VIETNAM: MEKONG DELTA DISCOVERY

• Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) – Arrival
• Day 2: HCM City – Cu Chi Tunnels & City Sightseeing
• Day 3: HCM City – Ben Tre – Can Tho (Mekong Delta)
• Day 4: Can Tho – Soc Trang – Can Tho
• Day 5: Can Tho – Vinh Long – Local Homestay
• Day 6: Vinh Long – Ho Chi Minh City
• Day 7: HCM City – Departure

Xin Chao! Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Upon arrival, your private guide and driver are waiting to meet you at the arrivals lounge, holding up a welcome signboard with your names on it and take you directly to your hotel in the city centre.

After checking-in, you will have time to relax and adjust to the pace of HCM City, still called Saigon by the locals. There will be a short tour briefing this evening with your guide followed by a welcome dinner at Bloom restaurant. Your visit will ‘Make A Difference’ to this Culinary Vocational Training facility developed by the charity ‘Aid to Children Without Parents’ that provides training to disadvantaged young people in the hospitality industry enabling them to become self-reliant.

Please note: Your travel documents contain a Visa-on-Arrival letter (unless otherwise arranged). Please ensure to pack this in your carry-on luggage. Your Visa-on-Arrival letter must be presented to Customs upon entry into the country.

Overnight in HCM City

Meals: (_/_/D)

Morning

• After breakfast, you will be met by your private guide and driven to Cu Chi, a small community located northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, known for its network of deep tunnels that provided shelter and an effective source of infiltration for the Viet Cong during the later years of the Vietnam War.
• Upon arrival, you will watch the original film footage from the period, followed by a walk through the reserve. The hidden network of Viet Cong tunnels is believed to stretch to “hundreds of miles,”  in total length, housed living quarters, storage rooms, makeshift hospitals, and kitchens…etc. Although originally very narrow, some parts have been widened for the tourists and you have the opportunity to explore parts of the system.
• Try some of the main food of the Viet Cong Soldiers with a cassava tasting served with tangy tea. After that transfer to your hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

Afternoon

• Spend the rest of the day visiting some of Ho Chi Minh City’s key highlights. We’ll tailor your tour to suit you, but we particularly recommend visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral, the ornate City Hall (Hotel De Ville), the old Opera House, the historic Rex Hotel, the Central Post Office, renowned for its architecture, and Ben Thanh Market, where vendors display a vast array of goods and handicrafts, appealing to every taste.
• Later stop at the Reunification Palace and the moving War Remnants Museum to for an insightful, yet sombre, look into Vietnam’s military history and turbulent past.
• Proceed to the atmospheric Jade Emperor Pagoda before finishing the day in fine style with a sundowner at the top of the Bitexco Tower, the tallest building in Vietnam.

Overnight in HCM City

Meals: (B/_/_)

Morning

• After breakfast, your private guide and driver will take you out of HCM City in a private vehicle and onto some beautiful country roads to Ben Tre Town in the Mekong Delta, famous for its vast rice fields, numerous waterways, and beautiful landscapes. Known as the ‘rice bowl’ of Vietnam, this region produces most of Vietnam’s fruit, rice, sugar cane, and coconuts.
• After the two-hour drive through the lush farming land, you will arrive in Ben Tre where you will set out on a motorized boat trip on narrow channels winding through the coconut forest. During the boat ride, you will stop at the local cottage industries to see how the local people make bricks and weave sleeping mats by hand. Learn about their craft handed down through generations.
• Take a leisure walk along the village lanes, visiting the local homes to try fresh fruits, taste delicious honey tea while enjoying a local Tai Tu music show. Continue to visit another workshop where the local delicacy of coconut candy is produced and a wide range of coconut husk and fiber products are skillfully handcrafted.
• Next, take a small sampan through palm-fringed back canals, gliding peacefully along the hidden waterways surrounded by an immense variety of tropical plants. The quiet, rural setting is a welcome and restorative retreat to the frenetic buzz of HCM City which seems far, far away.
• Enjoy sitting in the back a Motor Cart (xe lôi) passing local hamlets, rice fields, coconut groves, and lush orchard farms while meeting with local people.

Afternoon

• After having lunch at a local restaurant, you’ll continue with the drive to Can Tho city, in the heart of the Mekong Delta. Arrive and check into our hotel. Spend the rest of the afternoon and evening at your leisure. You may explore Can Tho night market and try some local food. The market streets come alive with dozens of bustling food stalls selling grilled meats and tofu on skewers, as well as grilled rice-paper banh trang nuong (‘Vietnamese pizza’)…etc.

Overnight in Can Tho

Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning

• Rising early to take a boat trip along the endless waterway of the mighty Mekong River to Cai Rang Floating Market, the biggest wholesale market of the region. There will be hundreds of boats loaded with fruits, vegetables, and fish jostling for trade. Sellers advertise their wares by crying out across the waters.
• Get back to the shore where you are driven to Phong Dien, an Intimate Floating market. Here this market place has more stand-up rowing boats than motorized craft, with local vendors shopping and exchanging gossip. Less crowded than Cai Rang, Phong Dien has far fewer tourists and less activity.
• Leaving the Phong Dien and soaking up the scenery that stretches out on all sides you drive along the creeks and canals to Soc Trang where you will visit the famous Khmer, Clay and Bat Pagodas. If you are active enough, take a bicycle ride through the villages and orchards in Soc Trang.

Afternoon

• After lunch at a local restaurant, you will return to Can Tho. Spend the rest of your day at leisure.

Overnight in Can Tho

Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning

• After breakfast, you will depart Can Tho and travel across the river toward Vinh Long town. Plonked about midway between Ben Tre and Can Tho, Vinh Long is a major transit hub. It’s a gateway to island life, Cai Be floating market, and abundant orchards.
• Upon arrival in Vinh Long, you will be met by a local guide and board your private boat and cruise along the maze of waterways and canals to Vinh Long. You will stop at the home of a Bonsai gardener for a sumptuous lunch, including the popular dish of “elephant ear fish”.

Afternoon

• After lunch, you’ll continue to explore the delta’s tributaries and canals. As you journey along, you will visit local cottage industries making bricks, ceramic, rice-paper, and pay a visit to Van Thanh temple. Your destination will be the home of a local family whose house is built on stilts over the water. The family will be your hosts for the evening and will tell you more about life on the delta.

Overnight in home-stay

Meals: (B/L/D)

• After breakfast, embark on a leisurely bicycle ride through the local villages to visit a local market. Meet and mingle with the locals. Then back to the homestay for check out. After that, you will take a short boat ride to Vinh Long town where your waiting driver will take you back to the city.
• Arrive at the hotel in HCM City in the afternoon. The rest of the day will be free for you to explore the city or enjoy your shopping at Ben Thanh Night market.

Overnight in HCM City

Meals: (B/_/_)

• Your private transfer greets you at the hotel after breakfast and escorts you to Ho Chi Minh International Airport where you board your flight home or travel on to more adventures, we will help you with the planning.

Meals: (B/_/_)