Adventure Tour to Ban Gioc Waterfall - Ba Be Lake 3 days 2 nights

Posted By : Curiosity21928692146
Most of the days are spent traveling on the bus. First day spent on the bus to get to the first home stay 8 hours from Hanoi . The first home stay was nice, clean food was tasty, not so peaceful and tranquil as they sung karaoke until gone midnight. Back on the bus in the morning we went to the cave which was really quite cool then onto the waterfalls unfortunately for us were super busy . Guide told us the bamboo raft were only for the Chinese side but I insisted as it was the main attraction and on our itinerary after that I feel the guide was a bit upset with me . We were then back on the bus 7 1/2 hours later arriving at mr linhs home stay was pitch black and we got stuck in the mud in the boat crossing to the home stay . Home stay is nice clean food tasty but repetitive. Didn't have the home stay vibe though just hotel business just a name as mr linh himself lives in hanoi. Next day Ba be lakes on the boat,beautiful also another cave which was really cool. We walked along a path near a small village and back on the boat , lunch and then another 7 1/2 hour bus drive back to Hanoi . The attractions and home stay are lovely but it just feels like your taken there to take a photo and move on . I would not recommend this trip as most of it is spent on the bus it literally sucked the life out of me . The trip needs to be revised.
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Posted On : 2024-05-02 20:58:02

Posted By : Bryan Y
Great organised tour from pickup at our hotel and dropped backed, Good knowledge by our guide Sonny and great driving by the driver, we first got picked up and went to Ha Long bay and spent the night with 30 others from a different tour on a boat in HaLong bay, good food and tours of caves and kayaking, only negative would be the over crowded islands, went back to Hanoi for a stay at a very nice hotel, from there the next morning we got picked up by Sonny and the driver, there were only four of us on this tour, we went to the caves, waterfalls on the China border and then on to a farm stay in a village, next day on to Ba Be Lake National Park where we spent the night at a lovely guest house, next day we did a long boat trip up to a village, temple and back to the guest house for lunch and then drove back to Hanoi .The tour did a circuit of North Vietnam, it is a lot of driving but the accommodation is very good along with all the food, the driver ( sorry forgot his name) was excellent along with Sonny the guide who's local knowledge was first class, Sonny kept a eye on everything including dealings with locals making sure we weren't over charged, dealings with Linh Hue via WhatsApp was excellent from my first research via the internet in Australia, high would highly recommend this company, regards Bryan, Australian
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Posted On : 2024-03-11 02:11:11

Posted By : Laocoon33
Don't do it if the weather forecast looks bad! 900 kilometers by minibus in 3 days to always be in the clouds and see nothing. Furthermore, the first accommodation presented as "rustic because authentic homestay" is in fact more than basic and totally unsuitable for low temperatures (it was 6° at night without heating).
Expensive and overall disappointing and not very exciting experience, especially if the weather conditions are bad...
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Posted On : 2024-03-04 19:12:25

Posted By : Chinz1980
Many thanks to our guide, Long Tran and our driver Mr Long for taking care of us on our wonderful family trip to Ban Giou Waterfall and Babe Lake. Even though the drives were long, the care, knowledge of our guide, beautiful scenery, accommodations and delicious food made up for it all. Thank you!
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Posted On : 2024-01-06 23:12:22

Posted By : guillaumebD2605WO
A very nice excursion to discover the northeast of Vietnam, its magnificent waterfalls, its very beautiful lake and other non-tourist places. Special mention to our guide, Long Tran, who allowed us to better understand this region and its history. The accommodations chosen were of very good quality and the meals provided varied and qualitative. Despite the many hours of roads, our driver, Long, was able to drive us safely.
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Posted On : 2023-12-24 05:35:35

Posted By : l_ac963
An excellent excursion, extraordinary pay, perfect organization with night at a local's home, we are well immersed in the life of the mountain inhabitants, the accommodation and the extra food, and the guide Mr Hung, super friendly who explains everything to us and really lets us discover the life of the locals, very kind, accommodating and caring for us, and a lot of humor. The driver was also excellent on these not easy mountain roads, we always felt safe. I recommend this excursion, you will be amazed by the Casade and the Lake. Extraordinary !!!
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Posted On : 2023-12-16 07:00:54

Posted By : 505inev
Tour was exactly as advertised. Loved the Cao Bang province as it's so beautiful. The waterfalls were a bit underwhelming, but the landscapes and cave made up for that. It was fun to stay in the local homestays as it felt more authentic and peaceful.

There was only one issue and that was with our tour guide (Mr Hung). We want to share this feedback as it can help improve the company as well as our guide's skills. Working points are:
1. English language: his English was a bit scripted when he would talk and provide information. Once you asked him a question he wouldn't understand. I don't think his level of English was sufficient to guide an international group. (An example: We asked, "How many people live in this town?" His answer: People in the village grow rice.)
2. Social skills: Hung came across pushy and stressy at times. I'm sure it wasn't his intention, but he stressed us out in the morning by trying to rush us out the door. Maybe the lack of English in this situation also didn't help.

We received a feedback form on our way back to Hanoi. We filled out that he needed to improve his language and social skills on the form. We then sealed it into the envelope. Unfortunately, he opened the envelope in the car after we returned them to him. He then put them in his pocket during the rest stop. We believe he changed the answers on the form (we can't tell 100% for sure, but it sure looked like he did - we saw the envelope in his pocket). This is something we'd never expect from a guide. A feedback form with a sealable envelope should be confidential... this was very unprofessional. There were a few other unprofessional things we noticed along the way, but we won't get into the details here. Feel free to contact us for more information. :)

Luckily for us, it didn't ruin the trip as we already explored and learned a lot about Vietnam (we already traveled here for 3 weeks). But we can imagine that for people who just arrived, it would be a letdown.

- Zac and Ine
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Posted On : 2023-12-16 04:35:04

Posted By : JoezaNZ
Really enjoyable trip with the highlights being Ban Gioc Waterfall and then the home stay at Ba Be Lake.

Our tour guide Tuan and driver Mr Bao were excellent and always ready to help or offer a smile.

Do be prepared for a lot of winding roads on this tour but with plenty of stops to break it all up.

We totally enjoyed being with just a small group of 5 and getting to know the others along the journey.

The scenery in the mountains is fantastic and really shows off another side of Vietnam.
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Posted On : 2023-11-05 01:52:48

Posted By : 686dorotap
We enjoyed the tour with Mr Linh's Adventures. The sceneries were really nice and the tour guide felt really passionate about his country. The tour is a far drive from Hanoi, which makes it less commercial than one day trips around Hanoi. The area maintains its originality as it is not packed with tourists.
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Posted On : 2023-10-08 03:48:22

Posted By : 243hadasc
Except of the nice views, most of the time spent on driving.
We didn’t felt that the guide was attentive to the group needs.
It was hard to understand the guides explanations in English as good as possible, and we didn’t feel we are getting added value.
The tour wasn’t including all the activities that were detailed in the itinerary.
In general we feel quite disappointed from the tour and that we didn’t get well value for the money.

For example: it was written that we going to have time for swimming and kayaking in the lake, but we had only few minutes to swim(also because of the boat engine broke down in the middle of the river) and we had to wake up extremely early to go kayaking in the lake by our self without any instructor(2 of our friends was sinking with their kayaks, which can be dangerous)

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Posted On : 2023-10-01 08:24:23