Enjoy Vietnam's fascinating culture with planned and unplanned people encounters—the real highlight of the country, as the Vietnamese are some of the most welcoming and friendly people in the world. We can plan activities and sights for you and your children's interests, from cooking, hands-on arts and music activities,while learning about Vietnam's fascinating culture and history.
If your family enjoys active travel, will love kayaking through the stunning karst landscapes of Halong Bay. Just two and a half hours outside of Hanoi is one of the world's most incredible geological settings. Here, you can paddle past towering limestone karst formations and traditional Vietnamese wooden boats. The waters are very calm here, and a pleasant for boating and kayaking with children of all ages and ability. We love biking and there is wonderful cycling in Vietnam, through the Northwest hill tribe country, on Vietnam's picturesque central coast and through the Mekong Delta. We now have imported Giant e-bikes so everyone can ride!
Past Vietnam Explorers
Mario's Iron Chef Biking Trip in Vietnam
For Mario's 12th birthday, dad took him along on our two-week Vietnam Iron Chef biking trip, learning hands-on about Vietnam's delicious cuisine from north to south, including cooking classes and fascinating visit the sunrise fish market in Nha Trang while enjoying the countryside from the vantage point of a bicycle saddle.
Best memory: "The food is awesome, my favorite!"
Duncan's Vietnam Diary
Read about Duncan's surprise 12th-birthday Vietnam family tour with his father and grandmother traveling to Hanoi through the central coast, meeting with families, local artists, exploring small villages, visiting schools, and enjoying Vietnam's culinary treats along the way—not to mention an exciting white-knuckle bicycle ride in Hue across the Perfume River!
Unique Family Experiences In Vietnam
Hanoi
Star in a Vietnamese Traditional Opera
In the Old Quarter the Hanoi Traditional Opera Troupe presents weekly shows. Enjoy an exceptional private meeting with the troupe, learning and playing traditional instruments, then being made up and costumed to act in a wonderful family production directed along with the troupe’s producer and actors.
Visit Doan Thi Diem Middle School
If you're traveling with children, we can organize meeting local students as ambassadors, acting as tour guides to take your family to see some of their classes such as dancing and art, while giving your children a chance to teach in an English class with students excited to learn more abut Western lifestyles but rarely meet foreign children.
We can also introduce your family to the student's, meeting their parents for an informal tea or lunch. Soccer is the sport in Vietnam and if your children like, we can arrange for them to attend a game with the students or play with the students, or a more cultural experience, traveling outside of Hanoi into the farm and river areas, sharing time fishing and meeting farmers with your new friends.
Unlock the Secrets of Vietnamese Traditional Water Puppets
During this delightful activity, visit a water puppet master in his private theater, learning hands-on how this wonderful traditional performance art, unique to Vietnam, is performed. Later this evening, we can also go see an actual water puppets show after this behind the scenes glimpse of how the plays are created.
Young Entrepreneur
Have a budding entrepreneur in the family? Your kids remember Flappy Bird? The viral gaming app was made by a young coder in Saigon (where Intel also has a large chip fabrication plant). Asia is rising and over the last decade China and Vietnam have had the most dynamic economies in the world. A watershed moment for Vietnam was the 2010 opening of an Intel's billion-dollar plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Intel's largest plant to date. In Hanoi and Saigon, we'll organize meetings with students in their classrooms and young entrepreneurs for your older children to understand firsthand the human element of these growing economies. We specialize in tech startups, but can arrange meetings in almost any industry from manufacturing, agro products (Vietnam is now the world's second largest producer of coffee beans), to design.
Junior Iron Chef Vietnam Culinary Experiences
As No Reservation's Anthony Bourdain points out, there's no better place to travel by your stomach than Vietnam, a place inhabited by "a skinny people obsessed with food." And cuisine is a highlight of any family trip in Vietnam. Vietnam offers delightful hands-on adventures in cuisine, from fruit carving and learning to roll spring rolls with your chef on Halong Bay (right).
Or enjoy an "Iron Chef" cook-off between family members in Hoi An, hunting and preparing several favorite Vietnamese dishes such as banh xeo, a Vietnamese crepe, for a hard-to-please panel of judges.
Artist Encounters
Hanoi remains the bohemian capital of the region and currently enjoys one of the most vigorous emerging art scenes in the world. We can arrange private meetings with many of the country's premier artists, engaging in interesting activities for children such as a hands-on learning about how traditional lacquer is made working on actual pieces of artists.
Bomb Shelter Tour
A fascinating multimedia space in the recently-discovered war-era bomb shelter. The educational experience teaches with signage, sound, and is led by a local historian. There were historic accounts of a Vietnam-era bunker designed to protect hotel guests during bombing raids, but nobody recalled where it was located or if it even still existed until recent renovations struck the massive concrete walls of the bunker.
Halong Bay—A wonderland for family adventure
On our Vietnam family tours, our most popular family destination is Halong Bay. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, Halong features stunning landscapes that are anomaly formed by thousands of limestone peaks being flooded by the South China Sea. These islands create a natural barrier to the wind-blown waters of the South China Sea, dramatically calming the waters. The karst wonderland was once a favored hiding place for pirates (and the James Bond villain in Man with the Golden Gun). These calm waters are wonderfully suited for kayaking and despite the negative things you've read about Halong Bay, we use only a handful of quality luxury charters that cruise away from the crowds into the pristine areas of the bay.
Cycling Vietnam's Wild Northwest
Vietnam's Northwest not only features stunning geography of high-mountains and towering karst peaks (nicknamed the "dry Halong Bay"), but is mesmerizing for the colorful collection of traditional hilltribes in the area
Cycling Vietnam's Central Coast
Family Cycling in the Mekong Delta
Our Mekong family tour travels some of the quietest back roads in the country, with frequent side trips by the delta's primary mode of transport — sampan (small boat). Drift in small sampan through bustling market places and riverfront villages, stopping into homes, cottage industries, and crafts villages, along the way. Cycling through the bustling markets is always a highlight.
If you're traveling with children, we can organize meeting local students as ambassadors, acting as tour guides to take your family to see some of their classes such as dancing and art, while giving your children a chance to teach in an English class with students excited to learn more abut Western lifestyles but rarely meet foreign children.
As No Reservation's Anthony Bourdain points out, there's no better place to travel by your stomach than Vietnam, a place inhabited by "a skinny people obsessed with food." And cuisine is a highlight of any family trip in Vietnam. Vietnam offers delightful hands-on adventures in cuisine, from fruit carving and learning to roll spring rolls with your chef on Halong Bay (right).
