Special Top Gear Motorcycle Tour Vietnam – 23 Days

Day 1: Hanoi – Thac Ba lake: 180 km (Homestay)

8:00 am, We will pick you up at your hotel then take you to our shop to start riding from the shop. After fitting gears, we will head out of Hanoi on the quiet dike road along the Red river, this ride offers a great view of the rural villages which located besides the green and large rice fields on the Red river delta, it takes quite short time to get close to the countryside. After the bike ride on the dike and lunch in Doan Hung town, we can try some off-road motorbike ride crossing some hills of green tea fields, palm trees and rustic villages of the Dzao people. This is the short ride but could be memorable off-road ride of the day. We’ll end the first day ride at around 3:30 pm, leave the bikes with the family of the Dzao people and enjoy an 1.5 hour boat ride around the beautiful Thac Ba lake. Home stay in a nice stilt-house with the Dzao people in Ngoi Tu village.

Day 2: Thac Ba lake – Ba Be National park: 170 km (B,L,D – Homestay)

The ride today is much greater from the day before. If you’re fans of riding offroad, our guide team will take you on more offroad tracks crossing the National park, green tea fields. With the experienced local guide team of Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert, this can be one of the best day for offroad Vietnam motorcycle tours …If you’re not fan of offroad riding, we can make it just easier ride on smooth countryside backroads through some rustic villages of the ethnic people. Both choice will give you plenty chances to picture the beautiful nature and local people. We will end the day in the middle of green national park of Ba Be. We will finish the ride at the village of the Tay people which is located on the Ba Be lake bank, the village is surrounded by the green national park of Ba Be where you can enjoy a cold beer with the green nature and fresh air…

Day 3: Ba Be National park – Bao Lac: 170 km (Hotel)

The noise of countryside/animal may wake you up earlier than normal but it’s also a good choice to walk around the village. After saying good bye to the villagers, we continue the Northern Vietnam motorcycle tour by taking a short ride the Ba Be lake bank, put the all the bikes on a little boat and start boating through the biggest natural lake in Vietnam. This 2 hour boat ride along the lake crossing the national park and cave must the be highlight of the trip.

In the afternoon, we will have an easy ride up and up to Bao Lac town where we stay overnight in a little hotel on the bank of the Gam river.

Day 4: Bao Lac – Dong Van: 160 km ( Hotel)

The ride today offers more fun with more riding offroad/single tracks…especially we have chances to cross some streams, rivers. In the afternoon we will be in the Dong Van Rock plateau where you will have amazing pictures of the imposing nature of this land. There are many special things we will do and see today but of the ride cross the Ma Pi Leng pass could be the highlight of the day. The pass is one of the longest and most beautiful passes in Vietnam that no words can describe.

Day 5: Dong Van – Ha Giang: 170 km (Hotel)

This is another highlight of our Top Great Vietnam motorcycle tour. It’s full day riding along the Dong Van and Ha Giang Rock plateau. Most of the ride is on easy single tracks with amazing view of nature. We will have a lots of picture stops today and pay some visits to some villages of the colourful H’Mong people. We will end the day in a hotel in Ha Giang.

Day 6: Ha Giang – Bac Ha: 180 km (Homestay)

Today is an easier ride with mostly on smooth roads up and down to the western part of Vietnam. The scenery we see today is quite different from the days before because the mountain is greener with more rice terraces on mountain. We will cross more villages of the flower H’Mong, Thai and Tay people who live in beautiful villages along the road we ride so we can also do some easy offroad crossing their villages, stop to visit some local market or have talk with them to learn more about their daily life and understand more about their culture.

We will end the day in a village of the Tay people where we spent a quite night with a nice family.

Day 7: Bac Ha – Sapa: 170 km (Hotel)

After leaving the village of the Tay people, we will continue the Top Gear Motorcycle Tour Vietnam by riding on some scenic mountain passes in the morning. We can stop at some local markets to learn more about the daily life of the local people. After some beautiful passes, we will ride down along the Chinese border and especially we can stop at the border gate in Lao Cai to see China from Vietnam. After lunch in Lao Cai town, we will have a nice ride up and up to Sapa. This is a smooth ride crossing many colourful terrace rice fields.

We will stay in a hotel in Sapa town.

Day 8: Relaxing in Sapa (Hotel)

After 8 day riding, Sapa is an ideal place to have a rest. Sapa is a little pretty town built by the French during the time they were staying in Vietnam from the 19th Centery, the weather is always cool so it’s always fun to walk around to see this old and developing town to chat with many hill tribes living around the town… beside you can try foot massage, you can also have plenty of good choice for local food and beer.
If you wanna get out of the town, The guide team of Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert can take another motorcycle ride with you to some villages nearby or take a cable car to the top of the Hoang Lien mountain with the height of more than 2000 meters to see amazing view of mountain.

Day 9: Sapa – Mu Cang Chai: 180 km (Homestay)

Mu Cang Chai is one of the most beautiful places in Northwest Vietnam, it’s famous for the Khau Pha pass, La Pan Tan…where you can see the most impressive rice terraces, so it must be one of the best days of the Northern part of Vietnam motorcycle tour. The ride today crosses one of the 4 most beautiful and dangerous passes in Northern Vietnam – O Qui Ho pass. The O Qui Ho pass is right after the Sapa town and after that we will continue the beautiful ride through some green tea fields and single tracks through the rice terrace fields…the ride today will be the mixture on and offroad and we can be flexible to ride less or more offroad depending on your expectation but whatever you choose you will have a great chance to make amazing photos of nature, Vietnamese countryside or friendly local people. We will end the day at the hotel in Mu Cang Chai at 5:00 pm.

Day 10: Mu Cang Chai – Phu Yen: 170 km (Hotel)

After breakfast, we continue the amazing ride in this beautiful part of Northwest of Vietnam. We will have another fun ride up and down on and off-road crossing some small passes. If you’re fans of offroad tracks, today must be the highlight of the tour because our local guide team can make the day with 50 – 70% of fun offroad tracks. We will see less rice terraces but the mountain view is still green and amazing. We will end the day in Phu Yen town at around 4:00 pm but if you still have energy, we can take you on some other countryside back-roads to discover some villages of the Muong nearby the town. We would like to say taking motorcycle tours in Vietnam with the local guide team of Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert, riding on-road or offroad is an optional. We can be flexible and you can make choices to do more on or offroad just the night before the day.

Day 11: Phu Yen – Mai Chau valley: 170 km (Homestay)

After leaving the little town of Phu Yen, we will continue the beautiful North Vietnam motorbike tour by riding long the Da river lake, the ride offers a great view of mountain and green water lake, after crossing the lake by a ferry we will have a scenic ride up and around green plateu of Moc Chau. After lunch in Moc Chau, we will have an easy ride down and down to peaceful valley of Mai Chau where we stay overnight in a quiet village of the Thai people. Before ending the day, we will have a fun offroad around this valley we can go up hill to the place to see the over view of this beautiful valley.

Day 12: Mai Chau valley – Tan Ky: 250 km (Hotel)

We will start joining on the real Ho Chi Minh trail from today. After leaving the village of the Thai, We will have slow and short motorbike ride around the valley crossing some villages of the white Thai people and some rice paddies. After getting out of the valley, we will keep riding on a small, spectacular and paved trail along the Ma river and crossing through the bamboo forest until Cam Thuy town where we stop for lunch. In the afternoon, the great motorbike ride on the historical Ho Chi Minh trail starts, we’ll ride all the way on the smooth and easy part of the trail to Tan Ky town, you will see different views from the day before. Arrive Tan Ky at about 5:00 pm.

Tan Ky is known as the starting point of the Ho Chi Minh trail during the war. At that time, all the troops with foods and staffs gather in Tan Ky and start to matching to the south of Vietnam on the trail to join the war in DMZ. Tan ky now is a little town located by the sides of the Ho Chi Minh trail, it’s peaceful town surrounded mountains.

Day 13: Tan Ky – Phong Nha national park: 290 km (Hotel)

After breakfast, we continue the Ho Chi Minh trail Vietnam motorcycle tour to Phong Nha and Ke Bang National Park. The ride in the morning is almost on the smooth, sealed roads offering nice view of rice fields and green tea farm, we can have some stop to take pictures and learn more about making green tea and tea drinking culture of Vietnam. The motorbike ride in the afternoon must be another highlight of this tour, we’ll get closer to the Phong Nha National Park where the motorbike ride offers amazing view of limestone mountain and jungles.

The karst formation of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has evolved since the Paleozoic (some 400 million years ago) and so is the oldest major karst area in Asia. Subject to massive tectonic changes, the park’s karst landscape is extremely complex with many geographic features of considerable significance. We will arrive Phong Nha at around 4:30 pm, and if time and weather permit, we can have a short boat trip along the green river to go through some famous caves.

Day 14: Phong Nha national park – Khe Sanh: 220 km (Hotel)

Today is one of the most beautiful days of the ride along the Ho Chi Minh trail. As Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert, we will take you to Khe Sanh on the western Ho Chi Minh trail with amazing view of the Phong Nha national park. The western trail is known as the hidden trail that the Us Army did never know to bomb, the trail runs through the National park of Phong Nha – Ke Bang, in more than 200 km, you will just see few other traffic but a lot of beautiful and beautiful mountain view. The ride on this trail could be one the best motorcycle ride in Vietnam; Especially, after getting out of the Phong Nha National park, we will get chance to visit the former US Merine Base with tunnels, Air base and a interesting museum of Khe Sanh. We will finish the great and enjoyable western Ho Chi Minh trail motorbike ride at about 5:00 pm in Khe Sanh town.

Battle of Khe Sanh: Did you know that more than 60.000 North Vietnamese trops and around 45.000 South Vietnamese and American trops took part in the battle in spring of 1968 in Khe Sanh and did you know nearly 20.000 were killed in both sides… Known as the biggest, most important and unbeatable military base of the South Vietnam, Khe Sanh is now becoming a large and green war museum where you can see some helicopter, tanks, tunnels….and something remain from the war in between of green nature and coffee plantation. Visiting Khe Sanh, listening the war stories, feeling the sorrow of the war may make you love better the peace you have.

Day 15: Khe Sanh – DMZ – Hue: 170 km (B,L,D – Hotel)

After breakfast, we will leave the Ho Chi Minh trail to ride on another historical road No 9, the road is considered as another border between the North Vietnam and South Vietnam where happened a lot of fighting between the Northern communists and the Southern Vietnamese and American troops, It could be the busiest day of this tour because we will pay a lot of visits to some interesting historical sites in the DMZ such as: Hien Luong bridge – known as the symbol of border between the north and the south of Vietnam, museum of the 17th parallel and the famous Vinh Moc tunnel. After lunch nearby the tunnels, we will have short motorcycle tour to Hue. Arrive beautiful city of Hue at around 5:00 pm.

Day 16: Hue – Hoi An: 190 km (Hotel)

Right after getting out of the Hue city, we will have a great ride along the coastlines through some fishing villages and colourful fields of tombs. The view today is quite different from the view of mountain along the Ho Chi Minh trail or in the previous days of the ride; Especially the motorbike ride cross the Hai Van pass must be one of another highlight of this tour where we can have amazing view of the ocean from the top of the pass. We can also have a great view of the coastal city of Da Nang. We will head down to Da Nang city and then ride on the coastal road to Hoi An. We will end the day in Hoi An at around 5:00 pm

Day 17: Touring around Hoi An (Hotel)

Known as one of the best tourist attractions in the world, Hoi An is a great place to stay and cheer up after a great and long motorbike tours in Vietnam. It’s famous for quiet town with the peace in local lifestyle, silk production and the clean beach. Therefore, we must have great day for rest, relax or shopping…A free and easy day in Hoi An could be another highlight of this Top Gear Vietnam Motorcycle Tour.

Hoi An, also known as Faifo in western countries, is a city of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is located in Quang Nam province and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Hoi An Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique heritage site.
The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the 1st century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City). Between the seventh and 10th centuries, the Cham people controlled the strategic spice trade and with this came tremendous wealth. The former harbour town of the Cham at the estuary of the Thu Bon River was an important Vietnamese trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, where Chinese from various provinces as well as Japanese, Dutch and Indians settled. During this period of the China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Town on Seaside) in Vietnamese. Originally, Hai Pho was a divided town with the Japanese settlement across the “Japanese Bridge” (16th-17th century). The bridge (Chùa cầu) is a unique covered structure built by the Japanese, the only known covered bridge with a Buddhist pagoda attached to one side

Day 18: Hoi An – Kon Tum: 290 km (Hotel)

Be back to the nature! We will resume the motorcycle touring on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, after leaving peaceful town of Hoi An, we will motorcycle to the western to Phuoc Son (also known as Kham Duc), from there we will head up the towering Lo So Pass, passing through remote areas thinly populated by peoples of the Ba Na ethnicity. Edging close to the border with Laos, where a number of the trail arteries crossed over in Laos, we continue biking on smooth road to Kon Tum. End the day at a nice hotel in town at the beer O’clock.

Day 19: Kon Tum – Buon Ma Thuot: 230 km (Hotel)

Today we will be in the heart of Central Highland Vietnam, The ride today is almost still on the Ho Chi Minh road to Buon Me Thuat in which the local people produce the most and best coffee in Vietnam. The ride will offer a full view of culture and beauty of this highland. In the morning we head south through the Central Highlands, passing Pleiku and the Ia Drang valley battlefield, before continuing onto Buon Ma Thuot (also known as Buon Me Thuot), the city where northern forces launched their final assault on Saigon during the Vietnam war.

Day 20: Buon Ma Thuot – Da Lat: 220 km (BHotel)

After leaving the nice city of Kon Tum, we will continue the ride along the Ho Chi Minh road, crossing large green fields of coffee and rubber plantation…in the afternoon, the motorbike ride is even more exciting we we ride up and up to famous and romantic Da Lat plateau.

Day 21: Touring around Da Lat

Da Lat is known as “The City of Love” and is a favorite holiday resort for Vietnamese. This cool and romantic land is found by the French during the Indochina wartime. With evergreen forests, waterfalls, beautiful lakes, the country’s best flower gardens, and delicious fresh produce, Da Lat has always provided a welcome respite from the heat of the lowlands. We can spend the day visiting the highlights of Da Lat – its flower gardens, cathedral, waterfalls, markets, Valley of Love, convent, university, train station and key pagodas…and many others
After the western breakfast in hotel, we will have short Da Lat motorcycle to some famous attractions to make you understand why the local people choose Da Lat as an ideal destination for honey-moon and holiday for many years.

Day 22: Da Lat – Nam Cat Tien National park: 170 km (Hotel)

Hit the road No 20, we can also have some easy off-road/dirt road to make the ride to Cat Tien National Park more fun. This forest area used to be the head quarter of Vietnamese army during the war. The park suffered historically during the Vietnam War when it was extensively sprayed with herbicides like the defoliant Agent Orange. In some region nowadays trees/plantations have not yet grown back.

Day 23: Nam Cat Tien – Saigon: 165 km (B,L)

This motorbike ride to Saigon is short but must be a big day as traffic is quite busy when we motorbike closer to Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City). However some people enjoy well the ride with local traffic here, when riding between local scooters, they can talk, smile or just say hello to the locals. The local traffic looks crazy but not so dangerous if you can ride slowly after our local tour guide. We may end the tour at an easy place in the edge of Saigon then we will arrange a taxi back to your hotel in city after saying good bye to the guide team of Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert. The Special Top Gear Motorcycle Tour Vietnam will end at around 4:00 pm in Saigon city center.