Overview

This activity is gaining popularity for good reason. The Ha Giang Loop is a road that leads through northern Vietnam, almost reaching the Chinese border. You can choose from 3 or 4-day trips with various tour companies in the area, and the cost is around $200. I cannot thank Magestic Loop Tours enough for the amazing guides and itinerary we had during this trip. It is very affordable for solo travelers and an absolute must-do if you are visiting Vietnam.

Day Zero

Our trip started late in the evening in the old quarter of Hanoi. We had a general meeting point for all of the loop travelers to meet, and a sleeper bus picked us up to take us to Ha Giang. For the most part, the tour companies will all combine tour buses and pick up people in various parts of northern Vietnam. It might cost more to get picked up from farther away, so I recommend keeping it simple by staying in Hanoi.

The trip on the sleeper bus was pretty long, about 5-6 hours of driving from Hanoi. They stopped once for the bathroom, and everyone was very respectful on the bus. I can’t say ours was the most pristine bus on the way to the loop, but on the way back, we had a nice one; it just depends on the company they use. My friend also left his wallet on the way back from the trip, and all his money got stolen, but they still returned it. Can’t say I recommend a sleeper bus, but it is cheaper than paying for a driver to take you all the way to Ha Giang. You just have to be prepared to tough it out for a couple of hours.

At about 3:30am, we got to Ha Giang and dispersed to our tour company bases to sleep for a couple more hours. They had showers, bathrooms, and a hostel-type living situation that was clean and perfectly fine for the last 3 hours of sleep we tried to get. Once we woke up, we would start the first day of the loop.

Day One

The first day of our loop trip started at about 8:30 in the morning. We had breakfast provided by the company, which was eggs, toast, and some fruit. The company was setting up the bikes and gathering guides while everyone showered and packed up their things. We could only pack our stuff in a large backpack to fit on the back of the bike, so we had another bag that the tour company held for us during our trip.

Right before we started, the tour company explained what we would do during the trip, we signed forms, and rented out helmets (and knee and elbow guards if you wanted them). We got paired up with our guides (SHOUT OUT ZUNG!) and started the trip at 10:30. We were prepared to ride until 5:30 and end the day at Dong Van.

The tour was great throughout the day, with stops at a workshop where women were using hemp to create clothing and bags, a stop at a place called “big booby mountain” (Quan Ba Heaven Gate), and lunch in Thai An.

Afterwards, we went through the Tham Ma, which was incredibly beautiful, and stopped a couple more times before reaching our hostel in Dong Van old town. Here we had a very large dinner spread, swam in the pool at the homestay, and sang karaoke with a bunch of other loop travelers for at least three hours before ending the night.

Day Two

Our second day (and my favorite day) started with a fairly early breakfast at the hostel and hopping on the bikes. We rode through Meo Vac, the Mi Pi Leng pass, and stopped at Panorama Viewpoint. I, of course, got coconut coffee at every stop we went to prior to lunch. Throughout this whole trip the most we rode on the bikes without stopping was probably 30-40 minutes, which was great because we were all getting sore from the bikes.

We then passed through Tu San defile and Mau Due, where we stopped for lunch. We were supposed to stop at a waterfall, but due to the weather, we skipped it…However, we went on a boat ride through the Nho Que River, which was by far the highlight of the trip. The views were beautiful, and it was a very peaceful 1.5-hour side quest.

We finished up the day in Du Gia and spent the night at a fun homestay where it was just our tour group. We had another great dinner, and the whole group drank a little too much “happy water”, which is a rice liquor similar to vodka, and finished the night with (you guessed it) KARAOKE.

Day 3

For our last day, we had breakfast at the homestay and traveled through the Dong Van Geopark. It was quite rainy, but the guides handled it very well, and we weren’t that bothered even when it was raining pretty hard.

In the afternoon, we stopped at Hmong King Palace, a site where two kings of the Hmong people lived: Vuong Chinh Duc and Vuong Chi Thanh. Here we learned a little about the history and got to climb around in the palace.

The weather cleared up, and we stopped at Bac Sum Pass before heading down that road. This is one of the most famous picture sites from the loop, and it has a nice market to shop at.

Side Note: There were a lot of little girls offering to braid flowers in your hair and make really beautiful flower crowns, but we were instructed not to do it. Most tourists think they are supporting the families of the girls, but if they bring in income from tourists, a lot of families will then not send their kids to school. So while it is tempting, it is better not to support them so they can get an education!

To finish up the trip, we went down the same route and pass as the first day and ended up back in Ha Giang. We said goodbye to our guides, got our deposits back, and were free to get dinner for the night. The sleeper bus came to get us around 9:30 pm and it took us back to Hanoi, where we arrived at around 3:30 in the morning.

Final Thoughts

This trip was the trip of a lifetime. The group of loopers we had was such a sweet group, and everyone just wanted to get to know each other and have a good time. The food was great, our guides were very helpful, and the itinerary was well planned out. There were a couple of things we didn’t do due to the weather, and it didn’t matter because the trip was just THAT good. The price is more than worth it, and I cannot recommend our tour company and the 3-day, 2-night itinerary enough.

To look more at the company and itinerary options, you can view the website HERE.

Ha Giang Loop