The Charming North

Welcome to Hanoi – Vietnam!

Our driver will be welcoming you at Noi Bai airport; it takes us 35 minutes driving to hotel in the centre of Hanoi. Overnight in Hanoi. 

Please note: Standard check in time is 14:00. Early check in is subject to availability of the hotel.

Night activities suggestion: enjoy local beer at Ta Hien Streets, experience the ambience of sleepless street with life music, the young people of Hanoi and also foreign tourists. Hundreds of bars and pubs in the Old Quarter are also at your disposal. Or just simple spend your time at shopping malls or various boutique Shops.

Breakfast at hotel.  

8.30 am: Tran Quoc Pagoda & West Lake

The bus and tour guide will pick you up from hotel in old quarter about 8 AM, driving to Tran Quoc Pagoda is located on an island east of West Lake (Tay Ho District), with 1500-year history, which is considered to be the oldest in Thang Long-Hanoi. It was the Buddhist center of Thang Long citadel in the Ly and Tran dynasties. With its historical and architectural values, Tran Quoc pagoda is famous for its sacred Buddha land, which attracts many Buddhists and visitors to Vietnam.

9.30 am: Ho Chi Minh complex
Visitor to Ho Chi Minh complex (Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the presidential palace, house on stilts the final resting place of Uncle Ho, where He lived and worked from 1954 - 1969).

11 am: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
This is the most recent yet probably the largest and undoubtedly the most interesting Museums in Ha Noi and Viet Nam. There are both indoors and outdoors section, while the in – housed exhibition is particularly informative, the outdoors display and activities make the museum stand out from the rest. There are a number of houses modeling after the traditional architecture of ethnic minorities, especially those who live in Northern and Central highlands.

12.30 pm: Lunch Time

2 pm: The temple of literature (The first university in Vietnam)
Being an ancient school of Thang Long and the first university in Vietnam, Temple of Literature is acknowledged as an ancient historical-cultural heritage which gives tourists deeper understanding about Hanoi's years of culture and tradition.

3 pm: Hoa Lo prison
It was built in 1899. The French kept mainly political prisoners here along with those awaiting sentencing at the nearby Court of Justice, also where American pilots who had been shot down and captured were kept as prisoners of war. The pilots called it, sarcastically, the “Hanoi Hilton.” John McCain was held here at various times during his five and a half year as a POW.

3.30 – 4 pm: Take the car back your hotel.
Overnight in Hanoi.

Meal: Breakfast at hotel, Lunch at local restaurant. 
Please note: On Monday and Friday morning Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and museum are closed, instead by Vietnamese women museum. Short/reveal clothing is not allowed to come in mausoleum and temple.
 

Breakfast at hotel and check out. 

From Hanoi, at 8AM, head East for more than 3 hours to Halong Bay, the pride of the Gulf of Tonkin, a Natural World Heritage as designated by UNESCO in 1994. The road will pass by the Red River delta with green paddy fields and rural villages, where hard-work farmers are busy with their farming jobs, ploughing buffaloes or planting seedling.

Upon arrival in Halong, we’ll take a big boat to cruise the Bay to discover the magnificent beauty of this “Descending-dragon” bay, created by thousands odd-shaped limestone rocks and karst grottoes. After a lunch of fresh seafood on board, we can visit the Surprising Grotto, stop for swimming or kayaking, passing floating villages and approach islets to enjoy their beauty in close distance. Back to the boat for dinner late afternoon. Evening attend activities on the boat or relax at your own leisure. Overnight on the boat near Titov Beach. 

Please note: The program may be little varied upon the cruise you choose.

After breakfast, visit by boat to Luon Cave, a ring-shaped pool inside an island in Halong with absolutely tranquil landscape and emerald water. Back to the Wharf of Halong passing the most densely area with many islands that have been named like the Cock-Fighting Rock, Sail Island, Incense burner rock or Sea Dog Rock. Arrive at Halong Wharf around 11.00. 

Take shuttle bus back to Hanoi. Free at your own leisure. Overnight in Hanoi.   

You are free until transfer to the airport for departure flight. End of service! 
Please note: Standard check out time is 12:00.