On the 14th night of each lunar month, the electricity goes off in Hội An's ancient town and hundreds of silk lanterns illuminate the streets and the Thu Bon river instead. The effect is completely otherworldly — a UNESCO-listed trading port that has barely changed since the 16th century, lit only by lanterns in every colour, with paper boats carrying candles floating downstream on the dark water. It is one of the most beautiful things you can witness in Southeast Asia.

The lantern festival draws locals and tourists alike — families release floating candles on the river, vendors sell handmade lanterns from every doorway, and the streets of the old town fill with people moving slowly through the amber light. The old buildings, the Japanese covered bridge, and the ancient merchants' houses look completely different by lantern light than they do during the day — more intimate, more alive, more connected to the centuries of trade that built them.

The festival is free to attend — you simply show up on the full moon night. Buying a floating river candle (20,000 VND, about $0.80) and making a wish as you release it is the correct participation. Book a restaurant in the old town for dinner before the festival starts — tables on the river fill up completely on lantern nights.

Ha Long Bay is one of the most visually iconic landscapes on Earth — 1,969 karst limestone islands rising vertically from emerald green water in the Gulf of Tonkin, riddled with caves, hidden lagoons, and deserted beaches accessible only by boat. At dawn, when the mist still hangs between the towers and the water is mirror-flat, it is almost impossibly beautiful.

The best way to experience Ha Long Bay is on an overnight traditional junk boat — departing from Halong City or Tuan Chau Marina in the afternoon, anchoring in a sheltered bay for the night, kayaking into hidden sea caves and lagoons at dawn before the day-trip boats arrive, and returning the following afternoon. This format gives you access to the best caves and lagoons at the quietest times, as well as sunrise on the water which is extraordinary.

The kayaking is the highlight — paddling through narrow cave openings into completely enclosed lagoons surrounded by vertical karst walls, with the water perfectly still inside. Bai Tu Long Bay (adjacent to Ha Long, less visited) and Lan Ha Bay (near Cat Ba island) offer similar landscapes with significantly fewer boats.

The Hai Van Pass (Pass of the Ocean Clouds) is a 21km mountain road that climbs from sea level to 496 metres along the crest of the Trường Sơn mountain range, with the East Sea dropping away on one side and the jungle falling steeply on the other. It was described in Top Gear's Vietnam Special as one of the world's great roads, and on a motorbike on a clear morning it absolutely earns the description.

The pass connects Da Nang to the south with Lăng Cô and Huế to the north. The views from the summit — on the old French colonial fort, now occupied by Vietnamese military and open to visitors — take in the entire Da Nang peninsula to the south and the white crescent of Lăng Cô beach to the north. On a clear day the scale of the coastline is staggering.

Rent a motorbike from Da Nang or Hội An for the day — semi-automatic bikes are the most practical. The road is well-surfaced and not technically demanding, though the gradient and exposure mean that rain makes it significantly more challenging. Leave early (7-8am) to beat both the heat and the truck traffic that builds through the morning.

Son Doong is the largest cave in the world — discovered in 1991 by a local farmer and first fully explored in 2009, it contains its own jungle, river, weather system, and clouds. The main chamber is large enough to contain a 40-storey building. The cave is so isolated and so extraordinary that access is strictly controlled: a maximum of 10 groups of 10 people per year are permitted inside, each on a 4-day guided expedition run exclusively by Oxalis Adventure.

The expedition involves camping inside the cave across two nights, navigating underground rivers, climbing a 90-metre wall of stalagmites called the Great Wall of Vietnam, and emerging through a jungle doline (collapsed ceiling) where light pours into the cave creating one of the most surreal landscapes on Earth. The jungle inside the cave has its own ecosystem — species found nowhere else on the planet, evolved in complete isolation from the surface world.

At around $3,000 USD per person with spots limited to 100 people per year globally, Son Doong is one of the most exclusive and extraordinary travel experiences available anywhere. The waiting list runs 2-3 years for peak dates. If you're serious about doing it, register with Oxalis now regardless of when you plan to travel.

Just outside Hội An, the Cam Thanh water coconut forest is navigated in round woven bamboo basket boats — coracles used by local fishermen for centuries that are now one of Vietnam's most distinctive and joyful experiences. The boats spin and drift through the dense water coconut palms, propelled by a figure-eight paddle stroke that the local boatmen make look effortless and that passengers find completely impossible to replicate.

The 30-minute ride through the forest is genuinely enchanting — the coconut palms arch overhead, the water is dark and still between the roots, and the boatmen inevitably spin the basket boat in increasingly theatrical circles for the entertainment of their passengers. It is not a serious activity. It is, however, a completely unique 30 minutes that exists only here and is one of those experiences that somehow becomes a favourite memory of an entire trip.

Most tours from Hội An combine the basket boat ride with a bicycle ride through local villages and a cooking class — the full half-day experience is excellent value and a genuinely lovely way to spend a morning outside the town.