Off-road Vietnam enduro tour from Hanoi to Vu Linh – 8 days

Accommodation: homestay

+8:00 am: Our guides will pick you up at your hotel, or you can meet up with us at our tour office to get ready for our Offroad Vietnam Motorbike Tours.

+9:30 am: We’ll head along about 20 km of urban roads to get out of the city. Soon enough, we’ll be riding through bumpy dirt-road running across rice fields, village ponds, and quaint earth dams. You will get to see the quiet, lovely everyday farmer life in rural northern Vietnam motorbike tour today.

+ 10:30 am: We’ll reach the intersection with the Ho Chi Minh trail. After riding 5 km along National Highway 6, we’ll make our first stop at a road-side café before setting off on our next off-road route. Instead of continuing on National Highway 6 or the Safe Zone road, we’ll head off via a small road along Luong Son stream. After 20 minutes of riding through Muong villages, we’ll arrive at the start of our off-road ride. This route only stretches for 25 km, but it is rather challenging. If it rains, you will most probably fall once or twice during the ride! We’ll cross 9 small creaks and 7 quiet Tay villages to break out into the Safe Zone road (normally it’d take us roughly 1 hour to get here, but it might take up to 2 hours if it rains.) From here on, we’ll hug a stream for about 5 km before turning right through a hill to continue on a small road towards Kim Boi fork.

+1:00 pm: We’ll have lunch at a local restaurant with local specialties that put this area on the map.

+2:30 pm: We’ll take on another challenging off-road route in the afternoon. We’ll ride along the stream that runs through Bai Chao (during dry season). This is a fun and exciting 5 km ride. It could take us up to half an hour to conquer this relatively short yet difficult route. Once we’d had our fun, we’ll head back to National Highway 6, and instead of taking the big road, we’ll head straight for the top of Cao Phong’s orange and tangerine hills.

+3:20 pm: We’ll pass hills after hills of one of the best oranges and tangerines in Vietnam, cross a large stream, and head towards that which is probably the most impressive off-road route on our trip thus far. This will be a gruesome 5 km ride. If it’s sunny and dry out, we’ll climb steep hills and roll off the other side. But if it rains, we’ll definitely be pushing and pulling our bikes up the slope, and breaking with all the breaks our bikes have plus one leg going down! I don’t know about you, but to me this makes one hell of a starting day!

+4:40 pm: Heading back to road 12B, we’ll hug it for 15km then switch to another 15km of off-road riding to reach small Mu Waterfall.

We’ll end our impressive first day at a homestay by the fall, and rest for the rest of the day: well-earned rewards after a long eventful start of our off-road Vietnam motorbike tour!

Accommodation: homestay

+8:30 am: After breakfast and bidding farewell to our host, we’ll set off on another exciting off-road Vietnam tour day! We’ll ride right through the local village towards a stream (we won’t be able to take this route in rainy season as the water will be too high) and cross an old forest within the boundary of Pu Luong Natural reserve. This is actually a local footpath, used mostly by locals for logging and hunting, thus there will definitely be instance where we have to push each others up-slope just to continue. This will be one memorable part of our Northwest motorbike tour!

+11:45 am: Once we pass a small village quietly sleeping amid the trees, we’ll break out of the forest and meet the Ho Chi Minh trail, the historic trail pivotal to the survival of the Vietnamese army during the Vietnam-American war. The Ho Chi Minh trail was once a footpath cutting through the densest of trees, which now has been built into a cross-country highway. We’ll stop for lunch at a local restaurant on the side of this incredible trail.

+12:45 pm: Right after lunch we’ll double back to National Highway 12B, where we have two options for you:

– Option one (the easy way out): we can continue on this backroad for an easy and relaxing ride all the way to Lung Van, or

– Option two (hard choices are the best choices): if we still have some fight left in us after the first off-road ride, we’ll turn into a muddy path leading us straight through the forest back to Mu waterfall.

+3:45 pm: From Mu Waterfall, we’ll head for Lung Van, a notorious cloud hunting site for bikers in Vietnam. From there, we can take a rough joyride through the forest and rocky hills to Thung Khe pass, for a magnificent view of Mai Chau valley at sunset.

+13:00 pm: Photo ops at Thung Khe pass, overlooking Mai Chau valley, then we’ll ride for our homestay.

+5:30 pm: We’ll arrive at our homestay, wrapping up another day on this long & tough enduro trip. 

Accommodation: 4 star Muong Thanh Moc Chau Hotel

+8:30 am: We’ll have a healthy breakfast, and grab our much need Vietnamese coffee to jumpstart our brain before saying goodbye to our Thai host family to get on with the third day of our Vietnam off-road motorbike tour.

We’ll start our day with a “light” ride along the mountainside and rice fields of the Thai people. Thai villages normally form inside vast valleys with endless rice fields and a small river or stream passing through the middle. We ride towards Cun Pheo.

+ 9:30 am: We’ll embark on a 45 km route of true blue off-road biking! This is a small footpath linking different H’Mong villages to each other. H’Mong is a Vietnamese minority residing among the highest mountains of Vietnam, where the terrain is tough and the weather even more so. This path will lead us from one mountain range to the next, passing alleviating views of endless green forest accentuated with waves of golden corn terrace and the occasional tiny wooden houses: a different side of Vietnam, epic, beautiful, humbling, raw and pristine.

+1:00 pm: We’ll stop for a light lunch at a side road diner along the highway towards the Viet-Lao border.

Right after lunch, we’ll hug a small road leading up to the mountain top alongside a sea of corn terrace and look yonder at the H’Mong valley and their villages hiding under the peach and plum canopy.

+ 4:30 pm: We’ll go to our hotel. After 3 days of biking and riding and off-road striving, we feel that you deserve a bit of luxury. We’ll stay in a 4-star hotel in Moc Chau township, to regain our strength for the next part of our 8-day enduro tour.

Accommodation: 4-star Hanoi – Son La hotel

+8:30 am: We could start our off-road north loop trail earlier depending on the weather. We’ll have our breakfast and coffee at the hotel. A good breakfast is vital for our ride ahead!

Checking out of the hotel, we’ll follow National Highway 6 for 10 km to get out of town. Before starting a new experience at Northern Vietnam motorbike tours. Waiting to be conquered is 70 km worth of dirt road, which has been trampled and ploughed daily by herds of smaller trucks carrying heavy cargo, making it that much harder to navigate during rain season. This off-road route is one worth conquering for all riders alike, a great challenge that comes with a deserving reward: staggering scenery that will leave you wondering “Duuude! Where the flock are we?”

+1:30 pm: After hours of climbing up and down and up mountainsides again, during which we will undoubtedly have to push and pull each others’ bikes up skywards slippery slopes, we’ll stop for lunch at a side-road restaurant.

After a hearty meal, we’ll ride on dry stream bed during the dry season and ascend up-hills, climb over a mountain or two, before crossing a bamboo bridge and joining National Highway headed towards Son La city. 

+6:00 pm: Arriving at Hanoi – Son La hotel, we’ll wrap up a trying 4th day on our emotionally and physically challenging off-road tour!

Accommodation: homestay at Tay ethnic stilt house

+8:30 am: We’ll have breakfast and coffee at our homestay before getting on with our daily road-conquering and challenge-triumphing.

Starting off with an easy 10-minute warm-up ride through the city, we’ll then turn into some light off-road routes mixed with back-road to explore Son La hydroelectric power dam – the biggest hydroelectric dam in South East Asia, built over the great Da river.

+12:00 pm: Lunch at a local restaurant.

+1:30 pm: Our afternoon route is one of 4 great Death-zones for off-road bikers in Vietnam, which is why it is worth exploring! You’ll experience 4 extremes of Vietnam off-road: Extremely impressive, extremely dangerous, extremely magnificent, and extremely tough.

+5:40 pm: Arriving at our homestay, ending the 5th day with, hopefully, triumph and victory in our exhausted smiles!!!

Accommodation: standard hotel in Tu Le

+8:30 am: We’ll hit the tour but not before treating ourselves to a hearty breakfast with coffee prepared by our Tay host.

If you think your 6th day is going to be a bit easier, you’re technically right. We’ll ride a shorter distance, but with the same toughness and amazement!

+12:00 pm: Light lunch at a local restaurant.

After that, we’ll explore the rice terrace valley of Mu Cang Chai and Tu Le from a completely different viewpoint: more wholesome, magnificent and impressive. Our off-road route will take us through the forest, across pristine streams and creaks, and quiet villages completely hidden from tourists in which people barely even speak Vietnamese.

+4:30 pm: We’ll arrive at our hotel at the center of Tu Le district, ending our 6th day on our off-road Vietnam motorcycle tour at beer time! You can freely wander the charming valley right under Khau Pha pass on your own time, or laze around in your hotel room recharging your energy for the next adventure!

Accommodation: homestay with Yao ethnic

+8:30 am: As usual we start our enduro tour when we have our fully decked out breakfast, pack our stuff and hit the road. We’ve had our rest the previous day with a shorter ride and fairer roads, so we’ll get back on the tough and rough route with more than 200 km riding distance and 80% off-road.

We’ll take a leisure ride along the big road out of town and take it easy for about 15km, before turning into a really tough 30km ride. This is a footpath connecting different villages between mountains and forests, stretching from one district to another within Yen Bai province. We will witness views we’ve never seen before on our tour. At the end of this off-road route, we face Van Chan hydroelectric dam. The only way across is to take a bamboo raft across, one bike at a time.

+12:30 pm: we’ll stop for a light lunch.

After lunch, we’ll do another 70km of lighter and easier off-road.

+3:30 pm: We’ll continue on through a mix off on and off-road route cutting through forests after forests of cinnamon.

+6:00 pm: We reach Vu Linh, check-in at our homestay: a small rustic house right by the vast and beautiful Thac Ba Lake, ending our 7th day with so much more experience and emotions than at the start of our 8-day Vietnam enduro tour! 

+8:30 pm: A big breakfast after a night full of rice wine (dubbed ‘bliss liquid’), but this will not be a sign of an easy end-day as we make our way back to Hanoi!

We rode when we started out, and you bet we will ride off-road when we return! Right after bidding our hosts goodbye, we’ll plunge right into various off-road routes circling villages in Vu Linh, passing forests and rivers and streams and tea covered hills for about 30km, before ferrying our way to the other side of Lo river and hugging the bank towards Hanoi.

+12:00 pm: Lunch at a beautiful local restaurant on the earthen dam right by the river. 

After lunch, we’ll continue along Lo river, till it meets the famous Red river and follow this giant watery python all the way back to Hanoi. We have roughly 70km left till Hanoi, and more than half of it will be off-road. Once more, you will have the opportunity to observe the everyday Nothern farmers go about their quiet, simple life along the sides of the Red River.

+4:00 pm: Ending our adventure safely and soundly at BM tour office, wrapping up an eventful, challenging, and fruitious 8 days 7 nights North-Western Vietnam off-road motorbike exploration tour!

END OF TOUR