№ 01Why Bach Ma, and why it is not a day trip from Hoi An

Every rider who does the Hai Van Pass looks north from the top, past Lang Co bay, at a wall of dark green mountain with cloud sitting on it, and wonders what is up there. The answer is Bach Ma National Park: 37,000 hectares of forest climbing from sea level to a 1,450-metre summit, with the highest waterfall in Vietnam, a string of swimming lakes, 363 recorded bird species and, scattered through the cloud forest near the top, the ruins of a French hill station of 139 villas built between 1932 and 1942 and abandoned after the war. It rains more here than almost anywhere in the country — VnExpress’s 2025 guide puts the summit at a steady 19 °C — which is why it is so green, and why you go in the dry months.

It is also, as the chip above says, 103 km from Hoi An by the only road a motorbike is allowed to take, and once you arrive your motorbike is no use to you: private bikes are banned from the summit road. So this is not a place to “do” between breakfast and dinner. Treated as a two-day ride — the pass and Lang Co on day one, the mountain on day two — it is the best trip north of Hoi An that is not Hue. Treated as a three-day ride with a night in a villa on the summit, it is the best trip north of Hoi An full stop.

№ 02The summit rule: what your motorbike can and cannot do at Bach Ma

Read this before you plan anything else. The park’s 16 km road from the entrance gate to the summit is closed to private motorbikes and to buses of more than 16 seats. You ride to the gate at Cau Hai, park in the compound by the visitor centre, and from there you either walk — four to five hours uphill on tarmac, which some people enjoy — or you take the park’s own 12-seat shuttle. The shuttle is charged by the vehicle, not the seat: at the time of writing, 1.000.000₫ return for one to five people, 1.200.000₫ return for six to twelve, with one-way rates of 600.000₫ and 900.000₫ if you intend to walk one direction. On a busy morning the desk fills vehicles with whoever is waiting, so a couple who turn up at 08:00 usually pay a fifth of a car rather than the whole of it; on a quiet weekday you may pay for the whole vehicle or wait.

The shuttle drops you at the summit car park below Hai Vong Dai and picks you up at an agreed time; it will also stop at the trailheads on request. Entry to Bach Ma National Park itself is 65.000₫ for adults and 25.000₫ for children, students with a card and over-60s, paid at the gate, and the gate is open 07:00–17:00. Guides are available at the visitor centre for a few hundred thousand dong a day and are worth it for the Five Lakes trail, which is unmarked in places; the park’s own website carries the current tariff sheet.

№ 03The route: Hai Van Pass, Lang Co and the turn at Cau Hai

There is one road for a motorbike, because the Hai Van tunnel is closed to two-wheelers: you ride the pass. From Hoi An take the coast road north through Da Nang to the foot of the mountain at Nam O, climb the 21 km of Hai Van to the 1826 gate at the top, and drop down the north side to Lang Co. Everything from there is QL1A, the old national highway, running north-west along the coast and then inland past Lang Co bay, the Lap An lagoon, the Phuoc Tuong pass and the Cau Hai lagoon to the Bach Ma turn.

The Hai Van Pass has its own guide on this site — read it for the hairpins, the weather window and the 70.000₫ ticket for the restored Hai Van Quan gate at the top — so this page takes over at Lang Co. Two things about the QL1A stretch north of Lang Co: it carries the trucks that cannot use the tunnel, so it is busier than the pass, and the Phuoc Tuong pass between Lang Co and Cau Hai is short but blind in fog. Ride it in daylight. The turn for the park is signed “Vuon Quoc Gia Bach Ma” on the left at Cau Hai; the gate is 3 km up a quiet lane.

№ 04Day 1: Lang Co and the oysters of Lap An lagoon

Lang Co is the bay you saw from the top of the pass: a ten-kilometre crescent of white sand with the mountains straight behind it, a fishing town at the south end, and a strip of resorts and guesthouses along the beach road. It is where you sleep. Budget hotels on the town side run 300.000₫–400.000₫; the beach resorts 900.000₫ to 3.000.000₫ depending on season, and Vedana Lagoon on the water beyond Cau Hai is the splurge. Book ahead in July and August, when Hue and Da Nang families fill it.

Behind the town, between the beach and the mountain, is Lap An, a shallow lagoon ringed by a road that hugs the foot of Hai Van. This is the sunset. The mountain goes copper, the water goes flat and gold, and the oyster farmers pole out to their frames on the shallows. Lap An oysters — hau Lap An — are the local speciality, grilled with scallion oil or eaten raw with lime and mustard at the shacks along the lagoon road for well under 100.000₫ a plate, and the fish sauce made from the lagoon’s clams, mam so, is the thing to carry home. At low tide, usually late afternoon in summer, the water drops to a few centimetres and people walk far out across the mud to photograph the reflections; check the tide before you promise anyone a sunset picture.

№ 05Elephant Springs, the swimming hole at km 879

Suoi Voi, Elephant Springs, is a mountain stream that drops out of the Bach Ma range in a series of clear pools, 7 km up a paved lane from QL1A at the kilometre-879 marker, 13 km north of Lang Co. It takes its name from a boulder in the main pool that looks, if you are generous, like a bathing elephant, and it is what central Vietnamese families do on a hot Sunday: rent a thatched hut on the bank for 150.000₫–250.000₫, order grilled hill chicken and stream fish, and spend the day in and out of the water. Entry is around 20.000₫ a head plus parking. The main pool, Voi Pool, is two metres deep with a rock to jump from; upstream are smaller pools that are quieter and colder. Go on a weekday and you may share it with a single family; go on a Sunday in July and you will share it with half of Hue.

For a rider it is the perfect hour between Lang Co and the park: leave Lang Co at 08:00, swim at Elephant Springs for an hour, and still be at the Bach Ma gate before 11:00. The rocks are slippery and the water is cold even in June; wear sandals with straps and leave the phone in a dry bag. Nothing here is signed in English and nobody needs it to be.

№ 06Day 2: Bach Ma National Park, gate to summit

Bach Ma National Park was created in 1991 and now covers a little over 37,400 hectares straddling what used to be the Hue–Quang Nam border. The mountain itself is a 1,450-metre outlier of the Truong Son range that stands so close to the sea that its summit catches every cloud coming off the water, which gives it a climate closer to Sapa than to the coast: 19–20 °C on top when Lang Co is at 33 °C, and one of the highest rainfall totals in Vietnam. Two thousand-odd plant species and some 1,500 animal species have been recorded, and the trails run through everything from lowland rainforest to elfin cloud forest hung with moss.

The day works like this. Be at the gate for opening at 07:00, pay your 65.000₫, park your bike in the compound, and book a seat on a shuttle at the desk. The shuttle takes about 40 minutes to climb the 16 km to the summit car park, with the temperature dropping the whole way; from there it is a 15-minute walk up stone steps to Hai Vong Dai, the “sea-watching tower” on the peak, where on a clear morning you see Cau Hai lagoon, Lang Co bay, the Hai Van ridge and, on the very best days, Da Nang. Clear mornings are rare: aim to be on top before 09:00, because the cloud builds from mid-morning and by noon the summit is often inside it.

Then walk down through the trails — the shuttle will meet you at any trailhead you agree — and be back at the gate by 15:00 at the latest if you are riding home over the pass, which you must do in daylight. If you are sleeping up here, there is no hurry at all.

№ 07The Bach Ma National Park trails: Rhododendron Falls, Five Lakes and Hai Vong Dai

1. Hai Vong Dai (the summit) — 30 min returnStone steps from the summit car park to the 1,450 m viewpoint, where a small stone tower stands on the site of a French pavilion. The panorama runs from the Cau Hai lagoon to the Hai Van ridge; take the earliest shuttle for it.
2. Thac Do Quyen, Rhododendron Falls — 2 to 3 hours returnThe signature walk. A forest path leads to the lip of a 300-metre drop, the highest waterfall in Vietnam, and then a staircase of 689 steps descends the cliff beside it to the pool at the foot. Going down is easy; coming back up in the humidity is the hardest hour on the mountain. The rhododendrons that name it flower in March and April.
3. Ngu Ho, the Five Lakes — 2 hours, 3 kmA chain of five clear pools linked by cascades in the forest below the summit road, each with its own character; the third is the swimming one, deep, cold and green. Moderate, sometimes muddy, unmarked in places — the trail where a guide earns the fee.
4. Tri Sao Falls and the Pheasant trail — 1 to 2 hours eachLower, gentler forest walks from the road on the way down, good for birds early in the morning. The park has 363 bird species on its list, including the crested argus and Edwards’s pheasant that give the trails their names, though you will need luck and a guide to see either.

Whatever you walk, wear long trousers and closed shoes: leeches are part of Bach Ma from the first rain, and the standard trick is a spray of insect repellent on your socks and a pinch of salt in your pocket. Carry water; there is a small canteen at the summit and nothing on the trails. And carry a rain shell in any month — a mountain that can take 8,000 mm a year does not respect forecasts.

№ 08Sleeping on the mountain: the 139 villas and the two that are open

In 1932 a French engineer named Girard, surveying for a road, found a plateau at 1,200–1,440 m that was 15 degrees cooler than Hue, and within a decade the colonial administration and Hue’s wealthy had built a hill station up here to rival Dalat and Sapa: 139 villas, a post office, a market, a hotel, tennis courts, a road, and a summer season when the emperor’s court decamped to the clouds. The Japanese made it a garrison in 1945, the wars that followed left bomb craters between the villas, and by the 1990s the forest had taken most of it back. Walk any side path near the summit and you will find a chimney or a staircase with a tree growing through it.

A handful of villas have been restored by the park and let as guesthouses, and a night in one is the single best reason to make this a three-day trip. Do Quyen Villa, the classic, runs about 500.000₫ a night for a plain double with hot water and, in the older rooms, a fireplace; Kim Giao Villa is 500.000₫–700.000₫; there is a campsite at around 200.000₫ a person on the park’s tariff, tent included. Book by phoning the park on 0234 387 1330 a few days ahead — there is no online booking and the villas fill on summer weekends — and bring a torch, warm clothes and your own snacks; the canteen does simple rice meals to order and closes early. What you get in return is a mountain to yourself: the shuttle traffic stops at 17:00, the cloud settles into the valleys, and at dawn you walk to Hai Vong Dai before anyone from below has left the gate.

Every other hill station in Vietnam was rebuilt into a town. Bach Ma was left to the trees, and that is exactly what makes it worth the climb.

№ 09Weather, bike, fuel and the ride home

Weather. The whole trip is hostage to it. The window is March to August: the rhododendrons are out in March and April, the lakes are swimmable from May, and August is hot below but perfect on top. From September the north-east monsoon parks itself on the mountain, the trails close for landslides, the shuttle stops when the road is unsafe and the Hai Van Pass is in cloud; between October and January do not attempt it. Even in season, check the forecast for Phu Loc the night before and be prepared to swap the days around: Elephant Springs and the lagoon are fine in drizzle, the summit is pointless in cloud.

The lake at the bottom. Ten kilometres before the park gate, a signed turn at Loc Hoa leads to Truoi Lake, a reservoir under the eastern flank of the massif, where a short boat ride crosses to Truc Lam Bach Ma, a Zen monastery on a forested island with a giant seated Buddha on the hill above. It is the most photographed view in the district and an easy hour, and it is the sensible plan B when the summit is in cloud: the lake sits at 30 metres, not 1,450, and stays in sunshine while the mountain is hidden.

Bike. Two hundred and thirty kilometres over two days, including the Hai Van Pass twice and a stretch of trucked-up QL1A, on a loaded bike: this wants a 125 cc automatic or a Honda semi-automatic in good tune, and it is not a 50 cc or electric trip. Tell us when you book and we will send you out with a luggage rack, a rain cover and a bike that has just been serviced; if you would rather not ride back, we do one-way rentals to Hue, and Bach Ma is about 45 km from the city.

Fuel and cash. Fill up in Da Nang before the pass and again in Lang Co; there is a station at Cau Hai and nothing after the park turn. Take cash for the shuttle, the villas and every meal — nothing on the mountain takes a card, and the nearest ATM is in Phu Loc town.

Home. From the gate it is 103 km back to Hoi An, the last 55 of them the pass and the Da Nang coast road. Leave the gate by 15:00, cross Hai Van by 16:30 while it is still light and the trucks are still visible, and you are back in the Old Town for a late dinner. If you have the extra day, break the ride at the Son Tra peninsula or the Cham Museum in Da Nang and finish the coast road at sunset.

№ 10FAQ

Can I ride my motorbike to the top of Bach Ma National Park?

No. Private motorbikes and buses over 16 seats are banned from the 16 km summit road. You park at the entrance gate at Cau Hai and either walk up, which takes four to five hours, or take the park shuttle: about 1.000.000₫ return for a 12-seat vehicle carrying one to five people, 1.200.000₫ for six to twelve, and the desk fills vehicles with waiting visitors on busy mornings.

How much does Bach Ma National Park cost to enter?

Entry to Bach Ma National Park is 65.000₫ for adults and 25.000₫ for children, students with a card and visitors over 60, paid at the gate, which is open 07:00 to 17:00. The shuttle to the summit is extra and charged per vehicle. Guides cost a few hundred thousand dong a day.

How far is Bach Ma National Park from Hoi An by motorbike?

About 103 km each way: roughly 55 km to the top of the Hai Van Pass, 10 km down to Lang Co, and 38 km of QL1A north-west past Elephant Springs and over the Phuoc Tuong pass to the park turn at Cau Hai. Allow 3 hours 15 minutes of riding, and plan it as a two-day trip with a night in Lang Co.

Can I do Bach Ma National Park as a day trip from Hoi An?

Only just. You would leave at 06:00, reach the gate by 09:30, take the shuttle up, walk one trail and be back at the gate by 15:00 to cross the Hai Van Pass in daylight — about 210 km and ten hours on the bike. Most riders sleep in Lang Co the night before and give the mountain a full morning.

What is the best time to visit Bach Ma National Park?

March to August. Rhododendrons flower in March and April, the Five Lakes are swimmable from May, and the summit is clearest before 09:00 on any dry-season morning. From September to January the mountain takes some of the heaviest rain in Vietnam, trails and the shuttle close for safety, and the Hai Van Pass is often in cloud.

Can I stay overnight inside Bach Ma National Park?

Yes. The park lets a few restored French villas near the summit — Do Quyen Villa from about 500.000₫ a night, Kim Giao Villa 500.000₫–700.000₫ — and runs a campsite at around 200.000₫ a person. Book by phone on 0234 387 1330; there is no online booking, and bring a torch, warm clothes and cash.

Is Elephant Springs worth the detour on the way to Bach Ma?

Yes, for an hour. Suoi Voi is 7 km off QL1A at the km 879 marker, 13 km north of Lang Co, with clear rock pools, a two-metre-deep main pool and thatched huts for hire at 150.000₫–250.000₫. Entry is about 20.000₫. It is busy with local families on summer Sundays and almost empty on weekdays.

Distances were measured on the road from 84 Phan Chau Trinh, Hoi An, via the Hai Van Pass to Lang Co, the km 879 turn and the Bach Ma park gate; riding times assume a loaded scooter in daylight. Park fees, shuttle rates and villa prices are the park’s published 2026 tariffs and press reports of 2025–26 and can change; phone the park to confirm before relying on a villa. Historical figures on the hill station follow VnExpress and Nong Nghiep Moi Truong reporting; biodiversity counts are the park’s own. Anh Khoa does not run tours to Bach Ma and does not sell shuttle seats; the park handles both at the gate.