Mountains

Ha Giang

The loop everybody photographs and few forget.

The far north: limestone mountains, a road that switchbacks along the Chinese border, and markets where the surrounding valleys come down to trade.

Give it four or five days for the loop. Our suggestion, not a rule.

Go if…

  • You want the scenery that made you consider Vietnam in the first place.
  • You are comfortable on a bike for several days running — or happy to ride behind somebody who is.

Maybe not if…

  • You are not a confident rider and do not want to be a passenger. The road is the point of the place.
  • You need reliable comfort. This is the least polished thing on the list.
The bit people get wrong

People underestimate two things: how tiring several consecutive days of mountain riding is, and how cold it gets up there. Going as a passenger with a local rider is not a compromise — for most visitors it is simply the right way to do it.

Goes well with Hanoi.

These are orientation notes, not the finished guides. They carry our read on who each place suits and what people most often get wrong about it — no prices, no opening hours and no entry rules, because those are the things that go stale and we have not verified them for these places yet. Useful for deciding where to go. Not enough to book on.

The full Ha Giang guide is still being written

We are not going to publish a thin page about a place we have not researched properly. When this one is ready it will be as detailed as Ho Chi Minh City — costs, neighbourhoods, food, transport and the entry rules, every figure sourced and dated.

Read the Ho Chi Minh City guide All destinations