3-Day Ba Be National Park Discovery Tour from Hanoi

We were collected punctually from our hotel in Hanoi and transported by mini-bus to the Ba Be National Park - a 5hr drive. Along the way our guide for the trip began to pass on his knowledge of Vietnam history, culture, commerce, geography etc. He was very engaging and friendly and continually passed on snippets of information throughout our 3 days with him. His English vocabulary was excellent although it did take us a little while to tune in to his pronunciation. We stopped for lunch half way and the guide joined us to explain the many traditional dishes we were brought. The surroundings for lunch were basic but the food was delicious. We stayed at Mr Linh's homestay, more of a small hotel really than a true family home, but clean, comfortable and very welcoming. Our main activities were a 15k forest Trek, visiting local family homes in the mountains, then a boat trip up Ba Be Lake to Puong Cave. All very well organised and everyone we met so happy and welcoming. We had a thoroughly immersive experience and after returning to Hanoi our guide met us again in the evening to enjoy a few beers and a meal with us - a very kind gesture.

This was an amazing experience, I’m so happy we used Mr Linh’s for our trip to Ba Be Lake! Our tour guide, Tran Minh Phuc, was an excellent guide who drove us there, made sure we were comfortable and happy, talked and ate with us, and made the trip so easy. I recommend Ba Be as a short trip out if Hanoi, it was absolutely beautiful. We took a small boat from the entrance to the park to the hotel in the water, navigating through a cave and seeing some breathtaking views. On the last day we climbed up to a dry cave entrance and down into the cave where there were both natural and carved sculptures to see. All around fantastic experience!

•our guide didn’t speak English well and didn’t get what we wanted to ask him so we just needed to guess by ourselves sometimes •description on website about trek length was wrong. First trek was much harder than second trek and longer than 7km. There are some dangerous paths that are quite slippery or narrow and possibilities of fall off the cliff or into river, trekking in the rain. These should be rewrite or mentioned on the website. •at Linh’s homestay, Vietnamese tourists started doing loud karaoke at dinner time and ruined peaceful lake atmosphere. We were very unlucky. Except for those Tour was amazing. Especially first night’s homestay at Hung’s homestay. Worth waking up all the way to stay there. Dishes were all homemade and organic, best food ever we had after living in Vietnam for years. Swimming in Babe lake is must.