Journey Through Vietnam

Depart your home city for Hanoi, Vietnam

Arrive in the Vietnamese capital late this evening and transfer to hotel.

This morning we take a walking tour of Ba Dinh Square, a popular complex of cultural and historic sites, including the marble and granite mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the Presidential Palace, and
thousand-year-old One Pillar Pagoda. Later we walk the narrow streets of the diverse Ancient Quarter, where tonight we gather at a local restaurant for a welcome dinner.

This morning we depart on a full-day excursion to Ha Long Bay, a breathtaking waterway sprinkled with 3,000 islands and islets and
surrounded by a fairytale landscape of limestone cliffs, secret grottoes, and hidden caves. Our tour includes a boat ride and seafood lunch.

We fly this afternoon to Da Nang, Vietnam’s third largest city, situated on the south central coast. Upon arrival, we tour the acclaimed Cham Museum, which celebrates the Cham people’s Hindu legacy with a fine collection of sculpture and artifacts dating from the 7th to 15th centuries.

This morning we visit nearby Hoi An, where a succession of Dutch, Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese traders helped to build an
architecturally diverse and colorful village where many ancient traditions still hold sway. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hoi An’s Old Town is a charming car-free pedestrian zone lined with tailors, shops, and art galleries. Tonight, we enjoy a cooking lesson and dinner in Hoi An.

A morning walking tour of a nearby farming settlement reveals the daily life of a local community up close. Here rice paddies occupy
every spare patch of ground, water buffaloes plow the fields, and villagers ride to market with produce piled high on their bicycles.

We depart this morning by coach for the ancient imperial city of Hue, whose palaces, temples, and tombs evoke its past grandeur
as home to emperors and mandarins. We explore the Imperial City – housing the Forbidden Purple City complex where emperors lived with their families and now a UNESCO site. We also visit the busy Central Market.

This morning we cruise along Hue’s Perfume River to peaceful Thien Mu Pagoda, a Buddhist monastery that ranks among the city’s oldest
and most important monuments. This afternoon we see the tombs of Tu Duc, a gem of royal architecture; and Khai Dinh, an elaborate mix
of ancient and modern, European and Asian.

We return to Da Nang by coach this morning then board our flight
to the river port of Can Tho, provincial capital of the Mekong Delta.

We rise early for today’s journey by boat to the lively floating market
at Cai Rang on the Mekong’s lower reaches. After lunch together at a local restaurant, the remainder of the day is at leisure.

An hour-long coachride this morning brings us to the upper reaches of the storied Mekong. After lunch at a local restaurant, we continue by coach to Saigon (the name Ho Chi Minh City is used
interchangeably).

A morning tour includes the former Presidential Palace, which served as the South Vietnamese government’s wartime headquarters. We also tour the History Museum, with its excellent collection of art and artifacts of the indigenous peoples of Vietnam.

This morning we visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, the infamous underground network from which North Vietnamese forces operated in wartime.
Tonight we celebrate our journey over a farewell dinner.

Transfer to the airport for your flight home to the U.S.