Vietnam Family Holiday, 6 Nights: Saigon, the Mekong & Da Nang

Tan Son Nhat is inside the city, so the hotel in District 1 is half an hour away. The afternoon is the pool. In the evening a walk down Nguyen Hue, the pedestrian boulevard from the city hall to the river where families come out after dark, an ice cream, and dinner nearby. Saigon is hot; the itinerary starts early and rests in the middle of every day.

Out to Cu Chi first thing, to the Ben Dinh site, where the guide shows the trapdoors, the air vents disguised as termite mounds, and the sections of tunnel widened so that children and adults can walk bent double through twenty metres of it and come up into the light. Back for lunch and a rest, then the Central Post Office with its iron roof, the cathedral square, and the Reunification Palace, kept exactly as it was on the morning in 1975 when the tanks came through the gate. Ben Thanh market for dinner.

South-west, 70 km, to My Tho on the Tien river. A motor boat across to Unicorn island for the coconut-candy workshop where the sweets are wrapped by hand, the bee farm with honey tea, tropical fruit to music in a garden, and then the sampan: a rowing boat paddled by hand through canals a boat's width under the coconut palms, the part of the day every child remembers. Lunch on the island. The Vinh Trang pagoda with its giant Buddhas on the way back, and an early evening at the pool.

The morning flight to Da Nang, an hour and twenty minutes, and twenty minutes from the airport to a hotel on My Khe beach. The afternoon is the sea and the pool — the beach has lifeguarded sections and gentle sand. In the evening the Han riverfront and the Dragon Bridge, which breathes fire and water at nine on Saturday and Sunday nights, and dinner on the riverside.

The full family day: 42 km into the mountains to the Ba Na cable car, 5,801 m without a support and a world record when it opened in 2013, over the forest to the Golden Bridge on its two stone hands, then the French village on the summit at 1,500 m with its square, cathedral and cooler air, the alpine coaster, and the Fantasy Park with its indoor rides and games, which is where the afternoon goes. Lunch on the mountain. Down by late afternoon and dinner near the hotel.

Down the coast to the Bay Mau coconut forest outside Hoi An for the round basket boats — thung chai — paddled and spun through the palm channels by the boatmen, with crab fishing for the children. Lunch in Hoi An and an afternoon in the Ancient Town: the Japanese Covered Bridge, the lantern shops, a lantern-making session. At dusk the rowing boat on the Thu Bon with a candle lantern each to float, then the drive back to the beach hotel.

A last morning at the beach or the pool, and twenty minutes to Da Nang airport for the flight home or the connection through Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. Families with a late flight can add the Marble Mountains, which are ten minutes from the beach, with the lift up to the cave.