Five days from Ho Chi Minh City through the heart of the Mekong Delta — river lodges, floating markets, and bird sanctuaries — ending with a speedboat transfer to Con Dao Island. A private tour with no fixed group, moving at your pace.
Depart at 8:00 AM and travel to Tra Vinh Province (approx 3 hrs). Visit Ang Pagoda and Ba Om Pond, a Khmer sacred reservoir shaded by 1,000-year-old trees. Lunch at a riverside restaurant, then continue to Vinh Long. Board a small boat to reach your lodge on An Binh Island — a lush river island of fruit orchards and small family homesteads reachable only by boat. Evening at leisure on the island.
Meal: Lunch.
Rise early for the Cai Be Floating Market (best before 8 AM) — one of the last traditional wholesale floating markets on the Delta, with wooden boats piled high with watermelons, pineapples, and sweet potatoes. Return to An Binh Island for breakfast, then travel to Sa Dec — the flower village made famous by Marguerite Duras’s memoir The Lover. Visit the Huynh Thuy Le Ancient House (the house of Duras’s Mekong lover, now a museum), then stroll through the flower nurseries lining the Sa Dec River. Check in to Sadec private homestay – Moc Nhien, a restored heritage house on the riverbank.
Meals: Breakfast at lodge; Lunch.
Morning drive to the Tram Chim National Park in Dong Thap Province — a 7,500-hectare Ramsar-listed wetland and one of the last remaining habitats of the Sarus Crane, the world’s tallest flying bird (best sightings Nov–Apr). Boat through the lotus fields and reed beds. Afternoon drive to Chau Doc on the Cambodian border. Visit the floating villages on the Hau River, where entire communities live on houseboats above fish farms, and Sam Mountain for sunset views over the flat Delta landscape and the Cambodian border. Check in to Victoria Chau Doc Hotel or similar.
Meals: Breakfast at private homestay; Lunch.
Morning visit to the Chau Doc Market and the Cham community on the other bank of the Hau River — one of the few Muslim Cham villages remaining in Vietnam. Drive south along the Cambodian border to Ha Tien, a small coastal town with Cambodian influence, limestone caves, and a quiet bay. Continue to Rach Gia — the main departure point for Con Dao. Check in to your guesthouse for an early-morning departure the next day.
Meals: Breakfast at hotel; Lunch.
Early morning transfer to Rach Gia Port for the Con Dao Express speedboat (approx 2.5 hrs). Arrive at Con Son Town, Con Dao Island by mid-morning. Your guide accompanies you to the pier; Con Dao accommodation and activities are self-arranged and not included in this tour price. The tour ends at Con Dao pier.
Meal: Breakfast at guesthouse.
