Wellness Retreat in Vietnam

Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport is 35km from the city center (45 minutes by taxi or Grab). Hanoi is one of Southeast Asia's most beautiful and most genuinely interesting cities — the 36 guilds of the Old Quarter, where each street is historically named for the craft sold there (Silk Street, Paper Street, Tin Street), still maintain something of their original character in narrow buildings that expand upward over the centuries of forbidden new construction on the valuable street frontage. The Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of the Old Quarter, with its 18th-century Turtle Tower on a tiny island and the red The Huc Bridge to the Jade Mountain Temple, is the heart of Hanoi. The egg coffee of Cafe Giang (invented in 1946 when milk was rationed) and banh mi from any street cart are the obligatory first Hanoi experiences. Evening on the Old Quarter pedestrian streets with local bia hoi (draft beer, brewed daily, served from plastic furniture on the pavement) for 25 cents a glass.

• ✦ Hoan Kiem Lake and the Jade Mountain Temple
• ✦ Old Quarter 36 guilds — silk, paper, tin on their historic streets
• ✦ Cafe Giang egg coffee — invented 1946 during the milk shortage
• ✦ Bia hoi on the Old Quarter streets — 25-cent fresh draft beer

Hanoi's historic and cultural monuments are concentrated in the French Quarter and the Ba Dinh Quarter west of the Old Quarter. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings only) is where Ho Chi Minh lies in state, embalmed in a climate-controlled glass sarcophagus — the experience of queuing quietly in lines of Vietnamese pilgrims and paying respects to the revolutionary leader is profoundly moving and entirely unlike any European equivalent. The Ho Chi Minh Museum and his simple wooden house on stilts in the Presidential Palace gardens are adjacent. The Temple of Literature (Van Mieu), founded in 1070 as Vietnam's first university, is a serene complex of lotus ponds and pavilions with the examination steles of Vietnam's first doctoral graduates on the backs of 82 stone turtles. Evening pho at Pho Gia Truyen on Bat Dan Street — the same family recipe since 1955.

• ✦ Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum — Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday mornings
• ✦ Temple of Literature — Vietnam's first university (1070 AD)
• ✦ 82 doctoral stone turtles with examination steles
• ✦ Pho Gia Truyen — the same family recipe since 1955

Ha Long Bay (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the most extraordinary natural landscape in Vietnam and one of the great seascapes of the world: 1,969 limestone karst islands rising vertically from the emerald green water, many with sea caves, beaches, and fishing villages clinging to their bases. The best way to experience it is by overnight junk boat cruise — depart Hanoi at 8am by bus (3.5 hours) and board a traditional wooden junk in Ha Long Town. The afternoon is spent sailing through the extraordinary karst landscape, kayaking into sea caves, swimming from the boat, and watching the light change on the formations until sunset. Dinner and sleeping on the boat as the bay settles into silence around you. Dawn over Ha Long Bay when the mist rises from between the islands is one of the defining travel images of Southeast Asia — and the specific experience of being on the water in a wooden boat in that light at 6am is extraordinary.

• ✦ Overnight junk boat cruise into Ha Long Bay
• ✦ Kayaking into the sea caves between the limestone formations
• ✦ Sunset from the boat deck among the karst islands
• ✦ Dawn mist rising from Ha Long Bay — the defining Vietnam image

The morning on the boat — tai chi on the sun deck, swimming before breakfast, and a final passage through the karsts — before the bus returns to Hanoi. Catch the afternoon flight to Da Nang (1 hour, multiple daily departures) and transfer 30 minutes south to Hoi An. The Ancient Town of Hoi An is the most perfectly preserved trading port in Southeast Asia — a UNESCO World Heritage townscape of 15th-18th century Japanese merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls, and Franco-Vietnamese shophouses along the Thu Bon River. The town is entirely closed to motor vehicles in the evenings; lanterns illuminate the streets and reflect in the river. Walk the Ancient Town at night on arrival — the combination of lantern light, the smell of fresh herbs from the riverside market, and the sound of the river is the most atmospheric evening arrival in Vietnam.

• ✦ Final Ha Long Bay morning — tai chi and swimming before return
• ✦ Hanoi to Da Nang flight (1 hour)
• ✦ Hoi An Ancient Town at night — the lantern river city
• ✦ Thu Bon River reflections at dusk

A morning in the Ancient Town before the day-trippers arrive from Da Nang: the Japanese Covered Bridge (built around 1590 by the Japanese merchant community, the symbol of Hoi An), the Phuc Kien (Fukian) Chinese Assembly Hall with its extraordinary red and gold altar, and the Tan Ky Merchant House — a 200-year-old merchant home preserved intact with Japanese roof construction and Chinese lacquered decoration. The morning market on the Thu Bon River sells fresh herbs, vegetables, and fresh-caught fish in a beautiful riverside setting. Book a cooking class for the morning — Hoi An is one of the best places in Vietnam to learn Vietnamese cooking: the market visit, the cooking, and the eating take three hours and produce extraordinary food. Afternoon: My Son Sanctuary — the ruins of the ancient Cham Hindu temple complex, partially destroyed in the Vietnam War but still the most impressive ancient monument in central Vietnam.

• ✦ Japanese Covered Bridge — built c. 1590, the symbol of Hoi An
• ✦ Phuc Kien Assembly Hall — extraordinary Chinese altar
• ✦ Hoi An cooking class — market visit, cooking, eating
• ✦ My Son Sanctuary Cham Hindu ruins

An Bang Beach, 4km north of the Ancient Town, is one of the best beaches on the central Vietnamese coast — a long, wide strand with clear water, an excellent beach restaurant (Soul Kitchen) right on the sand, and significantly fewer crowds than the developed resort beaches further north toward Da Nang. Rent bicycles from your hotel and cycle there — the route through the rice fields and fishing villages is perfectly Hoi An. Return in the late afternoon for the evening lantern ritual: buy a silk lantern from one of the shops on the Thu Bon River and release it onto the water — hundreds of lights floating downstream, reflecting the colors of the lanterns, is one of the most beautiful things in Vietnam. Dinner at Morning Glory restaurant — Hoi An's most beloved restaurant for 25 years, chef Trinh Diem Vy's white rose dumplings and cao lau are the essential dishes.

• ✦ An Bang Beach by bicycle through the rice fields
• ✦ Soul Kitchen beach lunch on An Bang's perfect strand
• ✦ Lantern release ritual on the Thu Bon River at dusk
• ✦ Morning Glory restaurant — white rose dumplings and cao lau

Fly from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City (1 hour) for an optional final day in Vietnam's southern capital — a city of 9 million people that is simultaneously the commercial engine of modern Vietnam and a place of extraordinary street food, French colonial architecture, and war history. The Reunification Palace (the former South Vietnamese presidential palace, its gates were famously breached by North Vietnamese tanks on April 30, 1975), the War Remnants Museum (graphic but essential for understanding the American War's human cost), and the Cu Chi Tunnels (the 250km tunnel network used by the Viet Cong, tours involve crawling through sections of the original tunnels) are the major historical sites. Ben Thanh Market and the Dong Khoi boutique street give access to Vietnamese silk, lacquerware, and conical hats. The rooftop bar of the Caravelle Hotel has been pouring drinks with Saigon city views since American journalists filed war reports from its terrace in the 1960s.

• ✦ Reunification Palace — the moment of reunification on April 30, 1975
• ✦ War Remnants Museum — essential, difficult, important
• ✦ Cu Chi Tunnels — crawling through the Viet Cong underground network
• ✦ Caravelle Hotel rooftop bar — where the war correspondents drank