Vietnam

Vietnamese food was reason enough to visit on its own. We spent three weeks moving through Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An and Saigon, and each region cooked completely differently from the last. Halong Bay was the single best two days of the trip: hundreds of limestone islands eroded into shapes that don’t look real, toured on a two-day cruise with Paradise Cruises.

In the south, a Mekong Delta cruise with Buffalo Tours — the “Le Jarai” route — got us past Saigon and into countryside we wouldn’t have found on our own. And on the coast, The Nam Hai in Hoi An was quiet enough that even at 85% occupancy, it felt like we had the whole resort to ourselves.