Hanoi, Sapa & Ha Long Bay, 6 Nights

From Noi Bai across the Red River into the city, with time to rest before a short guided afternoon. Ba Dinh Square is where Ho Chi Minh read the declaration of independence in 1945, and his mausoleum stands at its head; it is seen from outside today. The Temple of Literature, founded in 1070 as a Confucian academy, has courtyards of stone turtles carrying the names of old graduates. The afternoon ends at Hoan Kiem lake with the red bridge to Ngoc Son temple.

An early pickup in the Old Quarter for the coach north-west on the expressway, climbing at the end into the Hoang Lien mountains. Sapa sits at about 1,600 m and is cooler than Hanoi at any season. After a late lunch, a guided walk leads down through Cat Cat village, home to Black Hmong families who still weave and dye indigo cloth, to the waterfall and the old French hydro station at the bottom. A taxi can bring tired legs back up.

West first along the Tram Ton pass road to Love Waterfall, a gentle forest walk of about twenty minutes to a cascade dropping roughly a hundred metres into a pool. Back in town, the Muong Hoa funicular climbs out of Sapa to the cable car, which crosses the whole Muong Hoa valley to the top station below Fansipan. Steps and a short rail link lead on to the summit at 3,143 m, the highest point in Indochina. It can be near freezing up there; carry a warm layer.

A free morning. The town market is liveliest early, when Red Dao women in their red headscarves and Hmong traders come in to sell herbs, embroidery and silver, and the stone church in the square dates from the French hill-station years. Checkout is late morning, and the coach leaves in the early afternoon for the drive down to Hanoi, arriving in the evening. Dinner in the Old Quarter is five minutes from most hotels.

The shuttle leaves the Old Quarter around eight and reaches the cruise pier near Ha Long city about midday. Lunch is served as the boat moves out among the limestone towers, of which there are close to two thousand. The afternoon programme usually includes a cave on one of the islands, then kayaking or a bamboo boat through a lagoon. Later there is a cooking demonstration on deck, dinner aboard, and a night at anchor in the middle of the bay.

Tai chi on the sundeck at sunrise, for those who want it, and then the bay at its quietest while the boat moves slowly past islands named for the shapes they resemble. Brunch is served before the boat returns to the pier late in the morning, and the shuttle reaches Hanoi in mid-afternoon. The evening is free: the water-puppet theatre by Hoan Kiem lake is an hour well spent, and the Old Quarter’s weekend night market fills the streets north of the lake.

Breakfast and a free morning until checkout, with time for an egg coffee or a last walk round the lake. The transfer to Noi Bai takes about three-quarters of an hour, longer in the evening rush, so allow three hours before an international departure.