Product Description
North Vietnam Tour is one of our 3 days multi-activity tour that includes trekking, cycling. The tour starts from Hanoi, takes you to Mai Chau valley, Kenh Ga village, Hoa Lu, Tam Coc, Ninh Binh.
Map of North Vietnam Tour
Day-To-Day Itinerary
Day 1: Hanoi – Mai Chau.
7:00 AM: you will be met up with Lotussia Travel team at your hotel in Hanoi. Depart for Hoa Binh province and up then to Mai Chau valley. This scenic drive takes around four hours. Along the way we pass fields of tapioca and sugar cane as well as rice paddies. Some stops may be made en route for you to take picture before you arrive in Mai Chau village around noon. Lunch will be provided in a local stilt house (home-hosted lunch). In the afternoon, leave the village for a half day walking around. You will pass by different Thai hamlets, through rice fields, hill sides…You will stop by some local houses to talk with local people to understand their customs and culture. In the evening, assist to the traditional music and dance show which is performed by The Thai young girls and boys who all come from this village. Try some rice alcohol made of traditional plants and local sticky rice. Overnight in Mai Chau.
Day 2: Mai Chau – Ninh Binh.
After breakfast, depart for Ninh Binh which is around 150 km from Mai Chau. The 4-hour drive takes you through paddy fields, rural hamlets of Hoa Binh and Ninh Binh provinces. Some part of the direct road is under maintainance. You will arrive in Kenh Ga around noon. Lunch will be served in a local restaurant with specialties of the region. After lunch, enjoy the boat trip along the beautiful “Chicken River”. Set on the banks of the Hoang Long River, Kenh Ga is a remarkable place, not only because it is surrounded by the same massive rocks that dominate Hoa Lu, but also because for most of the year the entire community lives on the water itself. The floating village of Kenh Ga receives relatively few visitors compared to nearby Tam Coc and the peoples’ aquatic way of life has changed little over the centuries. After the boat trip, you may want to have a short walk to experience more the local life before getting on your car again for a short drive to the luxury Emeralda resort where you will have dinner and the spend the night.
Day 3: Ninh Binh – Hanoi.
After breakfast, you will be transferred to Hoa Lu where you will visit the Dinh and Le sanctuaries. These are the two remaining temples of the ancient citadel of Hoa Lu. The first is dedicated to Dinh Tien Hoang (also known as Dinh Bo Linh), an Emperor from the Dinh Dynasty. The second commemorates the rulers of the Le Dynasty. After visiting these two temples, you will move on to Tam Coc enjoying one hour cycling through rice fields and peaceful countryside villages. Arriving in Tam Coc, take a three-hour boat trip along the Boi River. This area is rightly often referred to as the “Ha Long Bay on land” due to the similar topography. Alternative option is to take a two-hour boat trip in Thung Nang (less touristy). Discuss with your guide on the spot and let him/her know your preferred option. Lunch will be provided in a local restaurant in Tam Coc. After lunch, you may want to enjoy some more bicycle ride to vitist either Thai Vy temple or Bich Dong pagoda before traveling back to Hanoi. Upon your arrival in Hanoi, you will be dropped off at your hotel. Trip ends.
Vietnam private tours
Lotussia Travel is a Hanoi tour operator offering a wide selection of multi-activity holidays in Vietnam. Options include countryside cycle, mountain biking, road cycling, jungle trek, trekking homestay, mountain hiking, peaks climbs, motorbike, scouter touring, camping, caving expeditions, kayaking, boat trips, cruise, sightseeing, culture tours. Most of our trips are private customized, and specially designed for small group tours, family vacations. The itinerary above – North Vietnam Tour is only a sample that can be further customized to better fit your requirements. Just follow it or contact us for designing your perfect adventure.
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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.
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