Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha Drive: Road Trip Tips & Info

Bắc Hà is a rural district of Lào Cai Province in the Northeast region of Vietnam. It is the capital of the region of the Flower Hmong, one of the 54 minorities of Vietnam and of the six groups of Hmong people. It is famous for its Sunday morning market, where thousands of locals gathered, the women dressed in their very intricate handmade costumes (it takes three to five months to embroider one by hand), as well as for the Saturday morning smaller market of Can Cau, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Bắc Hà. The town is enjoying an economic boom thanks to tourism, centered on the markets and, more and more, excellent trekking in the mountains north of the town.

If you’re planning this same drive and want to know all about it – how long it is, how long it takes, and where to stop along the way – read on. By the end of this post, you’ll know everything about the drive between Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ha.

How far is Bac Ha from Ho Chi Minh City?

As the crow flies, it’s roughly 824 miles between Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ha. Luckily, we can’t skip over all the good stuff and have to drive – that means seeing some of the sights and countryside between these two points.

For driving, it is roughly 1170 miles or 1884 km between Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ha. This may vary slightly depending on your start and end points.

Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha drive hours

In terms of travel time by car, the 1170 miles drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha takes 26 hours . Again, your final drive time depends on where you start in Ho Chi Minh City and end in Bac Ha.

This is a really long drive, so it's not very realistic to drive nonstop. To get a better idea of how long this road trip would actually take, scroll down to calculate how many hours it would be if you drive with stops.

Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha road trip

Realistically, you're not going to want to drive without stopping all the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha, especially if you're the main driver. So let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Bac Ha, and you need to stop along the way to rest. Plus if it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting stops along the way, eat at great restaurants, and find a hotel to stay overnight. That's what we are perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Based on the length of this trip, we think you could spread out this fun road trip over a number of days.

Road trip: 4 days of driving

With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.

Travel time: 26 hours hours on the road with 4 overnights

Itinerary

Start at Ho Chi Minh City.

Drive for about 3 hours, then stop in Quốc lộ 14, QL.14, DHCM and stay for about 2 hours. Next, drive for another 4 hours then stop in Quốc lộ 19, QL.19. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 3 hours, then stop in Đường Hồ Chí Minh, QL.14, DHCM and stay for about 2 hours. Next, drive for another 4 hours then stop in Cách Mạng Tháng 8, QL.1A. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 3 hours, then stop in Quốc lộ 1A, Kỳ Nam and stay for about 2 hours. Next, drive for another 4 hours then stop in Đường Nguyễn Chí Thanh. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 3 hours, then stop in and stay for about 2 hours.

Finally, drive for about 2 hours and arrive in Bac Ha.

Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha airports and flights

To give you a better estimate of real-life travel, we've put together a flight itinerary with actual airports. Eventually you'll be able to customize this plan, choosing your own airports and flights. But for now, here's an example we've selected to give you an idea of how traveling might work between airports.

Departure airport: Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)

Arrival airport: Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)

With the airports selected, we can estimate the travel time to and from the airport, based on how far the airport is from downtown.

Getting to the airport: 5 minutes

Getting to your destination: 2 hours 58 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an example flight from SGN to HAN and figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, and time to taxi on the runway.

Commercial flight time: 1 hour 27 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha including time spent getting to/from the airports, an estimated wait time of 2 hours at the airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, and the actual flight itself.

Total travel time: 6 hours 30 minutes

Flying non-stop from Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ha. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.

Flight time from Ho Chi Minh City to Bac Ha, Lao Cai Province is 1 hour 39 minutes under avarage conditions.

Our flight time calculator assumes an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph, which is equivalent to 805 km/hr or 434 knots.

Actual flight times may vary depending on aircraft type, cruise speed, routing, weather conditions, passenger load, and other factors.