Service In The Heart Of Vietnam – 13 Days

International Flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Today you’ll start your adventure to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Arrival in Ho Chi Minh City

Upon arrival, your Tour Manager will welcome you and you will head directly to your hotel to relax and unwind.

In the evening, your Tour Manager will take you on a brief tour, offering you your first glimpse of this beautiful city.

Ho Chi Minh City

This morning, you’ll have an introduction to the history of South Vietnam as well as Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon. You will then explore the city and its many highlights.

Ho Chi Minh City, the most robust city in Vietnam, is an important center of business, arts and entertainment. You’ll have an opportunity to visit both old and new Ho Chi Minh City, plus the French Quarter before you head to the market streets, the temples of Cholon and Chinatown.

Ho Chi Minh City & Cuchi Tunnels

Today you will visit the Cuchi tunnels. This network of tunnels was built in the early 1940s during the war against the French. The tunnels, more than 820,000 feet long and three levels deep, became famous during the Vietnam War when they were used by the Viet Cong guerilla troops as a hideout for their surprise attacks on the Americans and the Allied troops.

Mekong Delta

You’ll travel to the Mekong Delta, one of the most beautiful landscapes in all of Vietnam. The Mekong Delta is often referred as the “rice bowl” of Vietnam because the area produces more than half of Vietnam’s rice, thanks to good soil, a great water supply and fantastic weather. You will take a boat ride and explore the Mekong Delta’s canals, orchards, the famous floating market and towns.

Mekong Delta Host Community and Service Project

This morning, you head to your host community. In this small village, families commute via motorbike, bicycle or on foot over narrow dirt paths woven through lush tropical forests, and many community members live in small palm thatched bamboo houses.

The community service project is the heart of your program—an excellent way to bond with your new friends through service. Projects will be determined based on the current needs of the community and may include constructing a safe walking bridge over a small river that overflows during the rainy season, rebuilding a community member’s house that has deteriorated over time, or building a cement walkway.

On your first full day in the community you’ll meet in the morning for an introduction to your project. You may use bicycles to ride between your host family lodging and the service project site. You will begin your work, as you will each morning in the community, and take a break for lunch. After lunch you will continue your project for a few more hours. The afternoons will be filled with cultural activities that may include playing with the local children, a boat ride on the canal, a bicycle ride along village roads, and traditional cooking lessons with local families.

The entire group will live with one or more local families. This may be in their main house or in a cottage on the family’s property. Sharing familial space and practices with members of the host community will not only add significance to the work you will do, but will immerse you into the heart of the Vietnamese culture.

Mekong Delta Host Community and Service Project

After breakfast this morning, you’ll continue your work in the community. You’ll take a break for lunch. After lunch you will continue your project for a few more hours. The afternoon will include a cultural activity that may include playing with the local children, a boat ride on the canal, a bicycle ride along village roads, or a traditional cooking lesson with local families.

Mekong Delta Host Community and Service Project

After breakfast this morning, you’ll continue your work in the community. You’ll take a break for lunch. After lunch you will continue your project for a few more hours. The afternoon will include a cultural activity that may include playing with the local children, a boat ride on the canal, a bicycle ride along village roads, or a traditional cooking lesson with local families.

Mekong Delta Host Community and Service Project

After breakfast this morning, you’ll head to your final day of work in the community. You’ll take a break for lunch as usual, and continue your project afterwards. The afternoon will include a cultural activity.

Mekong Delta to Mui Ne Beach

After breakfast, you will say goodbye to your host family or families and head for the beach at Mui Ne. On the way you will pass Phan Thiet, an area known for one of the largest amounts of fish sauce production in Vietnam.

Mui Ne awaits you with endless white sand beaches, charming fishing villages, desert-like dunes and numerous types of rare flora and fauna. After checking into the hotel you will have free time to relax and enjoy the beach.

In the evening you’ll meet for dinner and reflect on your work done in the Mekong Delta.

Mui Ne

Today you enjoy a half-day guided tour of Mui Ne. You will explore enormous sand dunes and have some local-style fun with the children sliding down the dunes! You will walk along a pink stream with beautiful sand shapes, pass by green rice paddies, and stop for a visit at a local fish sauce house.

In the afternoon you will relax at the beach.

Mui Ne – Ho Chi Minh City

In the morning, you will relax at the beach and have fun outdoor games such as water volleyball and other team building games.

In the afternoon you’ll head back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Depart

Today your Vietnam program comes to a close, as you will leave early for your flight out of Ho Chi Minh City.