Hiking off the beaten path in North Vietnam

We (family with 6yo and 9yo) stayed magnificently at Ba Be jungle house in the deluxe family room. We chose this place to relax after our adventures in Ha Giang, and loved the pool against the lake.

After resting on our first day (free kayaks and bicycles available but we felt too lazy!) we decided to go on the Tham Phay cave expedition which seems to be quite the hidden gem in Vietnam. We had a great guide who led us through the lush jungles of Ba Be, crossing streams, rice paddies, bamboo forests and valley to a farm where my kids held a teeny baby goat.

The farmer (and our English speaking guide who was full of great info about local flora, fauna and life in Ba Be) then led us down into the cave, lit only by our helmet lights and torches, just us. It was beautiful and very exciting. The guides let us know the safest places to stick to. We were provided with wet bags and offered wet shoes (we brought our own) and we walked and swam through the crystal cool waters of the underground river, observing fish and insects and bats, and hanging cave worm threads. The cave formations were amazing, full of sparkles and pools, stalactites and stalagmites, waterfalls and parts yet unexplored. Pristine ancient corridors curved and arched and widened before us, carved by water. One small opening required rolling into!

After we climbed back out and dried off, we walked back to the car and went to a local home for lunch and shared a pot of tea. This experience was easily amongst the top in our Vietnam trip! I hope this cave remains protected and sustainably accessed without losing its rawness.

Mr Linh's also organised a little boat trip for us on the lake in the morning after (enchanting) as well as our transport back to Hanoi. And 2 weeks of laundry!

Thanks so much for a great experience in Ba Be.

My friend and I really enjoyed the Ha Giang Secret Trails tour. They were extremely communicative in advance of the trip and were flexible and accommodating with our agenda. It was a good mix of trekking and road time, with amazing sights all along the way. We ended up customizing the trip so that we could do the first two days on motorbikes with Easy Riders and by car the last day, which I highly recommend if you have some extra budget. (As two 50 YO dudes we thought the bike option was safe and super fun but can be hard on your arse after a couple days.). Our guide Tu Ahn was exceptional and showed us many “off the beaten track” sights. She is obviously very passionate about her job and her country. Highly recommend!

Great organised tour from pickup at our hotel and dropped backed, Good knowledge by our guide Sonny and great driving by the driver, we first got picked up and went to Ha Long bay and spent the night with 30 others from a different tour on a boat in HaLong bay, good food and tours of caves and kayaking, only negative would be the over crowded islands, went back to Hanoi for a stay at a very nice hotel, from there the next morning we got picked up by Sonny and the driver, there were only four of us on this tour, we went to the caves, waterfalls on the China border and then on to a farm stay in a village, next day on to Ba Be Lake National Park where we spent the night at a lovely guest house, next day we did a long boat trip up to a village, temple and back to the guest house for lunch and then drove back to Hanoi .The tour did a circuit of North Vietnam, it is a lot of driving but the accommodation is very good along with all the food, the driver ( sorry forgot his name) was excellent along with Sonny the guide who's local knowledge was first class, Sonny kept a eye on everything including dealings with locals making sure we weren't over charged, dealings with Linh Hue via WhatsApp was excellent from my first research via the internet in Australia, high would highly recommend this company, regards Bryan, Australian

Mr Linh's adventures were very communicative and helpful over email while organising the trip. Our guide (Mr Hoa - John) and driver (Bao) were fantastic. They were so well organised, everything ran very smoothly without feeling rushed and Bao drove very safely.