Our favorite Vietnam tours and excursions

If destinations and accommodation are the bread and butter of a great vacation, a hands-on cultural experience is the secret sauce that brings it all to life.

One bad guided tour can be enough to put you off the idea entirely – but a really good guide (and you can rest assured, we only work with the absolute best) can turn what an uninspiring box-ticking exercise into an experience you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

What it comes down to is this: there’s a difference between seeing and understanding, and the only way to bridge that gap is to get stuck in. No amount of looking will ever tell you as much about a Hanoian wet market than a morning spent shopping with a local chef – and if you don’t jump on the back of a vintage Vespa, how will you ever know how exhilarating it feels to zip through the streets of Saigon?

It doesn’t matter where you are or what the experience: these are the most exciting and immersive things you can do in Vietnam, run by some of the most charismatic and interesting people we know.

Hue's Imperial Tombs

Hue is best-known for its Citadel, but for us the imperial tombs offer an even more compelling insight into the lives and histories of Vietnam’s royal emperors.

Scattered in the woods and hills around the city, each tomb reflects not just the architectural style of its time, but the personality of the emperor who built it. Tu Duc’s magnificent mausoleum, for instance, cost so much in taxes that it provoked an attempted coup in 1866, while Khai Dinh’s lavish mix of Eastern and Western architectural styles reflects his admiration for the colonial French. These are the kinds of stories that we think really bring the days of imperial Vietnam to life.

Tour of a Vietnamese market with Chef Ai

Insider Experience: Home cooking with Chef Ai

If you ask us, there’s no better way to kick off your trip to Vietnam than with this cooking class at the home of Vietnamese MasterChef finalist Chef Ai.

The experience starts with a visit to the local wet market, where Ai will guide you between mountains of fresh herbs and teeming buckets of crabs to pick out ingredients for the lesson. Then, after returning to Ai’s home kitchen, you’ll learn how to make a selection of dishes loaded with aromatic herbs, spices and sauces. This isn’t just an insider’s introduction to the flavors and textures of Hanoian cuisine, it’s a window into Vietnamese daily life – and the things you learn will set you up to make the most of the (many, many) gastronomic opportunities that await you on the rest of your trip.

Insider Experience: Tour Hanoi with a street-food blogger

Whether it’s a steaming bowl of pho or sizzling char siu pork, food is never just food in Vietnam.

As you’ll discover under guidance of expert food bloggers Mark Lowerson and Van Cong Tu, food is one of the best ways to connect with local people, understand regional differences, and immerse yourself in the local culture. That’s exactly what this tour is all about: taking you inside the culinary traditions of the capital via its tastiest street-food treats, and giving you an insight into the real lives of the Vietnamese people.

Organic Farm Cooking Class

We've road tested our fair share of cooking classes in Vietnam, and this is one of our favorites.

Hosted on an organic farm, this is a hands-on introduction to how green agriculture, ecotourism and traditional practices can be combined to create truly delicious food. Grind your own rice flour using a traditional stone grinder, hand-pick your own fresh ingredients from the garden, and learn some of the secrets of Vietnamese cooking as you whip up five fresh, healthy and traditional dishes. Finally, sit down to enjoy the fruits of your labor in the lush and laid-back surroundings of the Hoi An countryside.

Exploring Ho Chi Minh City on the back of a Vespa

Vespa street-food tour

Vietnam is notorious for its scooter-snarled streets, but we say — if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Hop on the back of a vintage Vespa and be whisked from market to bar to tent stall, sampling the country’s best culinary treats as your guide introduces you to the ins and outs of the local food culture. In Hanoi, that could be steamed rice rolls and smoky bun cha pork; in Saigon it could be mung bean cakes and clams fried in lemongrass. Whichever city you’re in, this tour is all about getting away from the tourist hotspots for a truly immersive (and delicious) taste of local life — and it’s one of our favorite experiences in Vietnam.

Ninh Binh Sampan

With its sheer-sided mountains rising dramatically from flat-bottomed valleys, Ninh Binh’s scenery is almost otherworldly.

It’s the perfect setting for a gentle sampan ride through the flooded fields of rice plants, lotus and waterlily, with opportunities to float through caves by torchlight, spot temples hidden in the forests, and see water buffalo wading on the banks of the rivers.

Though we love hiking and cycling through the region’s farms and villages, the classic way to appreciate this quintessential Vietnamese scenery is from a sampan boat on one of its slow-moving rivers. These days the main waterways can get quite busy, but there are still plenty of smaller and quieter routes to ply — with opportunities to float through caves by torchlight, spot temples hidden in the forests, and water water buffalo wading on the banks of the rivers.