Xa Huong Lake

The name Xạ Hương sounds fragrant, quiet and hidden away, and the lake does lie in a place like that. It sits in the Con Trâu valley, in the Tam Đảo area, with mountains standing around it on many sides.

It helps to know what kind of lake this is. Xạ Hương is not a natural lake. It was built as a reservoir to supply water for farming around Tam Đảo. According to a decision issued by the People's Committee of Phú Thọ Province in early 2026, it holds more than 13 million cubic meters of water. The dam is 41 meters high and a little over 240 meters long. These numbers are not for memorizing, but they show the scale. This is a major irrigation project, not a village pond.

The office that manages the lake today grew out of the Xạ Hương Lake Irrigation Management Board, founded in 1986. The lake was here long before anyone called it a place to visit.

Administratively, the Tam Đảo area used to belong to Vĩnh Phúc Province. After the administrative reorganization of 2025, it was merged into Phú Thọ. A visitor today arrives in Tam Đảo commune in Phú Thọ, though many older travel guides still name the old province.

A tourism page from the Vĩnh Phúc provincial government describes the lake as more than 80 hectares, set in the Con Trâu valley and ringed by mountain ridges. Local newspapers have called it an uncut gem in the heart of Tam Đảo. That is a nickname, not an official name. But it catches a feeling: something not yet polished, still showing the plain look of mountain forest.

What a visitor finds here is simple. There is the view over the water and a walk along the shore. The lake can also be the end of a longer walk. The route starts at the park headquarters and passes Trường Rừng and Rốn Rồng. It continues through a pine forest and across the rock field of Mom Cày, then ends at the lake. Local tourism sources put the whole walk at about four to five hours.

Little at Xạ Hương has been arranged ahead of time. For a real stretch of quiet, though, it is a place that deserves a stop.

Early in the day, before any voice stirs in the pine forest, the whole lake of more than 80 hectares grows so still. The water can be heard touching the stones of the shore. The Tam Đảo mountains close in on every side. Clouds drift past. And the name Xạ Hương, though no one can say exactly where it came from, still suggests some fragrance of mountain forest, which a person standing there can sense for themselves.