Upon arrival Noi Bai airport, you are met and transferred to your hotel. If time permitted, you’ll take 1-hour cyclo ride to visit Hanoi Old Quarter. Explore the fascinating Old Quarter and its hundreds of specialty shops selling silk clothing, lacquer ware, embroidered linens, furniture, bamboo, cooking utensils, ceremonial objects and more. Overnight in Hanoi.

After breakfast at hotel, you are followed by a full day city tour starting with the Ho Chi Minh Complex, containing the mausoleum of the nation’s founder Ho Chi Minh, the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts. Close to this site is the One Pillar Pagoda, whose origin dates back to the foundation of Hanoi a thousand years ago. Your tour of Hanoi continues with a trip to the remarkable Temple of Literature, well known as Vietnam’s first university.

After your own lunch, you’ll enjoy a walk around the peaceful Hoan Kiem Lake and through the less peaceful Old Quarter, a bewildering maze of shopping streets and restaurants with an amazing assortment of architecture - traditional tube houses, countless pagodas, artisans’ workshops and cottages, colonial houses and modern concrete edifices. You will see an evening performance of Hanoi's famous water puppets. Overnight in Hanoi.

Leave Hanoi early morning for the scenic drive to Mai Chau. On arrival, a welcome briefing on the activity options and home stay facilities are explained followed by lunch. Then take a visit the Thai villages of Pom Coong and Lac, where here you will have time for handicraft shopping from the local artisans, or alternatively enjoy a coffee with the friendly villagers.

A fabulous dinner is served at early evening, accompanied by a traditional dance performance by the local Thai tribe. Overnight in home stay.

After breakfast you are welcomed to join a two hour cycling tour, or alternatively a walking trek through the beautiful valley of Mai Chau. You will meet the local hill tribes going about their daily routines such as planting rice, herding buffaloes or building traditional houses. In the afternoon return to Hanoi.

There is some free time for your own exploration in Hanoi until we transfer to airport for your flight departure. The trip ends at airport.