Ha Giang Loop
Contents
This article is written by a Tigit guide with English as a second language. Basic editing has been applied but we have kept it as local as possible!
Hagiang loop is the most famous loop to ride in the North, starting from Ha Giang city to go to many districts such as Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van, Meo Vac then going back to Hagiang city in 4-5days.
This loop is beautiful and very easy to do. There are many premium sleeping buses to get there, full of hotels and homestays speaking good English, many good service motorbike rentals and Easy rider tours for people who can not ride themself.
It is a perfect motorbike trip for stunning views, riding through minority cultures. The city has everything you need such as soft mattresses, bars, good Vietnamese food and good Western food.
Offroad Ha Giang loop
I got the map for this loop from a trip with Tigit Jon in October 2022 and just updated it in December 2023 after doing a offroad tour.
I had a big crash falling off a cliff on the trip with Jon, I was a not good rider, to be honest! We had many problems during the trip such as break downs and mapping problems.
I didn’t like it much, I much prefer to do an offroad trip to the North West and stop in Ha giang. In my opinion, Ha giang and the North East were nice for onroad.
A recent tour I did in December however, has changed my mind again about offroading in Ha Giang. I have got better at riding, and I also had an experienced customer to go with. I now like the loop a lot. The point I am making, is that one trip I fell off a cliff, another trip everything went smoothly. Ha Giang and its cliff edges are dangerous for under prepared travelers.
To compare to offroad the North West, they are both as beautiful as each other. But I feel that people will like Ha giang better because it is more famous.
To do this loop, I highly recommend a tour from us, Rent a tourguide.
The trails will lead you to ride along the Chinese border, the GPS upthere is crazy sometimes, you don’t want to get lost and accidentally land in China. With our offroad maps, it is possible!
Explain for colours on maps
- Blue lines are live data maps we got from our trips, that’s mean we’ve done it before, it is possible to go.
- Red lines are our plan to research, not checked yet, we’re not sure about that.
- Black lines are also not checked yet, we’re very not sure about that, don’t do that.
- Sky lines are maps I got from the trip with Jon, it makes the maps clear for my job researching, please ignore them.
Day 1: Hagiang to Xin Man
Hagiang is actually much bigger than what you’ve known about it. This day will take you through Hoang Su Phi to go to Xin Man, a peaceful version of Hagiang.
Distance: 187km
Time: 5 and half hour of riding. We didnt have lunch so it would take you a bit longer.
Highlight: DT177, Chieu Lau Thi.
DT177: it is 100% offroad construction. It is still good to ride offroad for now but I’m not sure whenever they finish building the road, we are researching for new routes.
Chieu Lau Thi: I got the recommendation from my colleague in the Hanoi office. He said that it was extreme enduro before. When I got there, a local said to me “Don’t go”. I can tell how difficult it is for a small semi-automatic bike to go on many deep ruts. Luckily, we did it with dirt bikes. It seems like a bit dangerous in rainy season with strong water flowing on the trail and many fallen trees.
Hotel: I don’t have any recommendations for a hotel in this town, we stayed in a guest house named Nha Nghi Phu Cuong, very cheap but has a hard mattress.
Food: there are good Vietnamese food in a restaurant next to the hotel or you can walk a bit for handmade Pho.
Coffee: Coffee Nha San.
Day 2: Xin Man to Hagiang
This is the trail is where the Honda XR 150 engine over heated and died on my trip with Jon. However, now as a guide, and with a client I was careful to avoid overheating the bike. We also found some more trails to make the route longer.
Distance: 140km
Time: 8 hours. It was very wet and slippery, took us quite a long time to do. We were very cold and hungry, so we stopped for a big lunch before hotel.
Highlight: offroad through a jungle.
Hotel: There are full of soft mattress hotels in the city. I stayed in Phuc Lam hotel everytime doing trip in Hagiang, single room costs 500.000vnd.
Food: Com Nieu An Nhien is a good place for Vietnamese food, or you can go Pizza Here, Hagiang Sports bar And Food for Western Foods.
I highly recommend Banh Cuon for breakfast, you can look for some places near by the hotel.
Coffee: Coconut coffee is the best but I like Salt coffee (Cà phê muối) better. They make them in every coffee shop.
Day 3: Hagiang to Dong Van
On the trip with Jon, this route took us so long, two days. That was the first time we did it, the maps we confusing. We didn’t want to miss anything so we decided to get back to Hagiang city and did the rest on the next day.
This time I was more confident and had good preparation for the maps. Sometimes, the maps tell you that you’re in China. That’s why you need to read the maps carefully before hitting the trails.
Distance: 166km.
Time: 8 hours. It won’t take you that long if you go in dried season.
Highlight: offroad through a jungle, stunning view trails.
Hotel: I couldn’t find any good hotel in Dong Van even though I have done many trips to there before. This time the customer took me to Dong Van Panorama Homestay, they ran out of private rooms when we came. I would say that it is the best dorm bed I have ever had. We paid around 200.000 vnd for a bed, the cozy hometay was made of clay according to minority architecture, the bed is soft mattress and also very private in the room.
Food: the homestay serves good Vietnamese foods.
Coffee: i’m not a big fan of coffee to ride back to the town, i’m happy with coffee at the homestay.
Day 4: Dong Van to Hagiang
I didn’t expect that we could do a lot of offroad for this day. I followed the map that I usually do for my onroad trips, it was supposed to be a small offroad section to go to the Bamboo Ferry. After the Bamboo Ferry, I decided to take a shortcut to the main road, the GPS went very crazy, Google maps accidentally took me to go on many offroad trails. It was like it lasted forever, we almost got lost, but finally, we made it, we enjoyed the day a lot!
Distance: 215 km.
Time: 7 hours.
Highlight: Stunning view trails, Bamboo ferry, flat tracks to go fast.
We dropped our bikes at a truck station and took a sleeping bus to go back to Hanoi.
We arrived to Hanoi around 3 am on the next day.
Transport to Hagiang
Sleeping bus: this was my first time taking a premium sleeping bus, we booked for the option “Palace” which impressed us a lot, costs 350.000 vnd / 14 usd for a single bed. The bus company named Bang Phan, website here.
Note: Even though I booked online, they still called us many times to confirm for that. They tried to cancel my booking with the excuse “You missed our call”, and that was not true. I was very unhappy but understood that they didn’t believe in Vietnamese reservations. I’m pretty sure that you won’t get the same problem.
Bike transport to Hagiang: the truck station on our maps is a Tigit’s partner in Hagiang, you can book us in advanced for 35usd/1 way.
