Phong Na caves + Hoi An

Hi I did a similar trip just 12 months ago up to Phong Nha - it was incredible, just amazing.

I travelled up from Hoi An taking the day train from Da Nang and then taking the last mini bus (departs Dong Hoi at 17:30, from the a bus stop near the bus station on a busy main street, not the railway station). To make you aware when you leave the railway station the taxi drivers will offer car journeys to Phong Nha for ca. VND330000, which is crazy. the local mini bus which is clean modern is just VND33000. Take a taxi to the bus stop for VND20000.

Yes I think two full days is a good amount of time. The town itself is only just developing so whilst plenty of places to eat, good quality hotels limited (I stayed at Heritage by night USD21, big room, with a pool, nothing special but friendly). Oddly I could not find any shampoo or soap for sale in the town so bring some of your own.

I did the overnight stay in the cave, which was expensive and in general you need to book well in advance as they have a limit of 16 people /day. There are however other caves to explore which I wish I had done too. Just sitting by the river is amazing in itself. So yes definitely go there! You can organise everything once you arrive, even in the evening the tour shops are open. There is a great pizza place.

At the conclusion of my far too brief stay I took the mini bus back to Dong Hoi and I flew to Hanoi. The mini bus dropped me off at the end of the street to the airport and I paid a local lady to travel on the rear of her motor bike. I appreciate you are going in the reverse direction but I would look at least a flight if possible to save some time.

I also agree, Hoi An is no longer magical. I would go back to Hue instead unless you want beach time.

Couple of extra points, I believe the local mini bus departs at hourly intervals. So if you arrive in the morning you should have no problems with taking the local bus. Allows you to mingle with the locals.

I evaluated the phong nha home stay place and well in short glad I went with my choice of staying in the town. The farm stay is isolated, there is nothing around so you are kind of stuck paying their prices for food, drink, tours and local transport.

On this wiki travel link there is an image of the local bus and the route the bus takes.

wikitravel.org/en/Phong_Nha-Ke_Bang

thanks for all this useful info! we booked a homestay place not as far as the Farmstay but also not in town (figured it might be nice to be somewhere more remote than the town for relaxation) and they offer free bicycles to peddle to town and we can rent motorbikes as well (a way to get to the caves?). I hope I don't regret that if we find it too far out.. :)

The Hang En tour looks amazing, but way too costly for me.

Do you know how far of a walk it would be from the train station to the bus stop? Is it easy to find the bus stop? And it's only once an hour.. is it on the hour?

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