Handpicked experience · Hanoi
Hanoi, Vietnam
Dyke roads beside a river that runs higher than the streets, and farms worked on ground the flood takes back each year.
Enjoy a visit to Hanoi's outskirts away from the city center aboard a vintage army jeep.
Witness the daily life of Vietnamese villagers in farms, markets, and more.
Get to taste fresh guavas straight from the trees along the way.
Visit an artisan Vietnamese family specializing in ceramic art and traditional cuisine.
An open-air ride with unobstructed views
Lanes and off-road tracks larger vehicles cannot use
A guided walk through a working farming village
Photo stops at paddies, dykes and a riverside viewpoint
Seasonal street food from vendors when available
Five rural hours outside Hanoi in a vintage army jeep: dyke roads, rice fields, a river viewpoint and time on foot where the lanes get too narrow to drive.
The vehicle is the point and it is worth knowing what that means. These are old military jeeps, open-sided, loud, firm over rough ground and without the comforts of a modern car — which is exactly why they can use the narrow lanes and unsealed dyke tracks a minibus cannot. You will arrive dusty.
Hanoi sits beside the Red River, and in flood the river is higher than the streets. Centuries of silt have raised its bed above the surrounding plain, so the water is held in by dykes rather than banks — earthworks built up and reinforced over roughly two thousand years, now wide enough on top to carry the roads this tour drives along. When you are on a dyke, look left and right: on one side, the river surface; on the other, rooftops below it.
Between the dykes, in the middle of the river itself, are long sandbanks under cultivation — banana and vegetable plots worked on ground that the flood season partly submerges and reshapes each year. Nobody builds anything permanent there. Farmers plant knowing the land is borrowed, and the crop calendar is set by the water rather than by anyone's convenience.
The delta grows two rice crops a year, and the paddies are flooded, planted, grown and drained on a cycle. Turn up in one month and the fields are sheets of water with seedlings pricked through them; a few weeks later they are solid green; later still, gold and full of people cutting. There is no wrong time to see this, but there is no single view of it either — ask your host which stage you have arrived in.
Wear clothes you do not mind dusting, and bring sunglasses; open sides mean wind, grit and full sun. The village walk runs about thirty to forty-five minutes on uneven paths. Water and light snacks come with the tour, and anything else you eat is bought from vendors along the way. Hotel pickup is available but only if you select it when booking — otherwise you meet the jeep.
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Loud, open-sided and firm over rough ground, without the comforts of a modern car. That is the trade for reaching narrow lanes and unsealed dyke tracks — expect to arrive dusty.
Centuries of silt have raised its bed above the surrounding plain, so the water is held by dykes rather than banks. From a dyke you can see the river surface on one side and rooftops below it on the other.
The system has been built up and reinforced over roughly two thousand years. The tops are now wide enough to carry roads, which is where much of this route runs.
Local growers working banana and vegetable plots on sandbanks that flooding partly submerges and reshapes each year. Nothing permanent is built there — the land is planted knowing it is borrowed.
It depends entirely on the month. The delta takes two crops a year, so the paddies may be sheets of water, solid green, or gold and being cut. Ask your host which stage you have arrived in.
Around thirty to forty-five minutes on uneven paths, with time to meet residents and see how the farming works.
Water and light snacks come with the tour. Anything else is bought from vendors along the way, depending on what is in season.
Only if you select it when booking. Otherwise you make your own way to the jeep.