The Boat Comes First
You smell the Perfume Pagoda before you see it. At the Đục Khê dock, roughly 70 kilometers southwest of Hanoi, the air already carries a faint sweetness — river mud, lotus stems, and the incense that vendors burn at makeshift altars along the embankment. You board a flat-bottomed metal rowboat, and for the next hour, the only sounds are the oars dipping into the Yến Stream and the occasional motorbike crossing a distant bridge.
The boat ride is the best part. I know that sounds like an odd thing to say about a Buddhist pilgrimage site, but it is. Rice paddies stretch out on both sides, impossibly green, and limestone karst towers appear and disappear through the morning haze. If you leave Hanoi before 7 AM, you get the stream mostly to yourself. By 10, it is a traffic jam of identical boats.
What You Are Actually Walking Into
The Perfume Pagoda — Chùa Hương — is not one temple. It is an entire network of Buddhist shrines, pagodas, and grottos scattered across the Hương Sơn mountains in Mỹ Đức District. The complex has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries, and the main draw is Hương Tích Cave, a massive natural grotto that the locals sometimes call the ‘most beautiful cave under the southern sky.’ Lord Trịnh Sâm supposedly inscribed those words on the cave entrance back in the 18th century, though the exact attribution gets debated.
Inside the cave, ancient Buddhist statues sit on rock ledges among stalactites. The air is thick with incense smoke. Pilgrims leave offerings at every altar — fruit, flowers, stacks of fake money. The scale of devotion is hard to describe without seeing it.
The 2026 festival season runs from February 18 to May 11, which is longer than most sources initially listed. The official opening ceremony falls on February 22 — the 6th day of the 1st lunar month. The busiest stretch is the first two weeks after that, especially on weekends.
The Climb (or the Cable Car Shortcut)
Once your boat docks at the Thiên Trù landing, you have two options: hike up or take the cable car.
The hike to Hương Tích Cave takes roughly 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your pace and how many smaller temples you stop at along the way. The stone path is uneven and can be slippery after rain — I would not attempt it in sandals, though plenty of Vietnamese pilgrims apparently do without issue. You pass through Thiên Trù Pagoda first, then wind upward through forest, passing shrines at Giải Oan and Cửa Võng before reaching the cave.
The cable car skips most of that. Round-trip tickets are 260,000 VND for adults and 180,000 VND for children under 1.1 meters. One-way tickets run 180,000 and 120,000 respectively. The views from the cable car are genuinely impressive — you get an aerial perspective of the karst landscape that the hikers miss entirely. But you also miss the smaller temples, which are arguably the more atmospheric part of the experience.
A practical note: for 2026, the organizers have introduced QR-code e-tickets that you can buy online before your visit. This reportedly cuts down waiting time at the entrance. They have also set up a hotline for reporting price gouging — a recurring problem at the festival in past years.
The Money Part
Let me just lay out the costs, because they are not as simple as ‘one entrance fee.’
The scenic area ticket is 120,000 VND per adult. The boat ride to Hương Tích and back is 110,000 VND per person. So the baseline is 230,000 VND before you have done anything else. Add the cable car and you are looking at 490,000 VND — roughly $20 USD at current rates. Children get reduced boat fees (65,000 VND) and free scenic entry.
There is also a secondary route — the Long Vân–Tuyết Sơn line — which has no scenic fee and only charges 85,000 VND for the boat. Fewer tourists take this route, which is either a selling point or a warning depending on your tolerance for solitude.
Food at the site is expensive by Vietnamese standards. Stalls near the Thiên Trù area sell phở and cơm bình dân at marked-up festival prices. Bring your own water at minimum — carrying snacks is not a bad idea either.
Compare Hanoi hotels on Trip.com if you are staying overnight in the city before heading out. Most day-trippers leave Hanoi at 5 or 6 AM to beat the crowds.
When to Go (and When Not To)
The festival runs nearly three months, but the experience varies wildly depending on when you show up.
The first two weeks after the opening ceremony (late February) are the most crowded. Weekends during this period can see tens of thousands of visitors — the boat queue alone can stretch to an hour. The atmosphere is electric but exhausting.
March weekdays are the sweet spot. The crowds thin significantly, the weather is typically overcast but not too hot, and you can actually hear yourself think inside the cave. By April and May, the festival energy has mostly wound down, though the site remains open and the scenery shifts toward lush summer green.
Weather-wise, expect anything. Northern Vietnam in spring means sudden rain showers, fog in the mornings, and the occasional stretch of sticky heat. A light rain jacket is not optional — it is essential. The stone paths become genuinely treacherous when wet.
Dress Code and Temple Etiquette
This is a functioning religious site, not a tourist attraction that happens to have temples. Cover your shoulders and knees when entering pagodas. Remove your shoes where indicated. Do not pose for selfies in front of active altars where people are praying — it happens constantly and nobody is happy about it.
Comfortable walking shoes with decent grip matter more than anything else you pack. The stone steps are worn smooth from centuries of foot traffic.
Getting There from Hanoi
The standard approach is to catch a bus from Hanoi to Mỹ Đức District. Buses leave from various stations — Mỹ Đình is the most commonly cited, but Giáp Bát also has services. The ride takes about 1.5 to 2 hours depending on traffic. From the bus stop, you take a short motorbike taxi or walk to the Đục Khê boat dock.
Alternatively, tour operators in Hanoi’s Old Quarter run day trips that bundle transport, boat, and a guide for somewhere around 500,000 to 800,000 VND. KKday lists several Perfume Pagoda day tours from Hanoi — the convenience factor is real if you do not want to navigate Vietnamese bus stations on your own. KLOOK has similar options worth comparing.
Free parking is apparently available for 2026, which is new. Previous years had complaints about overcharging at informal lots near the dock.
One Last Thing
Plan for a full day. Seriously. Between the bus, the boat, the hike or cable car, the cave itself, and getting back — you are looking at 10 to 12 hours minimum. I have read accounts from people who tried to squeeze it into a half-day and deeply regretted it.
The boat ride back in the late afternoon, when the light goes golden and the limestone hills turn purple at the edges, is the quietest hour of the whole trip. Most of the other tourists have already left. The boatwoman rows without speaking. You sit there smelling like incense and sweat, and your phone is probably dead by this point anyway.