Vietnam Travel Guide: A North-to-South Itinerary

The road clings to the limestone flank, drops three hundred metres in one go, and a Hmong village appears at the bottom of the valley.

In the far north of the country, up against the Chinese border, the Dong Van karst plateau is a UNESCO Global Geopark. The loop that crosses it — Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van, Meo Vac — takes in the Ma Pi Leng Pass, one of the most impressive in Southeast Asia.

It takes 3 to 4 days, by motorbike or scooter, sleeping in homestays. Travellers who aren't confident on two wheels go with an "easy rider", a local driver who rides while you look around.

It's the one place on this itinerary where you still pass more farmers than travellers: mass tourism hasn't arrived.

Early in the morning, mist clings to the limestone pinnacles and the sea turns into a grey-green mirror: Halong Bay has to be earned before it can be photographed.

UNESCO-listed in 1994, it holds close to 1,600 islets of karst limestone within the inscribed perimeter — nearly 2,000 across the bay as a whole — the remains of a plateau that collapsed millions of years ago.

You explore it by junk, most often over two days and one night: sailing between the islets, kayaking into enclosed lagoons, visiting a cave, sleeping on board at anchor. A single day rarely gets you past the busiest areas.

Neighbouring Lan Ha Bay, reached from Cat Ba, offers the same scenery with a fraction of the boats: that's the call to make if quiet matters more to you than the name.

As night falls, the silk lanterns come on one by one along the Thu Bon River and the whole town shifts from ochre yellow to red.

A prosperous trading port from the 15th to the 19th century, Hoi An has kept an intact urban fabric — Chinese merchants' houses, assembly-hall temples, a Japanese covered bridge — which earned it its UNESCO listing in 1999.

The old town takes a day on foot, but Hoi An is worth several: order tailor-made clothes, take a cooking class, cycle the 4 km out to An Bang beach.

It's the one Vietnamese town where you naturally slow down — the centre is pedestrianised at certain hours, which changes everything after Hanoi or Saigon.

The flaking red lacquer and ceramic dragons of the citadel say more about the end of a dynasty than any museum could.

The first Vietnamese entry on the World Heritage list of UNESCO, in 1993, Hue was the capital of the thirteen Nguyen emperors from 1802 to 1945. The Forbidden City, at the heart of the citadel, suffered badly in the fighting of 1968.

Visit it in two parts: the citadel itself in the morning, then the royal tombs scattered along the Perfume River — those of Tu Duc, Khai Dinh and Minh Mang being the most spectacular. Set aside a full day.

This is the stop that gives the itinerary its historical depth: without Hue, Vietnam gets reduced to its landscapes far too quickly.

The only sound is the oars in the green water, and the cliffs close in over the boat before opening onto a rice field.

UNESCO-listed in 2014, the Trang An Landscape Complex is Vietnam's only mixed site, recognised both for its karst scenery and for the traces of human occupation it holds. It's nicknamed "Halong Bay on land".

You see it from a rowing boat, on 2 to 3-hour circuits that string together flooded caves — sometimes so low you have to duck — temples and cultivated valleys. The neighbouring site of Tam Coc offers a shorter trip.

Under 2 hours from Hanoi, it's the best-value escape in the North: you get Halong scenery without the cruise ships.

An unbroken flood of scooters, the smell of pho broth at 7 in the morning, and pavements where you eat sitting on plastic stools thirty centimetres off the ground.

A capital a thousand years old, Hanoi has kept a guild layout in its Old Quarter of 36 streets: each street was named after the trade practised there, and many still carry it.

You walk it without a fixed route, between Hoan Kiem Lake and its temple on stilts, the Temple of Literature — the country's first university — the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the upstairs cafés where you sit and watch the traffic.

It's the best way into the country: denser than Saigon, older, and compact enough to cover on foot.

At 5am at the floating market, boats pull alongside each other, a pole planted at the bow showing what each one is selling: pineapples, watermelons, sweet potatoes.

The delta is a world of water: thousands of kilometres of canals where daily life — trade, school, market — happens on boats rather than on roads.

You visit it from Can Tho, the handiest base, combining the Cai Rang floating market at daybreak, cruising the side channels, orchards and a night in a homestay.

It's the exact counterpoint to the karst north: flat, agricultural, densely peopled — and the best way to finish a crossing of the country.

In September, just before the harvest, the terraces turn golden yellow and tumble down the mountain over hundreds of metres of drop.

A former hill station created by the French, Sapa looks out over a valley shaped for centuries by the Hmong, Dao and Tay peoples. Mount Fansipan, Vietnam's highest point at 3,143 m, rises just to the west.

The appeal isn't the town itself — heavily built up in recent years — but the one to three-day treks between the villages of the Muong Hoa valley, often with a night in a homestay.

Compared with Ha Giang, Sapa is far easier to reach from Hanoi but noticeably busier: it's the compromise between mountains and logistics.

From the boat deck, the karsts emerge from the mist one after another, and you pass three vessels where Halong Bay lines up fifty.

The largest island in the archipelago, Cat Ba holds a national park covering nearly half its area and one of the last habitats of the Cat Ba langur, a critically endangered primate.

The island works as a base for exploring Lan Ha Bay by kayak or boat, but also for hiking in the rainforest, rock climbing and walking to beaches you can reach on foot.

It's the direct alternative to a classic cruise: the same scenery, fewer people, and the freedom to stay on land in the evening rather than sleeping at anchor.

After the humidity of the coast, the dry, cool pine air comes as a surprise: in Dalat, you dig out long sleeves in the evening.

Founded as a hill station by the French in the early 20th century, the town sits at around 1,500 m and has kept colonial villas, a temperate climate and a holiday-resort feel from that era.

You can tour coffee plantations and flower greenhouses, go canyoning down the nearby waterfalls, and ride the surrounding mountain roads by scooter.

It's the breathing space on the itinerary, ideally placed between the central coast and Ho Chi Minh City: three cool days before the heat of the South.