Day 1: Hanoi – Arrival
Welcome by the driver of Vietnam Evasion at the airport, transfer to the city center, installation at the hotel.
The rest of the day is free for rest and personal discovery at your own pace. We can walk around easily because the hotel is located in the heart of the old quarter. The streets are very animated, populated and commercial. A complete change of scenery.
Night at hotel
Day 2: Hanoi (B)
The whole day is dedicated to the visit of Hanoi, a fascinating and multifaceted city.
After breakfast, we will visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum where the father of the nation rests and the pagoda with the unique pillar. Let's continue by the temple of literature, first national university, where we discover the madarin contest and Confucianism.
Ensuite, le musée d’ethnographie (fermé tous les lundis) qui présente les traditions, cultures et tenues traditionnelles des 54 minorités ethniques du Vietnam.
Then, the Ethnography Museum (closed every Monday) which presents the traditions, cultures and traditional dress of the 54 ethnic minorities of Vietnam.
A walk in the streets of old Hanoi lined with small typical houses with lively activities that allows to see the daily life of the locals.
Night at hotel
Day 3: Hanoi - Thac Ba Lake, boat (B, D)
Road to Thac Ba lake winds between the mountains, stops in the villages of minority tribes, meeting the inhabitants, discovery of the daily life of the locals before reaching the home of the inhabitant located in a beautiful isolated village next to the largest lake of the country Thac Ba, landscape both wild and beautiful.
Visit on the way the tea fields.
Boat trip on the lake to discover the traditional fishing method of the local ethnic minorities in a beautiful landscape half aquatic, half terrestrial with 1331 islands covered with Acacia forest, reforestation to make plywood. Several ethnic minorities live from fishing and farming on the lake shore.
3h30 driveNight at homestay (Stilt House)
Day 4: Lac Thac Ba – Nghia Lo, bicycle (B, D)
Departure by car to reach the Muong Lo basin where the town of Nghia Lo is located. This trip allows us to admire the landscapes and villages in remote places with few tourists.
Muong Lo is a large rice granary in the northwest and the home of the Thai ethnic group. Here, for hundreds of years, the local people have been growing flooded rice and building their traditional wooden and bamboo stilt houses.
An easy bike ride reveals the first discoveries of the Thai culture and daily life.
3h30 by carNight at homestay
Day 5: Nghia Lo – Mu Cang Chai (B, D)
Departure for Mu Cang Chai through spectacular mountain scenery, sumptuous rice terraces. The rice fields here are the most beautiful in the country. This road is nicknamed as "photographers road".
Several stops to take pictures and meet local people in Tu Le, La Pan Tan and Che Cu Nha.
Superb view and splendid landscape
Possibility to meet Mong women working with linen on their traditional looms.
Still by car, we continue along the mountain range, going from surprise to surprise.
2 hours of walking to discover the landscapes and the life of the local people. We cross rice fields to reach the isolated villages.
2h30 by carNight in a bungalow
Day 6: Mu Cang Chai – Sa Pa (B)
After breakfast, a rather steep climb awaits us in the Hoang Lien Son range composed of the highest mountains in Indochina.
Meeting with many Daos, Thais and Mongs peasants, always in traditional costumes. The road winds up to the highest pass of Vietnam (2047 m). Stop at the pass to enjoy the coolness and admire the Fan Si Pan mountain (3143 m), roof of Indochina.
Arrival in Sa Pa around noon.
Perched at an altitude of 1600 m, near the Sino-Vietnamese border, Sa Pa is the starting point for various excursions in the middle of nature. Overlooking huge rice terraces and vast green valleys, this former colonial highland resort hosts an important market that attracts thousands of Black Hmong and Red Dzao mountain people every morning.
Visit the multi-ethnic market of Sa Pa.
Afternoon :
We visit the village Y Linh Ho, far from mass tourism, consists of mountains, hills, covered with greenery including rice terraces and vast valleys, dotted with fields and hamlets, populated by the Black Mong minorities.
The driver will look for us at the end of the route for the return to Sa Pa.
4 hours of driving
Night at hotel
Day 7: Sa Pa – Bac Ha (B, D)
Morning, visit of the Ham Rong public garden.
Afternoon, transfer to Bac Ha.
Stop en route to walk in the typical Ma Tra village (1h30) with black Mong people. Walk through the beautiful rice terraces with wooden houses where the locals raise buffalos, black pigs, chickens..., meet the local people.
2h30 drive
Night at homestay
Day 8: Bac Ha (B, D)
Visit a colorful weekly market of the region where the different tribes of the surrounding mountains gather. Each ethnic minority wears its own traditional costumes and speaks its own language. The atmosphere is particularly picturesque: the mountain people in their colorful traditional clothes go to the market with their horses, agricultural products and children. These ethnic minorities coming from far away hamlets sell animals (buffaloes, oxen, pigs, dogs, horses...), fruits, vegetables, forest products, basketry objects, clothes... The market is not only a place of commercial exchanges but also a place of reunion and meetings. An authentic place where the locals still preserve their culture and traditions.
Back to Bac Ha for a walking tour to discover the splendid natural landscapes, the culture and the daily life of several tribes of the region. The hike starts on a nice path through a picturesque valley. The green vegetable gardens, corn fields, rice terraces unfold peacefully.
The easy hike continues in the middle of the mountains. We will pass over hills where green tea, corn and plum trees grow. You will enjoy the quietness of this remote area far from mass tourism.
Night at homestay
Day 9: Bac Ha - Hanoi (B)
Then back to Hanoi, we leave the mountains with regrets.
This trip allows you to observe the villages, the Vietnamese countryside and the beautiful landscapes.
6-7h drive
Night at hotel
Day 10: Hanoi – Lan Ha Bay cruise (B, L, D)
Morning departure for Cat Ba Island via Hai Phong
For the cruise, we do not propose the Halong Bay cruise, too touristic, but we propose to do it in Lan Ha Bay, very little frequented, much wilder and as beautiful on a small comfortable junk.
Around noon, boarding on a traditional junk for an extraordinary excursion to Lan Ha Bay from Cat Ba, outside the traditional circuits. Lunch is served on board while the junk sails along the turquoise water. Visit the floating villages of fishermen, islands and islets, "sugar loafs and peaks" of all shapes and sizes emerge from the emerald water surface.
During this cruise, we discover this immense chaos of karstic mounts, caves, lagoons with all these ghostly forms that we see from far away.
We kayak in a quiet place between the limestone creeks.
At the end of the afternoon, the boat drops anchor to spend the night in the bay in a quiet place away from the tourist crowd. It is then possible to take a bath in the middle of the sea or on a beautiful quiet isolated beach or to rest on the upper deck.
Dinner is taken on the junk in the middle of an idyllic landscape
3h30 driveNight on board
Day 11: Lan Ha Bay cruise – Ninh Binh (B, L)
Morning: We wake up early to watch the sunrise over Lan Ha Bay.
Then we will continue our cruise in this bay by sailing through the thousands of "sugar loaves" emerging from the waves. We will have the impression to be in a world of fossilized animals millions of years ago.
Bike ride in the beautiful village of Viet Hai on a small path between fields and limestone peaks.
Return of the cabins around 10:00 am.
Early lunch in the form of brunch on board.
We disembark at the end of the morning, transfer to Ninh Binh
4 hours driveNight at hotel
Day 12: Ninh Binh – Hanoi (B)
In the morning, we embark on a small boat with oars (1h30 of boat) to discover the caves of Tam Coc. We pass under the successive tunnels carved by the passage of water. Fairy-like atmosphere in the middle of the peaks and limestone sugar loaf, a natural landscape made of karst mountains overhanging an exceptional aquatic landscape.
Then, cycling along the small local road through villages, between rice fields and a limestone forest around Tam Coc until Hai Nham, Thung Nham, stop to visit the Bich Dong pagoda and then the Thai Vi temple.
Visit of Dinh and Le temples at the ancient capital Hoa Lu.
Return to Hanoi
2 hours drive
Night at hotel
Day 13: Hanoi – Return Flight (B)
Free time until transfer by our driver to the airport for your return flight.
