North Vietnam Tour Package: Hanoi, Halong Bay Cruise and Sapa 8 Days & 7 Nights

This North Vietnam tour package covers Hanoi, an overnight Halong Bay cruise and two nights in Sapa in 7 nights 8 days, from Rs 38,640 per person on twin sharing (land only, flights extra). It keeps you in the mountains and bays of the north, with no internal flights and no beach days. Your four Hanoi nights include a city tour and a day in Cuc Phuong National Park, and in Sapa you walk through Hmong and Red Dao villages in the rice terraces. It suits couples, friends and active families who want scenery, village life and cooler air rather than resorts, and the price covers 3-star hotels, the cruise cabin, private transfers and an English-speaking guide.

Many North Vietnam tours run 5 to 7 days and give Sapa a single night. This one gives it two, so the 5-hour drive up from Hanoi doesn't eat your only day in the valley. It also includes Cuc Phuong, Vietnam's oldest national park, which few packages cover. If you'd rather see the whole country, with Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City, the 7 nights 8 days Vietnam tour covering Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An and Hanoi is the better match, and all our Vietnam tour packages are listed together.

Rs 38,640 per person on twin sharing (was Rs 42,462) for the land package. TravelTriangle has served 3,354+ travellers for Vietnam, and Vietnam trips booked with us are rated 4.4/5 from 997 reviews across all our Vietnam packages. Every day of this itinerary can be changed, and you compare quotes from up to 3 verified agents before you pay anything.

Hanoi 4 nights, Halong Bay cruise 1 night, Sapa 2 nights. The route is a loop from Hanoi, so you fly in and out of Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) and need only a simple return ticket.

Day-Wise Itinerary: Hanoi, Cuc Phuong, Halong Bay Cruise and Sapa

Day 1: Arrive in Hanoi, the Old Quarter at Leisure

Once you reach Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, you will be greeted in the arrivals hall and driven about 45 minutes to your 3-star hotel in the Old Quarter. Check in, rest, and get over the early start. The rest of the day is yours.

Late afternoon is the best hour for a first walk. Dong Xuan Market is ten minutes away on foot, and from there the Old Quarter's trade streets lead south to Hoan Kiem Lake, where the red The Huc Bridge crosses to Ngoc Son Temple. If you land on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the weekend night market fills Hang Dao Street from about 6 pm. A water puppet show or an Old Quarter street-food walk can be added this evening (charges extra). No meals are included on arrival day.

Day 2: Hanoi City Tour, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Temple of Literature and Ngoc Son Temple

After breakfast your guide takes you to the Ho Chi Minh complex. It takes in Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, Ba Dinh Square, the Presidential Palace, Uncle Ho’s house on stilts, the One Pillar Pagoda and the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The mausoleum opens only in the mornings and closes on Mondays and Fridays, so on those days you see it from the square. It also shuts for about two months each year for preservation work, and in that window you see it from Ba Dinh Square and spend longer at the stilt house and the museum. Cover your shoulders and knees, and keep your hands out of your pockets in the queue. Your guide explains why the complex matters so much to Vietnamese visitors, and by the time you finish it is lunchtime.

After lunch, visit the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, which is a research centre as well as a public museum. Full-size houses of Vietnam's ethnic groups stand in its garden, a good primer for the Hmong and Dao villages you walk through in Sapa. If you prefer, swap it for Bat Trang Ceramic Village. Then comes the Temple of Literature, built in 1070 and home to Quoc Tu Giam, Vietnam’s first university, followed by Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake. If time allows, end the day at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre (charges extra). Breakfast and lunch are included. Our places to visit in Hanoi guide covers what to see in your free hours.

Day 3: Day Trip to Cuc Phuong National Park and the Endangered Primate Rescue Center

Have breakfast and set off south-west for Cuc Phuong National Park, about 120 km from Hanoi on the edge of Ninh Binh province, a drive of 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours. Cuc Phuong is Vietnam’s oldest national park, protected since the early 1960s. You start at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, a non-profit centre that rescues, breeds and studies endangered langurs, gibbons and lorises, many of them taken from wildlife traders, and works to protect their habitat.

Then drive deeper into the park to the Cave of Early Man, where prehistoric human remains were found. Lunch is at a house on stilts in the forest. Afterwards there is time for a short trek on the forest trails, and the walk to the thousand-year-old Cho tree is the usual choice. You head back to Hanoi in the late afternoon. Breakfast and lunch are included.

Ninh Binh is the other way to spend this day, and many travellers ask for it. Tell the agent which you want when you request your quote.

Day 4: Hanoi to Halong Bay, Your Overnight Cruise, Sung Sot Cave and Titov Island

Check out after breakfast. The expressway to Tuan Chau Marina takes about 2 hours 30 minutes, and you board the Halong Glory Legend Cruise (or similar) around noon. Halong Bay has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994, and you are on deck as the boat slides out among its limestone islands. Lunch is served on board.

In the afternoon you visit Sung Sot Cave, also known as Surprise Cave, one of the largest caves in the bay. The cruise then moves on to Titov Island. Swim off its small beach, or climb the steps to the top for the view across the bay. Back on board, the sunset party starts as the light goes, followed by dinner. Board games and the sundeck fill the rest of the evening, and you sleep on the cruise. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included.

Day 5: Halong Bay to Hanoi, Tai Chi, Kayaking and a Cooking Class

Your last morning on the bay starts with a tai chi session or a photo walk on the sundeck, then breakfast. Next, you go kayaking around the Bo Nau area, and the cruise passes Ba Hang fishing village and Dog Islet on the way back to harbour. Before you disembark, the crew runs a fruit-carving demonstration and a cooking class, and you eat what you make over brunch.

You leave the boat around 11 am and drive back to Hanoi, reaching the hotel by mid-afternoon. The evening is free. Pack warm layers into a day bag tonight, because tomorrow’s drive climbs to about 1,600 m and Sapa is far cooler than Hanoi. Breakfast and brunch are included.

Day 6: Hanoi to Sapa, the Lao Chai to Ta Van Walk in the Muong Hoa Valley

Have an early breakfast and check out. The drive to Sapa covers about 316 km on the Noi Bai to Lao Cai expressway and takes about 5 hours, by private car or limousine van (the overnight train to Lao Cai is possible on request). Check in to Bamboo Sapa Hotel on Muong Hoa Road, or similar, and have lunch before your guide leads the first walk.

The trail drops from the road to Lao Chai, a Black Hmong village, and follows the Muong Hoa valley to Ta Van, home to the Giay people. It is about 5 km, mostly downhill, and takes 2 to 3 hours with stops. You walk past terraced rice fields, and the ancient carved rocks in the valley floor, boulders etched with figures and patterns centuries old. The path crosses the Muong Hoa stream before the driver collects you in Ta Van. Dinner tonight is your own, and your guide can point you to a good restaurant in town. You sleep in Sapa. Breakfast and lunch are included. Our things to do in Sapa guide has ideas for the evening.

Day 7: Sapa, Giang Ta Chai, Cat Cat Village and the Waterfall

After breakfast, drive out to Giang Ta Chai, a Red Dao village where women in red headdresses still weave and dye cloth with indigo, and walk the short trail to its bamboo forest and suspension bridge. If you'd rather ride the Fansipan cable car up Indochina’s highest peak at 3,147 m, swap it in for this morning (charges extra). Lunch is at a local restaurant back in town.

In the afternoon, walk down to Cat Cat Village, about 2 km below Sapa town. Families of the Black Hmong and other mountain groups of northern Vietnam settled it in the 19th century. At the bottom you see the waterfall and the old French-built hydropower station, and you can try traditional crafts such as weaving, silver carving and hand-forged farm tools. Spend the evening at Sapa’s night market for souvenirs. You stay a second night in Sapa. Breakfast and lunch are included.

Day 8: Sapa to Hanoi Noi Bai Airport, Fly Home

Have breakfast and take a last look across the terraces before you check out. The driver takes you straight down the expressway to Noi Bai International Airport, a journey of about 5 hours with a stop for lunch on the way (own expense). Noi Bai sits on the Sapa side of Hanoi, so there is no city traffic to cross.

Book a flight home that leaves after 6 pm. If your only flight leaves earlier, ask the agent to move your second Sapa night to Hanoi so you can leave the hills a day earlier. Breakfast is included.

What You See on This North Vietnam Route

Hotels and Your Halong Bay Cruise

Your agent books these hotels or ones of the same standard, depending on availability.

The Hanoi hotel puts you inside the Old Quarter, so evenings need no taxi, and the Sapa hotel faces the Muong Hoa valley. Want 4-star hotels or a cruise with a balcony cabin? Ask in your quote, or browse our Vietnam cruise packages.

Inclusions and Exclusions

How Much Does a North Vietnam Trip Cost from India?

A North Vietnam trip on this itinerary costs about Rs 74,000 to Rs 95,000 per person in total once flights, the visa and tax are added. The Rs 38,640 package price pays for the parts that are hardest to arrange from India: seven nights of stay, the cruise, every transfer including the long Sapa drives, the guide and the entry tickets.

The Fansipan cable car is the biggest optional spend, at roughly Rs 2,800 a head. If you already hold air tickets or miles, this land price is built for you, because you can fly in from any city.

North Vietnam or the Whole Country? Pick Your Route

Eight days in the north lets you go slowly in three very different places: a capital, a bay and a mountain valley. A full-country trip in the same time trades Sapa for Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City, and adds two internal flights.

Compare the 7 nights 8 days Vietnam tour, the Vietnam package tour 7 days or the 4 nights 5 days Vietnam tour. For more time in the hills or on the water, see our Sapa tour packages and Halong Bay tour packages.

Flights from India to Hanoi and the Vietnam e-Visa

You fly in and out of Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport, so a plain return ticket works. Five Indian cities have non-stop flights to Hanoi, and Vietnam is 1 hour 30 minutes ahead of India.

Flying from Bengaluru? Our Vietnam tour packages from Bangalore are priced with your city in mind. Every other route from India is in how to reach Vietnam.

Indian passport holders need an e-visa, applied for on Vietnam’s official portal, evisa.gov.vn. A single-entry e-visa costs US$25 and a multiple-entry one US$50, both valid for up to 90 days, and processing takes 3 to 5 working days. Your passport must be valid for 6 months from arrival. The old visa approval letter and stamping fee on arrival no longer apply. The agent can file the e-visa for you with a passport scan and a photo, and our Vietnam visa for Indians guide explains each step.

Best Time to Visit North Vietnam: Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa by Month

March to May and September to November are the best months, because all three stops are mild and mostly dry at the same time. Sapa sits about 1,600 m up, so it runs 8°C to 10°C cooler than Hanoi all year.

Month-by-month detail for the whole country is in our best time to visit Vietnam guide.

Know Before You Go: Money, Food, Fitness and Packing

Vietnam uses the dong (VND), at about 300 dong to the rupee. Carry US dollars in cash and change them in Hanoi, because Sapa’s villages and markets take cash only. As with any overseas tour package bought in India, 2% TCS is collected on the package price and can be claimed back when you file your income tax return. Travel insurance is not included, and it is worth buying for the trek days.

Vegetarian and Jain travellers eat well on this route if they say so at booking. The cruise kitchen needs about two days’ notice to prepare a separate menu, and Hanoi’s Old Quarter has Indian restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. Look for the word chay, meaning vegetarian, on Vietnamese menus. Vrusti, who travelled Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Halong Bay with us in February 2025, wrote that the team “even tried to accommodate veg food”, which surprised her family.

The walks are easy but real. Expect 2 to 3 hours on foot on Day 6 and about 2 hours across Day 7, on paths that turn muddy after rain. Pack trekking shoes with grip, a rain jacket, warm layers for Sapa evenings, a light jacket for the cruise deck, and clothes that cover shoulders and knees for the mausoleum and temples.

Who This North Vietnam Package Suits

Couples and friends get a night on Halong Bay, two nights in the hills and a walkable Old Quarter. Active families do well with children of about 8 and up who can manage the Sapa walks, and our Vietnam family packages run at a slower pace for younger kids. Seniors can take the trip with the Day 6 walk replaced by a drive to Ta Van. It suits travellers less if they want a beach, since there is none on the route, or if they dislike long road days, because Days 6 and 8 each include about 5 hours in the car.

If the Weather Stops the Halong Bay Cruise

Halong Bay sailings stop when the harbour authority issues a storm warning, mostly between July and September. If that happens, the cruise moves to another day of your trip or is swapped for a Ninh Binh boat day, with any price difference passed back to you. Shreyas from Bengaluru lost the overnight cruise to weather on an 8-day Hanoi, Sapa, Halong Bay and Da Nang trip with us in October 2025, and wrote that the local team “quickly made alternative arrangements”.

More Vietnam Packages

Browse all Vietnam tour packages and Hanoi tour packages, or jump to the 7 nights 8 days Vietnam tour, the Vietnam package tour 7 days, the 4 nights 5 days Vietnam tour, our Sapa tour packages and our Halong Bay tour packages.

Edited by TravelTriangle