
Explore New Worlds On A Vietnam Tour
Vietnam has captivated the imagination of travelers for centuries. With its pristine natural landscapes, ancient culture, and dynamic food scene, there is much to be enjoyed and appreciated on a Vietnam tour.
Stretching the full length of the Indochina Peninsula from the border of China in the north, a Vietnam tour includes many must-see destinations and sights. Historically, Vietnam offers plenty - ancient civilisation dating back over half a million years; local dynasties; infiltration from near (China and Cambodia) and far (Portugal, France, and the USA). Add to this rich history, a beautiful culture reflected in the resilient people who continue their recovery from devastating wars and a country that’s evolving economically, and you’ll very quickly see why a Vietnam tour is an enriching travel experience.
If you’re a first time visitor to Vietnam, plan to let go of your preconceived ideas about Indochina. Now an exciting destination that’s moving beyond its twentieth century troubles, Vietnam will surprise and delight even the most seasoned traveler.
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Vietnam tour highlights
A tour in Vietnam provides countless opportunities for diverse travel experiences. The rich choice of the country’s natural beauty can be appreciated in places such as Halong Bay with its breathtaking karsts, Danang and its beautiful beaches, way down into the Mekong Delta in the south.
As Vietnam ascends the economic ladder in Asia, it has managed to balance this with a timeless charm. It’s common to find pagodas and artisans among the highrise in bustling cities like Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. Traditional crafts, such as Hanoi’s famous water puppets still endure, making it possible for adventurers to gain a real experience of Vietnam.
Looking for other must-do’s for your Vietnam tour? Check out the list below.
Located in the north, Hanoi is famous for its pagodas, museums, and street food. Here you can visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, and One Pillar Pagoda. In Hanoi’s Old Quarter, capture a sense of the city’s history in what was once its beating commercial heart. Get amongst it – as traders did during imperial times – when individual streets fostered specific trades, manufacturing, commerce or residential activities. The spirit of market and industry still thrives here! Away from the bustle of the city, enjoy the peace and serenity of Hoan Kiem Lake, a landmark in the center of the Old Quarter. Rich in myth and legend, the lake remains a focal point of public life today.
No Vietnam tour would be complete without a visit to Halong Bay. Spectacular and surreal, Halong Bay, with its 1,600 extraordinary karsts, evokes myth and mystery. Caves, floating villages, and crystal clear water make this a magical must-see Vietnam highlight.
A first time visitor to Vietnam could be forgiven for thinking there’s just North and South Vietnam, however Central Vietnam is a trove of travel delight.
Da Nang – located on the coast – is the perfect place to get sand sand between your toes as you stroll along the pristine beaches. Looking to be inspired? Take in Marble Mountains – a geological wonder of five marble and limestone hills named after the five elements. And then there’s the streetscape of hipster and retro cafes, which you can’t go past if you’re a coffee lover or just in need of a caffeine fix. Sample incredible food that showcase the region’s best. Ready to try a bowl of mì Quảng noodles in peanut and pork broth or savoury-sticky Hue dumplings? Da Nang has you covered.
In Hue, visit the Minh Mang Tomb, a testament to its creators’ resilience – the 10,000 plus workers and artisans who brought it to life. Fancy perfume? Take a trip across Perfume River, which draws its name from the fragrant flowers falling into the water from orchards upriver from Hue. Vietnam’s dynastic and religious roots are evident in the Thien Mu Pagoda and the Imperial City of Hue.
A favourite among locals and travelers, Hoi An’s well preserved Ancient Town shines a light on Vietnam’s commercial history. Once an important international port for trade, Hoi An now attracts travelers of a different kind. You may just find it hard to make an important decision – beach or town?! We say do both and make Hoi An your launchpad for exploring the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge, An Bang Beach, and Phung Hung House in Vietnam’s prettiest town.
South Vietnam is synonymous with Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), now the country’s bustling and thriving capital. With a sidewalk culture equal to any big city (hello New York!), enjoy classy coffee, extraordinary street food, and a thriving restaurant scene that integrates the best of old and new Vietnamese cuisine.
Vietnam’s history can be observed at Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon Central Post Office, and Independence Palace. Add to your exploration the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum and feel a new level of respect for the Vietnamese people. Moving further south, take a trip alongside the Mekong River visiting the Vinh Trang Pagoda and checking out local agriculture and crafts, floating villages, and ethnic communities.
With private and small group tours ranging in duration from seven to 27 days, there’s bound to be a Vietnam tour that suits you.
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Indochina Tour Types
Explore your way with flexible tour formats
Wouldn’t it be great to know you could choose the type of tour that suits you while traveling through Indochina? We understand our customers are experienced travelers. They’re looking for Indochina tour operators who cater directly to their needs while on holidays. With that in mind, we offer travelers from the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore and all over the world, the option of private, custom, and small or large group tours.

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Enjoy Even More on a Custom Vietnam Tour
While IndochinaEscapes.com offers set Vietnam tour itineraries, we’re also expert at customizing tours that make for beautiful travel memories. While visiting Vietnam, why not try one (or more!) of the following unique experiences:
- Book a luxury wellness spa experience in Da Nang
- Ride a motor cycle through Ho Chi Minh City at night
- Sightsee on a bike through the Mekong Delta
- Learn to cook like a local at a market cooking class
Travel Memories
Testimonials
- marki40
London, United KingdomReviewed Feb. 2020
China Tours Trip In ChinaOur China tour started at the end of December. We began our trip in Beijing, which was a bracing -12C when we arrived. We were met at the airport and would add that all pick-ups were on time each morning for tours, and at all stations or airports as well.
Our first day was free in Beijing, so we explored, following the tip to visit the National Museum which has amazing stuff on display (as did the Xian Shaanxi museum and Shanghai museum later in the trip). We found a great Peking Duck restaurant which was a short walk from the hotel. The queuing system was a case of organised chaos in such a small space, but the meal was well worth waiting for. Best duck ever! Read moreWilliam was our guide in Beijing, and our tour comprised 5 people including us. All the guides were very good, but William takes the star prize. He was interesting and informative, but also a laugh. The usual sights in Beijing were awesome and splendid, but the highlight was the Great Wall, as we expected. When we saw the Temple of Heaven, there is an area where people – or their mothers – have their CVs to find a marriage partner. One of the mothers took a shine to one of our party on behalf of her daughter, and when she discovered he was a lawyer, became very interested. The rest of us found this more amusing than he did!
The bullet train was a nice relaxing journey to Xian. Our party of 5 split on the second day as we went to different locations next, but we all saw the Terracotta Army, which is another “must see”. The wall at Xian is big enough and was getting decorated for the coming spring festival (year of the Rat), but after the Great Wall, was less impressive. We all enjoyed the market and had a lunch in the Muslim area which was great fun, followed by a ridiculously cheap group hotpot that evening involving much use of online translation on our phones!
The next day, Sally took over from Helen, and despite spending only part of a day with her, she was great. Having only two of us going around the Shaanxi museum, she was able to help us with anything we found interesting, going at our pace. We left on another bullet train to Chengdu.
The journey was shorter than before, and we met David, our guide. The next day was an early start to go to the Panda Base. What an amazing day! It was fabulous feeding pandas by hand and cleaning out their enclosures. The park has been designed brilliantly, so we also wandered to see other pandas (including cute red pandas). We were struck how lovely it was to be in a less built up space after our largely city based tours before. David had been to the Panda Base before, so knew what to do, and was a fantastic guide there.
Beijing had had clear blue skies and not at all polluted, contrary to what we had expected, but Xian and Chengdu were more polluted. This was the trade off going in winter, although this also meant that the tourist attractions were far less busy.
The next morning in Chengdu David took us to the Pavilion Park, where we sat drinking tea (green obviously) and learning Mahjong. We also managed to have our ears massaged and shoes cleaned, although the locals were most interested in our newly taught Mahjong prowess. It was a lovely way to while away a couple of hours and contributed to our stay in Chengdu being fondly very remembered. We went to the airport to fly to Shanghai.
Shanghai was about as different as anything could be to Xian, and even much of Beijing. It is as blingy and modern as Xian reflects the ancient part of the country. Our guide Hugo showed us parts of the different concessions in the city as well as the museum, but the Yuyuan Garden was lovely. Later we met up with two of our original tour group for cocktails at the rooftop bar of the Hyatt on the Bund, seeing the spectacular lights. We managed a return trip on the Maglev train which was a marvellous way to bring our China tour to an end.
In summary, the organisation was fantastic. Everything went as planned, and the guides were all very helpful and easy to talk to. The hotels were fine throughout, although in our case, we found the Chengdu hotel – which was the swankiest we stayed in – was less well placed to explore too much for places to eat, particularly as we arrived later in the day and had a long day at the Panda Base. Transportation was fine throughout, too. Bus, car, train and plane were all good.
We originally considered a private tour but went for a small group one at a lower price. This is well worth it in winter, as the group is unlikely to be even close to the 12 maximum. The mix of locations and sights was perfect for us. Prices of meals were similar or lower than we expected, so we spent less than we took with us.
There were so many highlights, so it is difficult to choose which pictures to show, but the attached is a very small sample from what was a truly wonderful holiday.
Date of experience: December 2019 - rogergreen113
Reviewed 22 January 2020
BEIJING-XIAN-GUILLIN-SHANGHAI PRIVATE TOURWe are an Australian family who took the private tour from 24 December 2019 to 3 January 2020. China tours Co. had organized a meticulous tour for our family. Apart from the Shanghai stage, other stops were historic and memorable. The key attraction for China is her rich history. It would be very important that the tour guides must learn and comprehend Chinese History, not only PLA, Communist Revolution, or China Modernisation, Silk Road - One Belt - One Road, guests would be much more interested in her ancient history. Just imagine that when Qin Shi Huang connected the Great Wall to protect his newly formed dynasty - Qin, Jesus Christ was not even conceived yet, let alone the development and establishment of many great dynasties before his. Tour guides should treat this issue very carefully because of many tour guests who have studied Chinese History as their majors in High School and in University. They travel with two purposes, to see and to verify the historical records.
Read moreTo avoid the misunderstanding, that could be interpreted as a deception, in the itinerary of the tour, the program details must be utterly succinct and concise, i.e. Day 1: Receive the tour guests from Airport and deliver guests to the prebooked hotel. Tour guide will briefly explain the tour to the guests. This is the first day of arrival, the tour manager would like to leave the guest a resting time for recovering after a long flight. While Beijing and Xian stops were very well organized and rich history, the Gullin - Yangshuo and Shanghai stops were shallow. In Gullin - Yangshuo stop, if the tour guide were not as good and friendly, this stage would be very boring. We were very lucky to have Sue as a tour guide, she was so excellent in her English and her deep knowledge of China that shined the tour stop in a very different direction.
In Shanghai stop, I would expect the tour guide would lead us to the Shanghai historical museum where we would learn the bitter lessons of the 1930 - 1945 chaotic period in Chinese history, we were taking to the Parks which we could find them ourselves. Shanghai has so many historical monuments to attract international traveling guests, not the riverside where it showed the newly built highrise skyscrapers, we have seen them enough in New York, Singapore, or even in KL. We would like to know the history of Shanghai club, the details of the day when the Japanese planes dropped bombs over the city's residential areas, etc.
It would be very useful to prepare a china-tour booklet in advance, such that the details of the 2020 tours include detailed programs of the year i.e. how many stops of the tour, cities, historical locations, etc.
Date of experience: December 2019 - marioY1797DZ
Giaveno, ItalyReviewed 13 January 2020
Myanmar private TourDear Martha our trip in Myanmar is finished and Isa and me are fully satisfied. We have seen a lot of places, monuments and peoples. As usual we give you a little feedback of our trip. Organization Very good: intensive (4 internal flights) but in this way we save a lot of time and we saw a lot of things. Accomodation Good and coherent with our request. Only one remark regarding the Hotel in Bagan where the Hotel was good but with a poor bathroom (not coherent with the standard of the trip). Viceversa the Hotel on the Inle Lake was spectacular. Guides All the guides were very kind, helpful and prepared. Particularly the guides in Bagan and in Mandalay spoke an excellent English and were very cultured in order to give us a complete overview of the local culture. Conclusions As usual Isa and me were fully satisfied
Date of experience: December 2019