HANOI Day Trips and Excursions

AIRPORT TRANSFER (AT/HNSB)

Private transfers with or without guide from/to Noi Bai Airport.

FULL DAY HANOI CITY TOUR (AT/HNCT01)

A full day city tour of Vietnam’s capital. Hanoi is a unique city with tree-lined boulevards, French colonial architecture, peaceful lakes and oriental temples. The city tour includes such sights as Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda, the Fine Arts Museum and the Temple of Literature. After lunch in town continue to the Museum of Ethnology and end the afternoon with a visit to the Lake of the Restored Sword and the Old Quarter. (L)

HALF-DAY HANOI COOKERY CLASS (AT/HNCT02)

Join a special cooking class at the Hanoi’s famous Sofitel Metropole Hotel. The morning course starts with a walk, accompanied by the chef of the hotel’s Spices Garden Restaurant, to the local market where participants get a chance to learn all about Vietnamese ingredients. A cooking demonstration follows in the kitchen and everyone has the opportunity to play an active part. After the class lunch is served in the Spices Garden Vietnamese Restaurant to sample all the different dishes prepared during the demonstration. (L)

FULL DAY HALONG BAY TOUR (AT/HNCT03)  

An early start to leave Hanoi by 07:00 for Halong Bay. Enjoy the journey through the rich farmlands of the Red River Delta and the scenery of rice fields, water buffalo and everyday Vietnamese village life. Arrive in Halong and board a private junk for a 5-hour cruise on the emerald green waters of Halong Bay, among the 3,000 spectacular limestone islands. The cruise ends with a fresh seafood lunch on board before heading back to Halong, then on to Hanoi. Arrive in Hanoi around 19:00 in the evening and transfer back to hotel. (L)

FULL DAY HOA LU TOUR (AT/HNCT04)

A 70km drive through rural northern Vietnam to the site of Vietnam’s first capital, Hoa Lu. After visiting the two remaining sanctuaries of the ancient citadel, take a sampan on a river through the rice paddies to the grottoes of the sacred Tam Coc Caves. Enormous limestone karsts jut out from the green rice fields giving rise to this place’s other name, ‘Halong on Land’. A picnic lunch is included. (L)

FULL DAY HOA BINH TOUR (AT/HNCT05)

Drive to scenic Hoa Binh Province, 80km west of Hanoi. Visit a Muong minority village and enjoy a picnic lunch. In the afternoon visit another minority village, this time belonging to the Dao minority. (L)

FULL DAY CRAFT VILLAGE TOUR (AT/HNCT06)

Leave Hanoi traveling south to Duyen Thai lacquer village where the whole process of lacquer production can be seen from start to finish. Alternatively visit Dong Ho traditional paper village, where ‘giay do’ paper is produced and painted with traditional designs. All the paper is made by hand and some still in the traditional method using only natural products. Van Phuc silk village is a great place to see silk cloth being produced in the traditional way on the loom. The families here have been producing fabrics for centuries and there is a showroom where silk is sold by the metre. Return to Hanoi for lunch and in the afternoon continue to Dong Ky wood Village. Here furniture inlaid with mother of pearl and finished off with a layer of clear lacquer is made. Inlaying the mother of pearl is highly labour intensive as it is carefully sawn into fine fish-bone slivers and painstakingly set into wood. Return to Hanoi in the late afternoon.

FULL DAY PERFUME PAGODA TOUR (AT/HNCT07)

An interesting drive through the rich farming land of the Red River Delta to the Perfume Pagoda, one of northern Vietnam’s holiest sites. The Perfume Pagoda is not just one pagoda but many shrines and temples built into a limestone hillside. Take small sampans through a peaceful rural landscape of flooded rice fields to get to the pagoda complex. A picnic lunch is included. (L)