Go Vietnam Adventure — Est. 2025
We write about Vietnam
the way it deserves to be written.
A travel blog for independent explorers, culture-seekers, and riders who want the real story — from the limestone peaks of Ha Giang to the ancient dirt tracks of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Who We Are
More than a travel blog. A field guide built from the road.
Go Vietnam Adventure began with a simple frustration: too many travel guides about Vietnam were written from a beach lounger or a rooftop bar in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. What about the roads that barely appear on Google Maps? The villages that don’t have guesthouses yet? The passes that reward only those willing to earn them?
We are a team of writers, riders, guides, and long-term residents who have spent years exploring Vietnam’s north — on motorcycles, on foot, and occasionally on the back of a water buffalo. Our articles, destination guides, and tour information are drawn from genuine experience on the ground, not sponsored press trips or aggregated online research.
Based in Hanoi and with deep connections across the northern provinces, we publish travel information, destination features, cultural explainers, recent news for travelers, and practical planning guides for anyone who wants to experience Vietnam beyond the tourist trail.
Our Mission
Why we publish
To give every traveler who arrives in Vietnam the honest, detailed, experience-backed information they need to find their own version of adventure — and to protect the places and communities that make that adventure possible.
Vietnam is one of the most rewarding destinations on earth for independent travelers. It is also one of the most misunderstood. We believe the best service we can offer — to travelers and to Vietnam itself — is accurate, respectful, and genuinely useful information.
What We Write About
Every article starts with a question travelers actually ask.
Our coverage spans four core areas, all focused on helping you plan a smarter, deeper, more meaningful trip to Vietnam’s north.
Deep-dive guides to Vietnam’s most remote and rewarding destinations — from the rice terraces of Mù Cang Chải to the border markets of Đồng Văn. We go where the tour buses don’t.
Detailed route breakdowns for motorcyclists, trekkers, and overland explorers. The Ha Giang Loop, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Northwest Mountain Circuit — real roads, real conditions, real advice.
Vietnam’s north is home to over twenty ethnic minority groups, each with their own language, textile traditions, festivals, and way of life. We write about these communities with care and context.
Visa requirements, border crossing updates, road closures, seasonal weather, new attractions — current, accurate information for travelers planning a trip right now.
Gear lists, packing guides, budgeting advice, motorcycle rental tips, guesthouse recommendations, and transport breakdowns to help you hit the road with confidence.
How to travel well in Vietnam — supporting local communities, treading lightly in fragile landscapes, and choosing tour operators who share those values.
Where We’ve Been
Our destinations in northern Vietnam
From Hanoi north and west, we cover the full sweep of Vietnam’s most dramatic landscape.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
Northwest Mountains
Sapa & Lào Cai
Điện Biên Phủ
Mù Cang Chải
Cao Bằng & Bản Giốc
Đồng Văn Karst Plateau
Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng
Mai Châu Valley
Ba Bể National Park
Hà Nội & surrounds
The Team
Meet the writers behind the stories
Every article on Go Vietnam Adventure is written by someone with first-hand experience of the places and routes they describe. No AI-generated content. No copy-paste from other travel sites. Just writers who were there.
James has spent over a decade living between Hanoi and the northern highlands, working as a motorcycle guide on the Ha Giang Loop and Northwest Circuit before turning to travel writing. He has ridden every significant route in northern Vietnam, often multiple times, and writes with the authority of someone who has also fixed a broken chain in a rainstorm at 1,800 metres. His focus is adventure routes, motorcycle travel, and the history of Vietnam’s minority communities.
Born in Hanoi and raised between the capital and her family’s home village in Hòa Bình Province, Mai writes about Vietnam with the layered perspective of an insider. Her articles on H’mong textile traditions, Tết customs in the north, and the changing economies of mountain villages are among our most-read pieces. She holds a degree in Southeast Asian cultural studies and contributes both long-form features and practical destination guides.
Tom arrived in Vietnam for three months and stayed for seven years. A former hiking and trekking guide in both northern Vietnam and southern Laos, he brings a wilderness lens to some of northern Vietnam’s most demanding terrain — the karst canyons of Cao Bằng, the backcountry trails around Hoàng Su Phì, and the river routes of Ba Bể. He writes our trekking guides, gear reviews, and seasonal trail condition updates.
Sarah keeps Go Vietnam Adventure grounded in the practical. With a background in travel journalism and five years experience covering Southeast Asia’s rapidly changing travel landscape, she handles our visa and entry requirement updates, border crossing guides, transport breakdowns, and news coverage. If something has changed in Vietnam that affects how you plan your trip — Sarah knows about it, and she will write about it clearly.
How We Work
The editorial principles we hold ourselves to
The internet is full of Vietnam travel content. Most of it is recycled. Here is what makes Go Vietnam Adventure different.
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01
We only write about places we have been
If one of our writers has not personally visited, ridden, trekked, or stayed somewhere, we do not publish a guide to it. There are no exceptions.
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02
No paid placements or sponsored content
We do not accept payment from tour operators, guesthouses, or travel companies in exchange for coverage. Our recommendations are ours alone.
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03
We update our content when things change
Visa rules shift. Roads wash out. Guesthouses close. We revisit and revise our guides regularly so the information you’re reading is actually current.
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04
We write about communities, not attractions
Vietnam’s north is defined by the people who live there. We approach every community we write about with respect, context, and a commitment to accuracy.
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05
We tell you what we don’t know
If conditions are uncertain, access is seasonal, or information is changing, we say so. Honest uncertainty is more useful than false confidence.
Why Northern Vietnam
The case for going north
Vietnam stretches over 1,600 kilometres from north to south, but the north is where the country’s most dramatic landscapes, oldest cultures, and most demanding adventures are concentrated. The Ha Giang Karst Plateau, a UNESCO Global Geopark, contains some of the most extraordinary mountain scenery in Southeast Asia. The Northwest Mountain Circuit — linking Sơn La, Điện Biên Phủ, Lai Châu, and Sapa — passes through a landscape that feels genuinely remote even in 2025. The Ho Chi Minh Trail cuts through jungles and mountain passes that carry more history per kilometre than almost anywhere else on earth.
And yet northern Vietnam remains significantly less visited than the country’s central and southern coasts. That is partly what makes it so compelling. The infrastructure has improved dramatically over the past decade — roads are better, guesthouses are more comfortable, mobile signal reaches further than it once did — but the essential character of the north, its wildness, its complexity, its depth, remains intact.
We focus on the north because it is where we live and where we know the most. But we also focus on it because we believe it offers something genuinely rare: the chance to travel through a landscape that is simultaneously ancient and alive, remote and accessible, challenging and deeply rewarding. Our mission is to help you find your way into it.
Whether you are planning your first motorcycle trip through Ha Giang, researching a two-week trekking itinerary in the northwest, looking for up-to-date visa information before you fly, or simply trying to understand which ethnic minority groups you might encounter on which routes — Go Vietnam Adventure was built for you. Pull up a stool, order a cà phê trứng, and read on.
Ready to explore northern Vietnam?
Browse our destination guides, tour information, and practical travel resources — all written from the road.