Phong Nha was actually one of our favourite places to visit in Vietnam. It is such a beautiful area, surrounded by stunning mountains and is an adventurer’s dream. We must admit the town itself is quite small and options for dinner and drinks are quite limited, however the activities available in the area certainly made up for that.
Things to do
Most of the things to do in Phong Nha are not within walking distance. We suggest, if you feel comfortable, to rent a motorbike and take yourself around. If you don’t want to do this, there are tours available that you can go on, that will take you to all the touristy places, so you don’t have to worry about driving. The downsides of this however are that you have to go by the tours timings on things and it is more expensive.
Hire a motorbike and drive the Caves and Country loop
The roads in Phong Nha are very smooth and the landscapes you get when driving around are just phenomenal. As mentioned above we recommend hiring a bike and there is actually a loop you can do that takes you past most the attractions, but also means you get to see some of the most beautiful scenery.
The loop is pictured below
OZO Park
This is something we ended up just stumbling across. We hadn’t seen anything about it in any blogs or guides, so we were very intrigued when we came across a big mystical sign for the OZO Park whilst driving around the motorbike loop. When we arrived, we paid an entry fee which we were told included Zip lining, Kayaking, swimming and paddle boarding.
You enter by walking across raised wooden pathways and swinging bridges. As mentioned above ziplining and kayaking were included, so we jumped right onto that before going swimming in the river.
There is a restaurant on site, showers, and you can even camp here if you wanted. For us it was a great way to cool off after driving around in the hot sun that morning.
Paradise cave
We didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived at Paradise Cave. I had seen people say to visit in blogs, but never really looked at any pictures or anything. So, when we stumbled across it whilst doing the biking loop, we were very shocked to see how massive it really is.
First, to get to the cave you must walk past some stalls selling trinkets, food and drinks. After that you get to the ticketing desk. Here you can decide whether you want to get on an electric buggy to drive you up the hill or walk it yourself. Luckily, we bumped into two tourists whist we were parking our bike who advised us to get the buggy up the hill, because after that there is still a very steep and pretty long walk to the cave entrance.
After you have taken the electric buggy and climbed up the mountain you will come to the entrance, where you then go back down into the mountain through the cave. Immediately you are hit with cool air, which is perfect after the climb. The cave was huge and took us about 15 to 20 minutes to get to the end!
Dark Cave
Dark Cave is actually more of a half or full day experience. This is because at the site of the cave you must Zip Line or Kayak to get to the front of the Cave. There is also a water park there with a water assault course, slide and more to be enjoyed.
To get in the actual Dark Cave you will need a guide, which is included in the price. We choose to zipline to the front of the cave and afterwards we weren’t sure if we were meant to wait for a guide or just go in ourselves. We stupidly started to try going in ourselves and immediately knew this wasn’t correct, as we had no idea where we were going, because shock, it was very dark in there!! Once our guide caught up with us, we followed him in with the rest of the group through the narrow cave paths, down to a mud bath at the end. *Disclaimer: don’t wear a white bikini like me if you don’t want it to be stained! * Being in the mud bath is a very strange sensation as you can very easily float on the top.
Once you have spent some time in the mud bath, your guide will take you back out the cave, where you can jump in the lake to clean off before getting into a kayak. From there you can head to the water park area and try out the assault course and slides.
The park has a last entry at about 3:30pm I believe, so be sure to get there well before that if you want to be able to do it all. There are lockers onsite too, as whilst you are there you won’t be able to have any belongings on you that you don’t want to get wet.
Phong Nha cave
We didn’t actually get time to do this which is quite sad as we have heard it is pretty cool, but we really wanted to go to the Dark Cave, so we decided to do that instead. To get to the cave you must get on a boat on the river, just outside of the town. They will then take you into the cave and tell you a bit about the history of it.
Phong Nha’s botanical gardens
Again, we didn’t actually manage to get to the botanical gardens, as we got lost on the way to it, so ended up doing the Paradise Cave and OZO Park instead. However, we have heard that the botanical gardens are stunning and well worth a visit.
Overall, Phong Nha has plenty to do for everyone. Although it isn’t the most buzzing area, it is certainly not lacking in beauty. We stayed at the Central Backpackers Hostel, which was great, so check that out if you are heading to the area.
Without A Paddle Travel 