Explore the Nature Trails 11 Days

Day 1: Arrival at Hanoi (D, GP)

Arriving at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. After a short rest, you will have a cyclo ride around the bustling streets of Hanoi and discover the city’s architectural mixture of French colonial style, pagodas and communal houses with many Chinese features, merchants’ residences, ‘tube’ dwellings, modern buildings…

In the evening, you will enjoy a water puppet show – an art form unique to the rural Northern Vietnam culture. After the show, you’ll have dinner at a restaurant in a restored French colonial building. You will spend the night in Hanoi.

Day 2: Hanoi/Tam Coc/Cuc Phuong (B, L, D, G)

In the morning, you’ll drive to Ninh Binh. On arrival, you’ll visit Tam Coc, the Three Grottos with a pleasant row through rice paddies and caves in a peaceful valley between limestone ‘karst’ mountains.

In the afternoon, you’ll drive to Cuc Phuong Forest National Park which is considered one of Vietnam’s most beautiful and an important protected area just is 35 km from Tam Coc. The ancient forest contains almost 2000 species of trees and amongst them lives some amazing and rare animals including the Clouded leopard, Delacour’s Langur, Owston’s Civet, Otters and Asian Black Bears! On arrival, you will visit the Primate Rescue Centre which is a temporary home for many gibbons and langurs that have been injured, or been orphaned by poachers. You will then visit the Botanical Garden which home to many precious flora. Your overnight stay will be in a guesthouse in the Park.

Day 3: Cuc Phuong/Hanoi (B, L, G)

Wake up early in the morning to enjoy fresh air in the park, you’ll then hike through a subtropical forest, rich in flora and fauna with thousand-year-old trees and dripping vines. On the way back, you’ll visit a cave where prehistoric graves and relics have been found. Later in the afternoon, you’ll drive back to Hanoi.

Day 4: Hanoi/Hue/Bach Ma (B, L, D, G)

Your morning will be free until your car arrives to take you to Noi Bai airport for a noon flight to Hue. On arrival, you will be met and driven to Bach Ma National Park (60 km) for your overnight accommodation in the Park guesthouse, high on the slopes of a mountain.

Day 5: Bach Ma (B, L, D, G)

After an early breakfast and a 500m walk to the summit, you should be able to see the spectacular views and, hopefully, an equally stunning sunrise. From there, the Rhododendron trail and the Five Lakes Cascade trail (6km in total) meander through evergreen forest, cascades and waterfalls. After lunch in a nearby local restaurant, the Pheasant Trail (2.5 km) takes you to a series of waterfalls and crystal-clear pools. You’ll spend the night in the park.

Day 6: Bach Ma/Hue (B, G)

Your morning will be free to wander around the Park before your car arrives to take you back to Hue. You will spend the night in Hue.

Day 7: Hue/Ho Chi Minh City (B, GP)

You’ll have a free morning until you’re picked up for an afternoon flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Arriving at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. After checking in, you’ll be free for a preliminary wander around the hustle and bustle streets of this busy city. You will spend the night in a hotel.

Day 8: Ho Chi Minh City/Nam Cat Tien (L, D, G)

In the morning, your driver will take you to Nam Cat Tien National Park. After lunch in the canteen in the park centre, you’ll drive 9 km in a Jeep then hike for three kilometres through the rainforest to Crocodile Lake.

In the evening, you may see the wild animals come to the lake to drink. You’re also likely to see monkeys, deer and other small mammals. You will spend the night in the park guesthouse near the Crocodile Lake.

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Day 9: Nam Cat Tien (B, L, D, G)

In the morning, you will have a pre-dawn visit to the lake, you’ll have another opportunity to spy on the park’s wildlife. After that, you’ll hike back to the main road and drive seven kilometres westwards for another one-kilometre hike along the forest trail to the giant Ficus Tree which covers over two hectares.

Fortified by a canteen lunch, a cruise down Dong Nai River on a motor boat takes you to Ta Lai village to visit the farms and houses of S’Tieng and Chau Ma ethnic minorities. You’ll stay overnight in the guesthouse.

Day 10: Nam Cat Tien/Ho Chi Minh City (B, L, G)

In the early morning, you’ll cycle to the nearby Ben Cu area. After wandering around the massive trees, dripping vines, and visiting the rapids (water level permitting) it’ll be time for lunch in the canteen and your return to Ho Chi Minh City.