Ba Vi National Park lies 1.5 hours’ driving from Hanoi’s city center, and a great summer retreat located in Ba Vi mountain range. The place is home to stunning mountain scenery, curly trails hanging along the mountain’s side. It’s also home to a great variety of tropical fauna and flora. The motorbike ride uphill of Ba Vi is surely one of the best that you can do while staying in Hanoi and have a day to yourself.
Ba Vi, in Vietnamese, means “03 pinnacles” – due to the shape of the 03 mountain’s pointy tops: Dinh Vua, Tan Vien and Ngoc Hoa, all above 1100 meters in altitude. In summer months (from April to September), one can enjoy the view of Hanoi from one of these tops. However, the height and the location of the National Park trapped clouds in during the winter, when one can hardly see the peaks.
The cool climate made the French ranked Ba Vi similarly to Sapa or Da Lat, and constructions were taking place in Ba Vi, turning it into a hill station. To date, some French ruins can still be found on site, such as an old, eerie tumbling church, or relics of some old hotels and villas, and even a prison. Time have grown a layer of greenery on these pieces of history, but these sites surely deserve seeing.
The place is now a summer shelter for Hanoians and it’s home to a a good number of hotels, restaurants and cafes.
