Lung Khuy Cave Quan Ba: How to Visit and What to Expect
05/10/2026
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Thúy Kiều (Grace) is a travel blogger and content contributor for Loop Trails Tours Ha Giang. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Tourism from Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and has a strong passion for exploring and promoting responsible travel experiences in Vietnam’s northern highlands.
Everyone’s plan for Hanoi is slightly too ambitious. You land, you look at the map, you think: temples, museums, street food, old quarter, evening market, maybe a quick day trip. Then you actually arrive, the heat and the traffic do their thing, and by 4pm you’ve done two of the seven things on your list and you’re fine with that.
Two days before the Ha Giang Loop is about the right amount of Hanoi for most people: enough to get your bearings, eat something good, see a couple of things worth seeing, and sort out the practical stuff without rushing onto the night bus half prepared. This guide is about what’s actually worth your time, what isn’t, and how to set up the Loop from Hanoi before you leave.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop Tours
Two days is enough. See the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology on day one. Sort your logistics and see Hoa Lo Prison or the Temple of Literature on day two. Take the night bus on the second evening. Sleep on the bus. Arrive in Ha Giang in the morning.
Don’t try to squeeze in Ha Long Bay or Ninh Binh before the Loop. You’ll be tired before the roads even start.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop 2 Days 1 Night
The Old Quarter is best in the morning, before the heat builds and before the traffic gets loud. Pick a guesthouse in the middle of it and walk. No specific route needed: the 36 traditional guild streets are dense enough that turning left or right produces roughly the same quality of experience. Fabric shops, lacquerware, paper lanterns, tiny coffee places squeezed between buildings, bánh mì carts with queues.
Hoan Kiem Lake is a ten minute walk from most Old Quarter guesthouses. The lake itself is pleasant in a quiet Hanoi park way; Ngoc Son Temple on the small island is worth the entrance fee for the setting rather than for the temple specifically. Spend an hour here early and the lake is one thing; spend it at midday and it’s tourist congestion.
Eat breakfast properly. Pho bo (beef noodle soup) for breakfast, with the broth ladled from a pot that’s been on the heat since before you woke up, is one of the things Hanoi does better than anywhere. Bun cha (grilled pork with cold noodles) works later in the morning. Egg coffee is worth trying once and worth deciding whether you like it before ordering a second.
This is the one place in Hanoi that actually connects to what you’re about to see on the Ha Giang Loop. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology documents the 54 officially recognised ethnic groups of Vietnam: their tools, textiles, architecture, music, language, ceremonies and food. It’s one of the best ethnographic museums in Southeast Asia, and it’s much better than people expect.
The main building covers all 54 groups. The outdoor section has full scale reconstructed houses from different communities, including a Tay stilt house and a grave marker display that’s genuinely striking.
Go here rather than a generic history museum, because you’ll spend five days in the north meeting the actual communities this place documents. The museum puts everything in context. You’ll look at the dress and housing details and think “that’s who I met at the market yesterday” on the way back from the Loop, but the museum is more useful before.
It takes about two to three hours. A tuk tuk or a Grab ride from the Old Quarter is the sensible way to get there; it’s in the west of the city, not walking distance for most.
This is the advice everyone ignores and then wishes they’d followed. The Loop is physically demanding in a sustained way: five or six hours on a bike seat, or on the back of one, every day, in mountain weather. You want to start it rested, not already tired from two late Hanoi nights.
One good dinner in a sit down restaurant, one beer if you like beer, and an early night. Bun cha, bun bo nam bo, cha ca la vong, banh cuon: Hanoi has a specific and excellent street food canon, and any of these is a better choice than a generic tourist restaurant.
Do not do a beer hoi corner all night and then try to feel good on the bus.
Still figuring out the Loop? Before you leave Hanoi, confirm your booking for the Ha Giang side. Our Ha Giang Loop tours run from Easy Rider through jeep, and we send a briefing the night before you arrive so you know what to expect. If you’re still deciding, message us on WhatsApp and we’ll help you pick the right length and style.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop 3 Days 2 Nights
Day two morning is logistics time. Not exciting, but genuinely useful:
This takes a morning. The Old Quarter has gear shops, ATMs and SIM sellers on the same streets as your guesthouse.
Pick one, because they’re different in character and both worth doing, but together they’re a long afternoon.
Hoa Lo Prison (called the Hanoi Hilton by American POWs) is a colonial era prison used by the French to detain Vietnamese independence activists, then famously used to hold American pilots during the war. The museum leans into the second use considerably more than the first, which tells you something about framing and perspective. Go in knowing that and it becomes interesting on two levels: the historical content, and the way historical content gets packaged.
Temple of Literature is Hanoi’s best preserved traditional architecture, a 1,000 year old complex that was Vietnam’s first national university. If you’ve spent time in Southeast Asian temple complexes before, this one feels less spectacular than it reads; if you haven’t, it’s beautiful and serene and a good counterpoint to the noise outside.
Most night buses to Ha Giang depart in the early to mid evening, roughly 7pm to 10pm, arriving in Ha Giang city in the early morning. Check the current schedule with your operator and confirm the pick up point, since different bus companies use different departure locations in Hanoi.
Sleep on the bus. The journey through the night is how you arrive in Ha Giang rested enough to start the Loop properly.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop 4 Days 3 Nights
Two days forces you to choose. Here’s an honest ranking.
Worth it. You’re staying there, it’s the context of the city, and walking it is the best way to understand how Hanoi actually works. Two to three hours on foot, no specific itinerary.
Worth the morning visit. Skip it in the afternoon when it’s full and loud. Ngoc Son Temple is fine but not unmissable
Worth it, especially before the Loop. The best two to three hours you’ll spend in Hanoi in terms of return on the trip you’re actually taking.
Worth it for the framing questions it raises. Budget about 90 minutes, including reading the panels slowly.
Worth it if you have time. Not worth reshuffling the day for.
Train Street became popular when a handful of bloggers photographed the trains running inches from café chairs. In 2019, the authorities cleared out the cafes that had set up there for the photo opportunity. The street still exists and trains still run through it, but the scene that made it famous is gone or much reduced, and what’s left is a narrow residential alley where trains occasionally pass. Worth knowing about rather than worth building your afternoon around. Check current conditions when you arrive, since things keep shifting.
Ha Long Bay takes at least two days to do properly. Ninh Binh is a long day trip. Both are much better done after the Loop rather than before it, when you’re fresh and you haven’t already been on winding roads for a week. If you have extra time at the end of your Vietnam trip, build Ninh Binh or Ha Long into your return before the flight. Don’t cram them before the Loop
Learn more: Ha Giang Cao Bang 5 Days 4 Nights
Learn more: Ha Giang Homestay Guide
The Old Quarter is the right base for two nights. You want to walk to breakfast, walk to ATMs, walk to the bus pickup or at least a taxi, and be in the middle of what’s happening.
Budget guesthouses and boutique hotels are packed into the Old Quarter lanes. Avoid booking by photos alone: check for verified reviews about noise, since some lanes are quieter and some are directly above bars.
A few areas slightly outside the Old Quarter core, toward the Hoan Kiem south side, have better street noise levels and still easy walking access
Learn more: Best Adventure Activities in Vietnam
Hanoi’s food is specific and excellent. A quick canon:
For drinks: bia hoi (freshly brewed light beer sold by the glass from plastic chairs on the pavement) is the cheap, social, specifically Hanoi experience. A glass costs very little. The experience is the point.
Learn more: SIM Card & eSIM for northern Vietnam
Buy a SIM at the airport on arrival or at any mobile shop in the Old Quarter on the first morning. Viettel is the most widely recommended network for the northern mountains, where weaker networks can lose signal for stretches. A tourist SIM with a data plan is easy to find and doesn’t need a Vietnamese ID.
Confirm what coverage looks like on the Ha Giang Loop and be prepared for patches of no signal in the high areas. Offline maps downloaded before you leave Hanoi will carry you through.
ATMs are everywhere in the Old Quarter. Techcombank, BIDV and Vietcombank are reliable for foreign cards with lower fees, though this changes and you should check with your bank what applies.
The Ha Giang Loop has cash requirements that pile up: entrance fees, food and drinks along the route, homestay extras, market purchases, tips. Withdraw enough for the full trip in Hanoi rather than assuming you’ll find an ATM in Ha Giang city when you need it at 9pm. Higher denomination bills (200,000 and 500,000 dong) for larger payments, some smaller ones (20,000 and 50,000) for food stalls and market buying.
Hanoi has gear shops clustered in the Old Quarter, particularly on Hang Gai, Hang Be and the surrounding streets. What’s worth buying here:
What you don’t need to buy in Hanoi:
Most Loop operators, including us, allow you to store your main bag at the hostel base in Ha Giang while you ride with a daypack. There’s nothing you need to bring from Hanoi for the Loop beyond what fits in a pack for five days.
If your main bag is going into storage, leave anything you don’t need for mountain weather. The Loop is not the place for dress shoes, beach towels or things you’re afraid to get dusty.
Learn more: Ha Giang Sleeper Bus
The standard way to get from Hanoi to Ha Giang is an overnight sleeper bus, departing in the early to mid evening and arriving in Ha Giang city in the early hours of the morning.
Several bus companies run this route with different levels of comfort. Options range from open plan sleeper buses (flat pods with curtains) to cabin sleeper buses (individual enclosed pods) to limousine vans (fewer seats, more space, faster). We book bus tickets as part of our tour service, at the extra cost noted in our pricing, and can help you choose the right option.
A few practical notes:
When you arrive in Ha Giang, the hostel will be expecting you. A quick wash, a short sleep, breakfast, and the Loop briefing: that’s what the first Ha Giang morning looks like.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop Easy Rider
You’ve got two days in Hanoi to think about this. By the time you’re on the night bus you should have a clear answer.
You ride on the back with an experienced local driver. No motorbike licence required. You can look at the scenery instead of the road. This is the right choice for most travelers, especially first time visitors to Vietnam, solo travelers, and couples where one person isn’t a confident rider.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop Self-Drive
You ride your own bike, following a guide. Good for experienced riders with genuine mountain road confidence.
The paperwork: you need your passport, your home motorcycle licence and an International Driving Permit under the 1968 convention. IDPs issued under the 1949 convention are not valid in Vietnam. Riding without the correct documents can mean fines, reported in the range of 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 VND, and can affect your travel insurance. Riders from some ASEAN countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, have their national licences recognised in Vietnam under a regional agreement. Rules change, so verify before you travel. We don’t run self drive on the 2 day Loop.
Learn more: Ha Giang Loop by Wrangler Rubicon Jeep
You travel in a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with a driver. The right choice for families, older travelers, couples where someone doesn’t ride, and anyone visiting in heavy rain. Jeep availability is limited, so most guests book one to three months ahead.
These are our direct booking prices. Jeep prices are the total for your group in one vehicle. Motorbike prices are per person. All tours include dorm accommodation and everything in the itinerary. Private room upgrades and bus tickets to and from Ha Giang are extra.
| Tour | Jeep, 1 guest | Jeep, 2 guests | Jeep, 3 guests | Jeep, 4 guests | Easy Rider (per person) | Self Drive (per person) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ha Giang Loop 2D1N | 12,990,000 VND | 15,990,000 VND | 19,990,000 VND | 22,990,000 VND | 3,490,000 VND | not available |
| Ha Giang Loop 3D2N | 15,990,000 VND | 19,990,000 VND | 23,990,000 VND | 25,990,000 VND | 4,490,000 VND | 3,790,000 VND |
| Ha Giang Loop 4D3N | 19,990,000 VND | 25,990,000 VND | 30,990,000 VND | 34,990,000 VND | 5,890,000 VND | 4,990,000 VND |
| Ha Giang and Cao Bang 5D4N | 27,990,000 VND | 36,990,000 VND | 41,990,000 VND | 46,990,000 VND | 10,990,000 VND | 10,590,000 VND |
| Ha Giang and Cao Bang 6D5N | 36,990,000 VND | 44,990,000 VND | 49,990,000 VND | 54,990,000 VND | 13,990,000 VND | 13,490,000 VND |
| Cao Bang Loop 3D2N | 14,990,000 VND | 19,990,000 VND | 24,990,000 VND | 31,990,000 VND | 6,490,000 VND | 5,990,000 VND |
Prices are in Vietnamese dong. Jeep tours use a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, except the Cao Bang Loop, which runs in an army style jeep.
Book the Loop before you land in Hanoi. Jeep tours fill up fast and good dates go. Our Ha Giang Loop tour pages have the full inclusions. Travelling as a family? Go straight to jeep tours. Riding your own bike? See motorbike rental in Ha Giang. And if you want to talk through which option suits your group, message us on WhatsApp.
Learn more: Ha Giang Motorbike Rental
Two days in Hanoi is enough to do the things worth doing and prepare properly for the road north. The mistake most people make is trying to do too much: day trips, multiple museums, every street food dish, late nights. The Loop will take more out of you than you expect, and the best Hanoi prep is arriving at Ha Giang rested, sorted and ready.
See the Old Quarter, go to the Museum of Ethnology, eat well, get your cash and SIM, confirm your booking, and take the night bus. That’s a good two days.
Two days is the sweet spot. Enough to see the highlights and sort the practical stuff. One day is rushed; three or more starts eating into mountain time you’ll want later.
The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. It covers the ethnic minority groups you’ll meet on the Loop and in Cao Bang, and the context it gives is genuinely useful. Most traveler skip it. Don’t.
The cafes that made it famous were cleared in 2019 and the scene has changed substantially. It’s a narrow residential alley with trains passing occasionally, not the Instagram set up from five years ago. Check current conditions when you arrive.
The Old Quarter. You want to be central, walking distance from ATMs, food, gear shops and the bus pickup. Book based on verified reviews rather than photos.
In two days: pho bo for breakfast, bun cha or banh cuon for lunch, cha ca la vong for one dinner. Egg coffee once. Bia hoi at least once on a plastic chair on the pavement.
Yes, and you should. ATMs are plentiful in the Old Quarter. On the Loop itself, cash access is limited and you’ll need dong for homestay extras, entrance tickets, market purchases and tips. Withdraw enough for the full trip before you leave.
Neck pillow, earplugs or headphones, a light jacket (buses are cold), phone charger, snacks, and anything you’ll need in the first hour after arriving. The main bag goes in the luggage compartment; keep the essentials with you in your seat.
A decent rain poncho is the main thing. Helmets are provided by tour operators. Other gear is available in Ha Giang as well, so you don’t have to buy everything in Hanoi. Thin gloves, a small daypack and sunscreen are the other things worth picking up if you don’t have them.
Before you leave for Vietnam. Jeep tour spots go weeks to months ahead. Easy Rider and self drive tours have more flexibility but popular dates fill up, especially in autumn. Book early and confirm your night bus with the operator.
Neither is worth doing in the two days before the Loop. Both need proper time, and arriving at the Loop already tired from two long day trips is a mistake. Do them after the Loop if you have time.
Overnight sleeper, departing early to mid evening and arriving in Ha Giang in the morning. Options include open sleeper, cabin sleeper and limousine van. We book bus tickets as part of our tour service; confirm the pickup point in Hanoi in advance, since it varies by company.
Some travelers do ride from Hanoi to Ha Giang. It’s a long day of urban and highway riding before the mountain roads even start. Most people prefer the overnight bus and renting in Ha Giang, where the rental fleet is designed for mountain conditions.
Contact information for Loop Trails
Website: Loop Trails Official Website
Email: looptrailshostel@gmail.com
Hotline & WhatSapp:
+84862379288
+84938988593
Social Media:
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Office Address: 54A Tran Phu, Ha Giang 2, Tuyen Quang
Address: 54A Tran Phu, Ha Giang 2, Tuyen Quang
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