Classic Thailand & Vietnam Highlights Tour

Bang Pa In Royal Palace in Thailand

What to expect on this itinerary

Thailand and Vietnam seem to have it all, especially when it’s your first trip to Asia. The bustling cities offer endless sights and impressions. Quiet white-sand beaches backdropped by jungle. Superlative landscapes, atmospheric temples, night markets, Cu Chi Tunnels, historic city quarters and a world wonder that’s never changed. Tailored for first-time visitors, this classic two-week tour is full of inside experiences and highlights. Zicasso offers a variety of Thailand and Vietnam tours. Be sure to browse the trips reviews for Thailand and Vietnam.

Countries Visited

Thailand, Vietnam

Places Visited

Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Hanoi

Suggested Duration

15 Days

Customizable Itinerary

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Day 1

Bangkok – Drifting Through the Canals of Thonburi

Arriving in Bangkok can be an overwhelming experience. This is a huge city and there’s so much to take in on every single street. It can be a little much for the senses, especially after a long flight. So it’s best to take it slow. Transfer to the hotel and relax. Spend some time at the rooftop pool that’s high above the city. Then spend the afternoon in a quiet place, exploring the canals of Thonburi. This local neighborhood is off the beaten path and shows you a genuine glimpse of everyday Thai life. Sit back, relax on the teak canal boat, and enjoy this unobtrusive look into local culture; when you’re drifting down the water it’s far easier to absorb the sights and sounds. The guide can take you around Bangkok tonight but you might prefer an early night.

What's Included:

Transfer
Accommodation
Breakfast
Day 2 - 3

Bangkok – Best of Bangkok With an Insider Guide

Day 4

Koh Samui – Beach Paradise

Day 5 - 7

Koh Samui – Drifting Away On the White Sand

Day 8 - 9

Ho Chi Minh City – Culture and Cuisine of a Fabulous Asian City

Day 10 - 11

Hoi An – Old-World Beauty and Evocative history

Day 12

Hanoi – Colors and Charms of the Old Quarter and More

Day 13 - 14

Halong Bay – Relaxing in the World Wonder

Day 15

Halong Bay to Hanoi – Departure

Trip Highlights

  • Lounge around a private beach paradise, white sand in your toes on the island of Koh Samui
  • Immerse yourself in the old-world charm of Hoi An, a soulful city that’s soft on the eyes
  • Drift through the limestone karst of Halong Bay, spending two days cruising the New 7 Wonder of Nature
  • Explore the evocative contrasts of Ho Chi Minh City, where a historic quarter juxtaposes with modern Asia
  • Embrace the bustle of Bangkok, a fabulously evocative city when a great guide leads you around the city
  • Wander the ancient streets of Hanoi, savoring all its smells and sounds
  • Crawl into the Cu Chi Tunnels, kayak to a deserted island, explore the night markets and enjoy many other classic Southeast Asia experiences

Detailed Description

Thailand and Vietnam live up to their dreamy reputations. These are countries with a little of everything. Cultural history to excite the soul, spirituality to slow you down, bustling markets and cities to get your pulse going. There are quiet islands of white sand and jungle, where you can spend days escaping the world. You also discover famous places from world history, where you walk the streets of yesteryear. Dream of Southeast Asia and so many wonderful images come to mind. This first-time visitors tour connects the distinctive highlights, with a week in Thailand and a week in Vietnam.

It has a little of everything and a lot of what makes the region so special. Great guides make all the difference as they steer you away from tourist traps, towards authenticity and intimacy. Inside experiences help you discover more, such as drifting down the canals of Thonburi on your first day in Thailand. Over the two weeks, there is time to be alone, especially on the island of Koh Samui. There are other places where you need a guide to navigate, especially when so many sounds and smells are packed into such a crowded space. Destinations are connected by flights, and your hotels are expertly located, either in the heart of a historic quarter or tucked away from it all.

Land in Bangkok, which is always an intoxicating experience if you haven’t visited Asia before. With so many new impressions it’s easy to get a little travel weary. So after some downtime at the hotel, you drift through the back-canals of the city, a small wooden boat taking you down through local neighborhoods. The next few days are tailored to you, mixing the Bangkok experiences to match your mood: temples, palaces, icons, night markets, floating markets, modern Southeast Asia and wonderful heritage. Then fly to Koh Samui and relax at a small beach resort that’s perched between the jungle and the beach. This is a quiet time, a getaway that fulfills many dreamy ideas of the region.

Fly to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it was formerly known. There’s so much history here, from colonial remnants to old palaces and the Viet Cong tunnels nearby. You’ll get to know Vietnamese culture and cuisine, particularly how it is so different from Thailand. Fly to Hoi An and immerse yourself in the old world, such beauty to this World Heritage city at the country’s heart. Hanoi takes you back to bustle and a whirlwind of new experiences before you end with two days sailing around the limestone karst landscape of Halong Bay. It’s a serene way to keep exploring while completely relaxing at the end of a vacation. 

To gain more ideas for your perfect Thailand and Vietnam vacation, take a look at our Thailand and Vietnam page for more itineraries and tours.

Starting Price

$3,900 per person (excluding international flights)

Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.

What's Included

  • Accommodations
  • In-country transportation
  • Some or all activities and tours
  • Expert trip planning
  • 24x7 support during your trip

Your final trip cost will vary based on your selected accommodations, activities, meals, and other trip elements that you opt to include.

4.8

Verified Traveler Reviews

Based on 401 reviews

Travel Review: Luxury Tour of Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Siem Reap, Hanoi, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, Halong Bay Cruise

We travelled to Siem Reap, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City. At each stop our guide was there to meet us and each one was very knowledgable about the area,culture and history, able to provide very personal perspective on the areas. The hotels we stayed at were boutique style hotels all centrally located with great service and staff. The trip was effortless as our travel agency thought of everything and it all went very smoothly.

Thank you to our travel agency for a very enjoyable and interesting trip. You tailored the perfect trip for us!

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Travel Review: Southeast Asia Tour, Cambodia & Vietnam, Siem Reap, Hoi An, Hue, Mekong Delta, Halong Bay, Angkor Temples

We booked a three-week trip to Vietnam with a side trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the Angkor temple complex. We are three 60-something women who had never been to Southeast Asia before. Before we left, our travel company patiently helped us customize our trip, down to the last details, providing great advice along the way. Our trip started in Hanoi, and our guide was there at the airport to pick us up and take us to our hotel, even though it took longer than we expected to get our visas. The hotel they booked for us on the south shore of Hoan Kiem Lake, was lovely and it turned out to be a terrific location. Throughout the trip, which included stops in Ha Long Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City, we felt well taken care of, with great hotels throughout. And our guides were flexible enough to change our itineraries on the fly. For example, one of my companions fell and injured her leg in a market in Hoi An. We asked if we could rearrange the itinerary to accommodate a trip to a hospital clinic, and they happily obliged. And later they modified the schedule for my friend, so she could skip some of the more strenuous activities.

The trip itself was wonderful. We experienced the markets, the organic gardens, the temples and pagodas, the waterways and the food that makes Vietnam so unique and wonderful. All of our local guides were so helpful and willing to put up with our eccentricities.

The only glitch we had on the trip was when we arrived at the Siem Reap airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. It turned out we did not have tickets on the flight. We called our travel company and immediately got a call back -- we would be met at the airport by a guide with tickets for the next flight out, and in the meantime he would take us to a lovely nearby hotel and buy us lunch. He also offered to get us a room if we wanted to shower or change clothes, but we just stayed in the restaurant overlooking the lovely swimming pool and sipped our mojitos, courtesy of of the company.

Also I should mention the value. Zicasso connected us with three travel agents who submitted proposals. This company was the only one that really understood our budget parameters and what we wanted to do within the budget. We felt the price was quite reasonable and were very happy with our trip.

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Review: Luxury Southeast Asia Tour, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh, Luang Prabang, Halong Bay, Cu Chi Tunnels Tour

We went to Hanoi, Ho chi minh city in Vietnam, Siem Reap in Cambodia and Luang Prabang in Laos.

We had a great vacation. It was really easy working with our agent at this Southeast Asia travel company. She was very prompt in getting back to us with all our concerns and questions. We went back and forth with the the hotels we wanted and how we wanted to arrange our site seeing schedule. The agent worked with us and guided and helped us all the way. Very professional ! We would recommend using this company to our friends.

The guides were there to pick us up on time and waiting.  The vans were clean and nice. The guides were knowledgeable and helpful.  

This was our first time using a tour company through Zicasso as before this we were doing group tours only but were finding the pace there too hectic and felt were not getting enough time to look and enjoy things the way we would have liked to. We like to travel a lot and feel would like to do things the way we did for our Indo china tour.

I have food allergies and our agent conveyed the same to our gudes snd they made sure i was able to get food I was comfortable with.

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Vietnam & Cambodia Luxury Tour Review: Lan Ha Bay 2-Night Boat Tour, Scooter Food Tour in Hue, Row Boating through Bird Sanctuary

My wife and I just returned from a 3-week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia organized by the travel company.  We had used a company referred by Zicasso for a trip to Argentina in 2018 and were curious to see if we would be as satisfied after this trip as we had been after that one.  Suffice it to say, we were not disappointed!  This company did a terrific job in organizing our trip, securing comfortable, welcoming and well-located accommodations, setting us up with incredible guides with terrific local knowledge and very good English (we're from the US), arranging all our in-country flights and planning some extremely engaging and memorable outings and adventures.  

While I can't be sure, I think they also dialed up the weather - we only experienced 1 day of light precipitation in 19 days in the country!  They ensured we spent time in the North (Hanoi, Ninh Binh and Lan Ha Bay), Central (Hue and Hoi An), and South (Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta) parts of Vietnam and the temples (Siem Reap) in Cambodia. They also arranged an extensive array of food experiences and venues and provided many other memorable personal encounters with locals throughout Vietnam.  

Without fail, every day revealed many interesting aspects of the culture and history of Vietnam and Cambodia.  Our contact at the company was always responsive to our inquiries and requests - both before we left the US and while we were on our trip - and took time to meet with us personally in Ho Chi Minh City.  We were happy to be able to express our appreciation for his efforts in designing such a personalized adventure.  HIGHLY recommended.  

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Review: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An, Siem Reap, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Cooking Classes, Elephant Sanctuary

We had an amazing trip to the travel company, truly a life-changing experience!  We visited Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An in Vietnam, then traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and ended our journey in Bangkok and Chaing Mai, Thailand.  The travel company assigned us to very friendly, informative and knowledgeable guides in each city.  Our excursions led us through the streets of Hanoi, sampling street foods and beverages, visiting floating fishing villages and the sheer serenity and beauty on Halong Bay, experiencing the Vietnamese countryside on the back of a scooter, sunrise tour of Angkor Wat, and other temples in Cambodia, Thai massage and temple tours in Bangkok, and hands-on cooking class in Chaing Mai.  But our favorite adventure was caring for the elephants at a sanctuary in the mountains outside of Chaing Mai.  

I cannot properly articulate how special and easy this trip was for us.  Every transition to each country was smooth and relaxed.  Our guides were always there to help us navigate the new cultures, tastes and experiences.  The hotels the travel company booked were comfortable, luxurious and classy.  

Working with the travel company was a joy!  Our travel specialist adjusted our itinerary to match our interests and pace.  While planning our trip, if we had questions or wanted to adjust the itinerary, our specialist returned our emails within 24 hours, and would tweak our itinerary until we were satisfied.  I highly recommend the travel company!  

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Travel Review: Luxury Southeast Asia Vacation, Cambodia & Vietnam, Siem Reap, Saigon, Hoi An, Angkor Wat, Halong Bay Cruise, Opera

From the start to the finish, this travel agency did a marvelous job in helping us set up our 19 day trip to Vietnam and Cambodia in Feb. - March 2018. The four of us, two couples, had lots of ideas and questions about the trip. Our representative was wonderful. I told her what we were thinking of, our budget, what we wanted to see and where our focus was and she devised an itinerary that hit all the objectives of our trip. We did a bunch of tweaking and sending questions and concerns over  time and she answered all very promptly and made sure that what we wanted in the trip was fulfilled.  When I told her we wanted to up-grade our hotels, she handled all the changes  without any problems.  She phoned several times to make sure all was going well with our planning and that we were happy with what she had set up for us.

Our guides were fabulous. They did everything and more to make sure we had the experiences we wanted. If they thought that what was supposed to happen that day wasn't what they would recommend, ie., eating at certain food markets, etc., they pointed us in another direction. They took into account some of the physical limitations of several of us and made adjustments accordingly. They were friendly, helpful, caring and fun. At several points in our journey we had some requests for things that weren't in the itinerary and they made sure that those requests were fulfilled. We couldn't have asked for better service. More that once we asked where we could buy a certain thing and they went out of their way to find the store where it could be procured, even after the tour for the day was done and they were off their time with us. Wonderful service. All of our drivers were excellent, friendly and helpful. They always had bottles of cold water for us when we returned to the vans, which was much appreciated. 

Our hotels were perfect. The hotel in Hanoi, our private boat in Ha Long Bay and the staff on board, the hotel in Hue, the boutique hotel in Hoi An, where we had a wonderful 2 day rest period to enjoy the beach and relax,  the resort in Saigon, which was luxury at it's best, and the hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia were the perfect places to relax, rest and explore after our days of seeing the sights. They all had wonderful breakfasts and the staff of all of them were friendly, helpful and informative when we needed some advice. 

They also made getting our visas easy and painless, and arranged our internal flights and the flight to Cambodia with no problems. 

I highly recommend this travel company for any trip you are planning to Vietnam. Their service was outstanding and we have no complaints about anything they booked, recommended or suggested. 

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Customizable Itinerary

This is a sample itinerary to inspire a personalized trip designed with your travel specialist.

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