Vietnam Tour 15 Days: Complete Itinerary from North to South

Vietnam stretches 1,650 kilometers from north to south. That's more than the distance from Paris to Madrid. And each region could be a country in its own right: the mountainous and foggy North, the Imperial Center, the tropical South teeming with life. Fifteen days is the minimum to not choose — and to enjoy every face of the country.

◆Days 1 to 4: Hanoi and Halong Bay

Hanoi is a capital that resists. No glass towers on the horizon, no legible metropolis. The old district of the 36 guilds — each street is named after what has been sold there for centuries — is a labyrinth of tube houses, pocket temples and conical hat merchants. Life happens outside, on the sidewalks, around bowls of pho at 6 a.m.

Two nights in Hanoi is enough to feel the city. Then comes Halong Bay. 2,000 limestone islets rise out of the water like a petrified forest. The best organized tours book a night cruise on a wooden junk: sunset over the peaks, sunrise kayaking in the caves, morning fog over the green water. It's one of the images of the trip that no one really brings back in pictures — it's too big.

◆Days 5 to 9: Hue, Hoi An and the Centre

The Hanoi-Hue night train is an institution. Sixteen hours, but decent sleeper service and a wake-up call to the central countryside — rice paddies, buffaloes, pine-covered hills. Hue is the former imperial capital: the Forbidden Purple City (Vietnamese version, less known but no less impressive than Beijing), tombs of emperors scattered throughout the countryside, and regional cuisine renowned throughout the country — banh khoai and Hue bun bo soup really only exist here.

Then comes Hoi An, 130 km to the south. The city preserved by merchants: silk lanterns, 17th-century wooden houses, the old Japanese bridge. In the evening, the Thu Bon River is covered with floating lanterns. Hoi An is also the capital of tailoring: a jacket, suit or dress made in 24 hours by tailors who have been working for generations.

! [Colorful Silk Lanterns Hanging Over the Streets of Hoi An at Night] (https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1555921015-5532091f6026?w=1200&h=600&fit=crop&auto=format)

Two nights in Hue, two or three in Hoi An. Some tours add a detour to My Son, the ruins of the fourth-century Cham kingdom — less spectacular than Angkor but infinitely less crowded.

◆Days 10 to 13: Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta

The Hoi An-Ho Chi Minh City plane takes 1 hour and 15 minutes. The landing is a shock. Saigon (its popular name, which no one has really abandoned) is a city that is constantly accelerating. 9 million inhabitants, millions of motorbikes, skyscrapers that grow between the pagodas. The Dong Khoi district retains the French colonial memory — the grand hotels, the Notre-Dame cathedral, the central post office designed by Gustave Eiffel. The Cu Chi tunnels, 70 km away, tell another story: the underground network of the Viet Cong resistance, 250 km of galleries where thousands of soldiers lived.

The Mekong Delta is worth a day or two. The floating markets of Cai Rang, the palm-lined canals, the orchard-covered islands. The Delta produces half of Vietnam's rice and most of the country's tropical fruits. It's a completely different Vietnam again — horizontal, slow, green.

! [Floating Market on the Canals of the Mekong Delta at Sunrise] (https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1583417319070-4a69db38a482?w=1200&h=600&fit=crop&auto=format)

◆Days 14 and 15: take a breather or extend

Two options to finish the tour. Either stay in Saigon: the Ben Thanh market, the art galleries of the Bui Vien district, the Vietnamese fusion cuisine restaurants that mix French techniques and local flavors. Or escape to Phu Quoc, the island 45 minutes away by plane — white sand beaches, turquoise waters, and absolute calm after two weeks of traffic and urban effervescence.

◆When to go on this tour?

Vietnam has three climate zones that do not follow the same schedule. As a general rule:

November to April is the best time for a complete North-South tour. The North is cool (sometimes cold in Hanoi in January), the Central and South are dry and sunny.

May to October: The Centre (Hue, Hoi An) is subject to typhoons and intense rains from August to November. The North (Hanoi, Halong) is hot and humid but passable. The South remains dry from November to April.

For a complete tour like this, December to March is the perfect window.

◆Budget and practical information

Visa: online e-visa, valid for 90 days, about €25. No embassy procedure.

Internal transport: domestic flights between major cities (€50 to €100 per connection), Hanoi-Hue night train (comfortable in sleeper seats), tourist buses for short distances.

Accommodation: boutique hotels are exceptional in Vietnam for their price. Count 60 to 120 € per night for a 4-star hotel in a good location.

Total budget for an all-inclusive 15-day tour (international flights included): between 2,500 and 4,500 euros per person depending on the level of comfort and the season.

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