Vietnam Beach & Wellness – 14 Days

Our tour guide and driver will meet you at Noi Bai International Airport and the city slowly reveals itself on the 45-minute ride in: rice paddies first, then the Red River, then a swirl of scooters. Next, check in at the Sofitel Legend Metropole or Capella Hanoi and let the long flight melt away in a 60-minute jet-lag massage at the hotel spa.

In the evening, you stroll the few blocks to Hoan Kiem Lake, where Hanoians gather once the heat fades. Dinner is yours to choose; ask your concierge for a quiet garden restaurant rather than the noisiest street stalls on your first night.

Local tip: to cross a Hanoi street, walk slowly and steadily without stopping or running. Riders read your pace and flow around you. Vietnam is 6 hours ahead of the Netherlands in winter and 5 hours in summer.

Meals: none · Overnight: Hanoi

If you are awake early with jet lag, anyway, put it to good use. At 6 am, the lakeside fills with locals doing tai chi, badminton and group aerobics, and visitors are welcome to join in. After breakfast, a private limousine takes the new expressway to the coast in about 2.5 hours.

Then, you board your 5–6-star cruise around midday and sail south while lunch is served. Halong’s famous karsts slowly give way to the quieter lagoons of Lan Ha Bay. In the afternoon, you glide by kayak or bamboo boat under rock arches, swim from the deck, then watch the sunset with a drink in hand.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner · Overnight: Cruise

Start with sunrise tai chi on the sundeck; the bay is still pewter-grey and silent. After breakfast, a tender takes you to Cat Ba Island and the car-free village of Viet Hai. Here, you cycle on flat paths between rice fields and jungle-clad cliffs, past wooden houses and water buffalo. It is gentle enough for anyone used to a Dutch bike.

Next, you will be back on board; the afternoon is unplanned on purpose. You can book a message at the cruise spa, read on your balcony. Or joining a Vietnamese cooking demonstration before dinner.

Local tip: from December to March the bay can be misty and around 15–20°C, which is beautiful but cool. Bring a light jumper for the deck.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner · Overnight: Cruise

A light early breakfast is followed by a final visit to a cave or pearl farm, depending on your cruise route. Brunch is served as the boat returns to the marina, and you reach Hanoi by mid-afternoon.

Before enjoying dinner, you unwind with a traditional Vietnamese herbal foot bath and acupressure session, a ritual Hanoians swear by after a long day. Later, our guide leads a short, unhurried food walk through the Old Quarter: a bowl of bun cha, a sip of egg coffee and a stop at a 100-year-old pharmacy street lined with dried herbs.

Meals: Breakfast, Brunch · Overnight: Hanoi

After having breakfast, a 1 hour 20-minute flight carries you to the central coast. Our driver waits at Da Nang Airport for the 40-minute drive to Pearl Hoi An, set on the soft sand of An Bang Beach. You spend the afternoon by the sea, or try the resort’s Korean-style jjimjilbang, a circuit of warm stone rooms and saunas.

At dusk, you head into the UNESCO-listed Ancient Town as the silk lanterns come on. Float a paper candle on the Thu Bon River from a small wooden boat, a local custom for good luck.

Local tip: Hoi An’s tailors can make a linen shirt or dress in 24 hours. Order on your first evening so there is time for fitting.

Meals: Breakfast · Overnight: Hoi An

The day opens with a private yoga session on the beach while fishermen bring in their round basket boats. After having breakfast, you cycle 15 minutes through green fields to Tra Que, a village that has grown herbs for the town’s kitchens for centuries. Here, you can help a farmer water the beds, then rest your feet in a warm herbal soak.

Next, you continue traveling to the Cam Thanh water-coconut forest for a cooking class. You will shop for ingredients, take a spin in a basket boat, and cook lunch together. The afternoon is free for the pool or a nap.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch · Overnight: Hoi An

After an early breakfast, you leave around 7 am, for the Marble Mountains: five limestone hills hiding Buddhist cave shrines, with sea views from the top. Going early means cooler air and empty stairways. The hills sit only a 15-minute walk from your next home, Danang Marriott Resort & Spa, Non-Nuoc Beach Villas.

Moreover, this all-villa resort gives every guest a private plunge pool and garden. In the afternoon, you have a 90-minute signature treatment at Quan Spa uses traditional Vietnamese techniques and local botanicals.

Meals: Breakfast · Overnight: Da Nang

Da Nang wakes at 5 am, when hundreds of local swims, jog and stretch on My Khe Beach before work. Here, you can join with them, then ride up the Son Tra Peninsula to the giant white Lady Buddha at Linh Ung Pagoda. If you are lucky, you will spot red-shanked douc langurs, the rare “costumed" monkeys of this forest.

Later, you get back to the villa; the rest of the day has no plans. For dinner, our guide can book a table at a local seafood restaurant where you choose your catch from the tanks.

Local tip: the central coast is at its best from February to August. From September to December, heavy rain and occasional storms are possible, so we keep this part of the route flexible.

Meals: Breakfast · Overnight: Da Nang

A short morning flight brings you south to Ho Chi Minh City, still called Saigon by most locals. Then, you check in at Park Hyatt Saigon, a quiet colonial-style retreat in the heart of District 1. Ease in with a 60-minute treatment at Xuan Spa.

Late in the afternoon, when the light softens, you walk with your guide past the Central Post Office, the Opera House and the cafe-filled apartment block on Nguyen Hue Street. Here, you can order a ca phe sua da, iced coffee with condensed milk, and watch the city at full speed while you sit still.

Meals: Breakfast · Overnight: Ho Chi Minh City

After enjoying breakfast, you drive about 2 hours to Ben Tre, the coconut capital of the Mekong Delta. Here, you switch to a small sampan rowed through narrow canals, then cycle along shaded paths between orchards and family workshops. Next, you have lunch with a home-cooked meal in a garden house, with tropical fruit picked that morning.

Later, you return to the city in the late afternoon for a swim and an early night before the island.

Local tip: you can drink the coconut water, but skip ice from street vendors in rural areas. In hotels and good restaurants, ice is made from purified water and is safe.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch · Overnight: Ho Chi Minh City

In the morning, you have breakfast at the hotel, then you take a one-hour flight drops you on Phu Quoc, in the Gulf of Thailand. The drive to JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay along the southern coast takes about 30 minutes. It is designed by Bill Bensley as the campus of an imaginary 19th-century university. The resort is playful, colorful, and full of surprises, yet its beach is one of the calmest on the island.

Unpack properly; you are staying three nights. Afterward, you spend the late afternoon on Khem Beach, where the sand is fine and pale, and the water is usually glass-clear in the dry season.

Meals: Breakfast · Overnight: Phu Quoc

You begin the day with a private sunrise yoga session by the sea. Later, you walk through JW Garden, the resort’s organic farm, and pick herbs and vegetables for a hands-on Vietnamese cooking class, followed by lunch.

The afternoon belongs to a Spa by JW. A 90-minute treatment inspired by local ingredients, such as a warm herbal compress or a coconut body ritual, is the slow, deep finale of the wellness program.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch · Overnight: Phu Quoc

After having breakfast, you board a private boat for the An Thoi archipelago, a scatter of small islands just off the resort coast. Here, you can snorkel over coral gardens, swim from a quiet sandbar, and enjoy a simple seafood lunch on board. Next, you get back on land; there is time for a final swim or a last cocktail at sunset.

Local tip: Phu Quoc is at its finest from November to April, with dry, sunny days and gentle seas. Use reef-safe sunscreen and a rash vest; the midday sun here is far stronger than a Dutch summer.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch · Overnight: Phu Quoc

You take a last breakfast with a view of the sea and use the morning as you wish. Then, our driver takes you to Phu Quoc International Airport for your flight home, usually connecting through Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Singapore or a Gulf hub. You leave lighter, slower, and well rested.

Meals: Breakfast · End of service