3-Day Ba Be Lake – Ban Gioc Waterfall Group Tour
Join the 3-Day Ba Be Lake – Ban Gioc Waterfall Group Tour to visit the Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam‘s Ethnic Groups in Thai Nguyen City!
3-Day Ba Be Lake – Ban Gioc Waterfall Group Tour
Highlights
- Visit the Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups in Thai Nguyen City.
- Meet the Nung people in the village of Phuoc Sen.
- Float on Ba Be Lake and take in the wonderful scenery.
Itinerary
Day 1: Hanoi – Thai Nguyen – Cao Bang (L, D)
7.30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.: Pick-up from your Hanoi hotel to drive on Highway No3. In Thai Nguyen City, you can visit the Museum of the Cultures of the Ethnic Groups of Vietnam, where you can browse the artifacts, photos, and exhibits that offer a better understanding of the different ethnic groups and their agricultural instruments, crafts, and traditional costumes worn for worship.
Before you head far north to Cao Bang through scattered villages and rice paddies, there will be a stop for lunch. You will have the opportunity to stop in a town renowned for its tobacco production (depending on the growing season).
This is the less traveled path that helps you to enjoy the views in silence. You’re having dinner tonight and staying overnight at the homestay of the Nung family in Quang Uyen.
Day 2: Cao Bang – Ban Gioc Waterfall – Ba Be Lake (B, L, D)
After breakfast, you can leave for Trung Khanh, which is located on the Chinese border. Here in the village of Phuoc Sen, a mountainous village popular for its traditional blacksmith art, you will have the opportunity to meet the Nung people.
An important part of the lifestyle that is noticeable in the surrounding rice paddies and fields is the farming tools produced here. The breathtaking Ban Gioc Waterfall, which stretches over 300 meters, half in Vietnam and half in China, is nestled among these incredible landscapes.
Before moving to another natural wonder, Nguom Ngao Cave, you will have time to soak up the strong atmosphere of the falls and take some fantastic images. This cave is 2,144 meters underground and is full of impressive stalactites and stalagmites.
You will then return to the town of Cao Bang and go down to Ba Be Lake on the Snake Pass. You’re going to stay overnight at the traditional Tay ethnic family house tonight. You can relax and unwind from the day at your homestay and enjoy a home-cooked local meal.
Day 3: Ba Be Lake – Hanoi (B, L)
You can relax on board, do some wildlife spotting or you can hop into the cool, clean water for a refreshing swim if you need to cool off! Take in the surrounding karst landscape adorned with patches of wild vegetation and populated by all kinds of fascinating creatures as you float on Ba Be Lake.
Then go on a boat ride along the Nang River, with time to explore the beautiful Ba Be Lake, the Puong Grotto caves, where you can explore the stalactites and stalagmites that are the result of the erosion of the river on the karst, as well as look out for several thousand strong bat colonies.
You’re heading back to Hanoi for a drive of around 150 miles (230 kilometers). Before returning to your hotel in the booming city of Hanoi, we will stop at a tea plant in some hills.
Ba Be Lake
It is actually three small lakes that have been joined together – Pe Lam, Pe Lu, and Pe Leng – that make up the lake itself. The area was first designated as a national preserved forest and tourist center in 1978, and then in 1992, it was designated as Vietnam’s eighth national park.
It was recently designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the third Ramsar site in Vietnam – an internationally significant wetland. The lake, which is located 145 meters above sea level, has an average depth of 20-25 meters and its deepest point is 35 meters.
The lake bed is composed of limestone with millions of crags and crevasses that provide ideal habitat for a diverse range of marine life – there are over a hundred species of freshwater fish in the lakes – and is home to a diverse range of marine life.
