Ba Be Lake & Ban Gioc waterfall are the natural wonderland in Northeast Vietnam. Ba Be lake is well known with a natural largest lake in Vietnam and various kinds of fauna & flora. Ban Gioc waterfall, as the world’s fourth-biggest border-crossing waterfalls, is attractive for its picturesque painting of blue sky, great limestone mountains and stunning rice fields together with the daily life
With various types of landscapes with rivers, waterfalls and caves, Ba Be lake & Ban Gioc waterfall become a perfect destination for travelers that seek an authentic and adventurous travel experience. It is a truly amazing destination for the more adventurous traveler or for photographers looking to get off the beaten track. We have many different activities such as cycling, kayaking, hiking combine exploring the culture of hill tribes.
Our program has a well organized and flexible itinerary depends on the weather and your health, so to have a smooth program, let discuss with Zonitrip – local Tour operator Expert before book the tour.
Noi Bai International Airport (Google Map)
Your hotel in Hanoi Old Quater area
Morning: 7:30: Our guide will pick you up at hotel, start your Ba Be – Ban Gioc Adventure Trip 4 Days. It takes around 5hrs to transfer by car, then you will stop for lunch before taking the boat trip.
Afternoon: Travelling on our private boat, you will go through the entire length of the 3 connected lakes (Ba Be – means Three Bays). You will enjoy the beauty of the lake, with green water and various flora beside the river and your boat.
The boat will reach the homestay – the Bac Ngoi village– which is located close to rice fields and the lake.
If you are an active person, and don’t like to sit a long time on the boat, you can choose instead of boating by kayak activities. ( Swimming in the summer from April to September)
Sum up:
Morning: Option 1: Cycling around 10-12km National Park. The route for cycling is very nice and peaceful. You will cycle beside of rice or cornfields, river, the villages with many stilt traditional houses, and green Karst Mountain. It’s also an interesting activity when seeing the locals catching the fish along the river and enjoy the peaceful life and fresh air.
Option 2
7am: start to Hike from Coc Toc village – a village of Tay people – through the rainforest, follow the narrow trail, beside rock mountain, rice fields. Stop to visit Hmong villages and school to explore the difficult life of ethnic people in remote area.
Hiking around 14km in ~5hrs.
Then come back and transfer to Cao Bang and sleep at Phia Thap incense making village.
Reach Phia Thap community-based tourism village – the famous incense making the village. The village is surrounded by limestone pinnacles which make for spectacular scenery. Every household in this village makes incense, so you can easily see and explore the process of making incense and talk with friendly and hospitable locals here.
Sum up:
Exploring Ban Gioc waterfall and Hiking at Lung Niec village
Morning: 7:30am: Leave to Ban Gioc waterfall – visit the most beautiful and largest waterfall in Vietnam, located in the border area. You can spend ~1,5hrs for taking photo and take the boat to bottom of waterfall.
After lunch at a restaurant near waterfall, you will do a trekking trip ~10km~3-4hrs from Khuoi Ky village to Lung Niec village ( hike around the around the bottom of Nguom Ngao Cave , trek through rice field trail, trail and the remote village of Tay people – the village live far from the modern life and city.
Finish trekking trip, transfer to a homestay near Ban Gioc, a village of Tay people- well known as Horse village. From here, you feel free to enjoy the homestay asmosphere and infront of homestay is a Quay Son – green river.
After breakfast, you can walking around the peacefull frontier village, and very nice river.
On the way come back, we will visit Nui Thung – where have the special and stunning landscape of Hole mountai – Spirit Eye mountain. This land have 2 season: In dry season, it’s highland with beautiful green grass – and many horses, buffalow, cows…If you like hiking, we can arrange 3hrs hike to the hole mountain and have picnic lunch here.
In rain season ( since June to Sep), all of area is covered by water, create a nice lake. You can do boating activity here.
Then leave back to Hanoi via Lang Son province, the frontier province which long border with China and interesting history. You will enjoy the charming sceneries deeply reflecting the North Vietnam color: stunning limestone peaks, long-lasting lush paddy fields and untouched peaceful villages.
Estimate arrive Hanoi in around 6-7pm. The tour finish.
TRULLY MEMORABLE
Wow…. What can we say about the trip we have just completed with Zonitrip? We are a couple in our sixties from the UK and we like to think that we are fairly active. From the outset when Nghia and her husband picked us up from our hotel we were really well looked after and it felt more like touring with friends. All our many questions were answered in detail and Nghia’s passion and love for her country soon became apparent. We did various tours in the Northern region stopping off to see caves and waterfalls along the way. Our itinerary was totally flexible so when we saw a village festival for example, we had plenty of time to go and join in. We did a cycle ride and two really enjoyable kayaking trips where the scenery was incredible. Our accommodation was varied from nice hotels to basic, but thoroughly enjoyable “homestays”. We really enjoyed the local food which was more than plentiful and really tasty. Nghia gave us a tremendous insight into the true rural life by our “unscheduled” visits to various households who all welcomed us into their homes and showed us great hospitality.
The highlight of our trip was the day we spent on motorbikes in the Dong Van and Meo Vac region. The scenery was incredible and the whole day was great. We have some great photographs and some great memories from this whole trip. If you want to see the real Vietnam and really get off the well beaten tourist track then contact Nghia and she will put together a package for you. Many thanks to Nghia, her husband and the Zonitrip team for a trully memorable experience.
Above all expectations
I did extensive research before planning our trip and looked at multiple tours. We went with Zonitrip’s 7 day adventure tour (to Ba Be Lake, Cao Bang/Ban Gioc and Ha Giang) as it included multiple activities that aren’t organized by most other tours. This included Kayaking in Ba Be Lake or near Ban Gioc waterfall or cycling to Hua Ma Cave. There were multiple treks that our guide (Zoey) who took us to the village after village that seemed completely off the beaten track. We walked off small tiny pathways will no signs that led further and further into small villages. Often we would be walking in rice paddies and taking various shortcuts. One great unexpected experience was taking a local villagers suggestion and walking up the top of a small mountain in Phia Thap with magnificent views. it was also Zoey’s first time and was well worth the 1hr trek (up & down). Zonitrip seems to be very knowledgable on where are good places to stay and take in reviews and feedback from many others. Every place we stayed out, we were very happy and preferred the booked accommodation over others in the same village. Communication with Zonitrip was excellent before the trip had begun and we came to an agreement on which accommodation was suitable for each night and any preferences. I also told Nghia my plans to propose to my partner with certain specific requests (including organizing a bottle of champagne, booking a nice hotel with nice views/rooftop in Cao Bang, ensuring private raft/boat in Ban Gioc waterfall, etc). This was, of course, all done (and my partner said ‘yes’!). The best part of the trip was having our Driver (Chu Mi-Anh?) and our guide Zoey. The driver was excellent with 30 years of driving – we felt very safe on the hazardous roads in Ha Giang. As my partner was scared of biking in Ha Giang, we took a private car and she felt incredibly safe (unusual for her) and slept on each trip! Zoey was the best guide ever and our trip was amazing mainly because of her. She was thoughtful and very friendly and she cared for us from start to finish every day. She was very knowledgable on every aspect of the tour – where to stay, guiding treks, available activities, interacting with locals, ordering food, basically everything! We certainly felt that she understood us and accommodated for our needs. Being Vietnamese (from Australia), I understood the interactions and I would certainly recommend her as a guide and also this tour. Best 1 week holiday we’ve had.
Ba Be Lake-Ban Gioc Waterfall (4d3n)
My family had spent the wonderful days at Ba Be Lake and Ban Gioc Waterfall with Zonitrip & Ms. “Tour guide” Zoey (Tung) who was very nice, positive and friendly during our 4d3n tour.
Boating on Ba Be Lake & Ban Gioc Waterfall, bicycle to famous Hua Ma cave through very beautiful road with mountain, river and corn fields along to, visiting Ngườm Ngao cave, walking through the villages to get near to the life of people there … all made our tour to be very great.
Thank to Zonitrip & Zoey
