest country…
What is in every Vietnam trip we build
- A day-by-day document with drive times and flight numbers, not just city names
- Hotels chosen by neighbourhood, with the trade-offs written down
- A private air-conditioned car and English-speaking driver on transfer days
- Licensed guides on the days context changes what you see, and independent days where it does not
- Domestic flights with a real baggage allowance, which is not the default on the budget carriers here
- Our Hanoi team on WhatsApp throughout, and a weather plan for the days most likely to be disrupted in your month
Planning Vietnam, in detail
What we would skip in Vietnam, and what we book instead
This article costs us bookings and we publish it anyway. A day you resent is worse for us than a day we…
Walking in northern Vietnam: Pu Luong, the Muong Hoa valley and Ha Giang
Trekking in northern Vietnam is a phrase that oversells what the walking actually is, and undersells how good it is. There are…
Vietnam with children: what works, what does not, and what we change
Vietnam is one of the easiest countries in Asia to travel with children, and family trips here go wrong for one reason…
What does a trip to Vietnam cost?
Two weeks in Vietnam costs about $1,540 to $6,300 per person, land only, as planning ranges for November 2026, and the comfortable…
Vietnam for the first time: what actually surprises people
A first trip to Vietnam goes wrong in predictable ways: too many stops, the wrong month for the wrong region, a single-entry…
Northern Vietnam: motorbike, or a car with a driver?
The northern Vietnam motorbike or car question comes up in almost every Ha Giang enquiry we receive, usually phrased as though there…
Frequently asked questions
How do you build a custom Vietnam itinerary?
Is a private tour of Vietnam much more expensive than a group tour?
Do we need a visa for Vietnam?
Is two weeks enough for the whole country?
Is Halong Bay worth it?
Can we combine Vietnam with Cambodia or Laos?
What if a typhoon or a flood affects our dates?
Vietnam travelers in their own words
Real Google reviews of Go East Travel. Names are shortened to a first name and initial.
Close support, everything ran smoothly to the plan, and at the same time there was flexibility where possible, all with a positive attitude. We enjoyed it very much.
My wife and I took a private trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with Go East. Of course, May tailored the route for us to our preferences. The company met every goal and the execution was perfect: a car with a guide was waiting for us at every site. The guides were nice and courteous and answered every question. We have also done a trip with the company to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India, and it was perfect there too. I really recommend this way of traveling to everyone. You do not need a group whose constraints you have to follow. The pace is yours. Have no doubt, this is an honest recommendation.
I am attaching the thank-you letter we wrote at the end of the trip: To May and the whole team who arranged and helped carry out our trip in Vietnam. Even though we "woke up at the last minute", you rose to the task and organized a perfect trip for us. It was fascinating, with excellent guides and reliable drivers. The mix of the different themes (history, landscapes, culture, food, leisure and more) was professional. A request we made was also handled immediately, in the best possible way. We have no doubt that we will travel with you again in the future. Aviva and Rafi C.
Your Vietnam trip, planned day by day
Answer a short questionnaire and within 24 hours, usually sooner, you get the outline of your trip: the route day by day and the hotels we suggest for each stop. Tell us what to change (two rounds included), then we build your full day-by-day plan inside a trip app with maps, navigation links, and trains and transfers step by step. Then, if you want, a free quote for ground services, and you choose what to take.
Custom trip plan
$39
+ sales tax where applicable
Trip plan + digital trip app
Your outline within 24 hours