TEN WONDERFUL WAYS TO SEE VIETNAM

From biking and hiking to wellness and wildlife, Chris Leadbeater picks the perfect tour for you

While Saigon and Hanoi are the grand city bookends to any tour of Vietnam, and Hue and Hoi An are unmissable, there is a great deal more to see – and many ways to do so – in a long, narrow country that stretches from the Chinese border to the Gulf of Thailand.

The far corner

Though sometimes decried (fairly) as over-touristed, Halong Bay is one of Vietnam’s postcard destinations, its waters awash with limestone karsts that spear up from the soupy-green depths. But the Unesco-listed bay isn’t the only essential sight in the northeast of the country, where Vietnam finally runs aground on China’s rump: the highland forests of Ba Be National Park are also a key element of a region which plenty of tourists overlook.

Do it Bamboo Travel (020 7720 9285; bambootravel.co.uk) offers The Natural Beauty of Northeast Vietnam – a 14-day private holiday that focuses entirely on the region, and includes a two-night cruise in Halong Bay. From £2,425 per person, including flights.

Crowd pleaser: Unesco-listed Halong Bay is a tourist draw with good reason

Hanoi highlights: dip into war history with a trip to the city’s army museum

Echoes of conflict

The war that eviscerated Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s is very much pasttense in a country that looks firmly to the future, but it remains a subject of fascination for many tourists. And though the guns have stopped, many of the scars are still visible.

Do it Regent Holidays (0117 453 1008; regent-holidays.co.uk) offers a Vietnam War Legacy Tour, which takes 17 days to complete its journey between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Stops include the Cu Chi Tunnels, where Viet Cong soldiers hid from American sight, the former Camp Holloway, Phu Cat and Chu Lai air bases – and the infamous death strip of the DMZ (demilitarised zone). From £3,795 per person (including flights).

Beach retreats

During the war, Da Nang’s airport was another US base, thundering to the take-offs of heavy bombers. Its