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 a boat to yourselves, and a beach at each end of the country's dry season. The guiding is two half-days, both in the morning, and after four in the afternoon nothing is eve
- Duration
- 11 days
- Pace
- Slow
- Hotel changes
- 3
- Best months
- Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov, Dec
- From
- $3,740 per person
This route deliberately leaves out Hanoi’s museums, the Mekong Delta and the whole of the imperial centre. If you want to see Vietnam, our classic 16 days is the trip. This one is for two people who want to be somewhere beautiful and mostly left alone.
Who it suits: honeymoons, anniversaries and anyone who would rather see less and feel it more.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive in Hanoi. Private transfer, a small restored townhouse hotel on a quiet street rather than a tower with a view. Dinner ten minutes’ walk away, nothing ambitious.
Day 2: Hanoi. A private guided morning through the older lanes and the French Quarter, ending with egg coffee on a balcony above a street you would never have found. Afternoon free. Evening at a restaurant our Hanoi office books, in a colonial villa with eight tables.
Day 3: Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay. Late morning departure, two and a half hours east, then aboard a private charter: a wooden vessel with a crew of five and nobody else on it. Kayaks before sunset, dinner on the deck, and the anchorage chosen for where the other boats are not.
Day 4: Lan Ha Bay. The whole day on the water with no fixed programme. Swim, kayak into a cave at low tide, put ashore on an empty beach, or do none of it. Lan Ha is not central Halong: on a good day you will see more sea eagles than other boats.
Day 5: Lan Ha Bay to the central coast. Disembark mid-morning, drive back to Hanoi and fly to Danang, then twenty minutes to a beach resort between Danang and Hoi An. A pool villa, a garden, and the sea in front of you. This is the one long travel day.
Day 6: Hoi An. Nothing before ten. Late afternoon in the Ancient Town, which is at its best either just after dawn or just before the lanterns are lit, and dinner at a table on the river. A private boat back to the hotel afterwards if you want it.
Day 7: The coast, free. Our document lays out the options and you choose over breakfast: a cooking session that starts in the market at six, a bicycle through the rice fields, the Cham ruins at My Son at opening, a spa afternoon, or nothing.
Day 8: The coast to Phu Quoc. Late morning flight south via Ho Chi Minh City to the island in the Gulf of Thailand. Three nights in a villa with its own pool on the quieter north-west coast at Ong Lang rather than in the developed south.
Day 9: Phu Quoc. A private boat to the An Thoi islands for snorkelling and lunch on the water, or the beach and a book. Sunset here is the reason people come.
Day 10: Phu Quoc. Free. A pepper farm and a fish sauce house if you want a reason to leave the villa, and no reason at all if you do not.
Day 11: Departure. Direct international flights leave Phu Quoc, or we connect you through Ho Chi Minh City.
What is included
Boutique and beach accommodation throughout with breakfast, two nights on a private charter in Lan Ha Bay with full board, all domestic flights, private transfers throughout, two half-days of private guiding, the An Thoi island boat, restaurant reservations at the places worth planning an evening around, a day-by-day document, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant in Tel Aviv and our Hanoi office throughout.
Upgrades worth considering
A larger charter with a second cabin so the crew sleep further away. A private car and guide over the Hai Van Pass on day 7 with lunch at Lang Co. Con Dao instead of Phu Quoc between March and September: quieter, more beautiful, harder to reach, and with the former prison islands giving the days a weight that Phu Quoc does not have. A night at the end in Ho Chi Minh City if you would like a city dinner before flying home.
Honest notes
Phu Quoc is developing fast. The north-west, where we put you, is still quiet. The south of the island has a cable car, theme parks and a great deal of construction. We choose the hotel around that and we would rather you heard it from us than saw it from the car.
The dry seasons do not overlap perfectly. Phu Quoc is at its best from November to April; the central coast is dry from February to August and floods from September to December. February to April is the window where both work, and it is when we run this trip. In December and January the coast around Hoi An can be grey and wet, and we will say so before you book.
Day 5 is long. A boat, a three-hour drive and a flight. Everything else on this trip is slow, and that is the trade.
Halong Bay in the mist. Between February and April the northern bays are often under low cloud. It is atmospheric rather than disappointing, but it is not the postcard, and no amount of money changes it.
Built by Mai Est, our Head of Travel Consulting, with our Hanoi office.
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