Immersive remote north Vietnam 9 days 8 nights
This off the beaten path tour is for those who are adventurous but who maybe are not up to long treks. It explores the immersive remote north Vietnam, often close to the Chinese border. This is the land of the ethnic minorities, and it is one of the few places left in this global world where one's family and locality can be identified by dress alone. Prepare yourself for a riot of colour, from the ethnic clothes to the rice paddies. You will have a chance to interrelate with the locals by staying in homestays, in a variety of villages and mountainous regions.
Tour code: NA04E
Duration: 9 days 8 nights
Includes:
-
Professional vehicle transportations and commercial vehicle insurance. Professional driver
-
(Optional) 4×4 car with material insurance
-
Private door to door pick-up drop-off services
-
Accommodation at ecolodges, hotels, homestays as mentioned
-
Experienced English-speaking guide
-
Meals as stated in the itinerary (B: Breakfast; L: Lunch; D: Dinner)
-
(Optional) Vegetarian and vegan food is available
-
Bottled water
-
All sightseeing tickets and travel permits on frontier
-
All sightseeing tickets and environment protection fee
-
Bamboo raft tour on Ban Gioc waterfall
-
Motor-boat with floating jackets in Ba Be
-
Nguom Ngao Cave walking tour
-
All Taxes and Fees
-
No extra charge after confirmation
-
24/7 hotline support guaranteed
-
(Optional) Child seats are required
Excludes:
-
Personal expenses, tips and gratuities
-
Travel insurance
-
International & domestic flights and taxes
-
Beverage
-
Other personal expenses: drinks, souvenir, etc.
What To Take:
-
Pack essentials, including light comfortable clothes suitable for outdoor activities, comfortable walking shoes. Take a small day pack for hiking and trekking
-
It is essential to bring your passport on this trip. We also recommend packing: insect repellent, sun cream, raincoat and sun hat...
Accommodation List
Please note that the hotels mentioned in this list are for reference only. Depending on availability and your preference, they can be changed. If we are unable to book any hotel, it will be replaced by another hotel at least of equivalent standard and value.
Address: Phung village, Hoang Su Phi district, Ha Giang
Being likened to the heart of Hoang Su Phi with the famous wonder of terraced fields, it would be a waste if you visit Hoang Su Phi without visiting Phung village. Looking down from above, the terraced fields stretch out embracing the small warm roofs, bringing both majesty and softness and tenderness.
Address: Xa Ren village, Nghia Loi commune, Nghia Lo town, Yen Bai, Vietnam.
Travelers to Homestay Loan Khang will enjoy interesting experiences with the life of a Thai village that still retains its identity, a peaceful space with a gentle Thia stream, endless rice fields in the Muong sunshine. The furnace and bamboo groves rustle in the wind. Here, guests can also enjoy typical Thai dishes and rustic foods in an impressive breakfast buffet.
Address: Group 5, Mu Cang Chai town, Yen Bai
Address: Alley 520 Dien Bien Phu, Sa Pa, Vietnam
The hotel stretches view to Ham Rong mountain and Sapa lake. Sapa Village Hotel has 7 levels - each is named after a village of Sapa such at Ta Van Village, Ta Phin Village, Cat Cat Village, Supan Village, Sin Chay Village...Most rooms overlook to the beautiful landscape of magnificent Ham Rong mountain and the legendary Fansipan, bring about the most stunning view to the center of Sapa town.
Address: Dong Van Town, Ha Giang Province
Hoa Cuong Hotel is located in the center of the ancient town of Dong Van district - Ha Giang, where the center of the Highland area of stone was recognized by UNESCO. The hotel opened in early 2015 is the most modern hotel in Ha Giang province
Address: Ha Thanh village, Phuong Do, Ha Giang City, Ha Giang Province
Visit Mr Doan, his wife and his two sons in a traditional stilts house of Tay ethnic minority group in North of Vietnam. He is a good chef and kind owner
Address: Phia Thap Village, Quoc Dan, Quang Uyen, Cao Bang province
Mr Kim’s Homestay stands out in green rice paddy fields of Phia Thắp Village, home to 50 families from the Nùng ethnic minority in Cao Bằng Province.
The traditional structure of Kim’s stilt house is still preserved. The house’s first floor, which used to be a cattle holding area, has been extended to make a cozy living room with wooden tables and chairs. The well-organised second floor is where tourists can sleep, providing more than 20 mattresses and eco-friendly decoration. Each mattress is well prepared with a pillow, a mosquito net, a lamp and an electricity socket.
Address: Coc Toc village, Nam Mau commune, Ba Be district, Bac Kan province
A step up in amenities to Ba Be's homestays, this lakeside place in Coc Toc village takes the form of six small, spic-and-span, wood-panelled private rooms, and a dorm. Visitors are well looked after by friendly English-speaking staff.
5 average based on 3 reviews.
Janet & David
Wrote a review 9 - 2025
Good tour overall
Review of: Immersive remote north Vietnam 9 days 8 nights
Trek from Tha village
Trek in Ha Giang
Amazing vie & scenery
office support also good. We would have prefered hiking in the morning than afternoon. Good driver. Oke. No choice for breakfast. Everywhere pancake. Chi tai was poor quality but beautiful view. So hmong and Meo Vac were most clean.
Date of experience: 9 2024
Arara
Wrote a review 8 - 2023
Great adventure trip to Northern Vietnam
Review of: Remote far North Vietnam 9 days 8 nights
Our family had our entire Vietnam vacation (12 nights/ 13 days) organized by Mr. Linh’s Adventures, after indicating them our preferences. We chose them because we wanted to see less visited areas of Northern Vietnam, and they seemed to be specialists in this area. The organization proved to be professional, and it was very reassuring to receive prompt answers to our e-mails or whatsapps. Our contact person in the office was Cathy, who always tried to accommodate our preferences. B...Read Moreoth our driver and guide were called Mr. Long. Our driver drove very carefully and skillfully, which made us feel safe. Our guide was very knowledgeable especially of local customs and people.
Communication was in English at a conversational level (do not expect native speaker level; only the youngest generation in Vietnam is studying the language more thoroughly).
Punctuality was also the norm when picking us up from the airport or the hotels or doing any of the activities.
Our trip started and ended in Hanoi. According to our schedule, the places we visited besides Hanoi were: south of Hanoi: Hoa Lu;Tam Coc, Mua Cave; in northern Vietnam: Hoang Su Phi, Phin Ho, Hoang Su Phi, Ha Giang, Yen Minh, Lung Cu flag, Dong Van, Meo Vac, Cao Bang, Ban Gioc Waterfall, Babe Lake, Nguom Ngao Cave, Tham Phay Cave, Bac Son Valley; Halong Bay.
The northern part of the country is very rural, and the average speed of a car is an estimated 40-50 km/h. Therefore if doing this trip covering many different locations you have keep in mind that you will inevitably spend many hours in a car. However, ours was quite comfortable: we had a Ford Transit minibus with three seat rows for the five of us and functioning air conditioning. We were also given bottles of mineral water every day. There was enough space for our luggage in the back part of the car (we had one suitcase each).
The accommodations we had chosen were a colourful mixture of both basic and luxury, depending on the place we were: basic in the countryside (there usually is no luxury accommodation there) and more luxurious for example in Hanoi, Halong Bay and on our one-day-cruise there.
Homestays are generally very basic; some even had shared bathrooms. But in the countryside there simply is no other choice. It was interesting for us to see different kinds of accommodations though, as we do not travel primarily for comfort but for the experience. Vietnam is still a (quickly) developing country after all and you cannot expect European standards.
The same is true for the food: while in the bigger cities (Hanoi) you can also find international choices, in the countryside you have to stick to local specialties.
We liked the Vietnamese food, with contains generally speaking lots of fresh vegetables, with some meat (pork, beef, chicken, and others) and rice. Soups are also very common, even for breakfast. We also could taste some tropical fruits.
It was very interesting to get to know the local customs too; we visited different ethnic minorities in the northern part of the country. As Mr. Long, our guide, knew a few families because he had been in the area before, they let us visit some of their houses. The time we visited coincided with a festivity in honor of the ancestors, which is why we were invited to have a liqueur in many houses. We saw people burning incense in front of their home altars, preparing duck meat and offering food to the ancestors as part of their ancient religion.
As for physical activity, we also went cycling, kayaking, hiking and visited caves. As it was very hot and humid during August, our bodies did not demand for more sports.
A highlight was exploring a cave near Mr. Linh’s homestay at Babe Lake that had not yet been officially opened to the public. We were guided there by a local man; helmets and flashlights were given to us. As the cave’s floor is covered by a stream we had to walk through water all the time (actually, this tour can only be done if water levels are not too high). Bats could also be found on the ceilings.
During our trip we also were lucky to meet Mr. Linh himself when we were at Mr. Linh’s homestay at Babe Lake. He is a young Vietnamese entrepreneur who is very eager to run his business in the best, most customer friendly way and is willing to learn to keep improving. He did not shy away from asking us what we liked and what could be done better, and you can talk openly to him!
All in all we think this is a serious company you can trust and can highly recommend them if you are looking for an adventurous, off the beaten path trip to Vietnam.
Read Less
Date of experience: 8 2022
Cha_Kowal
Wrote a review 10 - 2023
Simple Excellent
Review of: Remote far North Vietnam 9 days 8 nights
I recently spent 6 weeks traveling solo in Vietnam and out of those 6 weeks, spent 15 days exploring Northern Vietnam with Mr Linh's agency. I cannot recommend enough his services.
To start with, Mr. Linh personally met me to organise the whole trip (it was very last minute trip but everything was perfectly organised and handled). He knows Northern Vietnam like the back of his hand and could accommodate all the places I wanted to see / activities I wanted to do in 15 days (compared...Read More to several other agencies I had contacted, that presented me with standard itineraries). With Mr Linh’s agency, I was able to get a tailor-made itinerary and it was exactly what I wanted.
The guide (Hieu) and driver (Nam) were just excellent; they went out of their way all the time. The car was kept perfectly clean at all times. I requested once to start a very early trek (around 5 am and Hieu did not hesitate at all).
Mr Linh’s itineraries take you to the “off the beaten path”; I stayed in homestays in awesome locations: in the middle of rice fields surrounded by karsts looking like Halong bay on land or at the edge of Ba be lake. I did awesome hikes in Ha Giang and Bac Ha, where I did not see any tourist (just nature, nature and a few locals): even for the Sapa hike Hieu suggested we go further to avoid the tourist traps and we ended up doing a longer hike but with the most amazing scenery and especially away from the very touristic parts. I ate great local food for every single meal during those 15 days and did not get sick once!
Simply amazing! Highly recommend.
Read Less
Date of experience: 10 2017
Check Availability