Vietnam · Itinerary · Updated September 2026
12 days in Vietnam: Hanoi, Ha Giang and the centre
Twelve days in a country 1,650km long means giving up one end. This route gives up the south, keeps the sleeper train and the three days in Ha Giang, and flies home from Da Nang. Prices checked September 2026.
VN.NguyenDucDuy / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Length
12 days
Budget
23,200,000₫ / $892
per person, mid-range
Best season
Oct–Apr north, Feb–Aug centre
No single month is good everywhere
Stops
5
1 sleeper train, no domestic flights
The route
Hanoi, north to the Ha Giang loop, back for Ninh Binh, then the sleeper south to Hue and Hoi An, out through Da Nang.
Day by day
Days 1–2 · Hanoi
Two nights, and one of them the flight
Land, drop the bag in the Old Quarter and do the evening version: the lake at dusk, bia hoi on a plastic stool, an early night. Day two takes the Temple of Literature and the Ho Chi Minh complex, which shuts at eleven, then bun cha for lunch and the afternoon arranging Ha Giang. Two nights is enough here because the trip returns through Hanoi anyway.
Sleep: Old Quarter for the noise and the convenience of the night bus.
Days 3–5 · Ha Giang
Three days on the loop, and the new permit
Night bus from Hanoi, six to seven hours, so it costs no daylight. Three days and two nights through the Dong Van karst plateau. **From 2026 the loop requires a permit of about $10**. Tours include it, independent riders must arrange it. An easy-rider tour, riding pillion behind a local driver, is $170–250 all in. Jeeps are $200–350. Riding yourself is $80–150 and needs a licence most visitors do not hold.
Sleep: Homestays on the loop, included in the tour price.
Days 6–7 · Ninh Binh
The karst you came for, on rivers
Two hours south of Hanoi, and the reason this route skips Ha Long Bay: the same limestone, seen from a rowing boat on flooded rivers instead of from a cruise ship on open water. Trang An for the caves, Hang Mua at dawn for the five hundred steps and the view. Cycle between them. It is flat and the roads are empty.
Sleep: Tam Coc village, not Ninh Binh city, which is a transport town.
Days 8–9 · Hue
The sleeper south, and the imperial city
The overnight Reunification Express from Hanoi to Hue is 700,000₫ in a four-berth soft sleeper, 550,000₫ in a six-berth, 1,100,000₫ for the two-berth VIP. Take the four-berth. Hue is the Nguyen capital: the Citadel and Forbidden Purple City in the morning, the royal tombs along the Perfume River in the afternoon. Tu Duc and Khai Dinh are the two worth paying for.
Sleep: South bank near the river, walking distance to the Citadel bridge.
Days 10–12 · Hoi An & Da Nang
Two nights, and the best hour of railway in Asia to get there
Hue to Da Nang by train over the Hai Van Pass. Sit on the left going south, put the phone away, and watch. Then a car to Hoi An. The old town ticket is 120,000₫ and covers five heritage sites. Order clothes on the first afternoon so they are ready before you fly. Da Nang's airport is forty minutes away and flies internationally, which is what makes ending here work.
Sleep: Towards An Bang beach or the rice fields, not in the old town itself.
Best things to do on this route
If you cut the trip short, these are the ones to keep.
- 01
The Ha Giang loop by easy rider
Three days through the Dong Van karst on the back of a local driver's bike. The best thing in northern Vietnam and not close.
- 02
Trang An by rowing boat
Two hours through flooded caves, rowed by a woman using her feet. What Ha Long Bay is supposed to be.
- 03
The Hai Van Pass by train
Hue to Da Nang along the coast. One of the great railway hours anywhere, and it costs about 100,000₫.
- 04
Hang Mua at dawn
Five hundred steps above Tam Coc. At six it is yours; at ten you queue on the stairs.
- 05
Bun cha in Hanoi
Grilled pork in broth with cold noodles, on a plastic stool. Lunch only. The good places shut by two.
Where to stay
Neighbourhoods rather than specific hotels. Prices move, areas don't.
Hanoi: Old Quarter
Loud, central, and next to where the Ha Giang buses leave from. On two nights, convenience wins.
Ha Giang: homestays on the loop
Included in the tour price. Shared rooms, communal dinners, rice wine you will be offered regardless.
Ninh Binh: Tam Coc village
Wake up in the landscape rather than in the transport town twenty minutes away.
Hoi An: towards An Bang
The old town fills with day trippers and empties of residents. Ten minutes out by bicycle is cheaper and quieter.
What it cost
Per person, 12 days. International flights not included.
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Accommodation: 9 nights, plus 2 on the loop | 7,200,000₫ / $277 |
| Food and drink | 6,000,000₫ / $231 |
| Ha Giang loop: 3 days, guided, all in | 5,200,000₫ / $200 |
| Activities, entry fees and the Ha Giang permit | 1,600,000₫ / $62 |
| Trains and long-distance buses | 1,400,000₫ / $54 |
| Local transport and transfers | 1,200,000₫ / $46 |
| SIM, laundry, everything else | 600,000₫ / $23 |
| Total | 23,200,000₫ / $892 |
Converted at 26,010₫ to the dollar, checked 2 September 2026. About $74 a day, marginally more than the 16-day route's $73, because Ha Giang costs $200 whether the trip is twelve days or sixteen, and here it is spread across four fewer of them. It is still the last thing to cut.
Getting around
One sleeper instead of two
Dropping the south removes the long Da Nang to Saigon leg, so this route has a single overnight train: Hanoi to Hue, 700,000₫ in a four-berth soft sleeper. The six-berth at 550,000₫ is cramped and hot; the 1,100,000₫ VIP is more than the comfort is worth on one night.
The Ha Giang permit is new for 2026
Roughly $10 and required. Tours include it. Independent riders must arrange it and should not treat it as optional.
Fly out of Da Nang, not Hanoi
Da Nang has international flights and is forty minutes from Hoi An. Returning to Hanoi to fly home would cost a day and undo the point of ending in the centre. Check open-jaw fares before booking a return.
No domestic flights on this route either
They are cheap, and each one still swaps a night asleep on a train for a hotel night plus two airport transfers. On twelve days that arithmetic is worse, not better.
Packing notes
The things that are annoying to find locally, or that people forget.
- Warm layers for Ha Giang. The plateau is at altitude, cold at night from November to March, and the homestays are not heated.
- A light waterproof. Central Vietnam's rainy season ignores what the north is doing.
- A padlock for sleeper compartments and homestay lockers.
- Cash in small notes. Cities take cards; the loop does not.
- Shoes with grip for Hang Mua's five hundred steps.
Why the south comes out and not the north
Because the north is where Vietnam is least like anywhere else. Ha Giang’s karst plateau, Ninh Binh’s flooded valleys and the food in Hanoi are the things people come back describing. Saigon is a good city and the Mekong Delta is a good day, but both are more like other places than Ha Giang is like anything.
It is also the cheaper cut in time. Saigon sits 1,000km beyond Hoi An, which means the sixteen-hour sleeper down and an international flight home from a different end of the country. Removing it saves two nights of accommodation and most of two travel days for the price of one city.
The 16-day route adds Saigon and the Mekong back, along with a third night in Hanoi and Hoi An. If your leave stretches to sixteen days it is the better trip, but the order to add things back is Hoi An’s third night first, then Saigon.
What twelve days does not have room for
Sapa, Phong Nha’s caves, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc. All good, all a day or more of travel each, and all competing with three days in Ha Giang, which wins every time.