North West Vietnam Discovery

Overview

  • Off The Beaten Path
  • Day 1: Hanoi – Duong Lam – Nghia Lo
  • Day 2: Nghia Lo – Tu Le – Mu Cang Chai – Than Uyen
  • Day 3: Than Uyen – Quynh Nhai – Son La
  • Day 4: Mai Son – Moc Chau
  • Day 5: Moc Chau – Hanoi

Customizable itinerary

Morning
Your private guide and transport will pick you up at your hotel to leave the bustling streets of Hanoi to travel past verdant rice paddies and farmland along Highway 32. After a one hour drive, you will reach Duong Lam Ancient village ‐ a rich historical site with fascinating old houses, churches and a temple of the two famous Kings, Phung Hung and Ngo Quyen. Despite the passing of time, these relics have been very well preserved, retaining the original features of our ancient houses. You will then take a walk around this old village, a great photo opportunity; and get to meet the local people and observe their daily life. After that, you will go on a short bicycle ride to the outskirts of this village to allow more picture taking.

You will enjoy a home-cooked lunch here, prepared and served by a local village family.

Afternoon
After lunch, you will continue on to Nghia Lo. Nghia Lo is situated along a beautiful mountain ridge with lush forests, tea plantations, rice terraces, and gum trees, with stunning picturesque valleys. This area is home to Thai, Nung, H’mong, La Ha and Ma ethnic minority tribes. You will arrive in the late afternoon and check into our hotel. The rest of your day will be yours to explore at your leisure. Dinner will be on your own.

Overnight in Nghia Lo
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)


Morning
Early this morning, after breakfast, your private tour guide will take you to the local market in Nghia Lo Town, where you can explore and shop for local handicrafts. After this, you will continue on to Mu Cang Chai, known for its terraced fields, which are mainly rice paddies. They create a stunning landscape stretching down the mountainside. Wooden houses and guard boxes can be spotted between the terraced fields. This area is a definite photo opportunity!

You will enjoy a beautiful scenic drive today. While climbing over the mountain pass to Mu Cang Chai you might be able to see the H’mong, La Ha and Dzao minority people along the way. Descending to the valley below, we will arrive in the town of Than Uyen, where you will spend the night in a hotel.

Overnight in Than Uyen
Meals: (Breakfast/_/_)

Morning
This morning, you will depart Than Uyen after breakfast for a short drive to Quynh Nhai. After arriving in this peaceful town, you will stop for lunch.

Afternoon
After lunch, you will take a 01-hour boat trip around the picturesque reservoir here, dotted with islets. The water from this reservoir supplies the Son La Dam, the largest hydroelectric power station in Southeast Asia.
After the boat trip, you will continue your journey to Mai Son town by a 02-hour drive. After arriving at Mai Son, you will go to the home of a local family where you will be spending the night. Tonight your hosts will cook a delicious local-style dinner for you. They will take you into their garden to pick fresh vegetables and also show you how to select the best chicken for the meal.
You can then sit back and relax with a cold beer while watching them prepare your meal!

Overnight in Son La
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner)

Morning
After breakfast, you can take some photos with your host family before bidding them farewell. You will then take the 03-hour drive to Moc Chau Highland. Moc Chau Plateau is blessed with the most wonderful natural scenic beauty, with boundless meadows where grazing cows offer an unlimited supply of milk!.
Around noon, we will arrive in Ban Doi, a small black Thai village with a community-based tourism project. Ban Doi is an untouched village nestled in a lush valley. This village is known for its bamboo “stilt houses” which are elevated 10–12 feet off the ground in order to avoid water damage, and also serves to shelter animals from the elements.
After checking into one of the stilt houses you will have lunch.

Afternoon
After a short rest, you can take a gentle walk throughout the village. You will also visit one of the tea plantations and the and Dai Yem waterfall. This evening, you will be served a local style dinner by your Thai hosts and enjoy their company.

Overnight in Moc Chau
Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner)

Morning
After breakfast, you will leave Ban Doi and drive to Phieng Canh, a H’mong tribe hamlet situated in a middle of nowhere. From the main road, you will take a one hour walk along the corn and rice fields to access this remote village. The location is very scenic, and the dwellers are truly hospitable. You will take a trip back in time in this charming village until your private tour guide brings you back down to earth when you return to the main road! Here you will be met by your private driver for the journey back to Hanoi.

On the way back, your private van will stop for lunch at Giang Mo village, home of the Muong minority people. These people have similar houses to the Thai people but a very different lifestyle and culture, further illustrating the rich diversity of Vietnamese ethnic groups.

Afternoon
After lunch you will wind your way back to Hanoi, arriving at your hotel around 4:00 pm. The rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure. Dinner will be on your own.

Meals: (Breakfast/Lunch/_)

Useful Information

This tour is built upon our firsthand knowledge & experience, offering you the best choices available. The price of this trip varies depending on the number of people in your party, dates of departure, and the availability of ground services. Please click on REQUEST A FREE QUOTE (above) and supply the required information, enabling us to send you your personalized quote within 24 hours!

Note: Amendments CAN be made to this tour to suit your requirements.

What’s Included?

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  • Accommodation with daily breakfast at selected hotels
  • Private Vehicles and Drivers
  • Private English Speaking Guides (Other languages if available, upon request)
  • Meals as mentioned in the itinerary (B= Breakfast, L= Lunch, D= Dinner)

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  • Entrance fees for all mentioned sights visited
  • Service Charge & Government Taxes

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What’s Not Included?

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  • Your International Flights to and from Vietnam
  • Vietnam entry Visa Fees (contact us for further information)
  • Personal Expenses (such as laundry, telephone, drinks, etc.)
  • Any bank fees or charges at your end

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  • Meals other than those mentioned in the itinerary
  • Personal Travel Insurance
  • Tips for guides and drivers

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Request a free quote

Free service. No credit card required

Reviews on Our Service

We are committed to giving our customers unforgettable experiences in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and beyond, not just something staged for tourists. Read reviews written by our customers about their experiences in Indochina after they have returned home. These include the ratings and comments on attractions, guides, activities, hotels and food.

Incredible Vietnam experience with Tony

Asia Pioneer Travel planned every detail or our 16-day trip across Vietnam, Lao, and Bangkok. Our tour guide in Hanoi, Tony, crafted the perfect few days for us to experience Hanoi, both culturally and historically. He was very flexible since we are a group of six women with different dietary needs who sometimes wanted different experiences. He did it all with a big smile on his face and a happy personality, so proud of his beautiful country. He also made some phone calls for us about clothes we had made in Hoi An and took our laundry to be cleaned at a local service. We are so grateful that he could show us Hanoi!
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Darla R - Waldenbuch, Germany 
Apr 8, 2023

Fantastic

If a traveler was looking for a tour group that was knowledgeable, energetic, patient, flexible and kind, then this is the company. I cannot speak high enough about all of our tour guides we had in each city. Bang Bang was relaxed, friendly and so adaptable to everything we asked of him. Tony, May be the happiest and energetic guide out there. Each city we visited in Vietnam was only improved because the positive influence our guides bestowed on our experience. I am so honored and grateful to have known these people. You cannot go wrong with booking this tour group. Lizbeth
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Lizbeth K - Australia
Apr 5, 2023

Great company, great service

 
Excellent customer service from Elly Do and Asia Pioneer Travel from start to finish. Elly took the time to come to meet us in our hotel in Hanoi and it was lovely to meet her. We changed our itinerary a couple of times before booking and Elly was always happy to discuss and accommodate. All the guides we had and all of the hotels were great. When you only have a couple of days in each city it was great to have a guide and a driver to whisk you through the traffic. Thanks Elly!
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HelsDavies4 - Canada
Apr 5, 2023

Amazing People and Great Service

 
We have always been very interested in Vietnam and Cambodia, recently retired, we decided the time was right to make this trip. Living in Canada and booking a trip to SE Asia can be a little difficult given the 15-hour time change. We worked with Mr. Lam of Asia Pioneer travel and we had no issues. In fact, we wondered if he ever slept as it didn’t seem to matter when we sent a question or request, the response was immediate. He kept in touch with us throughout our travels ensuring that everything was as we had hoped. They exceeded our expectations in all areas. The communication, knowledge, flexibility, and caring attitude was incredible.

We travelled for 7 weeks so the tour that we structured gave us a great mix of guided and free time. We were able to see the normal tourist sites, as well as spend some in-depth time in the villages and communities. This gave us a much greater insight into life in Vietnam and Cambodia. All I can say is that they are amazing and incredible people!

Our guides were great. Our drivers were safe and looked after us very well. I would not recommend anyone try driving on thier own if you are coming from a country where people obey the traffic laws. We learned over time that is is actully very organized chaos!

If you are looking for a great agency, we can assure you that Asia Pioneer cares about you and will look after you with every detail!
Thank you to Mr. Lam and the entire staff.

Maria & Tom – BC, Canada

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Maria and Tom - West Kelowna, Canada 
Mar 31, 2023

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