What adventure means here
Adventure here rarely means altitude or wilderness. The mountains of northern Vietnam and Laos stop well below the height where thin air becomes a problem, and nearly every path you walk belongs to somebody: it links two hamlets, crosses a family's maize plot, or serves a herd of buffalo. What makes a day hard is heat, humidity, mud and the state of the road that got you to the start of the walk. Five hours on foot in April at twenty-eight degrees asks more than a longer day at home in autumn.
We plan these trips by counting two numbers for every day: hours on foot and hours in the vehicle. Both go into the itinerary before you agree to it, because the second one is what surprises people. Ha Giang, Pu Luong and Phong Nha all sit at the end of long drives on roads under more or less permanent repair. The vehicle and driver are yours for the whole route, and the guides come from the district. When a season makes a leg unwise, we say so instead of selling it.
What these trips look like
- Every day described in hours: how long you walk, how long you sit in the car, and what the ground is like.
- Homestay nights in wooden houses, where the bed is a mattress under a net and the bathroom belongs to everyone.
- A private vehicle and driver for the whole route, not shared transfers timed around other people's plans.
- Guides from the region who speak the local language as well as English, which matters off the main valleys.
- Passes, caves and river crossings graded honestly, including the ones we tell you to drop when water is high.
- A rest day on any route past ten days, and permits for the northern border districts arranged in advance.
Journeys in this style
Talk to us
Tell us how many days you are willing to walk, what you have done before, and the month you are tied to. We will say which routes fit and where we think you are overreaching. A full itinerary and a price quoted in writing follow once we know your dates and party size.