Hanoi

A DIY version of G Adventures' half-day Hanoi motorbike tour. Rather than paying for the branded guided ride, you can book the same style of motorbike-with-driver experience directly with a local Hanoi operator (or via GetYourGuide/Klook), then loop the classic highlights yourself with a xe om for the longer hops. The route covers St Joseph's Cathedral, the Opera House, Long Bien Bridge, the Red River farming island trails, West Lake with the B-52 wreckage and Tran Quoc Pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, and the famous train-track coffee alley. Costs below assume a direct local booking plus your own drinks and snacks — the DIY route can also be done almost entirely on foot plus a handful of short Grab rides if you'd rather skip the bike.

Travel Crew

~£42

A DIY version of G Adventures' half-day Hanoi foodie day tour: a chef-led wander through a Hanoi wet market, street-food tasting, a hands-on Vietnamese cooking class (bun cha or pho) in an old colonial kitchen, and an egg coffee demo. Instead of paying the operator markup you can book the same class-style experience directly or through GetYourGuide/Klook, or assemble it yourself — market breakfast, street-food crawl, then a short cooking class. Realistic budget: £30-40 all-in, versus roughly £36 (from $45 USD) for the tour — but without the 25-person shared group and on your own schedule.

Travel Crew

~£33

A self-launched version of G Adventures' full-day Hanoi highlights tour — Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and stilt house, One Pillar Pagoda, Tran Quoc Pagoda on West Lake, a ceramic village or the Ethnology Museum, the Temple of Literature, Ngoc Son Temple and the Old Quarter — done at your own pace on foot, by Grab motorbike taxi and public bus, with a street-food lunch instead of a set-menu restaurant meal. All costs are approximate per person in GBP.

Travel Crew

~£35