With older parents, or limited mobility

• Prefer a two-day trip with a hotel night over a long single day. The Cai Be and An Binh trip splits the driving into three legs.
• Expect steps at every boat landing, and know that their height changes with the tide.
• Monkey bridges are never required on our trips. Neither is any boat.
• Ask for a lift or a ground-floor room; we confirm it in writing or we do not book the hotel.
• Keep walking to the morning, rest at midday, and drink more water than feels necessary.

A monkey bridge is a narrow footbridge of bamboo or a single plank over a ditch, with a handrail of another pole. Some orchards on An Binh keep one as a photo stop. Our trips never require you to cross one, and we check the way round before you travel.

Old garden houses, like those at Dong Hoa Hiep in Cai Be, were built with raised wooden thresholds and a few steps up to the porch. They are part of the architecture and cannot be avoided, but they are short, and the rooms inside are cool and good for sitting. Garden lanes on the islets are often narrow concrete paths, sometimes uneven; we choose orchards where the walk from the car is short.

Long drives tire older travellers in a different way from children: stiffness rather than boredom. We stop on every long leg for a toilet and a walk around, and we choose a vehicle with a step and a grab handle when you tell us someone finds a high minivan difficult. The ease table on each tour shows the total and the longest single drive, so you can compare before you choose.

We will not pretend the delta is step-free. Boats, landings, garden lanes and old houses all have steps or uneven ground. What we can do for a traveller who uses a wheelchair is a road-only version of a trip, with stops chosen where the car can pull up close: a riverside promenade, a garden lunch on level ground, a hotel with a lift. We describe each stop as we know it and say plainly where we do not know. If that is not enough, we will tell you so before you book rather than on the day.