Detailed Itinerary : The Art and Soul of Northern Vietnam
Day 0: (in Hanoi time Zone) - Arrival, Clear customs, Transfer to Hotel
Welcome to Vietnam!
Day 0: We request that participants arrive 1-2 days beforehand to acclimate, rest up, and wander the neighborhood shops. Whenever you arrive, we will pick you up at Hanoi Airport and transfer you to our hotel.
Once all guests have arrived, we will hold our late afternoon orientation meeting and have our welcome dinner. Arriving even a day sooner, September 29th gives you more time to adjust, and perhaps enjoy a rejuvenating Vietnamese massage, and dine on your own nearby our Hotel. Our hotel can arrange your massage and provide restaurant recommendations if you let them know at check-in.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Day 1: - Hanoi
Today is a full day of exploration and guided photography from dawn to dark, with a mid-day break. The adventure includes Reunification Park, the Thieves Market, craft villages producing incense, steel knives, conical hats, and the exhilarating Long Bien night market. You’ll experience and be guided to document authentic daily life in Vietnam’s capital, places, people, sights, and sounds, creating a rich visual narrative with your camera or smartphone.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
* You may opt to skip the exciting morning light, taxiing to meet up with us later.
Day 2: - Hanoi to Ba Be Lake
We’ll set out early this morning, taking the road north to Ba Be via Thai Nguyen. We head through rolling tea plantations and increasingly scenic valleys before reaching beautiful Ba Be National Park for lunch. Ba Be Lake is one of the deepest in Vietnam, surrounded by limestone cliffs and ancient forest. We’ll check in and enjoy a traditional ethnic Tay lunch spread at our accommodation before heading out for the afternoon. Time to climb aboard a longboat to explore the lake, including a thunderous waterfall and deep river cave. As the sun drops, we’ll have opportunities for landscape photography and drone flights from the banks of the lake, and the option to row kayaks or swim. We’ll have a delicious dinner at our accommodation, with a taste of local wine to polish off the day.
Accommodation: Ba Be Jungle Houses
Day 3: - Ba Be National Park
Sunrise is a great time for photography in Vietnam, not least in a place like Ba Be. We’ll be up early to capture the local Tay fishermen bringing in their night’s catch. At this time of year, we’re often blessed with an ethereal, misty scene, adding drama to our images. Following the sunrise shoot, we return to our accommodation for breakfast, before heading out to explore nearby rice terraces. The harvest is underway, and we’ll be looking for images of farmers at work among the golden fields. This afternoon, we’ll take the opportunity to review photos taken so far, in a selection workshop hosted by Dave. Towards sunset, we head out to a spot on the lake to capture atmospheric landscapes.
Accommodation: Ba Be Jungle Houses
Day 4: - Ba Be NP to Cao Bang
Time to bid farewell to Ba Be. We climb aboard our minivan and travel north through deep valleys and over mountain passes. Along the way, we’ll stop for incredible views over a ‘sea of clouds’, low lying between the mountains. We’ll check into our accommodation in Cao Bang, before heading out for lunch.
In the afternoon, we visit a nearby village specializing in the customary hand-production of paper. Ethnic people in Cao Bang believe that the spiritual world and their ancestors receive their respect through votive money and items made from this traditional paper. We’ll enjoy an introduction to this process and its significance, as well as the opportunity to photograph the work in action.
Accommodation: La Maison Boutique
Day 5: - Cao Bang
This morning, we venture out to a little-known tribal village specializing in several crafts. First of these is the hand-manufacture of incense. All ingredients, including bamboo for the sticks and wild herbs for the powder, are locally sourced. The villagers also produce handmade paper, a tradition stretching back many generations. The paper is used for votives placed within local homes, warding off evil spirits.
Finally, we visit a village with a historic line in metal forging, going back to the Dong Son period, but anecdotally perhaps also producing metal casing for armaments during the Viet Minh’s war against the French occupation. We work in locations, capturing portraits and layered compositions. We return to Cao Bang for lunch and a rest before heading out to a beautiful riverside plateau overlooked by Nui Thung, Angel’s Eye Mountain. We’ll spend the afternoon relaxing, exploring on foot, capturing incredible landscapes and images of rural life as the sun drops.
Accommodation: Mi Casa Cao Bang
Day 6: - Cao Bang to Meo Vac
We’ll take the road along the Chinese border this morning, traveling west towards Ha Giang province. There’s plenty of time for scenic stops and random encounters with local minority groups, such as Black LoLo and Hmong, especially as the rice harvest is ongoing in many parts. We arrive in the frontier town of Meo Vac in mid-afternoon. After checking into our accommodation, we head out on to the spectacular Ma Pi Leng Pass. As the sun drops, we’ll take time to shoot incredible landscapes over Southeast Asia’s deepest gorge.
Accommodation: Meo Vac Hmong EcoLodge
Day 7: - Meo Vac
We’ll spend the morning shooting at various stunning vantage points over the Ma Pi Leng gorge before driving down to the Nho Que River far below for a jaw-dropping trip by longboat. After lunch in Meo Vac, it’s time for a trek to visit remote villages high up in the craggy mountains. We’ll have rare opportunities to encounter minority life above the clouds, often far from roads passable by car. The walk is fair to moderately challenging, and we’ll have plenty of chances to rest and interact with and photograph the locals along the way. This evening is an opportunity to schedule time with Dave for image reviews or technical assistance.
Accommodation: Meo Vac Hmong EcoLodge
Day 8: - Meo Vac to Trang Kim
An early start, and the road now takes us into the incredible Dong Van Rocky Plateau. Turn after turn, we’ll encounter the awe-inspiring, volcanic landscapes for which Ha Giang is famous. We’ll also drop by the Hmong King’s Palace at Sa Phin, from where, a century ago, the local chieftan presided over France’s local opium trade. The rustic palace houses a museum displaying photographs and artefacts from those long-ago days. After lunch in Yen Minh, the scenery becomes greener, with volcanic rock giving way to rice terraces and pine forest. The road hairpins down through gorgeous valleys before we arrive at our scenically-set accommodation.
Accommodation: Hmong Village Resort
Day 9: - Tran Kim
This morning, the nearby village of Trang Kim hosts a colorful and authentic tribal market. Get lost with your senses and camera amidst the hustle and bustle, capturing portraits and images of the action. It’s also a great chance to try out local produce, such as locally grown fruits and wines. Afterward, we explore Lung Tam’s traditional weaving village, where the locals have a unique, time-honored method of producing their textiles by hand and foot. In the afternoon, we’ll look at landscape photography in more detail, with some lovely spots in the gorges nearby. There are plenty of options for drone photography throughout this area.
Accommodation: Hmong Village Resort
Day 10: - Trang Kim to Ha Giang
Our final journey out of the mountains this morning gives us plenty of time for stops at scenic views and bustling tribal hamlets. We’ll drop by for lunch with our friends in the Red Dzao community of Nam Dam. This is a great place to wander, capturing images of the locals at work and play. By late afternoon, we’ll be in the provincial capital of Ha Giang, a chance to enjoy some modern, even Western, comforts after mountain life. After checking into our hotel, we’ll enjoy Ha Giang’s eclectic dining scene. This evening is an opportunity to catch Dave for image reviews or technical assistance.
Accommodation: Phoenix Hotel Ha Giang
Day 11: - Ha Giang to Lam Thuong
We’ll have a leisurely breakfast at our hotel before reviewing photos over coffee. Ha Giang has an interesting central market, plus several monuments from the war worth visiting. It’s also a nice little place to wander and soak up the mountain town vibe. After lunch, we hit the south road for Yen Bai province and arrived at beautiful Xoi Farmstay in the late afternoon. In the evening, we can learn how to prepare traditional Tay minority dishes alongside our host family before enjoying them for dinner.
Accommodation: Xoi Farmstay
Day 12: - Lam Thuong
Today, we get up early for our final tribal market in Lam Thuong, just a short distance from the farm stay. We’ll mix with the local Tay minority as they trade, barter, and catch up with old friends, bringing great opportunities for visual storytelling. The area is blessed with beautiful rice paddies, and after the market, we’ll spend time exploring the area on foot and by bicycle, enjoying and photographing classic Vietnamese rural life. We may also sample rice specialties offered by the local vendors. The afternoon will include a photo shoot at a small mountainside bamboo factory, plus a trip to and dip in a stunning forest waterfall.
For those interested, Dave will host an editing workshop at our hotel, and help you select (or collect) your best Vietnam images for our closing slideshow.
Accommodation: Xoi Farmstay
Day 13: - Lam Thuong to Hanoi
We set off back to Hanoi this morning. If time and weather allow, we can stop by Tho Ha rice paper village on the banks of the Red River. In the labyrinthian backstreets, we’ll explore busy workshops and photograph bamboo frames stacked with drying rice paper. Along the way, we’ll produce an impressive pictorial narrative of this unforgettable and authentically Vietnamese village. We arrive back in the capital in the late afternoon. Be sure to give Dave your favorite images well before our final dinner together, after which we'll share our favorite trip images.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Day 14: - Departures
It’s our last morning in Hanoi and the perfect opportunity to enjoy a bowl of traditional ‘pho,’ a photographic wander in the Old Quarter, and a delicious lunch together overlooking the Red River. We’ll have a slideshow of our photos with coffee. Depending on arrangements, guests may fly out this evening or relax before their extensions begin the following morning.
Accommodation tonight for those staying on for the extension is the Golden Silk Boutique Hotel.
If joining our tour extension, you can leave a bag of things at the hotel for retrieval upon our return.
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Three-Day Extension: “North Coastal Traditions”
Embark on an Unforgettable 3-day Photo Tour through the cultures of Vietnam's Northeast seaboard.
This extension requires at least three pre-booked travelers.
For adventurers seeking an even deeper cultural travel storytelling experience, this is a rare and premium photographic adventure that celebrates the landscapes, livelihoods, and local culture of northeast coastal Vietnam. We’ll enjoy the best accommodation available in the region, and also taste the freshest seafood cuisine in a part of the world already renowned for its culinary excellence.
Vietnam’s Northeast coastline boasts some of the most stunning seascapes in the country, as well as rustic fishing life, colorful craft villages, and salt farming practiced the pre-industrial way. While much of Vietnam develops at breakneck speed, the provinces along this coastline are like a portal to the past, where silk is still produced from worm to spool in one village, and fishermen’s wives spend their mornings mending nets on the town high street.
Foreign tourism is virtually unknown here, meaning warm and authentic encounters with the friendly locals, and plenty of chances for intimate portraits. And of course, the sea itself, vast and bright under the sun, offers ethereal imagery at spots like Infinity Beach. We explore all of this through our lenses on our Coastal Traditions extension of this premium photography adventure!
Day 1: - Black Incense, Salt Farming, and Coastal Sunset Light
We leave Hanoi for a remote village known for its rare Black Incense. The friendly craftspeople invite you into their cluttered workshops to photograph this traditional process. It’s a good place to practice silhouettes, details, hands-on work, and raking window lighting. We also visit the coastal salt flats where workers collect salt in late daylight and sunset. Shimmering light off the salt flats creates a vast canvas of leading lines across an expanse that brings the workers into stark contrasting detail.
Accommodation: New Dong Chau Resort
Day 2: - Infinity Beach, Shellfishing, Net Repair, and Brick Factory Storytelling
At ‘Infinity Beach,’ we’ll witness awe-inspiring sunrise scenes, with the vast sea stretching into the distance. Local shellfish collectors, wearing conical hats, make striking backlit subjects against the ethereal landscape. We’ll work with our wide and tele lenses, manual exposure, and perspective, and can try slower speeds to record motion to create unusual and compelling images. In the nearby town, we’ll photograph fishermen and women repairing their striking blue nets and explore a bustling fresh market by the docks. Our adventure continues as we visit an old rural brick factory, if it is open, capturing the warm afternoon light streaming through the ochre slats as workers go about their tasks. Finally, we’ll head to Dong Chau Beach for a sunset among rustic clam huts on stilts. After sunset and dinner, we can review the day’s shoot.
Accommodation: New Dong Chau Resort
Day 3: - Dong Chao, Silk Production and Photo Review
On the last day, we’ll choose between returning to Infinity Beach or exploring Dong Chau further. Our final stop is a craft village where silk is produced from golden silkworms— an opportunity to document a living tradition before it vanishes forever. This is both a wide-angle and close-up opportunity to capture the establishing shots and also the detail of silken cocoons and hanks of woven silk. After our day of photography, we will return to Hanoi to overnight before your departure home. The evening is a good opportunity to grab some local crafts to bring home.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Day 4: - Transfer to Hanoi Airport for flights Home
Please note that itineraries can change due to weather, timing, and discovered opportunities.
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