Caves in Vietnam

Son Doong Cave is not just the biggest cave in the world, it is also one of the longest caves in the world. Located in the heart of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in the Quang Binh province, these caves are open only to a few people, every year. The Son Doong Cave is so large, it has forests inside it and an entire weather system of its own.

The Grand Cathedral like the entrance of the escape Caves beckons you inside. With its vaulted ceiling and stalactites, this cave lives up to its name. escape cave is 31 kilometres long, making it one of the longest caves in the world. Out of the 31 kilometres, the maximum distance that the public is allowed up to is 3.5 kilometres deep.

The Tu Lan Caves, though not as large as the Son Dong Caves, has the most number of adventure activities among the caves of Vietnam. These caves have behemoths of stalagmites, accompanied by large limestone karsts. The cave is continuously irrigated with rivers and lakes.Aactivities include swimming, dark cave exploration, climbing, rappelling and zip lining.

Hang En Cave, the third largest cave in the world, will make you feel like you've been transported straight into a Disney movie. Located deep inside Phong Nha Ke Bang, this caves is surrounded by limestone mountains, jungle canopy and the gushing Rao Thuong River. The cave entrance is a slit in the cliff.

The Dau Go Cave, or Wooden Stakes Cave, sits about 6 km from Bai Chay wharf, 27 metres above the water. Its main chamber runs to some 5,000 square metres under a dome 25 metres high. The name comes from the account that the stakes Tran Hung Dao drove into the Bach Dang river against the Mongol fleet were stored here.

'Tam Coc' literally translates into three caves. Tam Coc is a collection of three caves - Hang Ca, Hang Giua and Hang Cuoi. Each of these caves is submerged in the Ngo Dong Rivers and hence do not have floors. They can only be reached by boat from the mainland. Hang Ca cave is the first cave and the largest of the three.

The entrance to the Hang Va caves seems nondescript, unimpressive even, but one step inside the cave will leave you breathless. The entrance is surrounded by cliffs on all sides. Upstream after about 350 meters, the narrow cave opens up into a chamber. The chamber consists of numerous dry gour lakes, partially filled water, out of which pops out conical calcite rocky structures.

The Phong Nha Caves were among the first caves to be discovered in Vietnam, and one of the most-visit caves here. There is much variation in the topography of the cave, making it a delightful spot for caving in Vietnam, though only the first 1.5 km of the total 44 km is open to tourists.

Nuoc Nut Caves provides the perfect opportunity for serious amateur cavers who are just starting off, to get a taste of the intense caving Vietnam's caves can offer. The Nuoc Nut caves are located right in the centre of a valley surrounded by cliffs. Once through the cave, you have to wade 500 meters, then scale a 15-meter high wall, after which you will find yourself at a stalactite lake.

Sung Sot, the Surprise Cave, is the largest cave in Halong Bay and the one most day boats stop at. A flight of steps climbs from the jetty into two big chambers, the second lit and roughly the size of a football pitch. Of the Halong caves this is the crowded one, so an early or late boat changes the experience completely.

Thien Cung, the Heavenly Palace Cave, sits on the same island as Dau Go and the two are almost always visited on one stop. It is the more theatrical of the pair, with coloured lighting on the stalactites and a chamber the dragon-wedding legend is attached to. Between them they make the standard Halong cave stop for anyone not travelling as far as Phong Nha.

Hospital Cave on Cat Ba is not a natural spectacle but a wartime one: a three-storey field hospital built into the limestone in the mid 1960s and used through the American war. Concrete wards, an operating room and a small cinema are still in place. It is the only entry here you visit for what people did inside it rather than for the rock itself.

Mua Cave is really two things: a small cave at the base and a staircase of roughly 500 steps up the limestone behind it. The view from the top over the Tam Coc river valley is what people actually climb for, and it pairs naturally with the Tam Coc boat trip further up this list. Start early, because the steps are open to the sun the whole way.

Puong Cave is a tunnel the Nang river has cut straight through a limestone mountain in Ba Be National Park, around 300 metres long and 30 high, and you pass through it by boat rather than on foot. Thousands of bats roost in the roof. Unlike everything else on this list you never walk into it, which is the whole appeal.