Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Dalat & Da Nang, 8 Nights

Met at Noi Bai and driven into the city, with time to settle in before a guided afternoon. Ba Dinh Square is the political heart of the country, laid out before the grey granite of Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, which is seen from outside. A few steps away the One Pillar pagoda, a tiny wooden shrine on a single column in a lotus pond, dates its design to the eleventh century. The tour finishes at Hoan Kiem lake, where the Old Quarter begins.

An eight o’clock pickup for the drive east across the rice fields of the delta to the Ha Long cruise pier. The boat sails as lunch is served, into a seascape of close to two thousand limestone islands, inscribed by UNESCO for both its beauty and its geology. The afternoon brings a cave visit and a spell in a kayak or bamboo boat, and dinner is served aboard, anchored among the islands for the night.

Sunrise on deck, with tai chi for anyone who likes, and a final slow cruise through the islands over brunch before the boat returns to the pier. The shuttle is in Hanoi by mid-afternoon. The evening is free to see the Old Quarter properly: the Temple of Literature is open until early evening, the water-puppet theatre plays several shows a night, and the streets around the old cathedral are full of small places serving pho and bun cha.

A morning flight south to Dalat, a French hill station of the 1920s in the pine hills at about 1,500 m, where Vietnamese couples come for their honeymoons and the temperature is spring-like most of the year. From Lien Khuong airport it is about forty minutes into town. In the afternoon Mongo Land, a hillside garden of flowers and wooden houses themed on the Hmong people, makes an easy first outing.

South of town first to Datanla, where an alpine coaster runs on rails through the forest to the falls; you set your own speed with a brake lever. Lunch is included. The afternoon covers the town: the Crazy House, a guesthouse built by the architect Dang Viet Nga in the shape of a giant tree; the flower gardens by Xuan Huong lake; and the old railway station, an art deco building of the 1930s. Dalat’s night market is a good place for grilled rice-paper snacks and strawberries.

A four o’clock pickup for the hills outside Dalat, where on clear, cool mornings the valleys fill with cloud and the sunrise lights the tops of it; a warm drink at a hillside café follows. Back for breakfast and checkout, and then an afternoon flight to Da Nang on the central coast. It is warm again here, and the hotel is minutes from My Khe, one of the longest city beaches in Asia.

A free morning on the beach before an early-afternoon pickup. At Cam Thanh, outside Hoi An, fishermen show how they paddle round basket boats through a water-coconut forest and cast their nets. Hoi An’s old town follows as the day cools: the Japanese covered bridge, the Chinese assembly halls, the old merchant houses. After dinner in the old town, a small boat takes you onto the Thu Bon river to float a paper lantern on the water.

An early pickup for the mountains west of the city, where one of the world’s longest cable car lines climbs to Ba Na, a French hill resort of the 1920s now rebuilt as a large park. The Golden Bridge, a gold walkway held up by two giant weathered hands, is best before mid-morning. The French village, the flower gardens and the white Buddha at Linh Ung pagoda fill the rest of the visit, with the indoor games park for anyone with energy left.

A last breakfast and, if the flight is late, a final swim at My Khe. Checkout is usually at noon. Da Nang airport is only a few minutes from most hotels, which makes this one of the easiest departures in Vietnam.