Delta classic package, 4 days, 3 nights

Day 1

Ho Chi Minh City to My Tho and Thoi Son islet, then Can Tho

Pick-up at 07:30. My Tho is about 71 km away, an hour and a half to two hours by expressway. The first stop is Vinh Trang pagoda, completed in 1850 on a two-hectare site, with a gate built in 1933 and a facade that mixes European and Asian forms. From the tourist wharf in My Tho a boat crosses the Tien River to Thoi Son islet. You switch to a small rowed sampan for the narrow canals under water-coconut palms, then walk through a honey farm, a coconut-candy workshop and a fruit garden, where a group usually plays southern folk music. It is a well-worn visitor circuit, and we say so; it is also the easiest way to see the islet canals in a morning.

Lunch on the islet is included. In the afternoon the car takes you about 108 km to Can Tho, two to two and a half hours. Evening free on the riverfront.

Day 2

Cai Rang, a workshop and an orchard; Binh Thuy house in the afternoon

Cai Rang before 07:30

The 05:30 boat from Ninh Kieu wharf reaches Cai Rang in 30 to 40 minutes. The market trades most actively until about 07:30; it is smaller than it was, but still the main working floating market around Can Tho. The boat goes on to a rice-noodle workshop and an orchard and brings you back around 10:00.

Lunch is included. After a rest at the hotel, the Binh Thuy ancient house, built in 1870 and, by hours published in 2023, open again from 14:00, is about 8 km away. The rest of the afternoon and the evening are free. This is the slack in the package, and it is there on purpose.

Day 3

Can Tho to Sa Dec flower village, then Chau Doc

After breakfast, about 52 km to Sa Dec, around an hour. At Tan Quy Dong flower village, potted plants are grown on raised trellises over canal water and tended from small boats; the village is busiest in the weeks before Lunar New Year, when the whole delta buys flowers. In Sa Dec town you pass the Huynh Thuy Le house, linked to Marguerite Duras's novel "L'Amant"; we visit if it is open on the day. Lunch, with Sa Dec's own version of hu tieu noodle soup on the menu, is included.

Then about 104 km to Chau Doc, two to two and a half hours. In the late afternoon you go up Sam Mountain by road, past the Ba Chua Xu temple and the Tay An pagoda of 1847, for the view over the plain at sunset. The cable car is optional and not included.

Day 4

Tra Su forest, then back to Ho Chi Minh City

Tra Su between 06:30 and 08:30

Out at 06:00 for Tra Su forest, about 20 km away, which opens at 06:30. A motorboat and then a rowed sampan take you through channels covered in duckweed under the melaleuca trees, where storks and egrets nest. From September to November the water is high and the forest at its fullest. We ask the hotel for an early or packed breakfast.

Checkout at about 09:30, then the long leg: about 235 km to Ho Chi Minh City, four and a half to five and a half hours with an included lunch on the way. Drop-off in the early evening in the city centre or at Tan Son Nhat for a late flight.