VIETNAM CLASSIC TOUR FOR FAMILY
11 days

Destinations of family-tour-vietnam:

Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta
This family tour is perfect comination  between sightseeings, culture and cullinary around Vietnam.

FULL ITINERARY OF FAMILY TOUR OF VIETNAM

DAY 1    Ho Chi Minh Arrival    Meals:

Arrive at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, welcomed by our guide and transfer to your hotel. Ho Chi Minh City formerly named Saigon is the largest city and economic center of Vietnam always bustled with activities of modern life. It is where businesses converge and shoppers indulge themselves into unlimited choices. However, the city also carries with it a rich historical legacy in contrast with its dazzling glamor.

DAY 2    Ho Chi Minh - Full Day City Tour    Meals: B  

 Meet our guide at your hotel and take a full city tour. Start with a visit to the War Remnants Museum, which features an extensive collection of exhibits including weaponry, photos and documentation on Vietnam’s wars with the French and Americans. Continue to the Reunification Palace, which was formerly the South Vietnam President’s residence and symbol of the Southern Administration’s reign until end of April 1975. Next, call in Saigon Post Office, a fine colonial building which was designed and built in the early 20th Century by the famous French architect Gustave Eiffel. Stop at Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, a neo-Roman cathedral built over 130 years ago by the colonial French with materials entirely imported from Marseilles. Move on to Cho Lon or the city’s China Town where you will visit the Jade Emperor Temple (Phuoc Hai), a rare Taoist structure in Vietnam built in 1909 in dedication to the Lord of Heaven. 

DAY 3    Full Day Mekong Delta (Vinh Long)    Meals: B,L,D  

Today, meet our guide at your hotel to transfer to Vinh Long, a riverside town in the vast Mekong Delta. Then embark a boat cruise to lively Cai Be floating market where sellers and buyers bargain and exchange goods from their boats. Stop at some local workshops to see how people make rice paper, coconut candy and pop-rice, pop-corn. Lunch will be served at a local house.

After lunch, continue to travel by boat to go deeper into the country side through maze of canals, visit some local famers’ homes, interact with warm-hearted hosts and learn about their trade and daily life. Have some fruits and tea while enjoying the traditional music at a local house.  Another activity is biking around the village. And you can also join in some cooking with the host.

Check in Ut Trinh homestay (or other similar home-stay on An Binh Island) for overnight.

DAY4    Vinh Long - Ho Chi Minh - Hoi An    Meals: B 

 After breakfast, free at leisure before continue your boat trip to visit the brick kilns where you can see how the local people create beautiful potteries from clay. Move on to visit a floating village and the local market in the town. The cruise will end at Vinh Long city.

You are free until our guide & driver pick you up at the hotel and transfer to Tan Son Nhat airport for flight to Da Nang. Arrival at Da Nang airport, you are transferred to Hoi An ancient town by private car & guide.

DAY5    Hoi An - Half Day City Tour - Lantern Making Tour    Meals: B    

Meet our guide at your hotel and transfer out for a half day tour around the town. Once a bustling maritime commercial port of Asia between 15th and 19th centuries, Hoi An, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, is now a peaceful town of exceptionally well-preserved architecture, lifestyles and traditions. The town exemplifies a fascinating fusion of cultures between Vietnam and the outside world including China, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. Your sightseeing will include the iconic 400-year-old Covered Bridge with a small temple attached to one side as a prominent example of Japanese architecture, the Museum of Trade Ceramics which is an elegant Vietnamese style wooden house built in 1858 showcasing antique ceramic artifacts, the 200-year-old Tan Ky House typifying an ancient Chinese merchant residence, the Ong Temple built in 1653 by Chinese settlers to worship Guan Yu, an ancient Chinese general whose character stands for loyalty, bravery and justice and the local market vibrant with colors and activities.

Afternoon, we take a cycling tour to a lantern-making family. Colorful lanterns are an unmistakable part of Hoi An’s visual identity as the craft of lantern making has been passed down to present town dwellers from generations of their ancestors. Spend half a day observing and learning how to make lanterns the traditional way under the guidance of friendly and skilled hosts. Practice all production steps including whittling bamboo into splints and bending them into a frame, cutting fabric to size and gluing it to the frame to complete a lantern. You’ll receive this meaningful souvenir, what you made with your own hands from the host family as a local present when you say goodbye.

DAY 6    Hoi An Cooking Class - Biking Kim Bong Village    Meals: B,L    

Morning meet our guide at your hotel and transfer out to a local market. A guide from the local cooking school will take you on a tour through the market to learn about the ingredients to be used in your recipes. After the market, aboard a boat to ride along Hoi An river for about 25 minutes, watching local fishermen casting nets as part of their daily routine. Arrive at a small township and walk to the cooking school. The class starts in an open-air pavilion by the river under the instruction of an experienced chef. Observe, practice, sample and bring out a good lunch cooked the local style to your own taste. Enjoy it yourself.

Afternoon, take a haft-day biking tour to Kim Bong – a 600 year woodworking village located just outside the town famous for its carpentry and traditional woodworking products. Established in the 15th century, it reached its peak in the 18th century, during which time the village craftsmen contributed their skills in woodworking to many different projects, including the Imperial capital in Hue. Walking down the village you'll see two parallel streets with low open-fronted buildings.  You can also see the artisans working with their skillful hands on the crafts.

DAY 7    Hoi An - Hanoi - Half Day City Tour    Meals: B    

Free at leisure until transfer to Da Nang international airport for flight to Hanoi. Arrival at Hanoi, welcomed by our guide & driver then transfer to the city.

Hanoi or “River-bound City” as its name literally means is Vietnam’s capital with a thousand-year-old history dating back to 1010. The city’s fascinating beauty which is characterized by unique cultural relics, ancient streets of antique houses, elegant French colonial buildings, tree-lined boulevards and romantic lakes has made it one of the most charming cities of Asia.

Start a half day city tour beginning with the Ho Chi Minh Complex which features the life of Ho Chi Minh, the nation’s founder. At the complex, visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where the nation’s founder’s body is preserved (closed on Monday, Friday and through October - November), the colonial Presidential Palace, originally the French Governor Office and a fine example of French architecture in Hanoi, and the rural style Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked. Stop by one of Hanoi’s icons, the One Pillar Pagoda, built in the 11th Century in dedication to Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara or Buddha of Compassion and reminiscent of a lotus blossom rising from a pond. Continue to the Temple of Literature, known as the first university of Vietnam built in 1070 by the Ly Dynasty to honor Confucius, sages and outstanding Vietnamese scholars.

DAY 8    Hanoi - Duong Lam Village - Half Day City Tour    Meals: B    

Morning, leave Hanoi for a 1.5-hour drive west of Hanoi to Duong Lam village, a typical agricultural village of the Red River Delta still preserves many hundred-year-old houses. Visit Mong Phu communal house in Mong Phu village - the only hamlet whose original village entrance remains intact. Continue on through the narrow alleys to see the old laterite houses which make up this charming village.

Afternoon, drive back Hanoi to visit Thang Long Royal Citadel which has been recognized as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO. Temple of Literature is the Vietnam's first university, was established within the temple in 1076 to educate the mandarin class. The university functioned for more than 700 years, from 1076 to 1779 during which a good number of 2,313 doctors graduated. Then, stop to visit Tran Quoc pagoda and Quan Thanh Temple.

DAY 9    Hanoi - Halong Over Night On Boat    Meals: B,L,D    

Morning pickup at 8:00 AM from your hotel for transfer to Ha Long Bay, which is about 160 km or 3.5-hour drive away. On the way, you will see some rural areas of the Red River Delta with plenty of chances to take photos of Vietnamese farmers working in paddy fields. Stop half way to visit a handicraft workshop of fine clothes and embroidered paintings. Arrive in Ha Long City at 11:30 AM and check in aboard the booked junk right after the welcome drink is served. Start cruising while having lunch on board and enjoy the mighty bay view.

Ha Long Bay meaning Descending Dragon Bay in Vietnamese as legend has it that it was where a holly dragon landed down from sky. The bay, famous as one of the world’s wonders and heritage sites whose formation dates back 500 million years, consists of around 2,000 karst islands and islets scattered over an area of 1,553 km2. The bay cruise will continue with up close sighting of Dinh Huong Island, Ga Choi Island, Dog Island, Sail Island, a visit to Sung Sot Cave and swimming stop at Titov Beach. Relax to enjoy the bay view at sunset, have dinner after, go fishing at 09:00 PM and spend a night on board.

DAY 10    Halong - Hanoi    Meals: Brunch    

Morning, refresh your body and mind with a Tai Chi exercise on the sundeck. Have tea and coffee onboard before proceeding to Titov Islet or Soi Sim Island to trek and swim. Check out at 09:30, have a buffet brunch while cruising back to shore. Disembark at 11:00 AM to transfer to Hanoi.

DAY 11    Hanoi Departure    Meals: B    

Free at leisure until meet our guide for transfer to airport for flight to departure.