Vietnam Itinerary: 10 Days

Ten days on the ground is the first length at which all three of Vietnam's regions fit without the trip turning into a sequence of airports. A week forces you to pick two. Fourteen days gives you slack. Ten sits between them, and the plan has to be tighter than the one for two weeks because there is no room to absorb a mistake.

The frame

Fly into Hanoi, out of Ho Chi Minh City, open-jaw. Two internal flights: Hanoi to Da Nang, and Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. The ten days below are days in Vietnam, counted from the day you land — day one is the arrival day, and most of it is gone. The flights themselves are on top of that: budget a day in each direction for the crossing when you work out your leave.

There is no nonstop from the United States to Hanoi, so a north-first trip means a connection. If you are flying the nonstop from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City, run everything below in reverse.

Days 1 to 3 — Hanoi

Arrive, lose the afternoon, and give the city two full days. Hoan Kiem and the Old Quarter on foot, the Temple of Literature, the Ho Chi Minh complex in a morning, and one museum. Bun cha for lunch, pho for breakfast.

Two days is enough for Hanoi on a ten-day trip, and the temptation to make it three is what costs you the centre later.

Days 4 to 5 — the northern excursion

One, not two. The realistic options are an overnight cruise on Ha Long or Lan Ha bay, or two days in Ninh Binh, which is about two hours from Hanoi and gives you the same karst landscape on rivers. (This article contains affiliate links — if you book through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

Sapa is the one to leave out at this length. It is five to six hours each way, which is most of two days of the ten spent on the road, and the trek itself wants more time than what remains.

If the bay is the image you came for, take the cruise. If you would rather walk and cycle than sit on a boat, take Ninh Binh — it costs less travel and you can do it as a long day trip or an overnight.

Days 6 to 8 — the centre

Fly Hanoi to Da Nang early on day six and transfer to Hoi An, about forty-five minutes. That gives you an afternoon, two full days and a morning in the centre.

Spend them on the Ancient Town at its quiet hours, a day for My Son or the Marble Mountains, and a beach afternoon at An Bang. If you want clothes made, order on the first morning — two fittings need the time.

Hue can be added as a day trip, but Hoi An has no station — it means a car to Da Nang, the train north from there, and the same in reverse at the end of the day. It is a long day and the Imperial City deserves better. On ten days, either give Hue a night of its own and take a day from somewhere, or leave it.

Days 9 to 10 — the south

Fly Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City on the morning of day nine. Two days there covers the War Remnants Museum and Reunification Palace, Ben Thanh and the markets, a street food evening, and the Cu Chi tunnels if the war sites are a priority.

Leave the Mekong Delta out. The packaged day trip from the city is widely reported as the weakest day on a Vietnam itinerary, and the version worth doing needs an overnight in Can Tho for the dawn floating market. Neither fits in ten days without taking the centre apart.

The alternative: centre and south, slower

If three regions in ten days sounds like too much movement, the other shape is two regions done properly. Four nights in Hoi An with Hue as an overnight, then four in Ho Chi Minh City with an overnight in Can Tho for the floating market, and one internal flight instead of two.

That version loses Hanoi and the bay, which for most first visits is a large thing to lose. It is the better plan if you are returning to Vietnam, or if the pace matters more than the coverage.

What the plan is actually trading

Three things get cut to make ten days work: Sapa, Hue as a proper stop, and the Mekong. Each of those is a real destination and each would be in a two-week version. If one of them is the reason you are going to Vietnam, the plan changes shape around it rather than adding to it.

The other honest limitation is the weather. Vietnam's regions have different wet seasons, and ten days moving through all three means at least one region is likely to be in its difficult months whatever you do.

Booking order

International tickets first, because they set the direction and everything else follows. Then the two internal flights, which are cheap and fill at the useful hours. Then accommodation. Then the cruise or Ninh Binh. Tours and classes can wait until you are in the country.

Which region to build the trip around when the month you can travel does not suit it is a question Vietnam, End to End works through.