Vietnam — Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Da Nang & Phu Quoc

Thirty-six old streets north of Hoan Kiem lake, each historically given over to one guild — tin, silk, paper, herbs — and many still selling roughly that. The buildings are tall, thin and stacked, and the ground floor is usually a shop with the family living above it. At weekends the central streets close to traffic in the evening.

• Walk Hang Bac and Hang Gai
• Drink egg coffee on an upper floor
• See the old railway crossing
• Eat bun cha at a pavement stall

Founded in 1070 as a temple to Confucius and soon after as Vietnam's first university. Five walled courtyards run one behind the other, and the third holds stone tablets carried on tortoises, each listing the men who passed the doctoral examinations. Students still come here before exams.

• Walk all five courtyards
• Read the doctors' stelae
• See the Khue Van Cac gate

The lake at the heart of Hanoi, named for a legend in which a king returned a magic sword to a turtle living in it. A red wooden bridge crosses to Ngoc Son temple on a small island, and a preserved giant softshell turtle from the lake is kept inside.

• Cross the Huc bridge
• See the preserved turtle
• Walk the full circuit of the lake

Lacquered wooden puppets worked from behind a screen on rods under waist-deep water, so they appear to move on the surface by themselves. The form began in flooded rice paddies in the Red River delta. A live band plays at the side and the stories are village ones — fishing, harvest, dragons.

• Book an evening slot in advance
• Watch the live musicians at the side
• Stay for the puppeteers' bow at the end

The bay is a limestone plateau that sank, leaving the tops of the hills standing as islands. Cruise boats work a licensed route through them, anchoring overnight in a sheltered spot. Departures are controlled by the port authority and can be suspended in bad weather.

• Watch the karsts from the sun deck
• Take the cookery demonstration on board
• Try squid fishing off the stern after dark

The largest cave open to visitors in the bay, on Bo Hon island, reached by a flight of steps from the water. Two big chambers open one into the next, the second high enough to hold a small crowd, with lit stalactites and a viewpoint back over the anchored boats.

• Climb the steps from the jetty
• Walk both chambers
• Take the viewpoint over the bay on the way out

Two-person kayaks are launched from the boat or from a floating platform, and you paddle in among the islands where the big boats cannot go — including low tunnels at the base of the rock that open into enclosed lagoons at the right tide.

• Paddle through a rock tunnel
• Look for the floating fishing rafts
• Swim from the kayak in calm weather

A small island with a crescent of sand and a stairway of some four hundred steps to a lookout at the top. It is the standard photograph of Ha Long — the whole scatter of islands laid out below with the cruise boats between them. Named after a Soviet cosmonaut who visited in 1962.

• Climb the steps to the lookout
• Swim off the beach before the crowd
• Photograph the bay from the summit

A road bridge over the Han river in Da Nang shaped as a dragon along its whole length, lit at night. At the weekend the head breathes fire and then sprays water — stand on the eastern side and a little back, because the spray carries.

• Watch the weekend fire and water show
• Walk the riverside promenade
• See the Han river bridge swing open late at night

Five limestone and marble outcrops standing out of flat coastal land, each named after an element. You climb Thuy Son, the water mountain — a lift takes the first stage, then steps lead up to pagodas and to caves cut into the rock, including Huyen Khong, which is open to the sky and lit through the hole in its roof.

• Take the lift up Thuy Son
• Walk through Huyen Khong cave
• Climb to the summit viewpoint
• Look in at the stone-carving workshops below

Streets of mustard-yellow shophouses, Chinese assembly halls and merchant homes along the Thu Bon river, left largely alone since the port silted up. The Japanese Covered Bridge at the western end is the oldest set piece, a roofed bridge with a small temple built into its side. Some houses need the town ticket; the streets themselves do not.

• Cross the Japanese Covered Bridge
• Go inside a merchant house
• Order a tailored shirt or dress
• Eat cao lau, which is only made here

Round woven bamboo coracles, once used because a colonial boat tax did not cover them, paddled through the water-coconut palms in the estuary just outside Hoi An. The rowers spin the boats hard for the fun of it, and the crab-fishing demonstration is genuine.

• Ride through the palm channels
• Watch the spinning-boat display
• Try casting a net

After dark the town runs on silk lanterns and small rowing boats take short circuits on the river. You buy a folded paper lantern with a candle and set it on the water. On the full moon much of the electric lighting is switched off entirely.

• Take a rowing boat after dark
• Float a paper lantern
• Photograph the town from the water

Several cable car lines climb Ba Na mountain and two have held world records for length and for height difference. The lower stretch runs over forest and a waterfall before the towers vanish into cloud.

• Ride the record-holding line
• Photograph the waterfall from the cabin
• Take the shorter internal line between stations

A curved walkway at around 1,400 m held up by two huge weathered stone hands, opened in 2018. It is short — what matters is the drop either side and the view over the Da Nang plain when the cloud clears, which it often does within the hour.

• Walk the full span
• Wait out the cloud for the valley view
• See the hands from the lower path

A built village at the top of the hill with squares, a church and a bell tower in French colonial style. It is openly a set piece, and the main square usually has a costumed street performance running through the afternoon.

• Sit in the main square
• Watch the street show
• Look through the church interior
• Walk the flower gardens

A forested headland north of Da Nang, still home to red-shanked douc langurs. Linh Ung pagoda stands on its lower slope with a 67-metre white statue of the Lady Buddha facing the sea — the tallest of its kind in Vietnam and visible from most of the city beach.

• See the Lady Buddha up close
• Walk the pagoda grounds
• Stop at the coastal viewpoint over My Khe

A rocky outcrop at the mouth of the Duong Dong river carrying a small shrine and a lighthouse, dedicated to the sea god the island's fishing families pray to before going out. It faces due west, which makes it the island's sunset spot.

• Climb the steps to the shrine
• Watch the fishing fleet leave
• Stay for sunset over the gulf

A street of seafood grills and stalls in Duong Dong town where you choose from the ice and it is cooked in front of you. Busiest between seven and nine, and the place to buy island pepper and fish sauce.

• Pick seafood off the ice
• Try grilled scallops with spring onion
• Buy pepper and fish sauce to take home

Nearly eight kilometres of cable from An Thoi in the south out to Hon Thom island — one of the longest sea-crossing cable cars anywhere. The cabins run low over the An Thoi archipelago, so you look straight down on the reef and the moored fishing boats.

• Ride the full crossing
• Photograph the islands from the cabin
• Spend an hour on the beach at the far end

A short crescent of very fine white sand on the south-east coast under coconut palms. The water is shallow and calm a long way out, which makes it the easiest swim on the island — outside the July to September monsoon, when it churns up.

• Swim in the shallow water
• Lunch at a beach restaurant
• Take a kayak along the bay

An old village on the east coast where the houses stand on stilts and a long wooden pier runs out over very shallow water. Crab is the catch, and the restaurants at the pier head cook it within an hour of it landing.

• Walk the pier out over the water
• Eat Ham Ninh flower crab
• Watch the boats come in at dusk

At the northern end of the island, a large theme park with water rides and an aquarium sits beside an open-range safari park where you are driven through enclosures holding giraffe, zebra, big cats and rhino. Together they take a full day and tickets are bought separately.

• Take the safari drive-through
• Walk the aquarium tunnel
• Ride the water park in the afternoon