Northern Vietnam with Nyesha Arrington

Welcome to Hanoi, one of Asia’s most mesmerizing capitals. Today is all about easing into the ancient rhythm of the city, so we’ll refresh and rejuvenate after our long journeys and convene for a welcome dinner in the late afternoon. 

We’ll begin our first evening together over cocktails and introductions, meeting the local guides and Tastemaker who will shape our days ahead. Dinner highlights northern Vietnamese cooking that favors nuance over heat. Glasses clink softly across the table as Hanoi settles into evening outside. It’s a multi-course celebration of craft and cuisine, and the perfect opportunity to toast to Vietnam and the many adventures to come.

This morning begins at the Temple of Literature, where courtyards shaded by banyan trees and stone stelae carved with the names of scholars offer a quieter view into Vietnam’s past. Built in the 11th century as the country’s first university, the temple remains deeply tied to Hanoi’s intellectual and spiritual identity. Nearby, the Museum of Ethnology broadens the story, tracing the customs, architecture, and artistry of Vietnam’s many ethnic communities through textiles, ritual objects, and reconstructed homes from the country’s northern highlands.

We’ll round off our morning with a breezy cyclo ride through the city’s graceful Old Quarter before you enjoy lunch on your own.

As evening falls, we savor dinner one dish at a time across Hanoi’s streets. Bun cha cooked over open flames. Crisp nem cua be wrapped in lettuce and herbs. Fresh vegetables stacked inside the crispy bread of a Banh Mi. Alongside our local host, we’ll learn how northern Vietnamese cuisine reflects migration, seasonality, and restraint, best understood standing shoulder-to-shoulder with locals and on stools beneath the glow of streetlights.

Beyond Hanoi’s constant motion lies a peaceful garden estate where lotus ponds, fruit trees, and traditional wooden homes create an atmosphere far removed from the city streets. Hidden behind quiet gates and dense greenery, today’s cooking experience takes place inside. Together with local chefs, we’ll prepare several dishes foundational to northern Vietnamese cuisine, learning how acidity, freshness, texture, and aromatics work together in subtle proportion rather than dominance. Lunch is the reward for our work, shared slowly beneath the shade of the garden.

By afternoon, the landscape changes again as we make our way to Ninh Binh. Often called Ha Long Bay on land, the pace softens considerably. Rice paddies widen and limestone karsts begin to rise sharply from the earth. 

The remainder of the evening is yours to settle into the quiet of the resort before dinner together.

Today is dedicated to the natural beauty of Ninh Binh. Morning light settles softly across the rice fields as we cycle through narrow country roads bordered by lotus ponds and steep limestone cliffs draped in green. Water buffalo move lazily through flooded paddies while villagers tend small family gardens beside stone homes weathered by time. 

Along the route, we arrive at Hoa Lu, Vietnam’s ancient capital during the Dinh and Le dynasties. Temple courtyards framed by mountains and incense smoke offer a reminder that political and spiritual life once centered here centuries before Hanoi rose to prominence. Lunch is shared inside a local family home with a menu of regional dishes. Imagine mountain goat with lemongrass, crisp rice crackers, and fresh herbs gathered nearby.

Later, a bamboo sampan carries us quietly through the waterways of Trang An, one of the quieter corners of the region. Only birdsong and the sound of water against the boat interrupt the stillness, setting the mood for a relaxing evening and dinner on your own.

After breakfast, we’re driving through sleepy villages and sun-kissed fields to one of the world’s most iconic seascapes: Ha Long Bay. Here, a private cruise awaits, ready to float us through an otherworldly landscape of limestone islands jutting from ancient emerald waters. From the boat’s upper deck, we’ll breathe in the symphony of looming, cave-lined karsts and sandy islets before gathering for a sumptuous lunch onboard. 

The afternoon invites a closer encounter with the landscape, whether by kayak or rowing boat through hidden lagoons inaccessible to larger vessels. Back onboard, our Tastemaker leads a cooking demonstration centered on bánh xèo, the crisp turmeric-stained pancake whose crackling edges give way to shrimp, herbs, and vegetables folded inside.

After a bit of free time, dinner this evening is elegant but restrained, shaped by the surrounding sea: freshly caught seafood, fragrant herbs, tropical fruit, and wines poured beneath the open night sky. After, the bay settles into darkness around us and we tuck in for a night aboard the cruise.

Dawn in Ha Long Bay feels suspended outside ordinary time. Inside a limestone cave worn smooth by centuries of water and wind, our morning begins with a guided walking meditation beneath shafts of natural light filtering across ancient rock formations. The quiet is profound.

After, we return to the water. Breakfast is served as the boat glides through the stillness of the bay, passing floating homes and fishing boats already at work in the early morning haze. Later, we visit one of the bay’s floating villages, where families continue to build daily life atop the water itself, adapting to tides, weather, and generations of maritime living.

By midday, we start our return to Hanoi, pausing for a simple lunch centered around Vietnam’s most iconic dish. In northern pho, the broth is clean and deeply aromatic, simmered slowly with beef bones, charred onion, ginger, cassia bark, and star anise before being ladled over silky rice noodles.

Tonight’s farewell dinner carries traces of Hanoi’s layered history, inside an elegant dining room in the French Quarter. Situated atop the former meeting spot of Vietnam’s top writers and journalists, our destination is a hotspot for innovative cocktails and inspired bites. Here, we’ll find La Table Hanoia, the award-winning eatery where Michelin-star chef, Alain Dutournier, crafts a delicious and playful menu—think saffron potato risotto with lobster bisque sherbet. It’s an evening that’s thoughtful and quietly celebratory.

It’s time to bid goodbye to Vietnam and our new friends. With all that we’ve experienced and tasted, we know it won’t be long before we return to this magical land.