Northern Highlands & Limestone Rivers

Your driver meets you at the airport with a name board and takes you straight to your hotel. Once you've caught your breath, the Old Quarter is yours: walk Hoan Kiem Lake, wander the guild streets, and try your first bowl of phở where locals eat it.

A full day with your private guide: the Ho Chi Minh complex and the One Pillar Pagoda, Vietnam's first university at the Temple of Literature, an eight-dish Vietnamese lunch, then Bach Ma, the Old Quarter's oldest temple, and coffee beside the famous Train Street.

In the evening, freshen up at a transit hotel near the station before boarding the 22:00 night train to Lao Cai in a private four-berth, air-conditioned cabin. Falling asleep in the city and waking in the mountains is half the fun.

Arrive into the mountains early, meet your guide over breakfast, then walk down into Cat Cat village, home of the Black H'mong, past the waterfall and the old French hydro station. Climb back up to a well-earned coffee at Viettrekking Café, looking out over the Muong Hoa valley and Fansipan itself.

The afternoon is yours: Sa Pa's stone church, the market, or simply a slow hotel afternoon above the clouds.

Stop first at Ban May village for a glimpse of Northwest highland culture, then ride one of the world's great cable cars, twenty minutes over valleys and cloud, to 2,800m. From there, around 600 steps lead to the 3,143m summit of Fansipan and views across the whole of the north.

Back in town by lunch; the afternoon is free for the market: brocade fabrics, mountain fruit, handmade goods.

A comfortable limousine bus brings you back down to Hanoi with two rest stops, arriving around midday. Check in, rest, then spend the evening as you like: a cyclo ride, a rooftop café over the lake, or one more round of street food.

On the road south, stop in Xuan La village for a private To He workshop, learning to shape the edible rice-paste toys Vietnamese children have loved for generations, taught by the artisan in his own family home.

After lunch, visit the thousand-year-old temples of Hoa Lu, then board a rowing boat on the Ngo Dong River and drift between rice paddies and limestone karsts, straight through three river caves. Kite-flying over the paddies is an optional, joyful way to end the day before driving back to Hanoi.

Depending on your flight, there's time for last-minute shopping or one more egg coffee before your private transfer to the airport. Extending instead? Ha Long Bay is one night away, and Da Nang is a short flight south.