26/01/2024
An important advice about Ha Giang loop for anyone who is going to Vietnam
Asia
Hello fellow travelers! I just finished my second trip around Vietnam and since it seems to be one of the most often discussed destinations here I decided to share my personal experience that might help someone else.
Here is my personal instruction how to do Ha Giang loop in a way that won't leave you disappointed.
• First of all, just don't book the tour with big hostels like QT or Jasmine hostel. Book it with any smaller hostel in Hanoi.
• Always ask about the maximum size of the group before you book the tour! I booked my tour through Central Backpackers hostel (they only sell QT and Jasmine tours). I picked QT because I had no idea how big these tour groups get so I wasn’t too worried. Well, we were a group of 28 backpackers + around 20 easy drivers so almost 50 people in total with only one guide for the whole group!
• If you have an international motorcycle license, you are a confident driver and you want to get the best experience, then don't book a tour at all, do the loop on your own!
• If you don't have an international motorcycle license but you still want to get the best experience without doing a group tour, then take a bus to Ha Giang and hire an easy driver there. You can do it with the help of pretty much any hostel there. This way, it will be just you and your easy driver. You'll have to pay for their accommodation, food and of course for their service as a driver and guide, but this way you can control how many stops you make, where you stop and how long you spend at every viewpoint.
Doing Ha Giang loop with a big group is miserable because breakfast and lunch takes forever and you waste the best part of the day sitting around and waiting for the group of 50-70 people to get food and eat. Also big groups can’t stop at every nice viewpoint because some of them just don’t have a parking space big enough for so many motorbikes and I can’t describe the disappointment I felt when we were passing by so many amazing places and I could see that other groups with 5-7 bikes stoping there but we didn’t. Besides that, the viewpoints where we did stop were not always the best. For example, our group skipped Guan Ba viewpoint on the first day of the loop and then we were supposed to pass by it on the last day of the loop, so I came to our tour guide and asked him if we were going to stop there this time. He said “No, we are not making any more stops before Ha Giang”. I asked him why we couldn’t stopped there if it’s on the way anyway and he told me he actually didn’t even know where this viewpoint was. Also, on the second day of the loop me and my friend were at the very end of the group with two easy drivers ahead of us, and they somehow lost the rest of the group and couldn’t figure out where they went. My friend had to text some of the backpackers from our group to ask them to share their location, but even with the name of the viewpoint the easy drivers couldn’t find the place and they had to ask locals for directions.
So basically what I’m saying is that if you want to enjoy the breathtaking views of Ha Giang loop then do it with a small hostel or on your own. Big hostels don’t care about your experience, they only care about their profits that’s why they allow ridiculous groups of 30-40 bikes to drive with one guide, that’s why they hire easy drivers that barely know the route, that’s why they don’t really care about your safety. Driving in a group of 30 bikes on steep mountain roads is NOT safe and not fun. I hope you make better choices than me and don’t feel as frustrated after the tour as I felt.
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