DISCOVER HA GIANG & THE FAR NORTH

Xin Chao! Welcome to Hanoi, Vietnam.

Upon arrival at Hanoi Airport, your private guide and driver are waiting to meet you, holding up a welcome signboard with your names on it and take you directly to your hotel in the Old Quarter.

After checking-in, you will have time to relax and adjust to the pace of Hanoi. There will be a short tour briefing this evening with your guide followed by a welcome dinner at KOTO restaurant, a social enterprise that trains and employs underprivileged youth to provide a step up in life.

Please note: Your travel documents contain a Visa-on-Arrival letter (unless otherwise arranged). Please ensure to pack this in your carry-on luggage. Your Visa-on-Arrival letter must be presented to Customs upon entry into the country.

Overnight in Hanoi
Meals: (_/_/D)

Morning
After breakfast, leave the busy capital behind and venture off into the countryside for a fabulous half-day excursion.

A scenic hour drive through the lush Red River Delta will bring you to the charming village of Hung Yen. Come to Mr. An and Mrs. Mien’s home where you can admire their three-hundred-year-old wooden house. You’ll enjoy a cup of green tea as get acquainted with the hosts and hear the village’s history.  After that Mr. An will take you on a small cycling excursion around the village and visiting home families who do their traditional jobs. You will also stop at the local market where you can mingle with the locals, visit their shops and perhaps do some shopping.

Spend the rest of your morning learning with Mrs. Mien to cook a few traditional Vietnamese dishes, before sitting down to enjoy the delicious meal you’ve prepared with your new family.

Afternoon
Bid a fond farewell to the family, you will wind our way back to Hanoi. En route, you will stop at Bat Trang ceramic village to learn about this 1000 years old village with their stunning traditional works.

Return to Hanoi in the late afternoon where the balance of the day is at your leisure. You may take a stroll around the Old Quater of Hanoi.

Overnight in Hanoi
Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning
After breakfast and check out of the hotel your private guide and driver will pick you up and transfer you for 6 hours to the remote town of Bac Ha. Nestled deep in the mountains, Bac Ha is a quiet backwater Monday to Saturday, but by Sunday crowds of locals from thousands of surrounding villages descend on the town for the colourful Sunday market. Here you will have a chance to meet some of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minority groups.

En route, you will take a riverboat ride on the Chay River. During the ride of 6km upstream, you will have the opportunity to visit Fairy Cave – closely connected with a legend about 3 fairies who hid there. You also stop to visit Bao Nhai and Ta Trung Do village where local people built a sacred temple called Ba Co (Three Girls). Enjoy a home-hosted lunch in the village before continuing your road drive.

Afternoon
Arrive in Bac Ha and check into a local home where you will enjoy an authentic Vietnam homestay. Clean linens and fresh towels are standard, and mattresses and pillows are comfortable. Every bed has a mosquito net and curtains that you can pull across for extra privacy.

After a short rest and getting to know your family hosts, your guide and driver will transfer you to visit Ban Pho village where you can take a short walk around the village where Flower Hmong, Tay and Nung minorities live.

Continue to visit the Hmong King Palace. Completed in 1921 the Palace is the former home of a wealthy landowner from the Tay ethnic group named Hoang Yen Chao. Supported by the French colonial government the Hoang family owned the majority of the areas fertile land and had trade monopolies on virtually everything.

Return to the homestay for your leisure time. Enjoy a nice and hot shower and get ready for dinner with the family.

Overnight in Hac Ha
Meals: (B/L/D)

Morning
After an early breakfast at the homestay, your guide will take you to Bac Ha Sunday Market in time (to avoid the crowds) to discover this lively market. The market itself is a kaleidoscope of color, noise, and culture, where locals in an array of traditional dress barter for cows and show off delicately embroidered and embellished designs. Wander, camera in hand, and soak in the lively atmosphere while fending off the persistent sellers. The scent of fresh herbs and fragrant, strong tobacco wafts among the tented stalls and the overpowering smell of animals drifts down from the live market above.

Depart the Market you will embark on a three-hour driver to Ha Giang, one of the most remote parts of northern Vietnam. Ha Giang boasts an amazing landscape of limestone pinnacles and granite outcrops and has some of the most spectacular scenery in the country.

Afternoon
After having lunch at Xin Man town continue your road journey to Ha Giang. Along the way, you will have the chance to see beautiful rice terraces, waterfalls, and various ethnic minorities.

Later, you will arrive in Ha Giang and check into Truong Xuan ecolodge. Take your time to relax and chill out or explore a Tay Hill Tribe village, beautifully set in a stunning valley close to town.

Morning
After breakfast, you will depart Ha Giang for Quan Ba Valley – an area of stunning natural beauty with green hills and abundant limestone caves. Travel through Quan Ba Pass – known as Heaven’s Gate with its panoramic views of the terraced rice fields below.

Afternoon
Following lunch at a local restaurant in Quan Ba, you will visit Lung Tam where you will learn about Hmong handicraft. The craftswomen will demonstrate the techniques of hemp weaving and other traditional handicraft.

After this educational segment, you will continue your scenic drive towards Yen Minh town. Arrive and check in to your mini-hotel. The rest of the afternoon and evening will at your leisure.

Overnight in Yen Ninh
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Morning
After breakfast, you will leave Yen Ninh for Lung Cu. Along the way, you will get to visit the local market if it is the day of the week it is open. Alternatively, you can admire the scenery of the Landscape and the cornfields. You will also visit the small remote village where you can mingle with the Hoa people.

Afternoon
Continue to drive until you reach Dong Van town, a Geopark littered with an array of ancient karst formations. In Dong Van you will visit the former residence of the Vuong family, still called “Palace of Hmong King”. Then check in to the hotel and spend the rest of the day at your leisure.

Overnight in Dong Van
Meals: (B/_/_)

Morning
After breakfast, you will embark on a moderate hike to the rocky mountains on backroads which leads you to some hill tribe villages which is situated in between the grey rocks. After the morning hike, you’ll get back to Dong Van town for lunch.

Afternoon
You will leave Dong Van and drive over the massive Ma Pi Leng Pass to Meo Vac town. Have a break on the pass to admire the panorama over the huge abyss which is bottomed by the Nho Que River.

Arrive at Meo Vac town in the late afternoon and check into the Auberge de Meo Vac Mountain Lodge. The rest of the day will be at your leisure.

Overnight in Meo Vac
Meals: (B/_/_)

You’ll have a long drive today to Cao Bang but it will be broken up with numerous photo stops and more dramatic scenery. Lunch will be served at a local restaurant on the way.

In the late afternoon, you will arrive in Cao Bang and check in to a mini-hotel in the City centre.

Overnight in Cao Bang
Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning
An early start today as you’ll pay a visit to Ban Gioc Waterfall. The falls, fed by the Quay Son River that marks the border with China, is an impressive sight and in a highly scenic location. At 30 metres high and 300 metres across Ban Gioc is the widest – but not the highest – waterfall in the country. From here you’ll have a short walk to nearby Nguom Ngao Cave. This immense cave holds a series of majestic, jaw-dropping caverns, filled with delicate, intricate formations of stalactites and stalagmites.

Afternoon
After having lunch at a local restaurant, you will return to Cao Bang where the balance of the day is at your leisure.

Overnight in Cao Bang
Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning
You will have an excursion to Pac Bo Cave driving through a scenic landscape of green rice paddies and water wheels. Pac Bo Cave is revered in Vietnam as the place where Ho Chi Minh stayed briefly upon his return from China in 1941. It was here that the Vietnamese Independence League or Viet Minh was established.

Afternoon
After lunch in Cam Bang, you will depart for Ba Be Lake. Again the roads are bumpy but the views are enough to make up for this.

In the late afternoon, you will arrive at Cho Ra Town, from here you will be transferred to the Center of the National Park. Tonight you will spend the night in the village of Tay People in a homestay.

Overnight at a local homestay
Meals: (B/L/D)

Morning
After breakfast, you will take a boat trip down the Nang River to discover Ba Be Lake, Vietnam’s largest natural lake and the centrepiece of an extensive National Park. The park and the surrounding area is limestone country, so lakes, waterfalls, caves and unusual rock formations abound. The whole area is richly forested and is home to many ethnic minority communities.

After the two-hour boat trip and the visits to Dau Dang Waterfall and Puong Cave, you will get back to the homestay for lunch and then check out.

Afternoon
Depart Ba Be Lake you will drive back to Hanoi. En route, you will stop at the Museum of Ethnology in Thai Nguyen.

Evening
Arrive in Hanoi and check in to your hotel. Enjoy your last night in Hanoi before going home.

Overnight in Hanoi
Meals: (B/_/_)

Your private transfer greets you at the hotel after breakfast and escorts you to Hanoi International Airport where you board your flight home or travel on to more adventures, we will help you with the planning.

Meals: (B/_/_)