Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng

One of the rare and magical moments of travelling is when you come across a place so beautiful, so special, that you know you'll be talking about it for years to come. Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng was this for us. From the moment we hopped on our motorbikes and drove through the rice paddies, we instantly agreed this was the best place we'd travelled to so far.

Something about the way the mountains jut up from the fields in jagged formations made us feel like we had stepped onto the set of a movie (the amount of times we said, "Omg we're in Avatar!" or "This feels like Jurassic Park" was unreal).

Honestly, I could glaze Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng forever, and if you've ever met us it's almost guaranteed that Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng will come up in conversation at some point. It's definitely our favourite place in Vietnam and I guarantee that if you visit, it will probably be yours too.

Things to Do:

- Paradise Cave (Thiên Đường): Walk across a wooden boardwalk into a massive dry cave. Often called an "underground palace," its stalactites and stalagmites are so intricate they look like they were hand-sculpted.

Boat into Phong Nha Cave: Board a traditional wooden dragon boat for a ride up the Son River. The boat engine cuts off at the cave entrance, and you are rowed silently into a glowing cavern of turquoise water and limestone cliffs.

Get Muddy in Dark Cave (Hang Tối): For the thrill-seekers—zipline over the river, swim into a pitch-black cave with a headlamp, and take a natural mud bath deep inside the cavern before kayaking back out. We didn't do this but we're definitely saving it for next time!

Visit the Duck Stop: Okay - this one was a bit of a fail for us as we spent our entire duck stop experience huddled in a little bamboo hut in the middle of a lightning storm! It was chaotic and memorable but no ducks were seen by us that day. However, if you're coming to Phong Nga, definitely check out the duck stop. It's located at a famous local farm in the Bong Lai Valley, where you can lead a "duck army," ride a water buffalo, and enjoy a cold beer overlooking the rice paddies. Who doesn't like the sound of that??

The Ultimate Expedition (Son Doong): If you have the budget ($3,000+) and book months in advance, you can embark on a multi-day trek into Son Doong, the largest cave on Earth—so large a Boeing 747 could fly through its largest passage.