Three days given over entirely to the caves of Quang Binh: Phong Nha cave by boat, the 31 km Paradise Cave, the Chay River and Dark Cave, and Nuoc Mooc spring.
Photo: Phạm Mạnh / Unsplash
Day 1
We leave Da Nang early, pass through the Hai Van tunnel and follow Highway 1A north into Quang Binh, roughly six hours including breaks and lunch. Early in the afternoon we reach Xuan Son landing and take a motorboat about thirty minutes up the Son River to the mouth of Phong Nha cave; inside, the engine is cut and the boat is rowed between the stalactite formations, after which you walk back out along the bank. We check in at Phong Nha town for dinner and the night.
Day 2
The morning is at Paradise Cave, a dry cave 31 km long that local people found in 2005; an electric buggy takes you to the foot of the hill, then it is about 500 steps up and down onto roughly a kilometre of boardwalk inside, where the roof reaches 70 metres in places. The afternoon is at the Chay River and Dark Cave: a zipline across the river, then a life jacket and a swim into the cave mouth to the natural mud bath inside. Anyone not taking part in the active options can kayak on the jade-green stretch of river outside.
Day 3
The morning is spent at the Nuoc Mooc eco-trail, where water rises out of the limestone to form a clear stream through the forest, with wooden walkways and a bathing area. We check out, have lunch and drive back to Da Nang by the same route with a rest stop at Dong Ha or Hue, arriving in the late afternoon or early evening.
This programme does one thing: caves. We drop Hue and the roadside stops that the four-day Da Nang – Hue – Quang Binh route takes in, and in exchange you get two full days inside the national park rather than one rushed afternoon.
Over three hundred caves have been surveyed at Phong Nha and only a handful are open to general visitors. The three in this itinerary are three different kinds of cave: Phong Nha is a river cave you enter by boat; Paradise is a dry cave, walked on boardwalk and cool all year; the Dark Cave you swim into and wade through mud, and your clothes will not survive dry.
Day two is the active day — bring a change of clothes, sandals with a heel strap and a waterproof pouch for your phone. The rainy season in Quang Binh runs roughly September to November, when the Son River can rise high enough for the authorities to close Phong Nha cave. We always hold an alternative, but we flag it in advance so you can weigh up the season. Group size and accommodation standard are agreed before the contract is signed.
Domestic ToursA tight, well-paced long weekend — My Khe beach, the Golden Bridge on the summit of Ba Na, and one full evening in Hoi An under the lanterns.
Domestic ToursNorth along Highway 1 to the imperial city on the Perfume River, then into the limestone of Quang Binh for Phong Nha and Paradise Cave.
Domestic ToursSouth down the coast to the clear water of Ky Co, the windswept cliffs of Eo Gio and thousand-year-old Cham towers in the middle of Quy Nhon.