Experience 4-season travel in Van Don

Spring is the season of spring travel and festivals for domestic tourists in the Northern region. In Van Don, the locality has recently organized quite well spiritual tourism routes associated with the relic cluster of Cua Ong - Cap Tien temple, Cai Bau pagoda - Truc Lam Giac Tam Zen Monastery, the relic cluster of Quan Lan communal house - pagoda - shrine - communal house, and Ly Anh Tong temple. The relics attract tens of thousands of tourists every spring festival season.

Among these relics, except for the Quan Lan communal house - pagoda - shrine - temple complex located on a remote island, the rest are on the large Cai Bau island. In recent years, it has been relatively popular for spring tourists to take a tour from Cua Ong Temple (Cam Pha City) to visit and offer incense at Cap Tien Temple, Cai Bau Pagoda, and Ly Anh Tong Temple in Van Don. With a route not too far, hugging the coast of Bai Tu Long Bay, which is even more poetic in the cold spring weather, tourists can leisurely go to the temple, visit, and freely admire or stop to check-in with Van Don peach gardens, the trademark of this land, along both sides of the road.

In recent years, the relics of Cai Bau Pagoda, Cap Tien Temple, and King Ly Anh Tong Temple have all been invested in and renovated. Among them, the largest in scale is the complex of Cai Bau Temple and Pagoda - Truc Lam Giac Tam Van Don Zen Monastery. Through research, it is shown that the project started construction at the end of 2007 on a total area of ​​20 hectares in Ha Long commune, with a total investment of over 24 billion VND from socialized capital. The pagoda was built on the old Phuc Linh Pagoda foundation along with Truc Lam Giac Tam Zen Monastery, which has a large scale, elaborate and very beautiful interior.

Cai Bau Temple worships Dong Hai Dai Vuong Doan Thuong, who is said to be a loyal and benevolent scholar who gave all his wealth to the poor villagers and was given the title Dai Vuong by the Ly Dynasty king. After his death, soldiers and people mourned and built temples in many places, from Hung Yen, Hai Duong to Quang Ninh during the Tran Dynasty.

With its location on the mountainside, the relic complex faces the immense Bai Tu Long Bay, with waves crashing all year round. The fresh, quiet space, beautiful green tree system, and construction works arranged quite harmoniously with the surrounding landscape also create a pleasant impression for visitors. Therefore, not only in the spring festival season, but if exploited well, attracting visitors in other seasons of the year here is also completely possible.

During the summer tourist season, Van Don has a huge advantage when it comes to beautiful beaches not only in the large Cai Bau island area but also in islands such as Quan Lan and Minh Chau, which also have many top-notch beaches. Along with that, hundreds of other rocky islands in Bai Tu Long Bay also have many small, pristine, clear beaches that are potential for tourism exploitation in this bay in the near future.

At the end of April, the Wyndham Garden Sonasea Van Don Resort of Van Don Tourism Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (CEO Van Don) was inaugurated, with 182 5-star hotel rooms and 180 resort villas. It is expected that in June, the Angsana Quan Lan Resort of Viglacera - Van Hai Joint Stock Company will also be put into operation. The resort is expected to have about 160 rooms and over 135 resort villas on Quan Lan Island.

The investment of large enterprises and the operation of high-end resorts affirm the attraction of Van Don island tourism, promising to create a breakthrough for local tourism. These two large resorts alone are expected to develop 6 out of 16 new tourism products in Van Don this year. Of which, Wyndham Garden Sonasea Van Don resort has 4 products: resort and health care, outdoor and beach sports, camping, outdoor wedding, MICE tourism. Angsana Quan Lan resort is expected to develop 2 products: MICE tourism and sea tourism - resort on the island.

In winter, Van Don focuses on developing experiential tourism products in the orange gardens in the area. Van Yen commune is the largest concentrated orange growing area in the district with a total area of ​​nearly 170 hectares, concentrated in the villages: Dai Chuoi, Dai Lang, Cai Bau and village 10/10. Oranges here are grown in large gardens, with the famous Van Yen orange brand of Van Don district, known by people and tourists from many places for its delicious flavor. The vast orange gardens, when the fruit is ripe, create an attractive yellow color all over the hillsides, valleys, and streams, attracting a large number of visitors and experiencers, especially on weekends.

With the attraction of orange garden tourism, many garden owners have recently repaired and embellished the grounds, creating beautiful landscapes and attractive check-in spots to serve the needs of tourists. Last year 2023 was also the first year that the district directed Van Yen commune to organize Van Don Orange Week with the theme "Golden Season" in early December.

The program has many attractive activities, such as: Competition for fast and technical orange pickers; Competition for voting for the cleanest, most beautiful and impressive green orange garden... In addition, there are also cultural activities, mass art performances, sports exchanges, folk games... Through this, it aims to honor orange growers, promote the image, potential advantages of Van Yen commune in developing orange trees associated with community tourism to experience visiting orange gardens, attract tourists, and increase income for people.

Experiential tourism and eco-tourism destinations in many communes such as Ban Sen, Minh Chau, Quan Lan, Van Yen, Ha Long, Dong Xa, Doan Ket are not only attractive to tourists in one season but are quite versatile with activities from fishing, camping, teambuilding... If in the summer, tourists can have fun, swim, fish, check-in, participate in courses on the meaning of life, then in winter - spring when the weather is cool, tourists can also experience more activities such as campfires, BBQ parties...

This review shows that, besides the advantage of developing sea and island tourism in the summer, Van Don has many conditions to develop 4-season tourism with more potential and opportunities that are increasingly open.