This Ha Giang Amazing Tour 5 days – is a perfect combination of hiking/trekking with cultural exploring.
Ha Giang is known with “Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark written in the UNESCO World Heritage List and it is home to 17 ethnic groups in mountain North Vietnam.
It is a wonderful destination with majestic landscape mountain, breathtaking natural and colorful local culture. You will have an unforgettable experience on the hiking path, enjoyable scenery and experience the true rural life. This tour is designed for active travelers and photographers.
You will be pick up & drop off by a private car from Hanoi, so if you don’t want to have any hassle when traveling by sleeping night bus or public transportation, this tour is perfectly customized for you.
This Ha Giang trip will have the average hiking time around 5-6hrs per day with distance ~5-15km/day, change the elevation from 500-1500m on the flat and hilly road, sometimes have the steep rock road. It’s flexible hiking level from easy to moderate, so if you don’t have trekking experience, don’t worry, you just need to prepare good health and good condition.
Noi Bai International Airport (Google Map)
Your hotel in Hanoi
Itinerary at a glance
Day 1: Hanoi – Ha Giang city ( 300km)
Day 2: Ha Giang – Quan Ba – Dong Van ( 140km)
Day 3: Dong Van – Ma Pi Leng Meo Vac ( driving ~10km, trekking ~17km)
Day 4: Meo Vac – Quan Ba ( 110km)
Day 5: Quan Ba– Hanoi ( 350km)
7:30 am, Our guide will pick-up you from your hotel in Hanoi, start to go to Ha Giang city.
Around 14h, you will arrive Thon Tha village –5km from Ha Giang city- a peaceful village of Tay ethnic people who always live in a stilt-house thatched roof. We can spend around 2-3hrs this afternoon for Hiking in Thon Tha village – through the amazing rice fields, the palm forests, waterfall, and villages to explore the local life & culture of Tay people, their farming work as well as the natural. Far away from the crowds and experience a homestay in a traditional Vietnamese Tay home. Learn and participate in the Ha Giang village life and truly feel the warmth and hospitality of these incredibly nice people.
Eating and sleeping in stilt house of Tay homestay.
Summary:
+Transfer by car: 300km, around 6hrs
+ Hiking type: Easy, around 5-8km in 2-3hrs.
After breakfast, you will transfer by car to the Quan Ba heaven gate, located 40km far from Ha Giang city. We start hiking from here to the Nam Dam village – the inhabited by Dao ethnic people (long dress Dao group). The locals still keep their traditional customs, habits & culture from ancient times. Beautiful hiking trails through the verdant and hill, seasonal farmlands, the vista view of villages and lake. You will have a chance to see the local traditional house made of compacted soil which protects people from the extreme weather in the high mountain. You are welcomed to visit the houses whose owners are very friendly and hospitable. As you walk in the village, you will have the opportunity to observe the daily life of the Dao people.
Leaving Nam Dam village, our driver will transfer you to Dong Van. Our trip through the stunning winding roads, majestic karst mountains, old traditional villages in tiny valleys. It’s once again a very enjoyable ride today that you will see an amazing mountain view of the Rock Plateau.
Stop and visit the infamous Vuong Palace, who was considered the King of the Hmong People in Dong Van, Ha Giang. Their residence was built in the scenic valley of Sa Phin with Chinese, Hmong and Frence architecture. You will explore the history of Hmong people in Dong Van in the French colonic period – the special frontier area.
Sleep: If you want to experience sleep in the homestay of Hmong people, explore their culture via learning their traditional music dance, wearing their traditional clothes, we will arrange sleep in Hmong Dong Van homestay.
If you want to have a comfortable and private room in the Hotel, we will book a room in the hotel 2-3star in Dong Van.
Summary:
+Transfer by car: ~130km, around 4hrs
+ Hiking difficulty: Gentle(2/5), with distance around ~12km in 4hrs.
Morning: hiking trip around Dong Van town to Ta Lung or Thien Huong village.
Hike up through the Rock Mountains, follow a sketchy and narrow local path, pass hill tribe villages in tiny valleys. You will meet the H’mong local ethnic minorities. We can explore their real-life of local people in the Vietnam high mountain area. Their life is very simple and poor they are very hardworking, and they still keep unique traditional culture through their colorful clothing, house, music and custom.
It’s one of the interesting things beside enjoy natural scenery in Zonitrip’s hiking tour.
The picnic lunch will be served on the road or try the local meal at the local house.
Afternoon: Trekking on the Sky Path – the path lies on the Rock mountain and rural village.
8:00 am, after breakfast, transfer by car from Dong Van to the bottom of Ma Pi Leng pass and start to trekking.
The adventure trekking path is located on the hazardous Karst mountains, run along Ma Pi Leng pass – also known as the “Sky path”. This steep rocky path goes through limestone cliffs, narrow road, Hmong villages and cornfields in the tiny valleys. From above, you can admire the extremely majestic scenery of the limestone mountains and the green Nho Que river which cuts through the valley below. The viewpoints on Sky path is a perfect place for taking the great photos.
After 2,5-3hrs trekking, you will reach the main road and be transferred to a homestay in Meo Vac.
Summary:
+Transfer by car: around 10km
+ Hiking type: Moderate (3/5), around 15km, in 6-7 hrs, the steep is over 10-15%
If it’s Sunday, you can have a chance to enjoy the unique and special local Market in Meo Vac, it’s held on Sunday and be called SUNDAY MARKET. There are very colorful and various cultures of ethnic minorities, it will be a special experience for you.
After that, we will do a boating trip to Nho Que river. It’s located in the bottom of Ma Pi Leng pass with Tu San canyon – it’s a new interesting destination in your Ha Giang tour. Tu San canyon is considered the deepest and most unique canyon in Vietnam. The best way to explore the Tu San is by boat, where you will be surrounded by the cool green water and immersed in the quiet and fresh atmosphere of the valley. You will be enchanted by the overwhelming presence of the towering mountains on both sides of the river.
You will hike down from the main road to the bottom of the river, follow the steep and narrow rock road, sit on the boat and enjoy the poetic beauty with the green color of Nho Que river. You can jump to swim to relax after a long day.
P/s: You can choose KAYAK activity instead of boating.
Leave Nho Que river, on the way come back to Nam Dam village, we will visit The Lung Cu National Flag Tower. It’s considered as the North Point of Vietnam – located in the border bell with China. Before reach Lung Cu, we will see the majestic scenery of Rock Plateau. We are rewarded with a brilliant backdrop of picturesque valleys covered in rice paddies. After visiting the tower, you will visit the cultural village of Lo Lo people – one of the minority ethnic people in the Frontier area. You can try to wear their colorful traditional clothes.
After lunch, you will be transferred to Nam Dam village of Dao people in Quan Ba.
Sleep in a homestay of Dao people.
(P/s: If you want to upgrade the accommodation, you can choose to book a private room in Dao Lodge )
Summary:
+Transfer by car: around 110 km in 3-4hrs
+ Hiking type: Easy (1/5), Although the hiking time is short 30min -1hrs but the ascending road is quite steep
7:30 am, After a local breakfast, we take a small hike trekking down to Lung Tam village – where Mong ethnic people live. You can learn the way to make the traditional craft and clothes by hemp and draw the pattern by bee wax of Hmong people. It takes around 2hrs.
P/s: Option 2: Light trekking or relaxing around the Nam Dam village to explore the local life before coming back to Hanoi.
This is followed by our return journey to Hanoi, arriving around 6 pm
Drop you off at your hotel & say goodbye our guide. Tour the end./.
P/s: The itinerary can change according to your requirement
Culture, Beauty, Exercise ABOVE the Ha Giang Loop
My wife and I had a fantastic experience trekking on a private tour with our guide Nghia and a conscientious driver. We arrived in Ha Giang without any plans (as opposed to booking from Hanoi as I believe most people do). Initial intention was to do an easyrider motorbike tour of the Ha Giang Loop since that appeared to be the best way to see the beautiful, mountainous countryside – according to most of the tour company sites we looked at. However, since we are both around 60 and love to hike (and my wife wasn’t thrilled about riding on the back of a motorbike on winding mountain roads), we were excited when we found Zonitrip in a google search and reached out to book a private hiking tour for the two of us. While our tour followed the basic clockwise eastern HG loop, when Nghia learned that we wanted to do a lot of hiking, she very quickly and flexibly set up several days during the tour that we would do more than 10km/day of hiking into some of the remote Hmong and Tay villages; many of them WAY above the busy, noisy motorbike traffic on the main road below. Nghia speaks English very well and is very knowledgeable about many cultural and historical customs of the ethnic mountain peoples. We developed a great appreciation of how these villagers live, getting some great exercise while viewing the unbelievably beautiful landscapes. If you’re into doing more than just riding a motorbike around the HG Loop, I can’t recommend Zonitrip and Nghia enough!
The best trip in our life
We have 5 days with Nghia in province Ha Giang. We have visited three different ethnic groups and stayed over nights in their Homestay type if accommodation. The trip was prepared and handled excellent way. Nghia has provided outstanding service for our family (consider we have travel with two children 10 and 13 years old) and all our wish has been full filled immediately. She responded and adjusted the trip even during the day when our son wished to go for fishing to give us unforgettable experience and really wonderful time. This trip was for all of us just like dream, she took us on places in mountains where we never could get or even think of, also by using local tour guide knowing the language of the small ethnic families. Every day was full of adventure however we felt absolutely save thanks to highly professional care of our tour guide Nghia. We will never forget all the nature, beauty and detail information about the real life of the small communities in mountains in North Vietnam close to China border. We had lots of fun on the trip and we hope to return as soon as possible to this wonderful region and we will definitely use the Nghia’ s service again.
Amazing Experience
My 3 days in Ha Giang were an amazing experience. I took over 300 pictures, walked around a Hmong village and stayed overnight in with a Lo Lo family. My tourguide, Kien was the best and extremely kind. We talked a lot about philosophy and tourism and the history of Vietnam. The facilities were CLEAN and COMFORTABLE. I was worried because I paid in full before the trip and I read so many horror stories. However, Nghia and Kien were so honest and kind. Them – along with the Hmong and Lo Lo people I met – really showed the goodness and hospitality that is truly in Vietnam. I will carry this experience with me and I hope they know how memorable this was for me.
