North along Highway 1 to the imperial city on the Perfume River, then into the limestone of Quang Binh for Phong Nha and Paradise Cave.
Photo: Phạm Mạnh / Unsplash
Day 1
We leave Da Nang over the Hai Van Pass, stopping at Hai Van Gate, a fortified checkpoint built under Emperor Minh Mang, for the view down over Lang Co Bay and Lap An Lagoon. After checking in at Hue we enter the Imperial Citadel through Ngo Mon Gate to see Thai Hoa Palace, the dynastic temple and the Nine Dynastic Urns. In the evening you take a dragon boat down the Perfume River for a performance of traditional Hue music and float a paper lantern.
Day 2
The morning covers Thien Mu Pagoda, whose seven-storey Phuoc Duyen tower stands above the north bank of the Perfume River, and the tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh, where Thien Dinh Palace is lined with glass and porcelain mosaic. We leave Hue at midday for the four-hour drive to Dong Hoi, with a lunch stop on the way. You check in at Dong Hoi in the early evening and can walk along Nhat Le beach and see the Nhat Le bridge lit up.
Day 3
We enter Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park and board a motorboat for the half-hour run up the Son River. The engine is cut and the boat is paddled the last stretch into the cave, past formations mirrored in the underground water. In the afternoon we visit Paradise Cave, a dry cave 31 kilometres long; the group walks the first kilometre on a wooden boardwalk beneath a ceiling that rises to 70 metres, through what are widely held to be the best stalactite formations in the country. We return to Dong Hoi for the night.
Day 4
We check out and stop at Dong Hoi market for dried seafood and other Quang Binh specialities. The coach returns to Da Nang on Highway 1, breaking for lunch at Hue or Lang Co. We arrive in Da Nang in the late afternoon; your guide drops you at your hotel or the airport as required.
This route is for travellers who have already done Da Nang and Hoi An and want to go further north. Quang Binh is around seven hours by road from Da Nang, so four days is the minimum that lets you see Hue properly and still get into both major caves without spending a whole day in a seat.
Phong Nha and Paradise are two very different caves. Phong Nha is a river cave: you go in by boat and hear the paddles echoing off the roof. Paradise is dry, walked on a boardwalk under a ceiling as high as a twenty-storey building. We put both in the same day because they are close together and because each makes the other more impressive.
A seasonal note: Phong Nha Cave can close when the Son River runs high during the flood season, typically September to November. If that happens we will tell you in advance and substitute an equivalent site rather than simply dropping it from the programme.
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