Every question, in one place

The number that matters is not distance, it is ascent in a day. Our easiest route, Pu Luong, has one day of 780 m of climbing over 15 km. Ha Giang has a day of 900 m over 17 km. Ta Nang has 22 km with a full pack day in the middle.

If you can walk six hours on a hilly path at home, carrying two litres of water, and do it again the next morning without a rest day, you can do any of the four. If you cannot, say so on the form and we will tell you which one still works.

Yes, but not many. We run private versions of these four routes at other lengths, and we occasionally run Y Ty, Bidoup and the Ba Be to Ban Gioc walk for returning clients. We do not list them because we cannot promise a guide for them every week, and listing a trek we cannot staff is how operators end up substituting.

No. We book the trek, the transport to and from it, and nothing else. Everyone in Hanoi sells the rest of it, usually better than we would, and adding a margin to somebody else's cruise is not a service.

A policy that covers trekking to 2,000 m and includes medical evacuation by road and by air. We ask for the policy number and the emergency line before you travel and we do check it. Vietnam has no mountain rescue service in the sense that Europe does, and evacuation off the Ta Nang ridge is a paid helicopter or a very long carry.

Pu Luong and Ha Giang combine well because both start in Hanoi and the terrain is different enough to be worth it. Allow eleven days including one rest day in Hanoi.

Sa Pa and Ha Giang do not combine well. They are five hours apart on bad roads, the landscapes rhyme, and by day nine most people are tired of stilt houses. We will quote it if you insist, but we will say this first.

A set departure runs when four people have paid. Below four we offer you the date at the private price for your party size, or a full refund of the deposit, and you choose. We do not cancel at seven days and hold the money as credit.

On Ha Giang, Sa Pa and Pu Luong your main bag travels by vehicle to the next house and you walk with a daypack. On Ta Nang there is no vehicle in the middle: you carry your own sleeping bag, mat, clothes and two litres of water, about 9 to 11 kg. That is the main reason it is graded 4.

Ha Giang, Sa Pa and Pu Luong all start in Hanoi and there is no sensible alternative. Ta Nang starts in Da Lat and finishes near Phan Thiet, so it fits naturally after a few days on the coast rather than before them.

Yes for the border communes near Lung Cu and along the Nho Que, which our route touches on day five. We apply for it in Ha Giang city on the morning of day one using your passport details, and the cost is in the price. We need those details at least seven days before you travel, which is why we will not take a Ha Giang booking inside a week.

Days one, three and five stay as written, because the paths drain onto rock. Day four does not: the descent to the stream becomes clay and the crossing can rise. If the forecast is bad we swap days four and five, and if it is bad for both we replace the ridge day with a lower route out of Du Gia of about 12 km.

We do not refund for weather, and no operator in Vietnam does. We do tell you honestly in advance which months carry the risk, which is what the when-to-go page is for.

The highest point on the route is about 1,600 m, on the day four ridge. That is too low for altitude to be a medical issue for anyone. It is high enough to be genuinely cold from December to February, when a clear night on the plateau drops to 3 or 4 degrees and the wind makes it feel like less.

Many people do, and if that is what you want you should. It is a different trip: you see the same passes from a saddle, you cover four times the ground, and you never leave the tarmac. We do not sell it. Vietnam has a serious accident rate on that loop among visitors riding without a licence valid here, and we are not willing to put our name on it.

It used to be the only sensible option. Since the expressway opened, the road is five and a half hours in daylight against roughly eight hours in a bunk plus a 05:30 arrival and a further 40 minutes uphill. We use the road, and we do not charge less for it.

If you particularly want the train we will book a soft-sleeper cabin and rebuild day one around it, at about USD 55 per person extra.

On day one out of Sa Pa and on day four at Ta Phin, yes, and often for an hour or more. On days two and three, very little. The women who walk with you are mostly from the villages you are heading to, and buying one thing from the person who walked with you is the graceful way to end it.

At the homestays, which are between 400 m and 1,000 m, it is mild all year. In December and January the valley can sit at 8 to 12 degrees with drizzle, and the houses are not heated beyond the kitchen fire. Sa Pa town at 1,500 m occasionally sees snow in January, which is a local news event rather than a walking condition.

From about thirteen, yes, and it is the northern route we recommend for families. Below thirteen, day two at sixteen kilometres is too long and we would move you to Pu Luong instead, which has shorter days and a four-hour drive rather than five and a half.

Only if you have the days to spare. The two are similar in character, both are terraces and stilt houses, and Sa Pa is the more dramatic of the two. If you have already booked Sa Pa and have three days left, we would rather send you to Ha Giang or to the coast than sell you a second version of the same walk.

Yes, privately, by driving in and out on the same days you walk. It costs about USD 40 less per person and removes the Son, Ba and Muoi descent, which is the quietest part of the route. We will quote it but we think it is a poor trade.

One large raised room, a row of mattresses on the floorboards with a mosquito net over each, a shared bathroom with a Western toilet and a cold or warm shower depending on the house, and a kitchen where the family eats with you. Electricity throughout, wifi at Ban Hieu, no signal at all at Kho Muong.

Pho Doan market runs on Thursday and Sunday mornings and is a genuine trading market for the surrounding valleys rather than a visitor attraction. If your dates are flexible, starting on a Saturday puts you there on the Sunday of your drive home; tell us and we will build the return around it.

Real. You leave camp with three litres each and there is no reliable source until the descent, roughly seven hours later. In December and January that is manageable. In April, when the ridge is hot by nine in the morning, it is the single thing most likely to end someone's day, and it is why we prefer the December to March window.

Fit Vietnamese hiking groups do it in two, at roughly 28 km a day. We will run it privately in two for a party who has already walked with us and whose pace we know. We will not sell a two-day version to someone we have never met, because the failure mode is being on the ridge in the dark with no water.

Two-person tents with a full flysheet, inflatable mats and synthetic bags rated to about 10 degrees, all provided and all carried by you. Nights on the ridge in January drop to 12 or 13 degrees, so bring a fleece and a hat. You bring your own boots, waterproof shell, head torch and bottles.

It is the one Vietnamese hikers name first, and for landscape over three continuous days we agree with them. It is not the one we recommend to most visitors, because most visitors want villages, food and beds, and this route deliberately has none of those in the middle. Read the Ha Giang page before you choose.

Usually one of the five reasons above, and most often the first: their guide meets you at the end of the path rather than walking it with you. Send us the other quote and we will tell you exactly which line is different. We do not price match, because the difference is a real cost we are choosing to pay.

Sometimes we are simply more expensive and the other operator is fine. If the quote names the villages, names the guide arrangement and publishes the daily ascent, it is probably an honest cheaper quote, and you should take it.

The prices on this site are the same all year. What changes in October and late March is availability, not the number: the good homestays are gone four to six weeks out and guide rates rise, so we absorb it and cap how many departures we run.

Party size discount is already in the table and it is the real one. Beyond that we take ten per cent off a second trek booked within eighteen months, which covers most returning clients. We do not run a referral commission scheme.

Dong yes, at the interbank rate on the day of payment, for the balance if you are paying in cash on arrival. Euros only as a bank transfer converted at our bank's rate, which is worse for you than sending USD, so we generally advise against it.

For October, late March and the Ha Giang market weekends, six to eight weeks. For the rest of the year, three weeks is comfortable and one week is usually possible on Pu Luong and Sa Pa.

Ha Giang has a hard floor of seven days because of the border permit, and we will not take a booking inside it.

For five days, once, outside the high season. We will not hold October dates unpaid because the houses will be gone, and telling you otherwise would be a lie that only shows up when you arrive.

On a private trek the per-person price moves to the next band up and we tell you the new number immediately. On a set departure nothing changes for the others. If the departure then falls below four walkers we offer the private price or a full refund of the deposit, and you choose.

The balance, yes, in USD or dong, at our Hanoi office or at the briefing. The deposit has to be transferred in advance, because it is what pays the houses and the guide to hold the dates.

That is the whole subject of the when-to-go page, which has a month-by-month table. The short version: late September and October are the best weeks of the year in all three, and July and August are the worst.

Of course, and for Sa Pa and Pu Luong it is easy: public buses and shared vans run daily and homestays take direct bookings. Ha Giang is harder to do independently on foot because of the border permit and because the good paths are not marked.

Physically, mostly yes; the risks are weather, unfenced drops and dogs rather than people. Navigationally, no: the paths are unmarked farm and market routes that fork constantly, offline maps are inaccurate above the valley floors, and there is no signal in the places where getting lost matters.

On the loop road, yes, and increasingly so: the Ma Pi Leng viewpoint on an October weekend has coaches and hundreds of motorbikes. Off the road, no. A path an hour from the tarmac on the same weekend will have farmers on it and nobody else.

Most of the growth is domestic and concentrated in October and November. March and April are quiet by comparison and the landscape is nearly as good.

You need one for the border communes near Lung Cu, along the Nho Que and around Meo Vac. It is issued in Ha Giang city, costs almost nothing, and needs your passport. You can get it yourself at the immigration office, or a guesthouse will do it for a small fee. It cannot be done online or the same morning you want to walk there.

Not really. The gold rice terraces on the lower slopes peak in the second half of September; the buckwheat comes into flower from about the third week of October. Mid-October catches the tail of one and the start of the other, which is a compromise rather than the best of both.

In December and January, yes on the plateau, because the wind is constant and the buildings have no heating. Sa Pa town is higher and gets more fog; Dong Van is drier and sharper. Neither is a problem if you bring a proper jacket, and both surprise people who expected tropical Vietnam.

The town, largely. The valley, no. That distinction is the single most useful thing to know before you book, and it is why our itinerary sleeps in villages and treats the town as a lunch stop and a car park.

Yes. The usual route from Tram Ton is two days with a night at around 2,800 m, and it is a genuine mountain day with a lot of ascent, wet rock and cold. We run it privately for people who have already walked with us; we do not sell it to someone we have never met, because turning a party around at 2,800 m is a hard conversation to have with a stranger.

Ta Van if you want a private room and hot water, Lao Chai if you want to be walking within five minutes of breakfast, Ban Ho if you want warmth and a river to swim in, Ta Phin if you want Red Dao rather than Hmong. Our four-day route uses three of these four.

For the main path from the town to Ta Van, no. For anything beyond it, yes, and not for safety so much as navigation: the paths are farm routes that fork constantly, they are not marked, and offline maps show tracks that stop existing halfway along.

For walking, yes and by some distance. Mai Chau is a flat valley with a lot of bicycle rental and organised evening performances; Pu Luong has ridges, forest and closed valleys you can only reach on foot. Mai Chau is easier with small children and better for a single night.

For the road and the marked paths around Ban Hieu, no. For the ridge crossing to Kho Muong and the Son, Ba and Muoi shelf, yes. Those are farm paths through forest with several forks and no signage, and people do get lost on them every season.

If you want a pool and a view, some are genuinely good and worth the USD 60 to 140. They are not where the walking is, and staying in one changes a trek into a series of drives to trailheads. We do not book them, and we say so rather than quietly substituting one for a village house.

Yes, and it works well. They are about three and a half hours apart, both are limestone, and the character is different enough: Ninh Binh is river and cave country you see from a boat, Pu Luong is walking country. Two nights each is a sensible five-day trip out of Hanoi.

March comes closest. The north is warm and clear, the south is still dry enough for Ta Nang in the first half of the month, and nothing is fully booked. The trade is that the northern terraces are bare earth and water rather than green or gold.

On the northern routes it is uncomfortable rather than dangerous, because the paths drain onto rock and there is always a house within a few hours. The exception is the Ha Giang ridge day, where a wet descent turns to clay, and we move it or replace it rather than walk it.

On Ta Nang it is a different question and the answer is that we do not run it. The stream crossings drain a large catchment and rise faster than you can walk.

In the Sa Pa and Pu Luong valleys, from about the twentieth of September to the first week of October, and it moves by a week or two with the year. Pu Luong has a second, smaller harvest in late May and June. Ha Giang mostly grows maize and buckwheat rather than rice, so it is not the place to plan a gold-terrace trip.

Yes, for about ten days in late January or February. Villages shut down, families are at home rather than working, transport is fully booked and prices rise. It is a fascinating time to be in a village if you are invited into one, and a difficult time to run a trek. We take very few departures across it.

Yes, if there are four places left. It is the cheapest way for a family to walk with us. The thing to weigh is pace: a set departure will not stop for a fourteen year old who has had enough at kilometre twelve, and a private trek will.

Six to eight on Sa Pa and Pu Luong, four to six on Ha Giang, and Ta Nang typically runs at exactly the four or five it needs. We have never run a northern departure at the full ten more than a handful of times, because the cap is set where the walking stops being good rather than where the vehicle fills.

No, and we would rather say that plainly. The same guides run both. What a private trek buys is the guide's attention undivided and the ability to change the day, not a different person.

Yes, and the price per person falls to the new band automatically. We will not raise it if someone drops out inside thirty days; the band is fixed at the point the balance is paid.

Vietnamese, licensed here as an international tour operator, paying tax here and employing the guides directly. The licence number and the legal entity are in the footer of every page on this site.

The guide carries a first-aid kit, a phone and, on Ta Nang, a satellite messenger. There is a 24-hour number that reaches a person in Hanoi, not a voicemail. Evacuation in Vietnam is a road evacuation or, rarely and expensively, a helicopter, and it is paid for by your insurance, which is why we check the policy before you travel.

Two concrete things and no claims beyond them. We refill water from 20-litre carboys rather than handing out bottles, which removes roughly forty single-use bottles from a six-day group trek. And we carry out what we carry in on Ta Nang, including the group's food waste, because there is no collection anywhere on that route.

We do not buy carbon offsets and we are not going to put a leaf logo on the page. A trek that starts with a long-haul flight has a footprint and we would rather say that than dress it up.

Yes. Ask, tell us your country and the route you are considering, and we will introduce you by email to two people who have walked it. We ask their permission each time and we do not sit in the thread.

Send the form with route, month, party size and fitness. That is enough for a real quote and you will have it within two working days. A message that says only “how much is Ha Giang” gets a reply asking for those four things, which costs both of us a day.

Yes, on the planning number during office hours, and we will follow the call with everything in writing because a spoken itinerary is not something either of us can check later.

Two, and both are working offices rather than shopfronts. The Hanoi one is where briefings happen the evening before a northern departure. Please message before you come so that somebody who knows your trip is actually there.

The number that matters is not distance, it is ascent in a day. Our easiest route, Pu Luong, has one day of 780 m of climbing over 15 km. Ha Giang has a day of 900 m over 17 km. Ta Nang has 22 km with a full pack day in the middle.

If you can walk six hours on a hilly path at home, carrying two litres of water, and do it again the next morning without a rest day, you can do any of the four. If you cannot, say so on the form and we will tell you which one still works.

Yes, but not many. We run private versions of these four routes at other lengths, and we occasionally run Y Ty, Bidoup and the Ba Be to Ban Gioc walk for returning clients. We do not list them because we cannot promise a guide for them every week, and listing a trek we cannot staff is how operators end up substituting.

No. We book the trek, the transport to and from it, and nothing else. Everyone in Hanoi sells the rest of it, usually better than we would, and adding a margin to somebody else's cruise is not a service.

A policy that covers trekking to 2,000 m and includes medical evacuation by road and by air. We ask for the policy number and the emergency line before you travel and we do check it. Vietnam has no mountain rescue service in the sense that Europe does, and evacuation off the Ta Nang ridge is a paid helicopter or a very long carry.

Pu Luong and Ha Giang combine well because both start in Hanoi and the terrain is different enough to be worth it. Allow eleven days including one rest day in Hanoi.

Sa Pa and Ha Giang do not combine well. They are five hours apart on bad roads, the landscapes rhyme, and by day nine most people are tired of stilt houses. We will quote it if you insist, but we will say this first.

A set departure runs when four people have paid. Below four we offer you the date at the private price for your party size, or a full refund of the deposit, and you choose. We do not cancel at seven days and hold the money as credit.

On Ha Giang, Sa Pa and Pu Luong your main bag travels by vehicle to the next house and you walk with a daypack. On Ta Nang there is no vehicle in the middle: you carry your own sleeping bag, mat, clothes and two litres of water, about 9 to 11 kg. That is the main reason it is graded 4.

Ha Giang, Sa Pa and Pu Luong all start in Hanoi and there is no sensible alternative. Ta Nang starts in Da Lat and finishes near Phan Thiet, so it fits naturally after a few days on the coast rather than before them.