Vietnam · Itinerary · Updated September 2026
10 days in Vietnam: the north, and none of the rest
Ten days in a country 1,650km long is a choice between covering it and seeing it. This route stays north of Hanoi's latitude, spends nothing on distance, and gives Ha Giang three full days. Prices checked September 2026.
Idan Robbins / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Length
10 days
Budget
19,600,000₫ / $754
per person, mid-range
Best season
Oct–Apr
The north is cold and misty Jan–Feb; Ha Giang is best Sep–Nov
Stops
4
no flights, no long-haul trains
The route
Hanoi, the Ha Giang loop by night bus, and Ninh Binh, three bases, none of them more than seven hours apart.
Day by day
Days 1–3 · Hanoi
Three nights, bookending the trip
Two nights at the start, one at the end, because everything on this route returns through Hanoi. Day one is the flight: the lake at dusk, bia hoi on a plastic stool, an early night. Day two: the Temple of Literature, the Ho Chi Minh complex before it shuts at eleven, bun cha for lunch, and the afternoon booking Ha Giang. The Old Quarter stops being charming at about the forty-eight hour mark, which is exactly how long you are in it.
Sleep: Old Quarter, near where the night buses leave from.
Days 4–6 · Ha Giang
Three days, which is the whole reason for this itinerary
Night bus from Hanoi, six to seven hours, costing no daylight at either end. Three days and two nights around the Dong Van karst plateau. The Ma Pi Leng pass, the Nho Que river, and villages where the road was cut by hand. **From 2026 a permit of about $10 is required.** Easy-rider tours, riding pillion behind a local driver, are $170–250 all in. Jeeps are $200–350. Self-driving is $80–150 and needs a licence you probably do not have.
Sleep: Homestays on the loop, included in the tour price.
Days 7–9 · Ninh Binh
Three nights, because two is a day trip with luggage
Two hours south of Hanoi. This route gives Ninh Binh a third night that the longer itineraries cannot, and it changes the place: Trang An's caves by rowing boat on one day, Hang Mua at dawn and Tam Coc on another, and a third simply cycling between rice fields and goat-herding limestone with nothing booked. Bai Dinh, the enormous modern pagoda complex, is worth an afternoon if the weather turns.
Sleep: Tam Coc village. Waking up inside the landscape is the point of the third night.
Day 10 · Hanoi, and out
Back for the flight
Two hours back to Hanoi and forty-five minutes on to Noi Bai. If the flight is late enough, the return leg is a morning in Ninh Binh rather than a day lost, which is the advantage of a route where nothing is more than a couple of hours from the airport you arrived at.
Sleep: Nowhere. This is the day you leave.
Best things to do on this route
If you cut the trip short, these are the ones to keep.
- 01
The Ha Giang loop by easy rider
Three days through the Dong Van karst on the back of a local driver's bike. The best thing in northern Vietnam and not close.
- 02
The Ma Pi Leng pass
The high point of the loop, above the Nho Que river. Every photograph of Ha Giang you have seen was taken within a mile of it.
- 03
Trang An by rowing boat
Two hours through flooded caves, rowed by a woman using her feet. What Ha Long Bay is supposed to be, at a fraction of the price.
- 04
Hang Mua at dawn
Five hundred steps above Tam Coc. At six it is yours; at ten you queue on the stairs.
- 05
A day in Ninh Binh with nothing booked
A bicycle, flat empty roads between limestone towers, and no ticket in your pocket. The third night buys this and the longer routes do not have it.
Where to stay
Neighbourhoods rather than specific hotels. Prices move, areas don't.
Hanoi: Old Quarter
Central, loud, and next to the Ha Giang bus offices. Two nights of it is about right.
Ha Giang: homestays on the loop
Included in the tour price. Shared rooms, communal dinners, rice wine you will be offered whether or not you want it.
Ninh Binh: Tam Coc village
Guesthouses among the karsts rather than hotels in Ninh Binh city, which is a transport town with nothing in it.
What it cost
Per person, 10 days. International flights not included.
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Accommodation: 7 nights, plus 2 on the loop | 5,600,000₫ / $215 |
| Ha Giang loop: 3 days, guided, all in | 5,200,000₫ / $200 |
| Food and drink | 5,000,000₫ / $192 |
| Activities, entry fees and the Ha Giang permit | 1,400,000₫ / $54 |
| Buses and transfers | 1,000,000₫ / $38 |
| Local transport and bicycle hire | 900,000₫ / $35 |
| SIM, laundry, everything else | 500,000₫ / $19 |
| Total | 19,600,000₫ / $754 |
Converted at 26,010₫ to the dollar, checked 2 September 2026. About $75 a day. The highest of the Vietnam routes despite being the shortest, because the Ha Giang loop costs $200 whatever the trip length and here it is more than a quarter of the whole budget. That is the correct place for it to be.
Getting around
Nothing on this route is more than seven hours from Hanoi
The night bus to Ha Giang is six to seven hours and travels while you sleep. Ninh Binh is two. There are no flights, no sixteen-hour sleepers and no transfers between airports, which is where a ten-day Vietnam usually loses two of its days.
The Ha Giang permit is new for 2026
Roughly $10 and required. Tour operators include it and handle it. Independent riders must arrange it themselves.
Ride pillion unless you genuinely ride
Easy-rider tours cost $170–250 against $80–150 self-driving. The roads are mountain switchbacks shared with lorries, and travel insurance requires a motorcycle endorsement most visitors do not hold. This is the one place on this site where the more expensive option is also the obvious one.
Packing notes
The things that are annoying to find locally, or that people forget.
- Warm layers. Ha Giang is at altitude and cold at night from November to March, and homestays are not heated.
- A light waterproof. The north is misty and drizzly through January and February.
- Cash in small notes. The loop is entirely cash-based.
- Shoes with grip for Hang Mua's five hundred steps and the Ha Giang viewpoints.
- A padlock for homestay lockers and the night bus.
- Gloves, if you are riding rather than sitting pillion. The pass is cold at speed even in October.
Why there is no Hoi An on this route
Because ten days will not carry the length of the country, and the version that tries is the one people regret. Hanoi to Hoi An is a night on a train or a flight plus two airport transfers, and doing it there and back inside ten days costs two of them.
More to the point, it would have to come out of Ha Giang. Three days on the loop is the minimum that reaches the Dong Van plateau and returns; two is a long drive to a viewpoint. Between three days in Ha Giang and two nights in Hoi An, this site takes Ha Giang every time.
If the centre is what you want, do not compress this route. Take the 12-day itinerary instead, which keeps Ha Giang, adds the sleeper to Hue and Hoi An, and flies home from Da Nang. Two extra days buy a genuinely different trip rather than a rushed version of this one.
What the third night in Ninh Binh buys
Every longer route on this site gives Ninh Binh two nights, which covers Trang An and Hang Mua and nothing else. The third night is the one where you hire a bicycle, ride between limestone towers on empty flat roads, and have no ticket in your pocket all day.
It is the only unscheduled day in any Vietnam itinerary here, and on a ten-day trip there is finally room for it.