Hiking in the land of the Tay ethnic group

Hanoi arrival - Walks & rest (D)

Your guide will meet you at the airport and take you directly to the city center for your first contact with the capital of Vietnam.

You will visit different sites or stroll through the Old Quarter of Hanoi (depending on your arrival time). Whatever your choice, you will be captivated by the life of the Old Quarter and you will not stop taking photos!

Transfer and check-in at the hotel. Free time. Welcome dinner and overnight in Hanoi.

Hanoi – City tour (B/L/D)

After breakfast, a full day of discovery awaits:
Let's start with the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex on Ba Dinh Square and visit the stilt house where this Vietnamese icon lived, to better understand the life of a great man whose life was very modest.

The famous One Pillar Pagoda will surprise you with its original construction. The legendary story of its birth will intrigue you just as much.
Then visit the Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucius and his disciples. A haven of calm amidst the noise of Hanoi, it was the first Vietnamese university to be established in the 11th century. It trained generations of civil servants until 1915! Even today, it is the preferred place for students to celebrate their graduations.

In the afternoon, at the Museum of Ethnology, you will get acquainted with the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. The visit takes place both indoors and outdoors with its reconstructions of houses and funerary monuments.

Have you ever ridden a cyclo-pousse? You must try it urgently in the Old Quarter and its small shopping streets! A pleasant and lively crowd bath guaranteed!

At the end of the day, find a calmer atmosphere in the Jade Temple, in the middle of the Lake of the Restored Sword. The giant turtle in this temple will tell you its legend...

In the evening, let yourself be touched by the water puppet show, a typical Vietnamese folk art, created by a monk. Dinner at a local restaurant and overnight in Hanoi.

Hanoi – Thai Nguyen – Ba Be (B/L/D)

In the morning, we set off for Ba Be (the three lakes).

After a 240 km journey from Hanoi along the road lined with tea fields and stilt houses, we arrive in the Tay region (or Tho).

Ba Be National Park is one of the calmest and most appreciated in Northern Vietnam.
This water reservoir is picturesque and charming with its waterfalls, rivers, valleys, and caves over an area of 500 ha.

Dinner and overnight at a homestay.

Cruise on Ba Be Lake (B/L/D)

The lake is located in a large national reserve where more than 417 plant species, 299 mammal breeds, 11 bird species are protected...
A boat cruise on the lake to the Dau Dang waterfalls will convince us of the preserved beauty of the place. On the way back, the boat accesses a large cave (Puong cave) where thousands of bats live, greeting us with their unmistakable whistles.

Lunch is prepared by the lake in a small Tay hut.

Ba Be is also the land of the H'mong and Red Yao.
We meet them in the afternoon in their homes. They still lead a self-sufficient life and maintain ancestral ways of life.

Overnight with the Tay in their stilt house, dinner is prepared by the women.

Ba Be – Cao Bang – Walks (B/L/D)

After breakfast with the Tay, we set off for Cao Bang. The beautiful road heads towards the Bao Lac pass (Wind Pass), a stop at its summit offers thrilling sensations.

We meet the Thos (Tay) and Yao Tien along the road, the women walk to the market, they are smiling and ask us: "Where are you from?" "Is our country beautiful?".
Arrival in Cao Bang around noon.
After lunch, we continue our excursion to Pac Bo, a border region with China with a very complex relief of karst peaks covered with vegetation. It was Ho Chi Minh's first refuge in 1941, after 30 years abroad, and also the first military base of the Viet Minh during the Indochina War.

Dinner at a local restaurant and overnight at the hotel in Cao Bang.

Cao Bang – Trek to Tra Linh and Na Rai (B/L/D)

Heading north, towards the Chinese border. We will cross the Ma Phuc pass (the kneeling horse) - this magnificent pass imprints in our memory all the wild beauty of the Northeast.

Stop at Tra Linh, a small border town where we have lunch.

Then we begin our hike with an easy walk to the village of Na Ma, the houses face a superb green valley surrounded by limestone peaks, on the mountainside.
We will have the opportunity to meet the minorities in indigo clothes: Tay, Yao and Nung. Dinner and overnight at a homestay.

Na Rai – Quang Uyen (B/L/D)

Today, an excursion through a superb karst region dotted with small lakes. The trail crosses forests, beautiful valleys, terraced rice fields and a river.
We admire the grandiose and poetic nature at Nui Thuong and Quang Ngoc. Lunch during the walk.

Late afternoon, we arrive in Quang Uyen. Dinner and overnight homestay.

Quang Uyen – Kong Hau (B/L/D)

Our bus transfers us to the village of Thong Hoe, the journey takes an hour along a beautiful mountain road. In Thong Hoe, we begin our day's walk along the Nam La river, the path crosses rice fields then goes over hills from where we have superb views of the river and waterfalls.
Lunch during the walk.
Late afternoon, we arrive at the village of Kong Hau in the Halang district.
Dinner and overnight homestay.

Kong Hau – Rang Hoai (B/L/D)

Departure in the morning from the village of Kong Hau to the village of Rang Hoai, where nature is particularly beautiful: sugar cane plantations as far as the eye can see... Karst peaks surrounded by forests dotted with a succession of waterfalls... Kilometers of intact and wild nature, a true hiker's delight!

We arrive at the village of Rang Hoai after a journey of approximately 18 kilometers.
Dinner and overnight homestay.

Rang Hoai – Ta Lung – Lang Son (B/L/D) (Guide + Driver)

Our last trek today crosses sugar cane plantations, waterwheels and rice fields. We arrive at the village of Phuc Hoa around 10 am. From this village, we access the Sino-Vietnamese border post (10 kilometers from Rang Hoai). Visit of the border then we continue by colonial road N°4 to Lang Son.

We pass through the Dong Khe basin, surrounded by karst peaks. Dong Khe and then That Khe were noted in books recounting the Indochina War as the bloodiest battlefields in 1950.
The scattered blockhouses along the road are silent witnesses to the battles.

In the late afternoon, we arrive in Lang Son, a border region with China; smuggling flourished and thus prosperity was born for this city in 1988.
Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Lang Son.

Lang Son – Dong Mo – Bac Giang (B/L/D)

In the morning, we visit the city of Lang Son: its shopping streets, its Dong Dang market which is stocked with Chinese goods, then we head towards the historic caves of Tam Thanh and Nhi Thanh before taking national road N1 to the border gate between the two provinces of Bac Giang and Quang Ninh.
Arrival in Dong Mo, overnight with a family near Ngo Don.

Bac Giang – Ha Long Bay (B/L/D)

Morning trek passing by Yen Tu mountain. (Allow 3 hours of walking).
Visit of the Yen Tu Pagoda and then we take the cable car down to the Quang Ninh side, then, picked up by car, we head for Ha Long Bay.
Arrival in Ha Long around noon, embarkation on a boat for a 5-hour cruise.
Seafood lunch on board.

"The eighth wonder of the world" deserves its nickname! This extraordinary landscape consists of nearly three thousand islets and limestone peaks with fantastic shapes: turtle, sampan sail etc... scattered in the emerald water over an area of 1,500 km².

Stop at the "Surprise Cave". Mysterious atmosphere amidst thousands of stalagmites and stalactites... After the cave, climb to the summit of Titov islet or, for the less athletic, relax on the beach for a swim if the weather permits.

The sunset viewed from the upper deck of the junk is one of the privileged moments of this tour... Seafood dinner and overnight on board.

Ha Long Bay – Ha Noi (B/L)

After breakfast, we continue the cruise in the bay, leaving behind very beautiful landscapes, but even the best things come to an end! We still take the time for an early Brunch on board.

Return to Hanoi with stops to visit a ceramics workshop and a training school for traditional Vietnamese crafts then transfer to Ha Noi airport for your return flight (After collecting your luggage at your hotel).