Cat Ba National Park trekking tours (2 days)

The overnight trekking tour is provided in Cat Ba National park, Cat Ba island, Hai Phong province, northern Vietnam. Begin your two-day adventure with a car transfer from Hanoi to Hai Phong where you take a speed boat to get Cat Ba island. Those traveling on budget can take public shuttle bus departing from Luong Yen bus station. The hiking adventure starts as you walk from Cat Ba national park entrance, through the park, jungle forest to Viet Hai village, located on a valley. You follow a small hiking trail that is available only during the dry season. The tour can be extended with a short bicycle ride from the village to the boat pier on the following day. A kayaking trip is also an alternative option while travelling from Viet Hai village back to Cat Ba town. The two-day tour is provided with private vehicle, experienced English-speaking tour guide, homestay. Contact Lotussia Travel for more details.
Itinerary:

Day 1: Hanoi – Hai Phong – Cat Ba – Viet Hai village.

You will be met up with Lotussia Travel team at your hotel in Hanoi and transferred to Hai Phong (early departure). On arrival in Hai Phong, you will take a speed boat and travel to Cat Ba Island.Arrive in Cat Ba town, enjoy a short walk in Cat Ba town. Visit the local market, the tourist quarter and fishing village. Then have lunch in a local restaurant in town.After lunch, you will be transferred by motor-taxi to Cat Ba National park from where you will begin a 4-hour challenging hike through Cat Ba National Park and up to one of the mountain summits. The park is located approximately 30 km east of Haiphong, covering about 263 km² and comprising 173 km² land and 90 km² of inshore water. Cat Ba National Park is a special-use forest in Vietnam, the world’s biosphere reserve. Cat Ba National Park of Cat Hai district, Hai Phong.
The 18km hiking trails ends at Viet Hai village.
Check into a local lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 2: Viet Hai village – Cat Ba – Hai Phong – Hanoi.

After breakfast, you will enjoy a short bicycle ride from Viet Hai ecolodge to the boat pier (about 2 km). The biking trail is easy with a few up and downhill rides.
On arrival at Viet Hai boat pier, you will be picked up by our sharing shuttle boat and transferred back to Cat Ba town. The boat trip will take you through floating fishermen villages and islets of different shapes emerging from the emerald water.Arrive back in Cat Ba island town, you may want to have lunch before taking the speed boat again for travelling back to Hai Phong city where your Lotussia vehicle will be waiting for. Enjoy the two-hour drive back to Hanoi.
Upon arrival in Hanoi, you will be dropped off at your hotel in Hanoi (hotel: own arrangements). The end of Lotussia Travel services.

The overnight tour is arranged in the northern Vietnam, taking to Cuc Phuong national park and Tam Coc, Ninh Binh province. The highlights of the trip are a 5-hour jungle trek and a sampan cruise tour in Tam Coc. Discover the park’s biodiversity and variety of endangered species and spend a night at local home in a Muong village (homestay).

This 2-day tour is a easy/medium difficulty and ideal for small group tours, holidays with kids, active travelers and nature lovers. The Tam Coc boat trip is also fun and interesting as it offers the wild nature, beauty of the rock formations. This tour can also be combined with an easy countryside cycling tour in Tam Coc or other short excursions to Van Long, Trang An, Phat Diem... Contact Lotussia Travel for more details.

Itinerary:

Day 1: Hanoi – Cuc Phuong National Park.


At 7:00 am, you will be picked up by Lotussia local guide and driver and transferred then to Ninh Binh. We will arrive at Cuc Phuong National Park after about 2.5 hours (120 km) then we visit the Rescue Center where we will see and learn about the park’s biodiversity and variety of endangered species.

Our long trek (18km) begins here and takes us through the life and songs of the local rain forests. A picnic lunch is served on the way. After 5 hours of hiking, learning about fauna and flora, and picturesque sightseeing en route, we arrive at a village of the Muong minority people where we will spend the night. Overnight in the stilt-house.

Day 2: Cuc Phuong – Tam Coc – Hanoi.

After breakfast, we will goodbye to the warm-hearted villagers and we take our short walk of 4 kilometers to the main road where we will get picked up again by our car and transferred to Tam Coc, Vietnam’s Inland Halong.

Lunch will be provided at a local restaurant. In the afternoon, we will take a boat for a couple of hours down a small stream passing rice paddies and on through the three caves of Tam Coc. Off of the boat, we will take our car for our drive back to Hanoi. We will arrive in Hanoi late in the afternoon. End tour.

A part from its historical interest, this area also is a astounding natural beauty with immense limestone outcrops whose splendor is often said to surpass of Ha Long Bay. Indeed this area is often referred to as the Ha Long Bay on land. The tour includes being rowed a long Boi river, which makes for a truly unforgettable experience, passing in between towering limestone peaks.

07h30: our guide come to pick you up from your hotel, depart 2 hour driving along green fields and villages in the two side of the high way number 01.

09h30: come to Hoa Lu, used to be the capital of Vietnam in the 11st centuries, visit  the temple of Dinh & Le dynasty, learn about  history of Vietnam in the war with China and  about the first Vietnamese government. Have a great view of rice paddy field, and lots of fresh air.

After lunch,  get on a small boat, glide along a long canal with rice paddy fields and mountains two sides,  your boat will go through three cave called "Hang Ca", "Hang 2", "Hang 3".

15h00: You boat drive you back to the warft then get on bus back to Hanoi.

17h00: Bus arrive Hanoi and drop you off at your hotel, end services.
Cave in to the beauty of Ninh Binh
Caves, ruins, forests and mountains – Ninh Binh has just about everything a traveller could want. What are you waiting for?

Just 100km south of Ha Noi, Ninh Binh Province offers a world of natural and cultural heritage to explore.
With its striking limestone mountains, caves and clear streams at Tam Coc and Cuc Phuong and the ruins of the former capital at Hoa Lu, the province attracts tourists from across Viet Nam and around the world.
"The combination of beautiful scenery and spiritual values is what brings tourists to Ninh Binh," says Bui Van Manh, from the Ninh Binh Centre for Tourism Promotion and Development.
The province welcomed 750,000 visitors last year, one third of whom were from overseas, and it expects to receive 860,000 this year.
"We are encouraging all economic sectors to invest in tourism, while improving the tourist packages on offer," Manh says.
The provincial authorities are currently developing the Trang An grottoes, near Ninh Binh town, into a natural and cultural tourist attraction at a cost of VND976 billion.

Green field and buffalo

Middle earth
First-time visitors to Ninh Binh are frequently mesmerised by the charming scenery at Hoa Lu, where the jagged limestone outcrops once acted as natural defences for the former national capital.
The historic site lies close to the present-day town of Ninh Binh, and served as the capital of Dai Co Viet from the year 968 until 1010, when the Ly Dynasty established the capital at Thang Long (present-day Ha Noi).
In the late 10th century, Viet Nam was fragmented and had fallen under the control of 12 local warlords.
However, Dinh Bo Linh defeated the warlords in 968 and reunited the country, which he called Dai Co Viet.
He founded the Dinh Dynasty and ascended to the throne under the name Dinh Tien Hoang.
The emperor chose Hoa Lu as his capital because it was protected by the Trang An mountains on three sides and by the Hoang Long River to the northwest.
With strong walls linking the limestone mountains, Hoa Lu was easily defended but also allowed the emperor's forces to mount attacks against its foes and communicate with its subjects.
During its 42 years at the centre of the nation, the Dinh and Le dynasties erected many palaces, pagodas and temples within the city walls.
The most beautiful of these was the Bach Bao Thien Tue Palace, meaning A Hundred Valuables and A Thousand Ages, which was plated in gold and silver.
Time, the elements and Viet Nam's tumultuous history have taken their toll, and very little remains but ruins.
When the capital was moved to Thang Long, the local residents built temples to honour the emperors Dinh Tien Hoang and Le Dai Hanh that are now known as the Thuong and Ha (Upper and Lower) temples.
The temples were restored in the 17th century to worship Duong Van Nga, the only woman in Vietnamese history to be married to two emperors.
When Dinh Tien Hoang died, Nga married Le Hoan. After one thousand years, the debate about Nga's intentions continues. Was she a good woman, or was her second marriage simply political opportunism?
There are three altars inside each temple, known as Thai Duong, Thien Duong and Chinh Cong. They have a characteristically Vietnamese design, and complement the temples' elegant wooden and stone carvings.
"The biggest drawcard is the carvings," Manh says. "The block of green stone that formed the emperor's throne is decorated on both sides with sophisticated carvings added in the 17th century and representing two dragons."
Towering over the temples is Ma Yen Son – the words translate as horse-saddle shaped mountain.
Two hundred and sixty-five steps lead from the temples to the tomb of Emperor Dinh, which was added alongside Emperor Le's tomb.
Viewed from the south, Ma Yen Son appears to be a gigantic throne.
Even when Hoa Lu was demoted from the nation's capital, successive dynasties still regarded it as a sacred site and the homeland of heroes.
Visitors to contemporary Hoa Lu can still imagine the grandeur of the two dynasties and get a glimpse of the soul of old Viet Nam.

Ha Long Bay on land
Not far from Ninh Binh town is another must-see attraction: the caves of Tam Coc.
Known as "Ha Long Bay on the rice paddies", the three caves can only be reached by boats rowed along a stream and under Cong Rong, a stone bridge built in 1604 whose name means Dragon Culvert.
In the past, the Tam Coc karst system lay under the sea and water carved out the three caves: Hang Ca (Big Cave), Hang Hai (Second Cave) and Hang Ba (Third Cave).
The water followed cracks in the limestone but left behind the mountain range that now runs along the banks of the Ngo River.
The river gets narrower and narrower as you pass through the caves where stalactites billow from the ceiling like clouds.
After 127m, the boats stop at a vast and open space where visitors can appreciate the cool, quiet atmosphere and listen to droplets of water falling onto the river.
They may also see people searching for kindling-wood on the mountain, goats chewing leaves or be able to spy the orchids clinging to the rocks.
Down below, schools of fish dart between the rocks and plants at the bottom of the river.
On a busy day, however, visitors may not quite be able to feel the serenity over the sounds of boatloads of happy tourists having their photographs taken and bargaining for a cool drink or an embroidered tablecloth.
The nearby villages are famous for their skills with a needle and thread, and the rowers are proud to show you their handiwork as they paddle you back to base.

Back to nature
The truly adventurous can really get away from it all when visiting Ninh Binh.
Viet Nam's first national park, Cuc Phuong, was declared in 1962 and its 22,000ha are home to a diverse range of plants and animals.
For years, the forests of Cuc Phuong have inspired poets, musicians and writers. Vietnamese and foreign archaeologists have found artefacts such as coffins and stone tools dating back thousands of years in the park's Con Moong and Nguoi Xua caves.
These days, nature lovers can stay in comfort near the entrance or in the middle of the national park and enjoy some of the local rice liquor.
In the morning, early risers can arrange to visit the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre, where several species of rare monkeys are being rehabilitated for their release back into the wild.
Walking trails inside the park can lead visitors through the forests to see several remarkably old trees, and the intrepid can walk even further to stay overnight in Muong villages where life seems to have changed little since King Dinh began calling Hoa Lu home.

Highlights tour;

+ Ninh Binh : Ninh Binh has the pace of a large country town – a welcome respite if you’ve just escaped the bustle of Hanoi. Apart from the scrum of guesthouse owners greeting the trains, and the charming chorus of ‘Hello, how are you’ from the local children, you’ll largely be left alone as you wander the quiet streets.

+ Cuc Phuong national park culture: In earlier times, Cuc Phuong was home to the Muong minority people (or tribe) and to this day a few scattered villages around the park's periphery still house these interesting people and their unique culture. If you visit these communities you can still see their traditional stilt houses, waterwheels, bamboo rafts and brocade looms.

+ Cuc Phuong national park limestone karsts landscape : Located on 2 limestone mountain ranges, the landscape of Cuc Phuong is a wonderfully rich ecosystem. The rocky outcrops of Cuc Phuong contain very valuable archeological vestiges such as a fossilized sea reptile, dated at 200 - 230 million years old and evidence of prehistoric people, who lived in the forest some 7500 years ago.

+ Endangered Primate Rescue Center: One of the highlights of Cuc Phuong is the EPRC. The highly successful center has approximately 120 primates in breeding programs. There are currently 15 different species and subspecies of Gibbons and Langurs on site, including several living in huge forested enclosures.
Open daily: 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. and 13:30 - 16:00 p.m. EPRC opens every half hour.

+ Around Cuc Phuong national park: From Cuc Phuong we would suggest that you take a trip to Van Long, where you can see Delacour's Langurs in the wild, to Tam Coc or to Pu Luong Nature Reserve - all within easy access. Just ask us and we will set you on the right path.

+ Van Long : Van Long Nature Reserve is a flooded field surrounded by limestone mountains. Van Long Nature Reserve is home to a number of bird species which can be observed by taking a 2-hour sampan trip through the area. Van Long Nature Reserve is on the way from Ninh Binh to Cuc Phuong National Park and the best time to visit the nature reserve is in early morning.

Operation : Daily departure
Duration : 1 day
Tour route : Hanoi - Ninh Binh - Hanoi
Brief description : We will see majestic mountains, green paddy fields, peaceful villages, tranquil rivers...all combine to make an impressive trip. Traveling with a bicycle for a couple of days into an area that compliments a mix of adventure and relaxation. Cycling on dirt paths through villages, talk with friendly local people , see their daily life you will also encounter a nation of people rich in culture, tradition and history with a captivating warmth and friendliness unequalled in Vietnam

Itinerary:

Day 1: Ha noi – Hoa Lu - Cuc Phuong national park(L,D)

AM: Pick you up at 8.00am at hotel in Hanoi, then depart for NinhBinh city towards to the South of Hanoi, it takes about 2 hours to get there (110 km). We will visit Hoa Lu ancient citadel, then transfer to Tam Diep for an extremely exciting ride by bicycle through Fine apple farm and pine forest to Cuc Phuong national park (It was officially opened in 1960 as the first national park in Vietnam).

PM: Then keep going into the park central, stop to discover ancient human cave, arrival central park late afternoon, free to walk around the center, sleep in with the lovely sound and smell of nature. Dinner and overnight at bungalow.


Day 2: Cuc Phuong National park – Van Long(B,L)

AM:  Breakfast at the restaurant near the bungalow, take a short trek into the National Park for sightseeing and visit the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation, breeding, research, and conservation of endangered primates, and to the protection of their habitats and then biking from Cuc Phuong national park to main road (12 km). Then  taking rowing boat to visit Van Long.

PM: After Van Long boat trip, having lunch - Return to Hanoi at around 5 pm, thanks for joining us and we hope to serve you another time. Return to Hanoi at around 5 pm, thanks for joining us and we hope to server you another time.

+ Hoa Lu Ancient Capital : Hoa Lu Ancient Capital is the tourist destination which will bring you to a few imperial capitals of the country in the ancient and medieval eras. Visiting Hoa Lu, you will not only have a fun and exciting time, but can learn more about culture and history as well.

+ Tam Coc : Tam Coc – Bich Dong is also called “A terrestrial Ha Long Bay”, or the “Vietnam’s second nicest grotto” (to Huong Tich) for its poetic and inspirational natural scenery.

Operation : Daily departure
Duration : 1 day
Tour route : Hanoi – Tam Coc – Hoa Lu temple – Hanoi
Brief description : Visiting one of the most ancient capital of Vietnam and taking rowing boat to visit dry Halong bay

Detailed tour itinerary

AM: Lotussia travel will pick up you at hotel in Hanoi, then driving to the south of Hanoi with 2 hours to Ninh Binh province.
It will be an exciting day highlighted firstly by 2 hours local boat ride in Tam Coc streams that we will enjoy the spectacular scenery while gliding along the river among rice paddies and ranges of limestone mountains peaking up towers over you.

PM: After lunch served with local food at a restaurant riverside, a short transfer through the peaceful country road to Hoa Lu, once the Vietnam’s ancient capital 11 centuries ago.
Here are the two temples dedicated to the King Dinh and King Le, the founder of the capital in 10th century. Return to Hanoi at about 5.00 p.m.

 Highlights tour;

+ Phat Diem Church : Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. This is one of the famous church in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is the interference between Vietnam and Europe. The church is but it looks like the temple in Vietnam. This church was built of stone and wood all in 24 years.

+ Tam Coc : Tam Coc – Bich Dong is also called “A terrestrial Ha Long Bay”, or the “Vietnam’s second nicest grotto” (to Huong Tich) for its poetic and inspirational natural scenery.

Operation : Daily departure
Duration : 1 day
Tour route : Hanoi – Phat Diem church - Tam Coc - Hanoi
Brief description : Private tour, discovering the unique church that were built by green stone, sightseeing the peaceful countryside of Vietnam. Discovering dry halong bay Vietnam with rowing boat a long the rice paddies and through many caves and visiting one of ancient citadel in Vietnam

Detailed tour itinerary

AM: Pick you up at 8.00am at hotel in Hanoi, then depart for NinhBinh city towards to the South of Hanoi, it takes about 2,5 hours to get there(130 km). The trip starts at Phat Diem cathedral, this is one of the most beautiful and unique cathedral in Vietnam, it become the center of Catholicism in north Vietnam.

The whole complex were built by stone between 1875-1899 and has been classified as a historic and cultural relic. The cathedral is the main focus of worship for Ninh Bình Province's 140,000 Roman Catholics.

Then drive in 30 minutes move to Tam Coc grottoes, have lunch at vietnamese restaurant with local food(1hr).

PM: Take an exciting boat ride in Tam Coc grottoes(Halong bay inland) that we will enjoy the spectacular scenery while gliding along the river among rice paddies and ranges of limestone mountains peaking up towers over you(2 hrs).

Return to Hanoi at around 5 pm, thanks for joining us and we hope to serve you another time.

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Hoa Lu, Tam Coc - Van Long, Kenh Ga 2 days 1 night

Often referred to as “Inland Ha Long Bay, the area of Hoa Lu and Tam Coc is characterized by the limestone geology that gives rise to the towering karsts that make this picturesque area so unique. On this enjoyable day trip, the atmosphere is relaxed as you casually pedal and paddle your way past green rice fields, along waterways and through underground passages

Trip Detail
Day 1: Hanoi –Hoa Lu Tam Coc
8.00am -Depart Hanoi by private coach to Hoa Lu (2.5 hrs).
Visit the ancient capital of Viet Nam and the famous old temples of The Dinh and The Le Dynasties.
Cycling for an hour on picturesque quiet roads through villages, rice fields, rivers and rocky outcrops to Tam Coc (12km).
Check in hotel and have Lunch.

1.30pm -Boat journey(1 hour) in the heart of “Inland Ha Long Bay”.
Take in the beauty of the karsts formations as you pass along their base and row into three of the many caves carved through the limestone.
Stop for a short rest near a small shrine before returning to dock (1 hour).
Free time and relax.

Day 2: Van Long Kenh Ga - Hanoi
Have a breakfast. Leave Tam Coc for Van Long. Take the tiny bamboo boat to visit the “preserving nature area”. Lunch in restaurant. After that move to Kenh Ga.
Take the motor- boat on Yellow Dragon River. Visit the “hot spring”, and if you have time, you can have a shower or a swim in the hot water from the hot spring or you can walk through the green rice field to visit the Van Trinh Cave.
Drive back to Hanoi.