Hanoi to Dien Bien

By bus the journey from Hanoi to Dien Bien is scheduled to take from 9 to 12 hours depending upon which service you take.

Bus Times from Hanoi to Dien Bien

There are currently 10 services a day from Hanoi to Dien Bien available to book online.

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Hanoi Bus Stop

Hai Van and HT Travel services from Hanoi to Dien Bien depart from My Dinh Bus Station.

Dien Bien Bus Stop

Hai Van and HT Travel services from Hanoi to Dien Bien terminate at Dien Phu Bus Station.

About Travel to Dien Bien

Dien Bien is a remote province in the north west of Vietnam. The main town, Dien Bien Phu, is located 38 km by road from one of the major border crossings with Laos. From Hanoi, Dien Bien Phu is located at roughly the mid way point in the overland journey to Luang Prabang making it an excellent stopover point to break up a journey that typically takes over 24 hours by road.

Dien Bien Phu

Because of its location 450 km west of Hanoi Dien Bien Phu receives relatively few leisure visitors. The majority of the city’s roughly 100,000 residents work in industries other than tourism. The majority of the residents are also members of minority ethnic groups, such as the Kinh Thai and Hmong, who have traditionally engaged in agriculture rather than formal business or employment.

Dien Bien Phu nonetheless does receive some leisure visitors, mostly Vietnamese tourists, and has facilities for them. In the city itself, particularly the Muong Thanh district near the airport, there are around 20 hotels and guesthouses, with a further 20 hotels and guesthouses in scenic areas outside the city. The cheapest tourist accommodation available is in shared dormitory rooms in hostels, which charge the equivalent of around $5 USD a night. The most expensive place to stay is the Đông Thắm Hotel which charges around $50 USD a night. Guesthouses in the rice growing area to the south of the city charge from around $7 to $20 USD depending on location and facilities.

There are 14 formal restaurants in the city centre, and a food market in Him Lam Plaza which opens from late afternoon and is a great place to try well known local dishes, such as rice cake with sausage. Of the 14 restaurants, only 1 specialises in serving ‘international cuisine’. It’s a sushi restaurant. All the other restaurants primarily serve Vietnamese dishes, with a small selection of other foods, such as hamburgers and french fries.

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

One of the main reasons tourists travel to Dien Bien is because of the battle that took place there in 1954 between the French Army and the independence fighters of the Viet Minh. The battle is very significant to many Vietnamese people, as well to people in Cambodia and Laos, because the victory by the Viet Minh against the French Army directly led to collapse of France’s Indo-China Empire.

There are 4 main places related to the battle to visit, all located in or near the city:

• General De Castries’ Command Bunker
• A1 Hill
• Al Cemetery
• Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum

Muong Thanh Valley

Another reason people visit Dien Bien Phu is the 20 km long by 5 km wide rice growing area to the south of the city known as the Muong Thanh Valley. Surrounded by hills, the valley is a place of immense beauty particularly when mature rice is growing in the fields. Demand for guesthouses in the valley has been steadily growing since the end of the COVID era pandemic travel restrictions, driven largely by the images of picturesque rice fields appearing in people’s social media posts.

Pa Khoang Lake

Located about 20 km by road to the north east of Dien Bien Phu, Pa Khoang Lake is another popular tourist destination. The lake itself is very impressive. It’s a C-shaped man made lake that’s just under 8 km long. The area that was flooded to create Pa Khoang Lake is mountainous and as consequence there are are lots of steep sided hills jutting up through the surface of the lake creating a landscape reminiscent of the more famous steep sided islands in Ha Long Bay.

The lake itself is located approximately 900 metres above sea-level and the nearby hills are even higher. Because of the altitude, which reduces the temperature considerably compared to lowland Vietnam, camping and hiking around the lake are popular activities, as are boat tours and kayaking.