Vietnam — Da Nang, Hoi An & Ho Chi Minh City

A long, straight stretch of sand running north from the Son Tra headland, and the easiest place to shake off the flight. The water is calm from March to September and the sunrises are the reason people set an early alarm here.

• Swim or walk the length of the sand
• Eat seafood at a beachfront stall
• Cross back over for the Dragon Bridge lights

One of the longest single-span cable car routes anywhere, climbing from the valley floor to about 1,400 m in a single unbroken run. On a clear morning you can see the waterfalls and forest canopy the whole way up.

• Ride the full span up
• Photograph the valley from the cabin
• Change lines at the mid-station for the ridge

A curved gold walkway that appears to be carried by two enormous weathered stone hands rising out of the hillside. It is short — a few minutes end to end — but the drop below it and the cloud moving through make it the picture everyone comes for.

• Walk the full curve of the bridge
• Go early to beat the mid-morning crowd
• Look down the valley from the middle span

A recreated hilltop village of squares, a church and cobbled lanes, built in the style of the old French resort that once stood here. The flower gardens on the terrace below it are laid out in nine sections and are usually much quieter.

• Walk the village square and church
• Sit down for lunch at the ridge
• Wander the terraced flower gardens

Five limestone and marble outcrops named after the five elements, standing on the flat coastal plain. Thuy Son is the one you climb, either by steps or by lift, and the caves inside it — Huyen Khong in particular, with light falling through a hole in the roof onto a shrine — are the reason to go.

• Take the lift up and the steps down
• See the Buddha shrine in Huyen Khong cave
• Look back at the coast from the summit

Round woven coracles, once used for fishing, now paddled through the water-coconut palms in the channels outside Hoi An. Rowers spin the boats on the spot for anyone who wants it, and the crab-catching demonstration is part of the routine.

• Paddle through the palm channels
• Try the crab and net demonstration
• Sit for the boat-spinning if you have the stomach

A few compact blocks of yellow-washed merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls and a market, all on the north bank of the Thu Bon. A single ticket covers entry to a set number of the heritage buildings, and you choose which ones to use it on.

• Walk Tran Phu and Bach Dang streets
• Order something from a tailor early in the day
• Stay for the lanterns after sunset

A short roofed bridge with a small temple built into one side, put up by the Japanese quarter to reach the Chinese one across the stream. Stone dogs guard one end and monkeys the other, and it is the single most recognisable thing in the town.

• Cross it and look into the shrine
• Photograph it from the stream bank
• Compare it with the note on Vietnamese currency

A white statue of the Bodhisattva of Mercy standing about 67 m high on the Son Tra slope, facing out to sea. Fishermen treat her as their protector. The terrace at her feet is the best viewpoint over Da Nang bay and the whole run of My Khe beach.

• Walk the pagoda courtyard and bonsai garden
• Take in the bay view from the terrace
• Look for monkeys on the road up

The covered market under the clock tower in District 1, selling coffee, dried fruit, lacquerware and clothing. Prices are negotiable inside; the food stalls that set up on the surrounding streets after the market shuts are where most of the eating happens.

• Buy Vietnamese coffee to take home
• Bargain properly — start low
• Eat at the night stalls outside

A surviving stretch of the underground network that once ran for hundreds of kilometres north-west of the city, dug on three levels with living quarters, kitchens and field hospitals. Some sections have been widened for visitors; the original entrances are barely shoulder width.

• Find the camouflaged trapdoor entrances
• Crawl a widened tunnel section
• See the smoke-dispersing kitchen design

Three floors of photography, documents and outdoor military hardware covering the war and its aftermath. It is direct and often hard going, particularly the rooms on chemical defoliants — worth knowing before you take children in.

• See the aircraft and armour in the courtyard
• Walk the war photographers' gallery
• Allow more time than you think you need

A red-brick cathedral finished in the 1880s, with every brick shipped from Marseille and two square bell towers over the square. A long restoration has been under way for some years, so the interior is often closed and scaffolding may be up.

• Photograph the twin towers from the square
• See the Virgin Mary statue in front
• Check with the guide whether the interior is open

A working post office from the same period, directly across the square from the cathedral. The hall is a single vaulted iron-framed space with the original painted maps of old Saigon and the southern telegraph lines still on the walls.

• Send a postcard from the counter
• Look at the hand-painted wall maps
• Browse the bookshop street alongside