Vietnam Culinary Highlights 12 Days

Welcome to Vietnam! Upon arrival, our staff will pick you up at the airport, and transfer you to the hotel. Check-in and free at leisure until 6:00 pm.

Hop on our vintage Vespas and explore Saigon like a local! We’ll take you to fabulous eating, drinking, and music venues where you’ll get a true taste of Saigon nightlife. The evening kicks off with drinks at a rooftop bar.

Join your Vespa Adventures guide and fellow travelers for a toast while enjoying views over the Saigon skyline! Then the Vespas take you through the city, weaving through the buzzing thoroughfares of Saigon as well as narrow back alleys. Sitting on the back of our Vespas, you’ll be able to soak it all in: the glittering illuminated sites, the smells of streetside food stalls, the sounds of the city, and more!

The tour includes stops at a mix of venues, allowing you to experience a truly local night out. We take you to two popular restaurants where you’ll sample several beloved Saigon dishes, all washed down with a cold drink.

You’ll also kick back at a Vietnamese-style cafe, enjoying live music while sipping a beer or cocktail. The night wraps up at a lively music bar where you can groove to the tunes alongside the hip young Vietnamese crowd

All food and drinks are included; all you need to bring is your appetite and sense of adventure! This tour is sure to be a highlight of your Vietnam holiday!

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: None

Exploring Vietnamese cuisine” class is the best way to discover the natural products from growing, harvesting, selling, cooking and finally eating the cooked dishes.

Breakfast in the hotel. At 7:30 am, our guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel in Ho Chi Minh City and then drive to the farm.

8:45 am:

• Visit and understand the local wet market.

8:45 a.m–9:45 a.m:

• Understand different kinds of fruits, seafood, meats, and dry stock in the market
• Buy some ingredients or souvenirs at a low cost when following our local guides if you want
• Compare the difference between organic and normal ingredients that are sold in the market
• See behind the price building of farming products, the price the farmer gets for his goods and the price the middlemen sell it for in the cities
• Explore the organic farm by visiting HCM Agricultural Villages

9:45 a.m–10:45 a.m:

• Visit cow and buffalo herds
• Visit rice fields
• Visit fish, prawn, chicken and duck areas
• Visit big herbs, spices, vegetable and mushroom plantations
• Challenges in the garden. Become a real Vietnamese farmer, wearing a traditional Vietnamese hat and harvest a lot of Herbs, spices, vegetables, and mushrooms in the garden
• Cooking challenges

10:45 am – 3:00 pm:

• Hands-on cooking class with three dishes and 1 dessert, and enjoy what they have done. Enjoy delicious and healthy cooking tips.

Continue a short drive to Cu Chi Tunnels, a Viet Cong base during the war, and explore the tunnels yourselves to understand more about Vietnamese and their history.

Return to Ho Chi Minh City in the late afternoon.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, leave busy Ho Chi Minh City and drive to Mekong.

Discover the lush beauty of the Mekong Delta as you wind your way down narrow canals on a sampan that glides along with fruit orchards, paddy fields, and sleepy villages

This tour also allows you to visit a floating market, where vendors display the delta’s bounty of fruits and vegetables on their boats. However, while busy selling and buying, they will never forget to throw happy smiles and waves at you.

Overnight onboard.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Breakfast on board, then continue to cruise the Mekong Delta before you head back to the wharf, where your vehicle is waiting to take you back to HCMC.

We transfer to the airport and fly to Da Nang. When you arrive at Da Nang Airport, you are picked up by our driver at the airport and transferred to your hotel in Hoi An.

Overnight in Hoi An.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide
Meals: Breakfast

We start the day (8.15 am) with a welcome drink at Hai Scout Café (98 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hoi An Ancient Town, Tel: 0235 3863210)—our meeting point.

Visit Hoi An’s colorful main market and experience its amazing sights, sounds, and aromas. We will have the opportunity to interact with the local sellers and to see and taste the wonderful variety of foods on display.

We board the Red Bridge boat for a leisurely cruise (25 minutes) along the Hoi An River to the Red Bridge Cooking School. This is a chance to view local river life, so make sure your camera is handy.

On arrival, we explore the cooking school’s herb and vegetable garden, before learning about some of Hoi An’s and Vietnam’s best-known dishes. The cooking lesson runs for about 2 hours – each dish is first demonstrated by
the Red Bridge chefs before we prepare the same dish ourselves.

Included in the class is a brief introduction to Vietnamese food carving (plate decoration). After the lesson, we sit down and eat exactly what we have cooked:

• Making fresh Rice paper
• Fresh Rice Paper Rolls of Shrimp
• Crispy Hoi An Pancakes with Shrimp, Herbs & a Peanut Sauce
• Seafood Salad with Tra Que Herbs
• Mi Quang Chicken Noodles
• Food Decoration – Tomato Rose & Vietnamese Cucumber Hand Fan

Finish at approximately 2.30 pm – transfer back to central Hoi An arriving at approximately 3.00 pm.

We start the walking tour by visiting Hoi An Old Streets through the picturesque streets of this 16th-century trading port, where the buildings remind us of its Chinese, Japanese, French, and Vietnamese architectural styles. Visit the Chinese Embassy Halls, Japanese Covered Bridge, Phuc Kien Pagoda & Tan Ky House.

Overnight in Hoi An.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Spend the morning doing the last shopping before transferring to Hue. Reaching Hue in the afternoon, after checking in the hotel, we explore the charms of The Citadel in this former Imperial City with many well-preserved royal monuments into Hue.

Dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight in Hue.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Breakfast in the hotel. The guide and van pick you up at the hotel and then transfer you to Toa Kham Wharf (around 08:00 am). Embark on the boat. Stop at Dong Ba Market and buy the necessary food for cooking class with our chief, then visit Thien Mu Pagoda, the symbol of Hue City. Back to the boat for a scenic cruise to Thuy Bieu Village, famous for Thanh Tra fruit.

Arrive at Thuy Bieu, take a nice walk around to visit the garden house, an ancient ancestral temple, and communicate with local people. Also visit the joss paper-making family to learn more about a traditional Vietnamese custom and why they use joss paper, also known as ghost money, for the deceased.

Come back to Thuy Bieu restaurant for the cooking class, you will prepare lunch by yourself with our chief’s instructions.
Have lunch with the traditional Hue dishes you have just cooked.

Relax by steeping your foot in medicinal herb water – a traditional therapeutic practice. Enjoy an excellent massage by blind people.

Around 2:30 pm, continue to visit the most famous Tu Duc’s tomb. Overnight in Hue.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

This morning, our driver will wait for you in the lobby of your hotel and then transfer you to Phu Bai Airport for a flight to Hanoi. Arrive in Hanoi, check-in, and relax.

Around 15:00, our guide & van will take you to visit the women’s museum, Hoan Kiem Lake, Ngoc Son Temple, and The Huc Bridge.

At 17:00, start our Food on foot tour to explore Vietnamese cuisines. Start walking around 4 km in the “36 streets” of the Old Quarter to visit some famous and specialized food families, stalls, local restaurants, and shops where they run their business every day. Certainly,  you will watch and taste some particular dishes (we can customize vegetarian food or meet special requirements).

It is very difficult to find some local food on your own in hidden alleys or sidewalks. This tour is combined with street food stalls and lovely mini restaurants (not luxury restaurants), certainly, they are experienced and appreciated by our local experts every day.

You’ll keep on ordering food as long as you keep eating, a suggestion is that you should taste a little bit of each place, then foot & food. Back to your hotel overnight.

Tour guide: English-speaking Guide
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner (street food)

Breakfast at the hotel. Guide & van will pick up and then transfer to Mrs Van family, in which 3 generations live together. Mrs. Van used to be a French-speaking guide before COVID-19. Visiting her family is a great chance to understand Vietnamese family traditions and enjoy a true Vietnamese home meal that is cooked for daily meals.

You will first go to the local market with the host, learn, and choose the ingredients to prepare for your lunch today. Enjoy your meals, which are prepared by you and the host.

At 13:30, you start a short visit to the historic University – The Temple of Literature which dates back to the 11th century, and then go shopping in the old quarter. In the late afternoon or evening, you will join a unique water puppet show that features Vietnamese folklore and culture.

Overnight is in Hanoi.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch:

After breakfast, we are picked up at 8.15 a.m. for a three-hour trip to Halong Bay. Around 11.30–12:00, you are greeted on the boat and served a set lunch while cruising the bay.

Depending on the tour you pick, the exact schedule will include a visit to Amazing Cave, kayaking (an optional extra on most boats; other boats include kayaking), or swimming in crystal clear water and admiring the lovely scenery. The trip includes dinner and an overnight stay.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

To welcome the new day, wake up on the bay to the sounds of waves, fresh air, and a breeze. See a stunning limestone cave after breakfast, then stroll back to the boat to catch one more look at Halong Bay as you cruise back to the port.

By 11.30 am, the boat docks at the harbor, where your driver is ready to return you to Hanoi. Spend the night in Hanoi.

The itinerary is verified based on different cruises.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast, Brunch

Have breakfast, pack up, and stay at your hotel until our driver picks you up at Noi Bai International Airport for your flight back home. Goodbye, Vietnam, and I wish you a safe flight.

Tour guide: English-speaking guide
Meals: Breakfast

End of service.