Straight into it: horns, incense, French colonial architecture and a glittering lake in the middle of it all. Check-in, drop your bags and meet your Trip Leader and the group before heading out for the evening.

Flavours of Hanoi by night: dinner is a street food tour through the Old Quarter, at places locals queue for. On the menu? Things like bun cha over charcoal and a bowl of pho. Somewhere between the second and third dish, you and your trip mates stop being strangers. By the last? You're debating about which bite was best. 

Hanoi's big hitters: a local guide walks you through a thousand years of the city in one morning: Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, the temple where students wish for good grades and Hanoi's oldest pagoda (tiered tower) on West Lake.    

Later, your way: the afternoon is yours. Start with an egg coffee (a local favourite invented during a milk shortage) on a balcony and watch local life trickle along the street below. Get lost in Dong Xuan market. Or, visit the Vietnamese Women's Museum – the choice is yours! 

The bay next door: Lan Ha sits right beside Halong Bay – with the same limestone formations rising straight out of the sea... and just a fraction of the boats. Quieter water and lagoons you don't have to share. Tonight's home is a traditional-style junk boat.

Out on the water: kayak between the karsts into lagoons and jump straight in. Later, a sunset from the top deck is one to remember as the rocky karst towers turn black against an orange sky. Tonight’s dinner includes a traditional demonstration – what techniques will you take home? 

Morning on the bay: wake up with an early swim, refuel with brunch on board and head back to port. Back in Hanoi, your afternoon’s free to do more of what you came for. Don't forget to grab some snacks for tonight's journey.

All aboard for Hue: tonight, take the sleeper train south. Twelve hours and bunks already made up, the journey’s 700km of a story you wouldn’t get from a quick(er) flight. 

Bags down, bearings up: it’s an early start in Hue! Drop your bags and head out on an orientation walk with your Trip Leader that ends with breakfast. The local kind. If bun bo Hue is going... *jealous sighs*. Rice noodles in broth with lemongrass and chilli – ngon quá!

Later, your way: more free time? You got it! Walk the walled Citadel, rent a bike and ride out through the rice paddies, or see who's up for the abandoned water park at Thuy Tien Lake. Think: a half-built dragon aquarium being taken over by the jungle. 

Ocean Cloud Pass: hop on the minicoach that takes the coast road to Hoi An instead of the tunnel underneath, purely for the views. Hai Van means sea clouds, and the pass climbs to a crazy 500 metres above ground. Stop at the viewpoint for jaw-dropping views of Da Nang. Cameras ready!

Sandwiches and side streets: in Hoi An, head out with your Trip Leader for a walk around the old town and a banh mi taste test. You've probably had one (or five) by now, but you haven't had them in Hoi An. 

The morning is yours: no alarm, free day. The Old Town is at its best before the day-trip coaches arrive, so wander the lanes while they're quiet. This is also the place to shop, whether that's silk, ceramics or a lantern to work out how to get home later.

Paddle into golden hour: as the heat eases, kayak through the Cam Thanh water-coconut forest, gliding past fishermen and round basket boats. Then, paddle back to Hoi An's old centre as the sun sets and the city lanterns switch on. It’s a view many people don't see. Back on dry land, tuck into more local bites at a group dinner. 

Your day, your way: a whole day free to do as you choose, in a town that really deserves it. Stay by the pool. Cycle through rice paddies to An Bang beach for a day of sand and seafood. Head out to the Cham temple ruins at Mỹ Sơn, half swallowed by jungle. Or eat your way through the ancient town, starting with cao lau, the noodle dish only made here. 

Wheels up: a short transfer up the coast to Da Nang airport and you’re flying south in no time.

First night in Saigon: officially it's Ho Chi Minh City, but almost everyone here still calls it Saigon. After checking in, the rest of the day is yours. Grab a seat at a street-side cafe, order something cold and watch nine lanes of scooters negotiate a four-lane road without anybody stopping. For more tips, ask your Trip Leader where to start – they'll point you in the places where you can squeeze every moment of history, culture and adventure. 

Saigon on foot: spend the morning in the city’s grander side. Think: the iron arches of the Central Post Office and Ben Thanh Market – where haggling is more sport than negotiation and the locals are (always) winning.

Into the Cu Chi Tunnels: after an included lunch at Cu Chi, head down into the network the Viet Cong dug by hand and lived in for years, sometimes even metres beneath enemy soldiers who never found them. After, the rest of the afternoon is yours. Two recommendations from us: the War Remnants Museum and a local iced coffee to keep you going for more adventure on your own terms. 

Life on the water: head onto the Mekong Delta, stopping at family workshops, at a craft village, that still make rice paper and sweets by hand, then swap a bigger boat for a smaller one to linger along canals shaded by orchards. Lunch is at a garden house, and you're being sous chef!

Night on the Mekong: onwards to Can Tho and our home for the night, an ecolodge with a pool looking straight out over the water. Dinner's on us, so swim, eat and watch the river traffic head home as the skies turn orange.

First light on the market: an early start, but this one's worth it. Cai Rang floating market only works at dawn, so you're out on the river as the sun starts its ascent. Hulls piled with fresh produce, each one flying a sample from a pole so buyers can reach from a distance... witness it all happen through the eyes of a local.

Made by hand: float past stilt houses and straight into a family-run noodle factory to see where rice batter becomes cut noodles faster than you can follow. Then, visit a cacao garden, seeing how cacao pod transforms to dreamy chocolate. Return to Saigon before the afternoon ends, where a nap is entirely justified, followed by more local bites (ask your Trip Leader for recs!). 

Two stamps and a nap: it's roughly six hours from Saigon to Phnom Penh with a border crossing in the middle. Plenty of time to doze off and watch the rice fields sweep past the window.

Hello Cambodia: roll into Phnom Penh, check in, and enjoy your free evening. See the contrast: tuk tuks instead of scooters, monks in orange robes on the pavement, and a wat on what feels like every corner. Head down to the riverside promenade with your trip mates (shall we drop the ‘trip’ 13 days in?) to find a Khmer BBQ for your first Cambodian dinner. 

Understanding Cambodia: this morning, visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former school the Khmer Rouge used as a prison. Take everything in. Understanding what happened here, and how recently, is part of understanding Cambodia today.

Market, then the Mekong: the afternoon has more free time and the Central Market is worth an hour for the Art Deco dome alone. Then, as the light drops (with a full belly), join a sunset cruise on the Mekong as the city glows behind you. A gentle end to a day that begins with heartbreaking history. 

Skun market, if you dare: there's a highway straight to Siem Reap, but we're not taking it, because everything worth stopping for today is on the other road. First up, Skun, famous across Cambodia for deep-fried tarantula, with crickets and silkworms as the warm-up act. Try one - or hold the camera for whoever does.

Stilt village at golden hour: later, reach Kampong Khleang, the biggest stilt-house village on Tonle Sap Lake where houses stand on wooden legs metres above the delta. Watch magic happen as Kampong Khleang turns gold, before venturing onwards to Siem Reap. 

Deep into Angkor: spend a full day with a local guide. This isn't just one temple, it’s a whole lost city. Stone faces watch you from every angle. Trees grow through walls... And Angkor Wat itself? It’s the largest religious monument on earth and still bigger than you're expecting, even when you stand right in front of it.

Sunset from above: head up Bakheng Hill and look back over the whole Angkor plain. Our psychic vision? Everyone goes quiet for a minute... before the phones come out.

One last dinner: the farewell meal, where somebody brings up day one in Hanoi and the group works out how long ago that feels. Short, always too short.

Seventeen days later: the trip finishes after breakfast. What you're taking home isn't on the itinerary: the inside jokes, the thing that happened on the boat that nobody but these people would find funny, Angkor at the exact hour you saw it. Another group will do this same route next month. None of them will get your version of it.