The Halong Bay Heritage Marathon 2026

If you're looking for a race that smells like travel, The Halong Bay Heritage Marathon should tick every box 😉.

Your adventure starts in Ha Long, in the province of Quảng Ninh ✅. It’s in the northeast of Vietnam that your footsteps will echo between rock and emerald 🐉. Just a few kilometers from the Chinese border, the "fastest marathon in the region" comes back every year and draws more and more runners. What’s more, the start gun goes off in November, at the end of autumn, just when temperatures settle between 18 and 25°C 🌤️. Dry air and blue skies promise you a perfect day of effort to go after a time ⏱️. This time, you won’t be able to say conditions weren’t optimal 😂. So everyone can enjoy the event, 4 distances are offered: 5 km, 10 km, half marathon and marathon 🏃.

Forget boring scenery and dull routes—here, the course links two UNESCO-listed bays, Ha Long and Bai Tu Long 🌊. You will run along the sea down Tran Quoc Nghien Avenue while passing fishing villages one after another 🎣. But no time to stop and try the seafood specialties—"the clock is ticking, the minutes are acidic", and you need to make it on time ⏳. On your way: the Bai Chay Bridge, which holds the record for the longest single span in Southeast Asia, offers a vertiginous plunge over the bay. And if you don’t know the first thing about spans, you can still enjoy the view from the bridge—or simply its night-time illumination 🤩. To bring all the atmosphere together in one place, the start and finish are also shared, at the foot of the Quang Ninh Museum. It’s simple: as soon as you spot two big blocks of coal in the distance, you’re close to the finish 😜. What’s more, the race is a real UFO in its category: it is the first and only Vietnamese race to hold the World Athletics Label Road Race. In short, if you want to meet the very best of Vietnamese running, you already know where to go 😌.

Once you cross the line, your reward is mouth-watering 🤤. So no—don’t sink your teeth into the finisher medal you’re about to receive; instead, go and try the many Vietnamese dishes. Start your culinary journey with chả mực, a pounded squid patty (pounded, pounded, pounded.. 🎤) then fried, which has forged Ha Long’s reputation. Next, move on to bánh gật gù from Tien Yen or try sá sùng, a small sand worm nicknamed “gift from the sky” by local gourmets 🇻🇳. For the latter, we admit you need a strong stomach, but apparently it goes down pretty well 😅. On your way back, you can also pay a visit to local fishermen and taste the very typical ngán, a local clam best enjoyed perfectly grilled 🔥. If you’d rather stretch your legs than fill your stomach, you can also climb Bai Tho Mountain for a breathtaking view over the bay. Staying at a lower altitude, Hạ Long Park will give you a good dose of adrenaline with zero effort 🎢. Clearly, you won’t be bored during this stay on the other side of the world 🌎. On the heritage side, the Yen Tu Buddhist sanctuary also lets you take in a completely different culture.

Halong Bay and its surroundings are earned the hard way: turn these many kilometers into the most beautiful postcard of your season 📸..