What to Pack for a Jungle Trek in Vietnam (2026)

Pack for being wet, not for being rained on. On a Vietnamese jungle trek you will be in rivers, and anything you own that takes a day to dry is dead weight. The short list is quick-dry clothing, closed shoes you do not mind soaking, a 10 to 20 litre dry bag, long socks, and DEET. The operator supplies the helmet, head torch, gloves, life jacket and usually the boots, so do not buy those twice. Long socks are on that list for one reason, and leeches on a Vietnamese jungle trek explains what to do when one gets past them.

The rest of this is mostly about leeches, because that is what people actually want to know and because most of what is written about them is wrong in ways that can give you an infected wound.

What the tour operator already provides

That borrowed footwear matters. The smallest pair is a 37, so anyone with smaller feet, which usually means children, needs their own. The borrowed boots are canvas military shoes and they work well, because they drain rather than holding water.

Leeches on a Vietnam jungle trek

Con vắt, the terrestrial leech, is what lives on the forest floor here. Normally it is the size of a pinhead. Fed, it is about the size of the tip of a chopstick. It is not the fat aquatic leech people picture.

Over the trousers, not under them, which is the whole point of a leech sock.

They live in humid dense forest, are most active between roughly 5 and 8 in the morning and 5 and 7 in the evening, and come out in force after rain. They are thin enough to get through a bootlace hole and through the weave of an ordinary sock.

They do not carry disease to humans and they are not dangerous. They are a nuisance, the bite bleeds for a while because of the anticoagulant, and the first one is worse than the twentieth.

Carry it on your back, not in your hand. The trail wants both hands free.

What actually keeps them off

• Leech socks. Long, tightly woven socks worn over your trouser legs rather than under them. This is the standard kit for jungle trekking in Borneo and it is the single most effective thing you can do.
• DEET, 15 to 30%. Applied to boot openings, sock tops, trouser cuffs, knees and waistband rather than to skin generally. Reported at roughly 88% effective against terrestrial leeches. Anyone who tells you no repellent works has not tried this properly.
• Salt-soaked socks. Soak long socks and trouser legs in strong salt water and dry them in the sun before you travel. Cheap, and it works.
• Tucking in. Trousers into socks, shirt into trousers. Unglamorous and effective.

How to get one off, and what not to do

This is the part worth reading before you need it.

Do this: slide a fingernail under the narrow end, which is the mouth, break the seal, and flick it away. Then wash the bite with soap and water and put antiseptic on it.

The question is drainage and grip, not waterproofing, because everything gets soaked.

Do not burn it off, or pour salt, vinegar or repellent onto one that is already attached. All of those make the leech vomit its stomach contents into the wound as it lets go. Leeches carry Aeromonas bacteria in the gut, which can cause a genuinely unpleasant skin infection. The folk remedies are the reason people come home with infected bites, not the leeches.

Expect the bite to keep bleeding for an hour or two. That is the anticoagulant, not a problem. A plaster and a clean sock deal with it.

Clothing that survives a wet cave

Cotton is the mistake. A cotton t-shirt in a cave at 20°C, soaked, will make you cold for the rest of the day and it will still be wet tomorrow. Synthetic quick-dry fabric dries on your body while you walk.

Stream crossings are where wet feet start, whichever park you are in.

• Two sets. One to trek in, one dry for camp. On a two-day trip that is genuinely all you need.
• Long sleeves and long legs. Sun, scratches and leeches, in that order of frequency.
• Swimwear underneath. Most tours involve swimming and there is rarely anywhere to change.
• A warm layer for camp. December nights in Phong Nha drop to about 18°C and you will be damp.

Why the dry bag is the purchase that matters

More useful than a rain jacket, because the rain is warm and the river is unavoidable. Ten to twenty litres is right for a day, and it holds a phone, a camera, a dry shirt and any medication.

A pinhead until it feeds, and about the size of a chopstick tip afterwards.

Check the roll closure before you commit anything you care about to it. Cheap dry bags fail at the seam, and a river cave is a bad place to discover that.

Two sets of clothes, one wet and one dry, and the dry set lives in the dry bag and is only worn at camp. Get that right and the rest of the list is detail.

What shoes survive a wet cave

Whatever you wear will get soaked, so the question is not waterproofing, it is drainage and grip. Canvas military shoes, the kind operators lend, drain fast and grip wet limestone well. Proper trekking boots work but stay wet for days. Trainers with smooth soles are the worst option and sandals are dangerous on rock.

Bring flip-flops for camp and for the drive back. Putting dry feet into wet shoes at the end of a day is a small misery worth avoiding.

What not to bring on a Vietnam jungle trek

• A big rucksack. Porters carry the camp; your personal limit is typically around 7kg.
• Jeans. Heavy wet, slow to dry, and they chafe.
• A rain jacket, mostly. You will be wet from below regardless and it traps heat in the humidity.
• Your own helmet or harness. Operators use their own certified gear and will not let you substitute it.
• Valuables. There is nowhere secure on a trail and nowhere to spend money.

For what the days themselves involve, cave swimming skills covers what is different about swimming underground, stream crossing tips covers the skill that causes most slips, and cave animals covers what else lives down there, none of which wants anything to do with you.

If you are still choosing a trek, the range of adventure treks runs from an afternoon to five days, and the Abandoned Valley trek is a good first one. Every operator runs its own safety and rescue training, which is worth asking about before you book.

Two things worth reading before you pack. leeches, properly explains the one part of this list people get wrong, and things to do in Phong Nha covers what you will actually be doing in the kit.