Phong Nha was our 5th stop on our Vietnam trip, travelling north to south. A few days in this beautiful town will give you plenty of time to explore the local activities! 

Day 1: Arrive, check in and we caught up on some sleep as we were in our room straight away. Hired pushbikes so we could explore Phong Nha’s main street, went along the river, bought some snacks and did our laundry. The main street has lots of bars, cafes and restaurants and further up the river. 

Day 2: Ped Day!! Explained below. 

Day 3: Made the most of the room before checking out, walked to the main street for food, repacked our bags with our clean washing (the highlight of backpacking!), relaxed at the accommodation and did some planning for our next stops before we headed on to Hue. 

Our full day (Day 2) was the ped day so we ticked off most of the things on this day. We started with a drive around on the ped, through the main street and out up the river just to see a bit more than we had seen on our push bikes on the first day. There were so many water buffalos on the river bank and you could see the locals out on the water too. Lots of boat tours to do, but we didn’t opt to do one as there were other things to see. 

After we had had a drive around we headed to The Duck Stop first and we were here for an hour and a half-ish. The ride to The Duck Stop was really scenic, the whole of Phong Nha was so green and pretty so it was so nice to see the surrounding area. No one was on a tour when we arrived so we didn’t have to wait long before getting to meet all the ducks, but by the time we’d finished a few more groups had arrived and as the tour is done in small groups those arriving later had a bit of a wait. If you do arrive and there is a bit of a wait, there are plenty of seats in the shade and your ticket includes a cold drink and some freshly made spring rolls. You’ll be well looked after! I won’t say more as I’ve written in detail all about our experience on a seperate post. 

After The Duck Stop, we headed out on the road again to the Pub With Cold Beer. Its a famous Instagram spot but it was quiet and was just a cute little family run pub with nice views, a pool and such cute puppies (see below!). We relaxed here for a while with a cold drink and had a snack. It’s a really popular spot for food but as we had only just had our spring rolls we didn’t fancy a full meal. People who were eating, their food looked so good. A speciality at the Pub With Cold Beer is their freshly cooked roast chicken, which you can participate in by choosing the chicken you’d like to eat. 

Once we had enjoyed a chill out, Mike even had a snooze in one of the hammocks, we decided to get back on the bike and head onto our final stop of the day, the Phong Nha Botanic Garden. Whilst called a botanic garden, its actually a ecological park that is over 40 hectares so its pretty huge. The gardens are open from 8am – 5pm every day, about 12km from the centre of Phong Nha and you are required to purchase tickets on your arrival.

At the ticket office, you’ll be given a map of the 3 walks which are varying length. We opted to do pathway 2 which took us on an 1.5 hour trek with a waterfall stop which was so refreshing as we cooled off and had a swim! The trek was pretty challenging, I found it quite scary as we were crossing the slippery rocks at the top of the falls, and using a rope to climb up the fall – we didn’t expect to be scrambling like this. The first part of the walk to the falls was ok, I wasn’t too concerned but after we had relaxed in the water, and decided to continue we then realised the rest of the route was going to be a lot more challenging. Make sure you have proper shoes on and I would recommend also bringing a backpack, because it would have been impossible with a tote bag. I believe walk option one was more accessible and straightforward but as we didn’t complete it, we turned back to do option 2 instead, I can’t say for sure! 

The botanic gardens are so luscious and green, it was such a beautiful part of Phong Nha to explore, so I would really recommend checking it out. Just go prepared for slightly rogue hiking routes! If you’re lucky, you can even see wild animals whilst you’re out on a trek too, so keep your eyes peeled for this. Also, don’t forget bug spray as the warm environment was full of bitey things.

After we’d completed our hike and had a swim, we were near to the park’s closing time so we headed back out on our ped, back to our accommodation ready for our dinner with the family who ran our accommodation. 

There are SO many more things to do in Phong Nha. One of the most popular activities are cave hikes. A lot of people will be in Phong Nha for a week or more as there are many guided treks which can last from a day to a week. We didn’t opt to do one as we had seen quite a few caves and as we had limited time, there were other things we wanted to do more. At the family dinner, the other couples we spoke to had stopped in Phong Nha to make the most of the cave hikes and they only had good things to say about their experiences with the tours and the guides. One of them had participated in a hike that involved sleeping in a cave overnight which was pretty cool. The tours really vary in price too and you will need decent hiking equipment with you, but I think some was provided too. But there are plenty of options to suit all abilities and budgets. I’ve put a link in here (https://www.visitphongnha.com/things-to-do/) to the Phong Nha website which has more information on the tours, but your accommodation/hostel will be able to provide more information too. 

Final thing about beautiful Phong Nha is that its SO beautiful to explore on a ped. It’s one of the suggested things to do on the visitors website and we loved cruising around on our own. To access a lot of the things you’ll want to do in Phong Nha, you will need a ped or to do them as part of a tour. The driving was pretty easy, the roads were good, wide and pretty quiet apart from a couple of spots where it was a little more rogue e.g. around The Duck Stop and the road up to the Botanic Garden, but just take them carefully and always always wear a helmet.

Hope this helps you plan your days in Phong Nha and thanks for reading!