Son Doong Cave: A Six Day, Five Night Trip Itinerary
The trek to Son Doong Cave takes place over a six-day trip, including four days of trekking and three nights of sleeping in the cave. Over the four days of trekking, you’ll hike, scramble, and climb 25 km (15.5 miles) through the jungle of Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park and the world’s largest cave.
It’s strenuous – you can read more on how difficult it is here – but you’ll be surrounded by helpful guides and safety assistants and have plenty of breaks for photos along the way.
This blog goes over what to expect each day, so you can do your best to train, pack, and prepare!
Day 1: The Safety Briefing
Get to Phong Nha
Oxalis Adventure offers transportation to Phong Nha from Dong Hoi, the nearest city, as part of your tour. To reach Dong Hoi, we’d recommend flying into the regional airport (VDH) from Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. You'll need to arrive in Dong Hoi no later than 3:00 p.m. on the day that your tour starts.
Commander Lodge
Upon arriving in Phong Nha, you’ll be dropped off at the Commander Lodge, where the tour begins. We chose to arrive a day early and extended our stay at the lodge, although arriving early isn’t necessary.
Once dropped off, you’ll have the remainder of the day to explore the area. Check out everything there is to do in Phong Nha here.
Safety briefing
Your tour guide will pick you up at the Commander Lodge for dinner and the safety briefing between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. You’ll need to bring your backpack and trekking shoes with you. Your safety guide will inspect these items and let you know if they’ll work for the trek. If not, you’ll need to borrow their items. Read this blog for gear guidelines to prevent needing to borrow gear.
Group dinner
After the safety briefing, you’ll have dinner with your tour group. Here you’ll enjoy a traditional Vietnamese family-style meal like what you’ll be offered in the cave.
Dry bags
After dinner, you’ll be given one dry bag. Read what you should pack in your dry bag here.
Pack
You’ll take a short walk back to the Commander Lodge from dinner, and now is the time to pack your dry bag and day pack. Get to bed early, too. Day two starts early!
Day 2: Trek to Hang En
Dry bag drop off
You’ll need to drop off your dry bag at the front desk of the Commander Lodge by 7:00 a.m.
Breakfast and luggage drop off
After dropping off your dry bag, eat breakfast (complimentary at the Commander Lodge) and drop off your luggage at the front desk by 9:00 a.m.
You’ll receive a label for your luggage and a form for your valuables. Everything will be stored at the Oxalis Office. Fill your water bottle at the front desk before leaving.
Bus to the trailhead
You’ll be picked up for the trek around 9:00 a.m. The bus to the trailhead is an hour long, and it’s a beautiful drive. Along the way, you’ll stop at a scenic bridge where you’ll learn about the area's monsoon flooding.
Start trekking
You’ll be hiking a total of 11 km (6.8 miles) today – the longest hiking day of the trip. The trek starts just inside Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park’s border. The hike here is downhill, steep, and muddy. Expect it to be slippery, especially if it’s recently rained.
If your shoes aren’t wet yet (Zach’s were five minutes into the hike), then they will be when you reach the bottom of the valley. You’ll have numerous water crossings on this section of the trek.
Once you’re in the valley, the trek is exposed and very hot. Wear proper clothing (described here) and take electrolytes to stay hydrated.
Dip your hat in the river to cool off
Lunch
You’ll have a lunch break at the house of the village elder in Ban Doong, a small village of the Bru-Van Kieu ethnic minority. You’ll learn about living here, but please respect the people’s privacy.
Reapply sunscreen, refill your water, and use the compostable toilet before getting back on the trail.
Trek to Hang En
From the lunch stop, you’ll have three more hours of hiking to reach Hang En, where you’ll spend your first night camping. As you get deeper into the jungle, look for monkeys by spotting trees moving. You know you’re close to camp when you spot the opening to Hang En.
Hang En
You’ll wade through water to reach the entrance of Hang En and take a break to capture a few photos like these.
Soon after you'll have this epic view of the campsite in Hang En before scrambling down to the raft below. Once below, you’ll hop on the raft and get dropped off at camp.
Camp
The campsite at Hang En has a row of tents, two compostable toilets, two saunas, a covered dining area, a fire pit, a swimming area, a changing station, and a clothing drying station. Every tent is labelled, and you’ll find your dry bags in a pile to claim nearby.
We highly recommend swimming in the lake – this will be the only day you’re guaranteed bathing. However, the lake does have garra rufa fish – the fish that bite dead skin off your body. While it didn’t bother anyone else, Meghann hated it. If you keep moving fast enough, they won’t bite!
After your sauna and swim, use biodegradable soap in the handwashing area to wash your hair (do NOT wash your hair or body in the lake). This will be your only opportunity to wash your hair during the trek since the other campsites have limited access to water.
Dinner
Your guides will let you know what time to expect dinner upon arrival, and it will be served in the middle of camp under the covered area. Enjoy your first meal in the caves – the chefs are incredible!
After dinner you’ll be given a new bag for wet clothes. Label it with your name, keep it outside your tent, and give it to the porters with your dry bags in the morning.
Dock photos
After dinner, the guides will turn on a light at the end of the dock on the lake. It’s a beautiful sight and everyone had a blast experimenting with taking photos here.
Disclaimer
Any guest who struggles to complete hiking here will be escorted back to Phong Nha the following day without a refund.
Day 3: Trek to Son Doong
Breakfast
Every morning you’ll drop your dry bags off where you picked them up the night before as you get ready and eat breakfast.
Hang En Viewpoint
You’ll have the option to scramble to a different viewpoint of the Hang En campsite after breakfast. It’s steep, but worth it!
Begin trekking
After returning from the viewpoint, you’ll begin your trek starting with another water crossing. If you thought your shoes would ever dry on this trip, you’re wrong. Today’s trek is 5.5 km (3.4 miles).
Exit Hang En
Prior to exiting Hang En, you’ll see a stunning view you may recognize from the movie Peter Pan – Welcome to Neverland (featuring sights from Hạ Long Bay and Ninh Binh too!). As soon as Meghann saw it, she knew it was going to be her favorite view of the entire trip.
Everyone will have the opportunity to take lit-up and silhouette photographs here. Check out the tiny people below in our shots below – those are the porters!
While you wait for others to have their photo taken, use this time to apply sunscreen. Once you exit the cave, you’ll trade your helmet for a hat.
Lunch in the jungle
You’ll trek through the jungle and rivers as you make your way to Son Doong. Right before you reach Son Doong, you’ll stop for lunch in the jungle.
After lunch, you’ll be fitted into a climbing harness and given a safety briefing on using karabiners for the climb into Son Doong.
Son Doong
Trek a little way further, and you’ll be at the entrance of Son Doong! You’ll see the original writing on the cave from Hồ Khanh, who discovered the cave, before climbing down a ladder.
From there, your guides will help you rope up for the climb into Son Doong. They’ll tell you when to stop halfway down for a fun photo – taking one hand off the rope is much harder than Zach makes it look!
Explore Son Doong
As you trek through Son Doong, Oxalis Adventure has placed a few floodlights strategically around the cave for another great photo opportunity. The safety guides standing near the lights provide a great sense of scale, and the size of the cave is stunning. The light coming from the top of the cave in this photo is from the first doline, where you’ll be camping later in the evening.
Next, you’ll pass by the fault line in the cave before getting to a bridge where you’ll use your harness and rope to get across. This area had small flying bugs that were attracted to our lights. Tilt the light on your helmet up a bit so they don’t get in your eyes. If they do, do not rub your eyes; blink the bugs out instead. This is also where we saw the most bats!
Shortly after, you’ll reach the Hand of Dog viewpoint, although it’s not always visible due to the cave's climate. From here, it’s a short hike and scramble to camp.
Camp
You’ll be staying at the Level Playing Fields campsite near the first doline. This campsite has a seasonal swimming area, and swimming here was one of our favorite parts of the trip.
Foggy views upon arriving at camp
Clear views in the morning
You’ll want to drop your gear off at your tent before joining your guides on a walk to the swimming area. You’ll be given a life jacket and told not to change into swimwear since the hike to the swimming area is down a narrow, steep path with sharp rocks.
On the walk there, you’ll stop to see coral fossils, so even if you don’t want to swim, you should join the trek there. If you don’t plan on swimming, turn around here.
This swimming hole is a bit colder (17-22° C or 62-71° F) than the lake you’ll swim in the day before, but even Meghann enjoyed it. Swimming here was a huge highlight.
After, you’ll take a wet walk back to camp, have the option to sauna, use the changing tents, hang out at the fire, and eat dinner.
Day 4: The best of Son Doong
Breakfast
By now, you’ll be familiar with the routine. Drop off your dry bags and enjoy breakfast. Wear your brightest clothing this day to show up well in photos.
Explore Son Doong
You’re in the heart of Son Doong now. Today you’ll trek 3 km (1.8 miles), but much of it is scrambling through large boulders.
There are tons of sights to see along the way. The first stop will be at the doline you camped near for a close-up view.
From there, you’ll make your way to the James Bond Hole and the infamous Wedding Cake.
Lunch
You’ll stop for lunch at the Watch Out for Dinosaur viewpoint with our favorite view of the Wedding Cake. If you visit in the spring and are very lucky, you’ll see sunbeams here!
Doline 2
After lunch you’ll have the option to scramble up a slippery slope for this view of the Garden of Edam (doline 2). Our knees felt tired (we both are recovering from knee injuries), so we opted to skip it and enjoyed a quiet hike to the edge of the doline.
We loved having a quiet moment to ourselves watching clouds form at the top of the doline while we waited for them to catch up.
Camp
Your first sight of the final campsite will be from above. From there, it's a steep hike down to the tents. Water at this camp is trekked in by the porters, so there is no sauna or place to bathe.
This is the coldest camp – you'll find more on what to bring and wear at this campsite here.
Day 5: Hike out of Son Doong
Breakfast
After breakfast, you’ll take group photos with all the supporting staff. Then the safety team will help everyone into full body climbing harnesses.
Explore Son Doong
Today's hike is 5.5 km (3.4 miles), and your first stop will be at the Dog’s Bollocks – a huge stalactite.
Shortly after, you’ll see a grand view of the cave’s landscape lit by floodlights.
Next, you’ll see fish, spiders, woodlice, and centipedes – creatures that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. All of them are white, or translucent, and some don’t have eyes.
Passchendaele Passage
Passchendaele Passage changes seasonally. Between January and March, there is a lake here. If you visit during this time, you’ll have your shoes scrubbed of mud (to prevent slipping on the Great Wall of Vietnam) and be loaded onto a raft.
You'll have a 30-minute raft ride to the Great Wall of Vietnam. If you visit in April or later, the passage will likely be a muddy walk.
Great Wall of Vietnam
At the end of the passage is the Great Wall of Vietnam. The climb starts with an 18 m (59 foot) ladder followed by a 72 m (236 foot) climb. If you take a raft there, part of the ladder will be underwater, making the climb shorter. While we were there in mid-March, the lake was high enough that we were floating above the tips of stalactites.
When you reach the ladder, a guide will clip you into a safety line for the climb up the Great Wall of Vietnam. Once you reach the top, you’re only a few steps away from a flat resting place. Take a short break here, then finish the second pitch of the climb.
Lunch
Since only one person is allowed to climb at a time, it takes a while for the entire group to get to the top of the wall. After your climb, apply sunscreen and enjoy the views of others climbing while you wait. Lunch will be served when everyone is at the top of the wall.
The last of Son Doong
Moving on, you’ll see an impressive stalagmite and cave pearls. From here, it’s a hike through rocky terrain to the exit of Son Doong.
Trek out of the jungle
The trek out of the jungle on the Ho Chi Minh Trail West is the most treacherous part of the entire tour. It’s downhill, with large rocks and mud that are very slippery.
Each safety guide will pair up with two hikers for the climb down. Although they’ll help you as much as they can, it was very helpful to have experience scrambling. Read more from this blog for tips on how to scramble safely.
Chày Lập Farmstay
You’ll be bused to the Chày Lập Farmstay, where you’ll arrive between 3 and 4 p.m. After checking in, you’ll find your luggage waiting for you in your room and have a few hours to yourselves.
They offer a limited number of massages on-site, so book that while checking in if you’re interested. Laundry services are also available. You’ll pay a premium if you need your laundry back that evening; otherwise, it will be returned to you in the morning. You’ll find a spigot and brushes near your lodging – use these to clean off your shoes. Then shower, explore the Farmstay, or borrow bikes.
Dinner
You’ll have a final dinner with your tour group and guides this evening. You’ll have the opportunity to tip them here – and it’s well deserved!
Day 6: Morning at Chay Lap
Breakfast
In the morning, you’ll have a complimentary breakfast and a 12:00 p.m. checkout unless you extend your stay in advance.
If you’re wondering if we’ve spoiled everything you’ll see and do on this tour – don’t worry, we left out a few fun details that we loved being surprised by. This trek was unlike anything we’ve done before, and we highly recommend it!
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