The standard northern circuit for groups flying up from Da Nang: the Hanoi Old Quarter, a full day cruising Ha Long Bay, and Trang An and Bai Dinh in Ninh Binh.
Photo: Hieu Tran / Unsplash
Day 1
The group meets at Da Nang International Airport for the flight to Noi Bai, where a guide and coach are waiting. The afternoon covers Ba Dinh Square, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda and the Presidential Palace grounds. Late in the day we walk to Hoan Kiem Lake and cross the Huc Bridge into Ngoc Son Temple; the evening is free in the Old Quarter and on Ta Hien street.
Day 2
An early start on the expressway to Ha Long, about two and a half hours. You board the cruise boat at the harbour and have a seafood lunch as it threads between the islands. The afternoon takes in Sung Sot Cave on Bo Hon Island, three large stalactite chambers, followed by the 400-step climb to the Ti Top lookout; anyone who would rather not climb can swim from the crescent beach below. We spend the night in a hotel in Bai Chay, with the Ha Long night market close by.
Day 3
After checking out we drive about four hours to Ninh Binh. The first stop is Bai Dinh, the largest pagoda complex in Vietnam, with two arhat corridors running nearly 3 km and holding 500 stone statues. In the afternoon you board a hand-rowed sampan at Trang An for a three-hour route through a chain of flooded caves, stopping at Trinh Temple and Tran Temple among the limestone peaks. We stay in Ninh Binh city, where the local dishes are crisped rice and mountain goat.
Day 4
The morning is spent at Mua Cave, climbing almost 500 stone steps to the top of Ngoa Long mountain for the view over the Tam Coc valley and the Ngo Dong river winding between the rice fields. We return to Hanoi, with a stop on Hang Duong street for preserved fruit and green rice cake if the flight schedule allows. Your guide sees the group off at Noi Bai Airport for the flight home to Da Nang.
This is the northern route we run most often for groups travelling up from Da Nang: company trips, association outings, families across three generations. Four days is the sensible length — enough for both Ha Long and Ninh Binh without a single four-in-the-morning start.
Unlike the version we sell to international visitors, this one cruises the bay by day and puts the group in a hotel in Bai Chay. Cabins on the boats are limited and hard to allocate by family; a hotel on shore makes triples and quads straightforward and gives the group somewhere to eat dinner together. For a large group it also costs less.
The Ha Long to Ninh Binh leg is about four hours and we drive it in the morning, so the group reaches the Trang An landing when the light has softened. The last day is deliberately light — Mua Cave and then the airport — because after three days most people’s legs have had enough. Group size, hotel category and flight times are agreed before the contract is signed.
Domestic ToursA tight, well-paced long weekend — My Khe beach, the Golden Bridge on the summit of Ba Na, and one full evening in Hoi An under the lanterns.
Domestic ToursNorth along Highway 1 to the imperial city on the Perfume River, then into the limestone of Quang Binh for Phong Nha and Paradise Cave.
Domestic ToursSouth down the coast to the clear water of Ky Co, the windswept cliffs of Eo Gio and thousand-year-old Cham towers in the middle of Quy Nhon.