Day 1: HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON) – Dinner
Arrive in Tan Son Nhat airport (Saigon), meet and transfer to hotel for check-in. Meeting with guide for a short talk about the programme. Welcome dinner at the atmospheric Hoi An restaurant specializing in imperial Hue-style cuisine, recipes handed down from the Nguyen emperors of the 19th century. Return to hotel or be dropped off at your favourite spots.Overnight at Windsor Plaza Hotel (5-star), Saigon.
Day 2: SAIGON – CITY TOUR (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning sightseeing of Saigon to include Ben Thanh Market, the History Museum, Reunification Palace, Jade Emperor Pagoda, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Saigon Post Office, Cholon and other city sights.Lunch in one of the best Vietnamese restaurants, the Lemon Grass. Free for the rest of the afternoon.Overnight at Windsor Plaza Hotel (5-star), Saigon.
Day 3: HCMC - Vietnam Country Golf Club (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning round of golf at the Vietnam Country Golf Club.(This is the first 36-hole golf club in Vietnam with two champion length golf courses. It is widely regarded as Vietnam's Premier Golf and Country Club.
Designer: Taiwanese architect Chen King Shih.Number of holes: 36 Par East Course: 72 - 6,922 yards, slope 120.
West Course: 72 - 6,835 yards, slope 130. Located 20km from center of Ho Chi Minh City. Facilities: a full practice area complements the golf course, with an open 290-yard driving range, a putting green, and practice bunkers.) Lunch at the Mandarine restaurant of superb Vietnamese cuisine before returning to the hotel.Overnight in Windsor Plaza Hotel (5-star), Saigon.
Day 4: SAIGON – CU CHI TUNNELS (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure to tour the Cu Chi Tunnels 60km west of Ho Chi Minh City. This maze of underground tunnels was begun in 1949 by local Vietnamese guerrillas and the area became known as the Iron Triangle and a base of resistance by Vietcong (VC) forces against American and South Vietnamese troops. Today parts of the tunnel system have been preserved and widened to allow tourists to see how the VC lived and fought during the war. Here you will have a chance to go inside the tunnels and be amazed, see meeting rooms and storage bunkers, field hospitals, bedrooms and kitchen facilities.Return to Saigon to lunch at the Augustin Restaurant, the best French bistro-style restaurant in Saigon. Free for the rest of the afternoon.Overnight at Windsor Plaza Hotel (5-star), Saigon.
Day 5: SAIGON – MEKONG DELTA (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Today we venture into the vast expanse of the Mekong Delta to meander about in this rice land criss-crossed by canals, dotted with fruit orchards and wonderful floating markets - to which we have to go in a boat. Arrive in Can Tho and check into hotel.Lunch at the riverfront restaurant Nam Bo offering excellent European and Vietnamese cuisine in a classic French villa.Overnight at Victoria Cantho Hotel (4-star), Can Tho.
Day 6: Can Tho Floating Markets & Sights (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning visit to the largest floating market in the Delta at Cai Rang Floating Market that we will reach by boat. We visit also Phong Dien Floating Market which is less crowded with tourists and best approached by road. Lunch in a restaurant before driving back to Saigon. We will arrive in the late afternoon.
Overnight at Windsor Plaza Hotel (5-star), Saigon.
Day 7: SAIGON – DALAT (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure by coach to Dalat in the central highlands, sightseeing along the way. Lots of floating houses underneath which families rear fish are in very scenic spots for photography; three impressive extinct volcanoes; smooth-wall lava caves; and cool waterfalls. We will make excursions into montagnard villages to see their different lifestyles of the ethnic peoples. Upon reaching Dalat we visit lakes, the Cremaillere Railway, flower gardens, lovely pagodas and the last Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai’s summer palace.
Lunch at V Café of great home-style Vietnamese food.
Overnight at Novotel Dalat Hotel (4-star), Dalat.
Day 8: GOLF AT DALAT PALACE GOLF CLUB (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning round of golf at the golf course that Emperor Bao Dai played on, the Dalat Palace Golf Club, a masterpiece in design. Gently crafted into the rolling hills of Dalat and overlooking the majestic Xuan Huong lake, the course weaves its way through stately pine trees to oversized and delicately manicured bent grass greens. A French architect imagined this layout in 1922, but it took stimulation from the country’s most prominent golf supporter, Emperor Bao Dai, to spur its ultimate construction later in the decade. Today, it’s the top-rated course in Vietnam — for its classic design chops, for the incredible rise and fall of its terrain and for its flawless bent grass conditions due to Dalat’s cooler climate at 1500m asl.
The course itself, measuring 7,009 yards (6,409 meters) from the tips, is an uninterrupted string of inventive, demanding golf holes. Its twists and undulations are breathtaking and the landscaped outlying areas are a flower lover’s delight, with bougainvillea, red salvia, impatiens, mimosa and hydrangeas.
The course was abandoned after WWII and revived in 1959. In early 1966, several months before he beat Arnold Palmer to win the U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, Billy Casper played the course on a tour of Vietnam organized by the U.S. State Department. The course was abandoned again in 1975, after the reunification of Vietnam, and initiated its second comeback in 1993 with a multi-million dollar restoration and expansion by a group of American investors.
Through four consecutive surveys (2001, 2003, 2005 & 2007), Golf Digest has hailed the Dalat Palace GC as the top course in Vietnam in its world renowned Planet Golf Survey. Asian Golf Monthly, in its 2007 survey, recognized the course as one of the top 10 in all Asia. The club is also a member of the Finest Golf Clubs of The World (London).
A full practice facility complements the golf course, with an open 290-yard driving range, a putting green and practice bunkers.Lunch at Café de la Post. Free afternoon for another round of golf or spa treatment, or strolling in this delightfully cool city-in-the-clouds.
Overnight at Novotel Dalat Hotel (4-star), Dalat.
Day 9: DALAT – NHA TRANG (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure by coach to the lovely seaside resort of Nha Trang on the central Vietnamese coast. We pass through Chicken village, home to the extremely poor (but no beggars around in spite of the large numbers of tourists) Koho minority group, a very popular stop with travelers; Phan Rang famous for its group of 13th century Cham towers known as Po Klong Garai; Cam Ranh, a gorgeous natural harbour in Cam Ranh Bay, before arriving in Nha Trang. Check into hotel and be free to enjoy the beautiful beach.
Lunch in a restaurant along the way.
Overnight at Yasaka Saigon Hotel (4-star), Nha Trang.
Day 10: NHA TRANG – TOUR & BEACH (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. The crystal clear waters of Nha Trang make for excellent snorkeling, fishing and scuba diving which are optional activities for you. (Equipment rental can be found in the large and pleasant beachfront Louisiane Café.) Seafood is what you must taste while in Nha Trang.
In our morning tour, we will visit the famous Po Nagar Cham Towers built in the 7-12th centuries dedicated to Hinduism (the site had been used for Hindu worship from the 2nd century). The North Tower is especially typical of the superb Cham architecture of those early days. Nearby is the Hot Spring centre where people soak their weary bones in soothing pools of hot, mineral-rich mud. Applied on the face, wrinkles smooth away, so people claim. Visit also Long Son Pagoda, another impressive sight, with resident monks, and from the hill-top platform of a big white Buddha at the back of the pagoda magnificent views of Nha Trang will entrance you. Seafood lunch at Lac Canh Restaurant.
Overnight at Yasaka Saigon Hotel (4-star), Nha Trang.
Day 11: NHA TRANG – HOI AN by flight (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure by flight at 07h 45 AM to Da Nang ( around 1hour ) , an ancient seaport, picturesque riverside town well known for its “noodles across the bridge” food and “dresses in 2 hours” tailoring. It is a pedestrian-friendly town enchanting for its assembly halls, old houses, traditional music concerts, handicraft workshops, the Japanese Covered Bridge and Tan Ky House which we will visit.
Lunch at Brother’s Café Hoi An.
In the afternoon we visit My Son, a stunning sight of the ancient (2nd-15th century) kingdom of Champa, set in a verdant valley full of coffee plantations.
Overnight at Swiss-belhotel Hoi An , Cua Dai Beach, Hoi An.
Day 12: HOI AN – HUE (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure from Hoi An via Danang to Hue, the former imperial capital of the 19th century Nguyen emperors. Along the way from the heights of the Hai Van Pass you can see China Beach of the TV series fame, Marble Mountains and My Khe Beach that many said is the real China Beach of wartime fame. In Danang, visit the Museum of Cham Sculptures housing the finest collection of Cham sculptures that you must not rush through but take time to look.
Lunch at Hong Ngoc restaurant of good Chinese food.
Arrive in Hue and check into hotel.
Overnight at Century Riverside Hotel (4-star), Hue.
Day 13: HUE CITY TOUR - HANOI (Breakfast/Dinner)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning tour of the Citadel of imperial Hue. We boat along the Perfume River to visit some of the imperial mausoleums and Thein Mu Pagoda, the epitome of Hue. Free until time to transfer to the airport for the flight to Hanoi. Upon arrival, meet and transfer to hotel for check-in followed by a tour of Hanoi's Old Quarter where in olden days merchants selling a particular product banded together in one street; the others in other streets all around the Old Quarter.
Buffet dinner at Brother’s Café set in an elegant courtyard of a 250-year-old Buddhist temple. See a Water Puppet performance at the Municipal Water Puppet Theatre near Hoan Kiem Lake.
Overnight at M Hotel (4-star), Hanoi.
Day 14: HANOI – CITY TOUR (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Full-day tour of Hanoi to include the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex, One Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature, Tay Ho Pagoda, St Joseph Cathedral, and markets. Lunch at Emperor Restaurant of Vietnamese haute cuisine. In the afternoon, we will spend time in the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology – a fascinating collection of art and everyday objects from all over Vietnam and of its tribal peoples. Return to hotel and be at leisure.
Overnight at M Hotel (4-star), Hanoi.
Day 15: Golfing at King's Island Golf Club (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning round of golf at King's Island Golf Club.(This is the oldest golf course in Hanoi. They have just added 18 new holes of Mountain View. Kings' Island has two 18-hole courses. The Lakeside Course opened in 1993; the Mountain View Course opened in mid-2004. Kings' Island is the first 36-hole facility in northern Vietnam, including an air-conditioned clubhouse & restaurant, driving range, pro-shop, putting greens & sand bunker.
Designer of the Lakeside Course: Robert McFarland.
Designer of the Mountain View Course: Pacific Coast of Australia – Peter Rogers.
Number of holes: 36
Par Lakeside: 72 - 6,454 Yards. Mountain View: 72 and 7,100 Yards
Located 45km from Hanoi
Facilities: Full amenities, driving range, clubhouse, restaurant, pro shop, club carts.)
Lunch at the clubhouse before returning to Hanoi and be at leisure.
Overnight at M Hotel (4-star), Hanoi.
Day 16: HANOI – HAINAN ISLAND (Breakfast/Lunch)
Breakfast at the hotel. Free until time to transfer to the airport for your flight to Haikou on Hainan Island.End of Vietnam Package.
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