This 4-day North Vietnam Tours is customized by the Hanoi based tour operator Lotussia Travel. The overland tour includes such travel highlights as Dong Van rocky highland, Meo Vac market, open on Sunday morning. You have the opportunity to visit different hilltribe villages along the way, to spend a night at local home (homestay), to eat local food and to experience the real life. This overland tour is provided with English-speaking tour guide, basic hotel accommodation, homestay, meals, and vehicle. The best time to do this 4-day Hagiang tour is the dry season starting from October until April. Contact Lotussia Travel for more details.

Itinerary:

Day 1: Drive Hanoi – Ha Giang

8:00: You will be met up with Lotussia Travel team at your hotel in Hanoi and transferred to Ha Giang via Tuyen Quang province.

We arrive in Ha Giang around early afternoon. We will check into a local village house and have lunch. After lunch, we will have a short walk around this village.

Meeting and talking with local villagers will help you understand more the culture of the Tay ethnic group.

Dinner will be provided at the village. Overnight in a stilt house.

 Day 2: Ha Giang – Dong Van

After breakfast, we will have a short visit of the Ha Giang museum before enjoying our road trip to the Dong Van rocky highland. We make stops en route for admiring the scenery of rocky highland. If you're lucky, in the days of market fair, you'll be enjoyed the culture of highland market.

Lunch will be provided in a local restaurant in Yen Minh.

After lunch, we continue our road trip to Dong Van plateau. Stop en route for visiting a local Hmong village in Pho Cao village. We will also visit the Hmong King palace in Saphin village and have a short walk in a Lo Lo village.

After that, we come back to Dong Van town. Overnight in a local hotel.

Notes: Most of local markets are open following Vietnamese lunar calendar.

Day 3: Dong Van – Meo Vac – Ha Giang

After breakfast, we visit the Dong Van ancient town before we continue traveling to Meo Vac. We make some stops en route for admiring the scenery and taking pictures.

Arriving in Meo Vac, we visit a Lolo village. There will be possibility to attend to a traditional music show are performed by local villagers (contact your Lotussia Travel consultant for availability).

After  lunch, we travel back to Ha Giang. We arrive in Ha Giang around late afternoon. Check into a local house for dinner and overnight.

Day 4: Ha Giang – Hanoi.

Enjoy a full day drive traveling back to Hanoi. We will arrive Hanoi around mid-afternoon. End of Lotussia Travel service.

Held in spring, from 1st to 15th January of lunar calendar, on low hill with quite level topography. The ceremony consists of distinct two parts but has closely relationship. The first can not held mentioning its Gau Tao ceremony to pray for happiness and fortune. The second is the Mong’s custom. Ha Giang

One New year’s tree will be set up in the days before Tet, a wine- gourd and a piece of red cloth on its top to inform local people preparing for the festival. In fact that, this is a ritual praying for a child of the families who can not have children or families with sick members.

After the worship undertaken by wizard, there will be festival session with entertainment activities of Mong people such as dance with pan -pipe, humming – top collision, shooting cross bow , shooting bow and arrow , horse race, singing gau plenh, singing love story song, singing retort, singing trao duyen, festival singing, etc.

At the end of the festival, there will be ceremony of taking down on the neu tree and take the red cloth from the Neu tree to hang inside house to aspire to lasting happiness. “Gau tao’ festival is one typical cultural activity on Dong Van karst plateau Geopark.

Co Tien double mountain under the type of tectonic – Geomorphic heritage, located in Tam Son town, Quan Ba district, Ha Giang province. It is 47 kilometer from Ha Giang town.

 Situated at an altitude of over 1000 meters above sea level, fresh air, wild scenery, majestic nature with endlessly range of Limestone Mountains. The nature has granted here a wonderful place called “Co Tien double mountain”, it is two tops of the limestone mountain. Its shape is the same as “two breasts” of the girl, lie in the middle of the field in Quan Ba. This actually is an unique landscape of Tam Son in particular and Dong Van karst plateau Geopark in general.

“Co Tien double Mountain” is truly product of the process of leaching, erosion with regular practice in the destruction of the fault zone in Quan Ba - Huong Cha that its last phase of activity occurred about 5 million years ago. In fact that, there are many karst scene in the valley of Quan Ba, only “Co Tien double mountain” is the most beautiful and located at the most favorable position to visitors can see.

Often dubbed Vua Meo (king of H’mong), the palace’s official name is Vuong Chinh Sinh. The Hmong king ruled over a vast territory from Dong Van Plateau to Meo Vac Town. During his reign, the charismatic king attracted a lot of attention when he and other Meo residents joined forces with Ho Chi Minh to gain national freedom.

 The palace is in Sa Phin valley in Lung Phin Commune, Dong Van District Ha Giang at the base of a mountain, backed by cliffs and topped by a mass of clouds.

Tall sa moc trees surround the palace that is built from stone, fir wood and terra-cotta tiles in the Chinese architectural style of the Man Qing era.

Covering a total area of 1,120 square meters, the palace was used as a residence and fortress during the Vuong Dynasty.

The two storey, 50 meter long palace that took eight years to build has four long houses and six wide houses with 64 rooms for the king’s wives, children and soldiers.

All the walls are 50-60 centimeters thick. Surrounding it is stone barrier which is 2 meters high and 80 centimeters thick.

The palace is divided into many areas such as dining room, bed room, kitchen, marijuana store, rooms of his wives, a prayer altar and an area for criminal executions.

No one lives at the palace anymore but it has been well maintained by the provincial government. It contains wardrobes, fireplace, beds, flour-mill, crossbow and pan-pipe.

Still largely un-restored the palace is a great place to learn about the province’s interesting history.
   

The Dong Van plateau was recognized by the UNESCO as one of the 77 geological parks in the world and the second in Southeast Asia on October 3. The park covers four districts of Meo Vac, Dong Van, Yen Minh and Quan Ba, Ha Giang totaling over 2,300sq.km, with nearly 250,000 residents. Up to 80 percent of the plateau is covered by limestone.

 Scientists have discovered 40 locations which have special values in terms of natural resources in Dong Van.

Dong Van is home to nearly 20 ethnic groups, with diverse cultures and traditions, which make the plateau an interesting destination for tourists/visitors.

Day 1: Hanoi – Ha Giang

You will be met up by Lotussia Travel guide, driver and transferred to Ha Giang province. Enjoy natural landscape and green fields, palm hill and villages. Passing Tuyen quang town, you can visit village of black Tay minority. Arrive Ha Giang town in the late afternoon you’ll arrive at Me village – a hometown of Tay people. Remainder of the day for wandering to peaceful village and having dinner and spend the night in a family’s stilt house.

 Day 2: Ha Giang – Yen Minh – Meo Vac – Dong Van

After breakfast, you’ll drive to the small communities of Yen Minh via Quan Ba pass. Today is a real challenge however the breath-taking scenery makes the hardship all worthwhile. Take a 2-hour easy trek to visit villages of Tay and Dzay people enroute before lunch in Yen Minh. In the afternoon, heading to Dong Van via Ma Pi Leng pass. This is one of the best photo stop to enjoy the wonderful sightseeing of this vast limestone mountain range and perpendicular walls of rock, which brings one a feeling of adventure whilst being lost in the rocky h ighlands . Check-in a local guest house in Dong Van. Your guide will show you the Dong Van Old Streets located by the market. You’ll spend the night in Dong Van.

Day 3: Dong Van – Yen Minh – Quan Ba

Breakfast in Dong Van then leave for the Vuong’s Palace. The building used to belong to a King of H’mong people during the French domination. The palace attracts keen interest from architecturally minded visitors due to it mixed style of European and Chinese architecture. You might catch up a weekly market frequented the ethnic minority enroute.Late in the afternoon, you’ll call at in a a flax weaving village before arriving at a guest house in Quan Ba for overnight accommodation.

Day 4: Quan Ba – My Lam hot spring-Tuyen Quang

Breakfast outside of hotel. Local guide says good bye to you, we return to Tuyen Quang, we stop some interest points. Go to My Lam for some hours at leisure at Hot spring. Check in hotel in Tuyen Quang town. Free time to explore the town & afternoon market.

Day 5  Tuyen Quang – Viet Tri – Ha Noi

Breakfast at hotel. Transfer to Ha Noi on No.2 national road. Arrive Vietri – an industrial city, taking break half an hour. We reach to Ha Noi after 4 hours from Tuyen Quang. Free time.
End of our service.