Three days in Pu Luong
Four hours from Hanoi, thirty-two kilometres of walking through a limestone nature reserve, and two nights in White Thai stilt houses. The shortest real trek we run.
At a glance
- Duration
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Walking
- 32 km over 3 days
- Group
- Maximum 12
- Starts and ends
- Hanoi
- Grade
- 2 of 5
- From
- USD 295 per person
Who this route is for
Pu Luong is a nature reserve in the west of Thanh Hoa province, on the same limestone belt that runs up into Hoa Binh and eventually into Laos. It is a working landscape rather than a wilderness: about eighteen hundred hectares of terraces cut into the valley floors, wooden waterwheels four metres across lifting stream water into the top paddies, and White Thai and Muong villages living off both. The forest above the terraces is limestone evergreen and holds langurs, though you are unlikely to see them from the path.
This is the route we send people to when the constraint is time, or when the party includes someone who is not certain about a six-hour day. Hanoi to the trailhead is four hours on decent road. No day is longer than fifteen kilometres. A fourteen year old keeps up comfortably and a fit sixty-five year old does too.
It is also the route where the difference between operators is largest, because Pu Luong now has around forty places calling themselves eco-lodges and a weekend market of Hanoian visitors. A cheap Pu Luong trip means a resort with a pool, two hours of walking and a lot of vehicle. Ours is the other thing: three walking days out of two village houses, and the vehicle appears twice.
Day by day
Hanoi to Ban Hieu, past the waterwheels
Depart Hanoi at 07:30 and drive south-west through Hoa Binh, about 165 km and four hours including a coffee stop at Mai Chau pass. We start walking from Ban Don at about 12:30 after lunch in the village.
Eight kilometres up the Hieu stream to Ban Hieu, climbing 350 m in stages between paddies, past five working waterwheels and the tiered pools of the Hieu waterfall. The last pool is deep enough to swim in and you will have time before dinner.
Over the ridge to Kho Muong
The main day. You climb out of the Hieu valley on a path that switchbacks through bamboo for ninety minutes, cross the shoulder at about 950 m, and traverse north with the reserve on your left. Fifteen kilometres and 780 m of climbing, six to seven hours with stops.
The descent into Kho Muong is short and steep into a closed valley with about thirty houses, no through road, and a large cave under the far wall. We walk into the cave before dinner with head torches; it is dry, high-roofed and free of the concrete stairs and coloured lighting that have been put into most Vietnamese show caves.
Down to the Chang river, then Hanoi
Nine kilometres of descent, losing 600 m through Son, Ba and Muoi, three hamlets on a high shelf that only got a road in the last few years and where the temperature runs several degrees below the valley. The path finishes at the river near Canh Nang.
A forty-minute bamboo raft on the Chang river before lunch, then the drive back. You are in Hanoi between 17:30 and 18:30, which is early enough to fly out that night if you must, though we would rather you did not.
Prices
| Party size | Private trek, per person | Set-departure group, per person |
|---|---|---|
| 1 walker | USD 690 | USD 340 |
| 2 walkers | USD 460 | USD 340 |
| 3 - 4 | USD 360 | USD 325 |
| 5 - 8 | USD 310 | USD 310 |
| 9 - 12 | USD 295 | USD 295 |
What the price includes
- Two nights in named White Thai stilt houses, mattress, net and blanket
- Private vehicle and driver, Hanoi to Ban Don and back from Canh Nang
- An English-speaking trekking guide walking the whole route
- A village guide from Ban Hieu on day two
- All meals listed above, including one packed lunch
- Pu Luong Nature Reserve entry, cave fee and the Chang river raft
- Refill drinking water and head torches for the cave
What it does not include
- International and domestic flights
- Travel insurance covering trekking and evacuation
- Drinks other than water and homestay tea
- Tips for the guide, the driver and the host families
- Any resort upgrade. We do not use the pool lodges and will not quote them
Pictures
Who this trek is not for
- Anyone who wants a pool and a cocktail at the end of the day. Those exist in Pu Luong and we do not use them; if that is the trip you want, book a lodge directly.
- Walkers looking for a hard route. Day two is the only real effort and a regular hill walker will find the rest gentle. If you want to be tired, go to Ta Nang or Ha Giang.
- Visitors coming in July or August who mind heat. The valley floor sits around 33 degrees with high humidity and the climb on day two becomes genuinely unpleasant by ten in the morning.
- Anyone expecting wildlife. It is a nature reserve with langurs in it, and in six years of running this route our guides have seen them from the path perhaps a dozen times.
Questions travellers ask most
Is Pu Luong worth it if I have already booked Sa Pa?
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.
Can we do this as two days instead of three?
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.
What are the stilt houses actually like?
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.
Is there a market day worth planning around?
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.
Read next
Tell us about the trek you have in mind
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.