Ha Giang Loop: 4-Day Motorbike Tour with Local Homestays

4.97

(618 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I still remember the first morning in Ha Giang — groggy from the Hanoi night bus, clutching a hot cup of tea at the homestay while our guide Minh spread out a crumpled map. He smiled as he pointed at all the zigzags we’d tackle (“snake road!” he said, grinning). I was nervous about riding the motorbike (they let us practice first, thank god), but honestly? The excitement kind of took over once we hit those first green hills outside town. Bamboo everywhere, and this faint smell of woodsmoke drifting from some hidden village below.

The Bac Sum Pass was just as twisty as promised — I counted maybe half the curves before giving up and just hanging on. At Heaven Gate, we stopped for sticky rice snacks and to stare at limestone mountains that looked like something out of an old ink painting. Minh introduced us to a Dao family in Nam Dam village; their clay house felt cool and earthy inside, and I tried weaving hemp for about two minutes before my fingers cramped up. They laughed with me (or maybe at me — hard to tell), but it was warm either way.

The days blurred into each other after that: Tham Ma Road’s switchbacks where even horses used to quit; wandering through H’mong King Palace with its heavy wooden doors; eating noodles in Dong Van while old men played cards nearby. The Ma Pi Leng Pass is what everyone talks about on a Ha Giang Loop tour — standing there above the Nho Que River canyon, wind tugging at my jacket, I felt tiny but weirdly content. We took a boat down below too — water cold on my hands when I dipped them overboard.

Evenings meant beer or tea around low tables in homestays. Sometimes there was music, sometimes just quiet. In Du Gia village, after swimming by the waterfall (freezing!), our hosts poured rice wine that tasted like smoke and grass. There’s something about waking up sore but happy in those mountain mornings — mist curling through the valley outside your window. On our last day back toward Ha Giang city, I caught myself already missing it all… especially those little moments you can’t really plan for.