Product Description
Con Dao Hiking Tour is a full day tour we design for you to explore So Ray Plantation. It is located on the large island of Con Son. This area covers about 20 hectares. So Ray was formed during the French colonial period. It was the place where prisoners were exiled to reclaim and cultivate in the early 20th century. Now it is a tropical forest with rich fauna and flora system. At a height of 853 feet (260 meters) above sea level, the old lookout is also the perfect place for a panoramic view over Con Son Bay.
Map
Con Dao Hiking Tour Itinerary
You will be met up this morning with Lotussia Travel local guide at your hotel in Con Dao for a half day walking through the forest of So Ray Plantation. The place is home to rich fauna and flora species, with many big trees in the tropical forest. It is an orchard previously planted in the early 20th century. In 2002, Con Dao National Park has implemented reforestation programs, forest restoration after a typhoon damage in 1997 and planted many native fruit tree species to enrich food source for wildlife. Here you will learn more about medicinal plants, rare and endemic trees. Opportunity to enjoy fresh air and see colorful butterflies during the hike.
From the elevation of 260m at So Ray, you will have a spectacular view over the town, Con Son bay as well as other small islands of Con Dao Archipelago: Bay Canh island, Bong Lan island, Tai island.
Continue trekking to Ong Dung beach. On the way you can see ancient trees and some birds which are only found in Con Dao, such as: Imperal pigeon, Nicobar pigeon.
You arrive at Ong Dung bay at about 11:30am. It is time for relaxing, swimming and snorkeling to explore the marine life. You may have chance to see colorful reef fish, clams in the clear water.
Have lunch at Ong Dung Ranger station.
In the afternoon, visit other highlights of Con Dao such as the Ma Thien Lanh bridge, a historical relic from the colonial time. From 1930 – 1945, French regime forced Vietnamese prisoners built a bridge led to So Ong Cau to control prisoners who wanted to escape the prison. Because of hard working, there were about 356 prisoners died during the construction of the bridge which is never completed.
3:00pm: You will be picked up by car and brought back to your hotel. Tour ends.
Con Dao private guided tours
Lotussia Travel is a Hanoi tour operator offering a wide selection of multi-activity holidays in Vietnam. Options include countryside cycle, biking, road cycling, jungle trek, trekking homestay, mountain hiking, peaks climbs, motorbike, scouter touring, camping, caving expeditions, kayaking, boat trips, cruise, street food, sightseeing, culture tours. Most of our trips are private customized, and specially designed for small group tours, family vacations. The itinerary above – Salt Mountain Hike – 2 Day Itinerary is only a sample that can be further customized to fit your requirements better. Just follow it or contact us for designing your perfect adventure in Con Dao Island, Vietnam.
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Itinerary disclaimer
Occasionally our tour itineraries are updated during the year to incorporate improvements stemming from past travelers’ comments and our own research. The information given in this itinerary may be slightly different to that in the service proposal. It’s very important that you print and review a final copy of your itinerary a couple of days prior to travel, in case there have been changes that affect your plans. If you have any queries, please contact us. We are here to help you!
Please note that while we operate successful trips in Vietnam throughout the year, some changes may occur in our itineraries due to inclement weather and common seasonal changes to timetables and transport routes. This can happen with little notice so please be prepared for modifications to the route. The order and timing of included activities in each location may also vary from time to time.
Inclusions
Depending on the proposed option (semi-guide tour or all-inclusive package tour), the price may include the following services. Please bear in mind Lotussia Travel is specialized in tailor-made trips. Trip cost vary depending on group size and other details.
- Car transfers.
- Local tour guide. The English-Speaking guide is provided by default. Other language may be available upon request (with extra charge).
- Meals.
- Entrance fees.
Exclusions
Unless required most of the following services are usually not included in our tour price.
- Visa
- Flight/Train tickets.
- Accommodation.
- Tour leader.
- Local porter(s).
- International travel insurance.
- Drinks.
- Tips.
- Personal expenses.
Tour guide
Our tour guides speak English or French. They hold a university degree in tourism and national license as a guide. If you wish to send a tour leader along with any group, he or she can fully rely on the knowledge and experience of our local guides.
Remote treks are always accompanied by a local representative to deal with permits and authorities and manage the porter team. They speak the local dialects, know the cultural traditions and give tips on suggested behavior in fragile ecological areas and tribal communities. For some itineraries, the role of tour leader and representative is combined.
Driver
Our drivers don’t speak English. It’s possible that a few of them might know some basic words, such as telling time, stop, and lunch. If you’re looking for effective communication throughout the journey, we highly recommend booking a tour guide.
Trip routes
Principally, Lotussia Travel requires all the trip associates to know the destinations well by any means of traveling or enquiry to the local suppliers to figure out all the relative details of any trip. For adventure tours such as jungle trekking, mountain hiking, sea kayaking, river rafting or biking, cycling tours, Lotussia Travel will never add any new routes into available schedule until survey or pre-view it.
Accommodation
Lotussia Travel carefully choose all the hotels, guest-houses or home-stays based on service quality, location, and characteristics, doing best to make the accommodations in the remote small places as comfortable as possible. Please bear in mind that hotels in Vietnam might not be in the same standard in other country. Generally hotels in major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city, Hoian, Hue…are much better than hotels and guest-houses in mountainous areas.
Meals
Lotussia Travel take dinning as an indispensable experience to clients since it is an important part in Vietnamese culture. Therefore, Lotussia Travel will not intend take clients to the most expensive restaurants but non-touristy local ones which offer delicious, local food, with nice or interesting atmosphere. The restaurants might be simple in the country but LOTUSSIA Travel guarantee is sanitary and cleanliness. Or even on our trek, we encourage our cook offer client food with new tastes from day to day. During adventure itineraries to mountainous or remote areas, there is sometimes no choice for hotel and restaurants. We will try our best to bring you the best taste of local food.
Drinks
As the tap water in Vietnam is undrinkable, Lotussia Travel recommend clients to drink bottled water throughout your trip, or boiled water on treks. Lotussia Travel offers bottle water all the day, and soft drinks like Cola, Sprite or Vietnamese Tea or if possible juice in restaurants (if mentionned in itinerary). This is not automatically included in the packages. In simple restaurant or on camping, Lotussia Travel offers boiled water, instant coffee or juice, wrapped milk (Details are confirmed in bottom of your itinerary).
Transportation
In most destinations of Vietnam, all the roads are well paved though the traffic is quite messed up like in Hanoi, Hai Phong… We use proper vehicles, car, minibus or coach in good condition based on the size of the groups. We use 4WD only on the rough road where the other vehicles could not pass through or based on clients requirement on overland journeys or treks. For cycling itineraries, we usually use our support minibus or minibus with support truck. For sea kayaking, river rafting trips, diving packages we use standard boat as support. Detailed information is provided on our service proposal.
We use drivers who are native or local of each travel destination and maintain good safety records for all trips. Most of our drivers can speak English but a little bit. This is just enough to understand basic words such as “time of departure”, “stop”, “restaurants”, “hotels”…If you want to learn more about Vietnamese culture and information about sightseeing sites, booking a tour guide is highly recommended.
Lotussia Vietnam –
Take adequate shoes, water and strong insect repellent! Nice view on the top.