Ba Vi National Park Private Tour: Sightseeings & Jungle Hikking

Amazing

I’ve had touching experience touring outside the city of Vietnam, I visited one of the oldest village and going to ba vi national park to see the temple up on the peak my tour guide was very helpful (bobby) he went above and beyond

via Tripadvisor

Pleasant Day at Ba Vi National Park

Transportation and guide were both excellent. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, over a wide range of interests. Our tour was a few hours short presumably because we declined climbing a second mountain trail. We felt other aspects of the park could have been explored. We had a nice day.

via Viator

Great transportation and experience in Ba Vi

We had a wonderful visit to Ba Vi National Park. The guides communicated proactively and responsively, picked us up right at our Airbnb (even though it was harder to find than a hotel), and went above and beyond to make sure we got the most out of our hiking. Highly recommend!

via Tripadvisor

Nice trip to escape busy Hanoi.

We had a great day with our tourguide Ben. He gave us a lot of information, not only on the tour and temples, but also about Vietnam and the vietnamese culture. Watch out, there are many steps to take to go up to the temples, so only suitable for persons with good condotion. Unfortunately, the weather was rather cool, foggy and misty, but still we enjoyed the trip. On 1200 m hight it was even less cold than we had expected.

via Tripadvisor

Rip-off! Tour nothing like advertised.

We decided on a pricier tour to Ba Vi than some others, thinking it might be better — but we were so wrong about that! The guide, though nice enough, apparently knew nothing about the sites we were supposed to go to, and not even what was on the itinerary. The description started with “you’ll trek through a lush forest to Ngoc Hoa cave, stumble upon a series of French ruins” Nope… no trek; no French ruins. Instead just drive to the church ruin for a brief photo stop.(I asked him later about the cave and he just shook his head “I dunno”). Then onward to the steps to the temple and pagoda at the top of the peak. Unknown to us (and probably him) the road was closed before the entrance due to road repairs. We had to walk up the hill for the mile or so just to get to the stairs. Our guide said he would walk “halfway” to the top steps and stop at the temple. When we reached the temple, he was surprised that we were there at the top.(i don’t think he’d ever been there before, especially since he was taking some pictures of the place himself) i asked what is the name of the temple and he said it didn’t have a name (though checking the itinerary later saw that it’s called Thoung Temple) When we were back down the steps, I asked him about the prison we are about to visit and he looked confused. He didn’t know of any prison. I showed him the itinerary that says we visit “Tàn Tích Nhà Tù Thời Pháp French Prison Ruins”. He didn’t know anything about it, and asked the guard at the gate. Then he told us that if we want to see it, we need to climb back up the 1200 steps, showed us a picture, and said “anyway it’s just an old wall.” (Of course we passed.) We were pretty hungry by that point and wanted to get some lunch (which was supposed to be included). He had no idea where to stop for lunch and kept asking as we passed the roadside stands, “ Do you want eat here?” They all looked the same; we said anywhere. We pulled over and he spoke briefly with the people in Vietnamese. They came back with menus that had English translations, and we were shocked that the prices were about five times higher than elsewhere. (like $25 USD for chicken and rice). Our guide informed us at that point we need to pay for lunch. We showed him that lunch is included on our tour. Again he seemed confused and called his office. He came back to us and said that Yes, it says lunch included on the main page, but later in the ad it says lunch is not included. When he saw that we were really frustrated by that time, he suggested ordering fried rice, which we did, and the total bill came to $3 USD for the both of us. After lunch, he asked if we wanted to go back to Hanoi or what we wanted to do. Really?! We didn’t realize we were the ones who needed to come up with a plan — so…no hike through the cypress trees, no French ruins, no cave, no prison— just 4 hours of driving, 1.5 hrs up/down the steps, 45 minutes walking up and down the closed road, 15-minute church/ruin stop and half hour lunch. Back in 7 hours — not 9-10 hrs as advertised. (I suppose the missing 2-3 hours were supposed to be all the things that we did not get to.) Chalk it up to one of those travel tours that don’t go well, but be warned about this one! Btw… to go up the peak to the temple and pagoda, and visit the old church run you don’t need a guide at all.

Response from the operator: Dear customers, As a professional operator, we always work hard to meet our customer need. However, we are against the wrong information. We do hope you share the real story. You tried to cancel the tour 1 hour before pickup time and asked for a refund. We explained that it was impossible because it was not in our cancellation policy. You kept asking us why was that and then kept saying you were not using service so you need to get back the payment. We again explained that even you were not using but all were arranged and the cancellation policy was written clear. Then you reluctanly went on tour. Yes, you came up with your own stories which were really wrong and unfair. In the restaurant, you ordered a big meal (can be enough for 5 people while you have 2) and you also knew before how much they were. You said you thought "the lunch included' while your voucher clearly written "not included" and it was also written in the tour discription. The guide explained the church ruins required a bit hard trek and you confirmed you skipped. We hope that you should be honest about things and should be fair. The main reason is that you were not allowed to get back full refund for last minute cancellations. You should respect the cancellation policy and should put yourselves in the operator shoes. Thanks

via Tripadvisor