Cycling Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh

Upon arrival at Noi Bai Airport, the Vietnam Backroads team will welcome you and transfer you to the hotel for check-in. After the rest at the hotel, your guide with a shuttle will take you to our bike store to have your bike fitting and tour briefing before having dinner in town.

7:30 am Meet up at your hotel; we will travel on the shuttle to Long Bien Bridge to explore the authentic Red River countryside by bike. After a short briefing and sharing more information about your adventurous day, your guide will lead you to venture on the biking trail after crossing the Long Bien Bridge. The countryside we turn onto is the lush farmlands and old villages with small pagodas & temples with traditional old houses along the way. This is your countless photo opportunity along the routes, and witness the daily lives of farmers in the area. Join locals on a ferry boat, cross the Duong River, and resume cycling through the vast cultivating fields to Co Loa citadel. Visit the An Duong Vuong King Temple, then, cycle around the remains of the ancient fortress and its beautiful surrounding. After lunch at a local restaurant, we continue following the back roads and cycle through the quiet villages to the dike of the Red River, where the two rivers join together. The next local ferry boat takes us to further side, and we resume cycling to West Lake, the largest of many lakes in Hanoi City. Enjoy views along the water’s edge to Tay Ho temple – West Lake temple is considered one of the holiest ones in Hanoi. After the visit, we’ll transfer back to the hotel. After dinner, we’ll board on a night train to Hue.

Arrive in Hue early in the morning, be picked up, and transferred to the hotel for breakfast. Following the itinerary, we’ll explore the rustic countryside and hidden charm villages, experience the Nguyen’s Royal Mousulems by bicycle, and spend 2 hours exploring Hue’s Imperial Citadel on foot. From the Purple Citadel, we follow the paved road along the river, which leads us to ride to the countryside, pass lush fruit orchards, vegetable fields, and traditional villages. Stops at historical landmarks, Bunker hills, and ruined relics, old pagodas and resume the ride to and enjoy the dirt track riding to the Mausoleums of Khai Dinh. Enjoy a specialty lunch meal at a local restaurant. Then we cross the river on a pontoon bridge and keep biking to Minh Mang Mausoleum. You will immerse yourself in the beauty of the mausoleum. It’s one of Hue’s most unique architectural Maulosolem in Vietnam. We’ll transfer back to Hue in the late afternoon.

After a leisurely breakfast, we briefly transfer to the river, where we ride on a small quiet road along the rivers with some zig-zag routes to Thanh Toan Tiled-Roof Bridge. As we break at Thanh Toan village, you’ll communicate with older adults in French or English about their life and local culture. Walk around the village, and capture a lot of photos of the wooden bridge and rice paddy fields. Afterward, we ride onward to the Thuan An beach, cross lush, fertile farmlands, rice paddies, and sometimes along the rivers. Visit tiny fishing villages along the lagoons, see fishing shelters and small sampan fishing boats on the lagoons. Then we cross the lagoon to Thuan An peninsula and continue exploring local life and culture on the way to Tu Hien, Vinh Loc, and Lang Co beaches. Take a seafood lunch and prepare to gear up Hai Van Pass through cloudy weather and breathtaking views before a downhill ride to Da Nang. Take a transfer to Hoi An.

Spend the day exploring My Son Holly Land, a famous Cham Towers settles in the mountain valley. The ride begins from the further side of Thu Bon River. We’ll stop in a carpentry village, where locals make handicrafts and build traditional wooden fishing boats on Cam Kim Island. Resume biking to escape the island, roll onto remote villages, see ox carts moving along the countryside roads, buffalos working on farms. The paths are well-maintained with concrete and asphalt, making riding easier through hilly farmlands with mountain scenery. After lunch, we tour My Son Sanctuary, the imperial city during the Cham dynasty from the 4th to 12th centuries. Despite being largely destroyed during the Vietnam War, over 70 towers and temples still rise in the green valleys surrounded by hills and jungled mountains. After the visit, we’ll transfer back to Hoi An.

After a leisurely breakfast, transfer to the Da Nang Airport for the morning flight to Nha Trang. Welcomed by Vietnam Backroads Team, and taken to a white sandy beach resort for check-in. Spend the rest of the day on the beach.

Leaving Nha Trang at 8:00 am, and transferring to Dien Khanh, we begin a challenging ride to Dalat, the central highlands. The route from Dien Khanh to Khanh Vinh is about 30 km, mostly flat, with some undulating, and the scenery is amazing, from the rice paddies to hillside farmlands through authentic villages and the Cai River. Following lunch, gear up, challenge Hon Giao Pass, and enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery, tropical forests, and pine forests of the central highlands. We’ll hop on the support vehicle transfers to Dalat for the last 50km.

After breakfast, we’ll transfer 1.5 hours to Di Linh town for the amazing day. The second-day ride leads us through coffee plantations with gentle hills to warm our bodies to the peak. Enjoy stunning mountainous landscapes and peaceful valleys with rolling mountain hills from the highlands descending the flat plain to Mui Ne Beach—lunch en route. We continue the day cycling through forested jungle valleys, little ethnic villages, and sleepy hillsides. Then we speed up Gia Bac Pass on winding roads through the jungles, offering breathtaking views and a little village scenery setting. The last section is rolling hills down as descendingly the lush farms, sometimes along calm rivers. Take a transfer to Mui Ne Beach with a stop at Sandune.

We’ll briefly transfer out of Phan Thiet City, unload the bikes, and follow a small country road through the outskirt of the town. We undulate through villages; stop at the old military airport of the South Vietnam Army before 1975. We resume biking along rural villages and farmlands, where locals grow dragon fruits and kinds of rice. Then we turn on the back roads to small hamlets to the coast, keep pedaling on the pleasant coastal road to Khe Ga lighthouse, load up for the 3-hour drive to Ho Chi Minh City with lunch en route.

Spend the day at leisure until a provided transfer out to the airport for the departing flight onward international flights.