The lowdown
What:
A two-week trip with a foodie focus takes a ride through Vietnam’s best bites in Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City
When To Go:
We’d recommend travelling between mid-March and July when it’s mainly dry, with warm temperatures hovering between 25 and 30 degrees.
Who For:
Cooks and curious epicureans will love this immersive trip to Vietnam full of authentic experience.
Highlights
- Tap into Hanoi’s diverse cuisine showcasing the best of northern Vietnamese food
- Enjoy immersive foodie adventures in Hanoi by e-scooter and on walking tours
- Be enamoured by Hoi An’s charms and evocative Ancient Town
- Experience Hoi An’s culinary traditions on a boat trip, walking tour, cookery class and kayak trip
- Explore Hue’s dynastic heritage and surrounding countryside
- Savour Hue’s cuisine in an array of insider experiences by a lagoon, with a private chef and in the home of a former princess
- Cut through the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City to experience in-the-know culinary adventures
- Visit the Cu Chi tunnels and have dinner with a war veteran
HANOI
Capital Chow
Welcome to Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city and the beating heart of the country. After settling into your hotel, dive straight into Hanoi’s thriving foodie culture with a market and street food tour, allowing you to connect easily with the city’s people and traditions. Stop by markets, food stalls, cafes and restaurants, tasting a range of flavours from pho (noodle soup) to banh tom (shrimp cakes) and banh cuon (rice paper rolls). Pause at Reng Reng Cafe for fine Vietnamese Arabica coffee or pull up a plastic chair at Bún chả Hương Liên, where Barack Obama once sampled the bun cha (grilled pork and noodles).
On a cyclo tour, get to grips with Hanoi’s multi-faceted history including a stop at the Ethnology Museum giving you a fascinating introduction to Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minority groups. Be entertained at a water puppet show, with musical tales symbolising the rice harvest and the traditions of rural life. Evenings are for exploring Hanoi’s buzzing nightlife. Discover foodie hotspots by e-scooter as a passenger on a private tour, allowing your driver to take you to out-of-the-way places for drinks and snacks. Make time for Hanoi’s fine dining scene – we like Michelin-star Gia for its 12-course seasonal menu that draws inspiration from Vietnam’s rich culinary heritage.
"A thriving capital city, Hanoi meets the demands of its foodie inhabitants with a huge range of tasty bites from street food to fine dining."
STAY: CAPELLA HANOI
Well-located in the French Quarter, with Hanoi’s main sights easily walkable from the hotel, Capella Hanoi has an opulent Art Deco style, designed by Bill Bensley. Full of whimsical touches, you don’t need to leave the hotel to have your first taste of Vietnam – the breakfast is a theatre of tastes from free-flowing champagne to traditional Vietnamese-French banh minh (baguettes).
The hotel also has a Michelin-star restaurant helmed by a skilled Japanese chef who has a magical way with teppanyaki.
HOI AN
Riverside Tastes
Fly to UNESCO World Heritage Hoi An and be enveloped in this charming central Vietnamese city, dissected by the Thu Bon River and made especially beautiful by the well-preserved Ancient Town, dotted with pagodas, ancestral homes, 200-year-old merchant houses and the ornate Japanese Bridge, constructed in the 1600s. Get your bearings on a neighbourhood walk with a local guide, savour local Vietnamese snacks and meet the people behind the produce. Finish your day on a hidden rooftop for a sundowner over this intriguing city before dinner on a traditional bamboo raft that swirls around the lanterns that twinkle on the Thu Bon River.
Spend your next few days with more immersive foodie encounters in this city that keeps giving. Enjoy an afternoon with Hoi An’s renowned cookery school, starting in a bustling market with a knowledgeable chef and continuing by boat to the kitchen where the herb garden will give you an insight into the important role they play in Vietnamese cooking. Create your own dishes from traditional recipes passed down through generations including making edible rice paper and quang nam noodles. Another day might see you explore a coco-palm forest by guided kayak, spotting wildlife on the river and enjoying seasonal fruit at a house in an authentic village, where centuries-old traditions of weaving and fishing still dominate their livelihoods.
"UNESCO World Heritage Hoi An is full to the brim with foodie encounters - try a cookery course for recipes you can bring home with you."
STAY: ANANTARA HOI AN
Our pick in Hoi An is one of the best located hotels in this well-preserved city, sitting alongside the Thu Bon River. Just a short amble though the market brings you to the heart of the historic old town. Anantara Hoi An is also renowned for its attentive service, and the signature spa programmes mean relaxation is always within reach.
HUE
Heritage Flavour
From Hoi An to Hue, enjoy spectacular coastal views where the Annamite Mountains meet the sea. Make a stop at a pristine lagoon to get a glimpse of the Vietnamese fishermen’s way of life on a boat trip, learning their unique way of catching the lagoon’s bounty including oysters, crab, snapper and squid. Enjoy lunch on a stilted house cooked by a fishing family.
Onto Hue, take in this historical city with strong cultural ties to its heritage and former dynastic rulers. Explore the tree-lined streets and the surrounding countryside on a cyclo tour, absorbing local life as you go – families making conical hats, fishermen on the rivers, rice farmers and villagers tending to their gardens. In the evening, be privy to some of Hue’s speciality cuisine such as Hue grills, rice paper rolls and local vegetarian dishes, plus meet an inspirational chef who’ll make Hue pancakes (banh khoai), just for you. For a special occasion, meet Phan Thuan Thao, of royal lineage, a staunch preserver of Hue history who lives in a beautiful home and garden, the former residence of Princess Ngoc Son the daughter of Emperor Dong Khanh of the Nguyen Dynasty. Conclude your encounter by savouring traditional Hue dishes prepared by the family.
"Enjoy the sights of historic Hue alongside savouring its delicious cuisine."
STAY: AZERAI LA RESIDENCE
With an enchanting location overlooking the Perfume River and the citadel of Hue, Azerai La Residence is a colonial-era Art Deco mansion swathed in tropical gardens, replete with a refreshing salt-water swimming pool, creating the perfect respite from a long day exploring the city. We’d recommend the stylish Colonial Suites which come with verandahs overlooking the river.
Ho Chi Minh City
Buzzy Bites
From Hue, take an easy internal flight southwards to Ho Chi Minh City, a buzzy metropolis full of life. The best way to explore the city is with a guide, cutting though its notoriously scooter-filled streets to hidden sights. Hop on a cyclo tour to explore its back streets, museums and local markets, including a thriving coffee culture – meet a local barista and learn about the process from berry to roasting perfection.
Join in with the Ho Chi Minh tradition of ‘di vong vong’ – scooting around with friends. With your guide, zip down side streets on a scooter to sit alongside locals for Vietnamese-grown coffee or a locally brewed beer. To tap into the city’s more serious side, be educated on Vietnam’s sobering history with a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels via a waterway cruise. The narrow tunnels were built by guerrilla fighters during the Vietnamese-American war. Experience the tunnels first-hand by crawling through a short section, then have the honour of dining with a war veteran and his family, sampling regional Vietnamese food. Back in Ho Chi Minh City, savour one last culinary adventure and follow in the footsteps of famed foodie Anthony Bourdain who raved about the legendary 20-hour steaming bowls of pho at ‘Lady Lunch’.
"With a guide, access how locals live and eat on an immersive few days in this buzzy city with plenty of tasty titbits along the way."
STAY: HOTEL DES ARTS
Centrally located and just five minutes from the Notre Dame Cathedral, Hotel Des Arts is a boutique hotel with charming nods to Indochina, with roomy suites in a modern décor, polished parquet flooring and free-standing tubs. The Hotel des Arts’ enticing rooftop pool and bar is the place to take in the Saigon skyline with a crafted cocktail and sharing plates of oysters or antipasti.
