Vietnam
Vietnam with children, twelve days
Built backwards from the afternoons. Every move is under four hours, there is a pool at the end of most days, and one activity a day is chosen by the children rather than for them.
Overview
Built backwards from four o’clock
Family itineraries usually fail in the same way: the adult version, with the same sights in the same order, and an assumption that children will absorb two long transfers a week. They will not. So this one is built around three rules rather than around a list of places. No move takes more than four hours door to door. There is a pool, a beach or a river at the end of most days. And one thing each day is chosen by the children, which means it happens even when it is not what you would have picked.
What that costs is coverage. Twelve days with those rules reach four places rather than seven, and three of them are on the coast. What it buys is a trip that is still enjoyable on day nine, which the compressed version is not.
- Length
- 12 days, 11 nights
- Group
- Private, up to 12
- Starts
- Hanoi
- Ends
- Phu Quoc
- Longest transfer
- Under 4 hours, door to door
- Best months
- February to April, October to December
Nights
The nights, in order
Day by day
What happens each day
Day 1
Arriving, and doing very little
The lake at dusk, when the whole city is out walking
Met at Noi Bai and into the Old Quarter, about 45 minutes. Nothing is planned and nothing should be. A swim if the hotel has a pool, one lap of Hoan Kiem lake before dark, and dinner early. Children handle the time change better than adults do, provided the first day is empty.
Day 2
Hanoi in two short pieces
Water puppets, which are 45 minutes and hold everyone
A morning at the Temple of Literature and then the water puppet theatre, which is forty-five minutes, wordless and the one piece of culture nobody under twelve complains about. Back to the hotel for the middle of the day. Late afternoon is an egg coffee or an ice cream by the lake and a short street-food walk with a guide, ending by half past seven.
Day 3
Onto the boat
Jumping off the back of the boat, repeatedly
Two and a half to three hours to the pier, with one proper stop, and aboard around midday. The afternoon is the reason this night exists: kayaks, a swimming platform off the stern, a small beach under the cliffs, and squid fishing off the back after dinner. Lan Ha rather than the main bay, because the water is quieter and there is somewhere to land.
Day 4
Ashore, and an afternoon that is not a transfer
A whole afternoon in the water with nowhere to be
Brunch as the boat comes in mid-morning and back in Hanoi by early afternoon. The rest of the day is the pool. We keep this night rather than flying south the same evening, because a boat morning followed by an airport is the day that ruins the week.
Day 5
South to the beach
The first swim in a warm sea
A mid-morning flight to Da Nang, an hour and a quarter, and 45 minutes by road to Hoi An. You are on the sand by mid-afternoon. The hotel is near An Bang rather than in the old town, which is the decision the rest of this leg depends on.
Day 6
The old town, in one morning only
Making a lantern, which survives the flight home
Into the old town early with a guide, for ninety minutes rather than four hours: the Japanese bridge, one merchant house, the assembly hall and a lantern workshop where each child makes one to take home. Back to the beach for lunch. The old town at night is a second, shorter visit later in the week, when the lanterns are lit and it looks like something out of a story.
Day 7
Basket boats, bicycles and a kitchen
Spinning a basket boat, which is harder than it looks
A morning at Cam Thanh in the water-coconut palms: round basket boats, paddled by you, and crab fishing in the channels. Then a family cooking class where the children cook rather than watch, finishing with lunch they made. The afternoon is the beach. This is the day most families rate first.
Day 8
Their day
A day the children chose, which changes how they talk about the trip
Nothing is booked until the night before. The choices we put in front of them are the beach and the pool, bicycles through the rice fields to a buffalo farm, the Cham museum in Da Nang, My Son with a guide who is good with children, or a second cooking morning. Adults get a vote, not a veto.
Day 9
Hoi An by lantern light, then pack
The lanterns on the river, and one paper boat each
A slow morning, the beach, and an early evening back in the old town when the lanterns are lit and the river carries paper boats. An hour and a half is plenty. Home by eight and bags packed, because tomorrow is the one travel day that needs an early start.
Day 10
The long hop to the island
Arriving somewhere with nothing to do for three days
The hardest day of the twelve, and we say so. Da Nang to Phu Quoc is direct when the season carries it, about an hour and forty, and otherwise connects through Ho Chi Minh City and takes most of the morning and some of the afternoon. We book the earliest departure of the day, treat the rest of it as lost, and choose a hotel where the pool is the first thing you reach.
Day 11
A boat morning, and then nothing
Shallow, warm water and fish a child can actually see
Out of An Thoi to the small islands off the southern tip: three snorkelling stops in shallow, clear water, lunch aboard, back by mid-afternoon. It runs from November to April and not dependably outside it, so on a summer trip this becomes a morning at a quiet beach with a glass-bottomed boat instead, and we tell you which before you book. The afternoon is the pool.
Day 12
Home from Phu Quoc
A last swim, a late checkout where the room allows it, and 20 to 30 minutes to the airport. We do not book a morning departure on the last day of a family trip unless you ask for one.
Left out
What we leave out, and why
Being honest about a family route means naming the things that do not work as well as the things that do. None of the following is on this itinerary, and none of them is an accident.
- The War Remnants Museum. It is the most honest two hours in Ho Chi Minh City and it is not a room to walk a nine-year-old through. If the older children want it, we build it in with a guide and a conversation first — and we do not put it in a family itinerary by default.
- The Cu Chi tunnels. Thirty metres of crawling in the dark, forty degrees inside, and a firing range audible from the site. Some twelve-year-olds love it; a good many children of any age do not, and there is no dignified way out halfway along.
- Sa Pa and the northern mountains. Five to six hours each way, or an overnight train, for terraces best seen on a four-hour walk. It is the best thing in the north and it is the wrong shape for this trip.
- The overnight train to Lao Cai. Four berths, a narrow corridor and an arrival at five in the morning. Adults find it charming. Tired children find it eight hours long.
- A third region in the same twelve days. It is arithmetically possible and it means two more airports, and airports are where family trips fall apart.
Paperwork
Entry, and what to file before you fly
Vietnam is straightforward for families and has two rules that apply to every passport in the party, children included.
- Forty-five days visa-free for British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, South Korean and Nordic passports, with a separate 45-day scheme running to 14 August 2028 for the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia and six more. Not the United States, Australia or Canada.
- The e-visa is open to every nationality, up to 90 days, three to five working days, and it names your entry and exit gates when you apply. Here that is Noi Bai in and Phu Quoc out.
- The pre-arrival declaration is compulsory at every Vietnamese airport and is filed for each traveller, children included, no more than three days before you land.
- Every passport in the party needs six months of validity and two blank pages. Check the children’s first — they are the ones most often close to expiry.
- Phu Quoc has its own 30-day exemption for all nationalities, but only for travellers who arrive on the island directly and stay on it, which this route does not.
We do not publish visa fees. The current figure is on the official Vietnamese portal, and your coordinator confirms it in writing, with a filing date for each declaration.
Pictures
What the twelve days look like
HanoiLan Ha Bay
Hoi AnAn Bang beach
Phu Quoc
An ThoiCost
How we quote it
| Travellers | Comfortable hotels | Boutique and luxury |
|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | On request | On request |
| 4 – 6 travellers | On request | On request |
Family quotes turn on room configuration more than on hotel standard: two connecting rooms, a family room and a suite are three very different numbers in the same hotel, and the boat is the same again. Tell us the ages and how you want the party split at night, and the figure comes back within a working day, itemised, with every room type named.
Included
What the quote covers
What the price includes
- Private air-conditioned car and driver throughout, with child seats fitted to the ages you give us. Say so at booking and they are in every vehicle, including the airport runs.
- English-speaking licensed guides who work with families, for the Hanoi morning, the Hoi An old town, the basket boats and the Phu Quoc boat day. Free days have no guide.
- Internal flights — Hanoi to Da Nang, and Da Nang to Phu Quoc direct or through Ho Chi Minh City — in economy with checked baggage.
- Eleven nights with breakfast, in hotels chosen for having a pool you can reach without a car, including a family cabin aboard an overnight boat in Lan Ha Bay.
- Full board on the boat, the Hanoi street-food dinner, the family cooking class with lunch, and lunch on the An Thoi boat day.
- Activities named above: the water puppet theatre, the lantern workshop, the Cam Thanh basket boats, the cooking class and the island snorkelling, with park fees paid.
- One flexible day at Hoi An, booked the evening before from a short list the children choose from.
- All transfers, with the Phu Quoc connection booked wide rather than tight.
- A coordinator on a Vietnamese number for the whole trip, and a written note of the visa route and a filing date for every pre-arrival declaration.
What it does not include
- International flights into the first city and out of the last.
- Visa fees and entry charges. We do not publish these figures — the current ones are on the government’s official portal, and your coordinator confirms them in writing before you travel.
- Travel insurance, which we ask every traveller to hold.
- Meals not named in the day-by-day, and all drinks.
- Tips for guides, drivers and boat crew.
- Personal expenses: laundry, telephone, spa treatments, anything bought.
Straight talk
Who should not book this route
Short travel days and a pool most afternoons are not free — they are paid for in places you do not see. Four kinds of family should take something else.
- Families who want the whole country. Twelve days at this pace reach four bases. If you want Hanoi, the north, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon and the delta as well, the trip works but the rules above do not survive it, and the children will spend three of those days in transit.
- Families with children under about three. Nothing here is unsafe, but a boat cabin, a 45-minute walk in the old town and an hour each way to An Thoi are all harder with a toddler than the brochure suggests. We would keep you on the coast and cut the bay.
- Teenagers who want the difficult history. This itinerary deliberately leaves out the War Remnants Museum and Cu Chi. If those are the reason your family is coming, say so and we will build a different twelve days with them in, properly guided.
- Anyone travelling in September or October who needs the beach legs to hold. Central Vietnam takes typhoon tails in those weeks and the Ha Long harbour master closes the bay outright when a storm is forecast. We build margin in and we will not promise the boat.
- Families whose budget depends on sharing one room. Most of the hotels we use for this route cap a room at three, so the quote usually assumes two rooms or a family room, and that is the single biggest number in it.
Four bases, eleven nights, and a pool most afternoons.
Plan My Trip
Start from this route
Tell us the ages and your dates. We will send a quote and an amended day-by-day within a working day.
Common questions
Questions travellers ask most
What ages does this suit?
It works best from about five to fifteen. Below five, cut the bay night and stay on the coast. Above fifteen, most of the constraints stop being necessary and the ten-day highlights route with a beach extension is usually the better trip.
Is the overnight boat a good idea with children?
Yes, for one night, on a boat with a swimming platform and kayaks. It is the day most children rate first. Two nights aboard is where it turns, because the second afternoon has nothing new in it.
Can we swap Phu Quoc for somewhere closer?
You can. Da Nang and the coast north of Hoi An have good family hotels and the leg costs you nothing but a short transfer, which removes the hardest day of the twelve. The trade is the water — the An Thoi islands are clearer and shallower than anything on the central coast.
Which months are best with children?
February to April and October to December. The three regions never align: February and March are grey in Hanoi but dry and warm in the centre and the south, and October and November bring the best light in the north while central Vietnam is still at risk of a typhoon tail. Tell us your school dates and we will tell you which legs are safe in them.
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