Vietnam Culinary Tour

Xin Chào – Welcome to Ha Noi – Viet Nam

Meals included: None

Fly to Hanoi, where you will be met at the airport in the arrival hall by your Guide. You will be transferred for about 45 minutes to your hotel and check into your room.

There is no sightseeing today.

Overnight in Hanoi.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch

Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, is a charming and richly historic city of lakes, shaded boulevards and leafy open parks. The centre is an architectural museum piece housing groups of ochre colonial buildings the air of provincial French towns of the 1930s. It’s Old Quarter, where artisan’s and guilds lived and worked together to produce and sell a wide variety of items reflects the Vietnamese life in the past.

Today, after breakfast, you will spend a full day to explore this charming city.

You will start with the visit to the visit to the outside of the Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum where the body of Uncle Ho is preserved. 

Move onward to visit his wooden stilt house and One Pillar Pagoda which are located nearby.

Then, visit the Temple of Literature, the first university of Vietnam, which is imbued with the profound philosophies of Confucianism. 

 In the afternoon, at about 4 PM, set out for a walk to Hom market to sample sugared tamarind and dried apricot. Continue to try the Hanoi specialties including Banh Cuon Ba Hanh. You will try the rice pankace made by Mrs Hanh. Also enjoy Bun Cha (rice noodle with pork) where President Obama tried during his visit in 2016.

End the night with the last stop at Ta Hein Beer Corner where foreigners and locals gather each night, sitting on small plastic chair and enjoy the local beer.

After that, get back to your hotel.

Overnight in Hanoi.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

At about 8 AM: meet your Guide at the lobby of the hotel for the transfer to Ky Son Moon Garden.

Arrive at Moon Garden Home stay in Ky Son village at about 10 AM. Welcome drink with local fresh green tea. You will be free time for discovering Moon garden Home stay and Ky Son village by yourself (local market, kindergarten). Then, enjoy a cooking class followed by a lunch.

After lunch, take a Hand Spa– Enjoy having your fingers dipped in a fragrant lime bowl and the traditional herbal hand massage. Then, you will have some free time for relaxing or further conversation with the host family about local snacks, sharing cultures, and learning about traditional customs. If you want to learn Vietnamese, one of the family members can teach you.  

At about 3 PM, enjoy the tour of the surrounding by bike. You can have choice of a short ride of 6 km or a long ride of 12 km round trip:

Short ride: Take a bicycle ride to discover the Ky Son, Tam Son, Van Minh, and Cham farming communities to and stop at any home you like for a cup of tea. Visit the kindergarten (if open). Chat with local people about their daily life and farming. You can help with plowing or making rice beds, transplanting seedlings, harvesting rice (or cassava, corn, sweet potatoes…) depending on the harvest season

Long ride: Take a bicycle ride with local guide to discover the Ky Son, Tam Son, Van Minh, and Cham farming communities, Duong Lam ancient village and visit Mia Pagoda, Mong Phu Communal House… Then bike ride back along the ritual paths of Thang thac village to discover the Ngo Quyen tomb, Phung Hung temple

6 PM: Return to the Moon Garden for happy hour.  While waiting for your steam bath to be prepared, you can enjoy our local drink and taste some of the local products such as maize, sweet potato, cassava, peanuts… (depending on season) or some traditional desserts

Enjoy a Traditional, refreshing steam bath with fragrant herbs (Lemon grass, pomelo leaves, holy basil leaves). 

Observe the evening Buddha worship before having dinner.

After dinner, enjoy your foot bath in warm water with ginger, salt and moonwort medicinal herbs before bedtime, which brings you a deeper sleep.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Get up early and get ready for the Yinjing traditional exercises before having breakfast at 7:30 AM.

After that, enjoy some free time: You can make yourself at home relaxing on the hammock in our garden, taking pictures with Vietnamese traditional clothes, chatting with people, or further discovery of the Ky Son village and the surrounding area.

Check out and drive through rice paddy fields to Ha Long Bay. You will board a junk for a cruise among the hundreds of islets of Ha Long Bay.

Enjoy lunch on board as you cruise out into the bay, stopping to anchor for an afternoon of activities. Activities are subject to each cruise and weather conditions.

Drop anchor in the late evening for an overnight stay. 

Overnight on a junk.

Meals included: Breakfast

Early morning, enjoy Tai Chi lesson on the sundeck (lasting for about 30 minutes)

Coffee, tea and breakfast pastries served in the dining room.

Enjoy some morning activities before getting back to your cabin to freshen up and finish packing.

The breakfast is served in the dining room while cruising back to the pier.

Transfer to Noi Bai Airport for your flight to Hue. On arrival, transfer to hotel.

Overnight in Hue.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

Take a morning boat cruise on the peaceful Perfume River to visit the Thien Mu Pagoda and then take a car to the poetic mausoleum of Emperor Tu Duc. 

In the afternoon, proceed to visit the Imperial Citadel. The spectacular Citadel where houses a series of palaces, ornate halls, libraries, residences and colleges. 

This evening, visit a local family where you will have dinner with. You will take part in the dinner preparation. During the dinner, the host will be sharing with you about the family, the surrounding… Dinner will be served with the local specialties of Hue.

After dinner, you will be driven back to your hotel.

Overnight in Hue.

Meals included: Breakfast 

After breakfast, meet your Guide at the lobby of the hotel for the drive along the coast and via mountain passes to Hoi An with a stop en route at the photogenic village of Lang Co Beach. 

Also stop in Danang to visit the Cham Museum which houses the world’s finest collection of Cham artworks before proceeding to Hoi An.  

The rest of the day is at your leisure to explore the town.

Overnight in Hoi An.

Meals included: Breakfast 

Hoi An was recognized as an UNESCO’S World Heritage site in 1999. It used to be a trading port from the period of the 15th to 19th centuries.

After breakfast, enjoy a cooking class at the Red Bridge. At the end of the class, you will enjoy the dishes you have just learned to cook.

Afternoon, you take a walking tour to explore the ancient Old Quarter. You will visit an ancient merchant house, the Phuc Kien Assembly Hall, the 400-year-old Japanese Covered Bridge and the vibrant riverside market. 

Get back to your hotel.

Overnight in Hoi An.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

At the appointed time, you met your Guide at the lobby of the hotel for the transfer to Da Nang airport to catch your flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Upon arrival, transfer to a hotel and the rest of the day is at your leisure.

Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon) is the most dynamic and modern city of Vietnam. Saigon is the name of a fantastic river flowing through the city. 

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Saigon was the Pearl of the Orient, which flourished  under  the  American  occupation. In more  recent  times,  it  was  the  seat  of  the  South  Vietnam government until the events  that led to the country’s reunification. Today, the old mixes seamlessly with the new and you can wander through timeless alleys to incense-infused temples before catching up with the present in designer malls beneath sleek skyscrapers.

In the evening, take the VESPA TOUR to enjoy tasting the local food. The tour includes unlimited drinks and food.

VESPA TOUR: SAIGON AFTER DARK

A foodie night out on the town.

This Saigon night tour is part night excursion, part street food adventure. Experience Saigon nightlife the way locals do, all from the back of a vintage Vespa scooter.

To start off this Saigon night tour, enjoy drinks at our Vespa-themed café, Café Zoom, to watch “as the world goes by” (as said in the Lonely Planet guide book). Throughout the night, try a variety of food and drinks at 2 local restaurants and samplings of Saigon’s best authentic local food. Zoom past the famous must-see sights of Ho Chi Minh City while in the bustling traffic. We’ll also go to a Vietnamese-style coffee shop with special live music bar, and then wrap up the evening at an exciting music bar where the new generation of Vietnamese unwind and flaunt their unique styles.

Guests ride pillion behind our drivers to enjoy and experience the Vietnamese nightlife with friends. This tour includes free flowing drinks and all you can eat, so come with an appetite!

*Saigon Night Tour Highlights*- All-you-can-eat & free flow drinks, cocktails & snacks at Cafe Zoom, local seafood restaurant, local Vietnamese pancake restaurant, zooming by famous Saigon sights, live music cafe, live music bar.

Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.

Meals included: Breakfast, 

In the morning, you will visit the amazing Cu Chi Tunnels where Vietnamese guerrillas built a labyrinth of narrow tunnels as hideouts during the war. The  Cu  Chi  experience  can  be  emotional  for some  visitors,  but  it  offers  a  fascinating  window  into  the hardship  and  traumas  of  war.

Return to Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon for a half-day city tour. Highlights include the photo stops at the Reunification Palace, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office. Visit a local market in Chinatown and the Thien Hau Temple.

Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, drive to Mekong Delta for a day of exploration. 

The program will start with the cruise on the Cai Be River, stops can be made at local workshops where you can see how to make rice paper, coconut candy and pop-rice, pop-corn… It is so interesting to visit the handicraft village where you can see how they make some special products: making rice-net for spring-rolls, fish sauce & Soya sauce, cooking salt, sewing coconut-leaves for cottage roof…

The rowing boat will take you deeper into the countryside on smaller canals and to enjoy the peaceful time. It is so interesting to see traditional houses made of wood and palm tree leaves and see some activities of the local farmers with an opportunity to make contacts with them and see how they catch fish or pick up fruits by ancestral ways in Mekong Delta..

Lunch can be served at Ut Trinh home. After lunch, we can walk around and then we will enjoy some kinds of fruits when listening to the traditional music

One more thing to do in this trip is biking! It will be so amazing to bike on village paths to see the local farms, houses, real life and the ancestral ways to pick up fruits in Mekong Delta..

The cruise will end at Vinh Long city where the vehicle is ready to drive you back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.

Meals included: Breakfast

Free until transfer to Tan Son Nhat airport for your departure.