Vietnam Culinary Highlights 12 Days

Welcome to Vietnam! Upon arrival, our staff picks you up at the airport, transfer to hotel. Check-in and free at leisure before having a next busy day. 

Overnight in Ho Chi Minh.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide 

Meals: NA

Breakfast in the hotel. 

8h30 Guide & van will pick up you at the hotel then transfer to Cooking class studio operated by Luke Nguyen for a course.  You will be trained by team Luke of cooks & then enjoy foods after fishing each dish. 

(Menu of the day: Appetizer: Pumpkin flower stuffed with prawns & dill; Starter: Green mango salad with cinnamon prawns & lychees; Main: Steamed sea bass with galangal, turmeric, lemongrass & banana leaf; Dessert: Coconut cream caramel) 

Having a short break then we will start a sightseeing tour with Notre Dame Cathedral, nearby area with the old Post office and ending by shopping at Ben Thanh market.  

Discover Saigon by a night excursion, part street food adventure by Vespa tour. You ride pillion behind our drivers. The first stop is to Café zoom to “watch the world goes by” (quoted by The Lonely Planet) and enjoy cocktail and appetizer (inclusive) before adventuring into favorite local eating spots. You experience the nightlife of Saigon the way locals do, all from the back of a vintage Vespa. The tour will start with a ride to part Chinatown and then heading to District 4 through busy streets and alleys to see the nightlife of locals and enjoy street seafood and cold drinks places that foreigners won’t be found. Leaving district 4 to district 3 the tour pass through downtown district 1 to take in the sights on the way to Banh Xeo, the specialty of Saigon and southern food with the locals. Then the tour will continue to a hidden Vietnamese-style coffee shop to have a taste of Vietnamese music (live) as a local. After this, the tour will bring guests to a live music venue to enjoy the drinks with live music. 

Overnight in Ho Chi Minh.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

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. Arrive at Da Nang Airport, you are picked up by our driver at the airport and transfer to your hotel in Hoi An. 

Overnight in Hoi An.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, We will be transferred to Tra Que Organic Village and walk through the market gardens where local farmers work their fields using the traditional methods of hundreds of years ago – no electrical machinery here. We pick fresh saw-tooth coriander and Vietnamese mint for our cooking lesson later, before trying a special herbal drink at a local home.  Then we go to the local village market and with a shopping list in hand, we purchase a range of local ingredients, including star anise, cardamom, sesame rice paper, water spinach and banana flower.  

Arriving at Red Bridge Cooking School we have a chance to freshen up before beginning our class. Working together with our Red Bridge Chef we learn the traditional ways of preparing and cooking Vietnamese food from scratch. Using the freshest ingredients and traditional Vietnamese utensils (still in use today) we cook 4 famous dishes, including the national dish ‘Pho’.     

After the class, we sit down and a chance to savor the dishes we have prepared. 

(Recipes: – Vegetarians are provided with replacement ingredients.  

1. Beef Noodle Soup (Pho) – includes the making of fresh rice noodles  
2. Clay Pot Fish with Fresh Dill (Cha Ca)  
3. Lemongrass Shrimp grilled in Banana Leaves (Tom Nuong La Chuoi)  
4. Grilled Chicken and Banana Flower Salad (Goi Hoa Chuoi Ga Nuong)  

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

We start the walking tour to visit Hoi An Old Streets though 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, Lunch

Spend the morning for the last shopping before transfer to Hue. Reach Hue in the afternoon, we check in the hotel and exploring the charms of The Citadel in this former Imperial City with many well-preserved royal monuments in Hue. 

Dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight in Hue.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Breakfast in the hotel. Guide & van pick up you at the hotel then transfer to Toa Kham wharf (around 08:00 am). Embark on the boat. Stop at Dong Ba Market and buy 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 Thuy Bieu, a nice walking around to visit the garden – house, an ancient ancestral temple and communicate with local people, also visit joss paper making family to know more about a traditional custom of Vietnamese people and know why they use joss paper, also known as ghost money,  for the died people. 

Come back to Thuy Bieu restaurant for the cooking class, you will prepare lunch by yourself with our chief’s instruction. 

Have lunch with Hue traditional 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 02:30 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 at the lobby of your hotel then transfer you to Phu Bai airport for flight to Hanoi. Arrive Hanoi, check-in and relax. 

Around 15h00 our guide & van will take you to visit the women museum, Ngoc Son Temple and The Huc Bridge.  

At 17:00, start our Food on foot tour to explore Vietnamese cuisines. Start walking around 4km in the Old quarter “36 streets” to visit some famous and specialized- food families or stalls/ local restaurants, shops where they run their business every day, certainly you will watch and taste some particular dishes (We can customize vegetarian food or special requirement). It is very difficult to find some local food on your own in hidden alleys or sidewalks. This tour is combined by 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 that you should taste a little bit each place, then foot & food. Back to your hotel for overnight.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner (Street food)

Breakfast at the hotel. Guide & van will pick up you then transfer to Anh Tuyet house where you will meet Mrs. Anh Tuyet – artist in Vietnamese Traditional cuisine. She will introduce what is the key to Vietnamese cuisine then teach you three dishes. Having lunch with food cooked by yourself. 

13h30 We start a short visit to historic University – The Temple of Literature that dates back to the 11th century and then go shopping in the old quarter. In the evening you will join a unique water puppet show that features the Viet folklore and culture.

Overnight is in Hanoi. 

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast, we are ready to be picked up for a 3h drive to Halong Bay at 8.15 am. About 11.30-12.00, you are welcomed on the boat and have set lunch while cruising in the bay. Depends on which cruise you choose, the detailed itinerary will basically include a visit to Amazing cave, kayaking (extra option at most of the boat, some boat has kayaking included), or swimming in crystal water and enjoy the beautiful landscapes. Dinner and overnight on the cruise.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide on board

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Wake up on the bay to the sounds of waves, fresh air and breeze to welcoming the new day. After breakfast, visit a beautiful limestone grotto then walk back to the boat for a final glimpse of Halong Bay while cruising back to the dock. The boat arrives at the harbor by 11.30 am and your driver is waiting to take you back to Hanoi. Overnight in Hanoi.

Tour guide: English Speaking Guide on board

Meals: Breakfast, Brunch

Have breakfast, pack up and stay at your hotel until our driver picks you up to Noibai International airport for your flight back home. Goodbye Vietnam and wish you have a safe flight. 

Tour guide: NA

Meals: Breakfast

End of service./.