Why travel this route
Four cooking classes, three markets at opening time and one scooter tour after dark. In between there is enough sightseeing to earn the next meal: a bay cruise, an imperial city and a delta full of orchards.
The classes are deliberately small and mostly held in family kitchens rather than schools. You shop first, cook what you found, and eat it where it was made — which is how you learn why northern pho is clear and southern pho is sweet.
- Eat your way through Hanoi's Old Quarter — bun cha, cha ca, egg coffee and the stall that only opens at six
- Cook a northern menu after shopping the morning market with your teacher
- Cruise Ha Long, visit a fishing village and eat what came aboard that afternoon
- Learn the royal dishes of Hue, then cycle out to Thanh Toan bridge and its market
- Cook at Tra Que herb village in Hoi An, and ride a basket boat through the water coconut palms
- Shop Ben Thanh market, then take a scooter street-food tour of Saigon after dark
- Watch coconut candy being pulled by hand in the delta and reach Cai Rang market at dawn
Where you sleep, night by night
Thirteen nights, six bases, and at least one cooking session in each region.
| Stop | Nights | Why we stop here |
|---|---|---|
| Hanoi | 3N | A thousand-year-old capital where lake-side boulevards, shophouse alleys and street-food corners sit side by side. |
| Ha Long Bay | 1N | Thousands of limestone towers rising out of jade water, best seen from a small boat on the quieter Bai Tu Long side. |
| Hue | 2N | The Nguyen capital: a walled citadel, royal tombs scattered along the Perfume River, and Vietnam's most particular cooking. |
| Hoian | 3N | A lantern-lit trading port turned UNESCO town, ringed by rice fields, herb gardens and fishing hamlets. |
| HCMC | 4N | Vietnam's loudest, fastest city — colonial facades, war-history museums and an endless appetite for coffee. |
| Mekong Delta | 1N | A flat maze of channels, orchards and floating markets where daily life still happens on the water. |
What you actually do
Gentle. Some cycling in Hue and Hoi An, a lot of walking through markets, and one late night on a scooter.
- Old Quarter street-food walk in Hanoi
- Market shopping and cooking classes in four regions
- Ha Long Bay cruise with a fishing village visit
- Countryside cycling in Hue and Hoi An
- Basket-boat ride at Tra Que herb village
- Scooter food tour of Saigon by night
- Coconut candy workshop and Cai Rang floating market
Good to know before you book
Tell us about allergies and dietary rules when you enquire, not on arrival — the classes are built around what we can buy that morning, and we can plan a vegetarian version of every menu.
Plan this trip with us
Tell us your dates, how many of you are travelling and what you would like to change. A trip planner in our Hanoi office replies within one working day with a day-by-day plan and a price.