When you arrive at Noi Bai Airport, the Vietnam Backroads team will welcome you and transfer you to the hotel for a check-in—tour briefing before having lunch in town. Following lunch, take a walking tour of the atmosphere and discover Hanoi's ancient street, an attractive tourist destination that visitors cannot miss. Then, visit Ngoc Son Temple and Hoan Kiem Lake. Free to explore Ha Noi by night on your own.
8:00 am Meet up at your hotel; we will travel on the shuttle to Long Bien Bridge and take a bike ride to explore the authentic Red River countryside. Before the ride, your guide makes a briefing about your adventures. You then ride on Long Bien old bridge and roll on the biking trails through lush farmlands and rustic villages, passing small pagodas & temples with traditional old houses along the country paths. This is your countless photo opportunity along the routes, and witness the daily lives of farmers in the Red River Delta. 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 areas. After lunch at a local restaurant, we'll resume following the back roads and cycle through the quiet villages to the dike of the Red River, where the two rivers join together. The following local ferry boat will take us further, and we will 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 for a late checkout. After dinner, we'll board a night train to Hue.
Arrive in Hue early in the morning, be picked up, and taken to the hotel for breakfast. Following the itinerary, take a walking tour to explore Hue Imperial Citadel; you then pick up the bike; we follow the paved road along the river, which leads us to ride to the countryside and pass lush fruit orchards, vegetable fields, and traditional mandarin houses, and resume the ride to a village where we see locals making incense ticks, and handicrafts. Afterward, continue the cycle and visit some historical landmarks, such as Bunker Hills, ruined relics, and old pagodas. Enjoy a specialty lunch meal at a local restaurant before riding to Khai Dinh Mosuolem. Then, we'll 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 quickly 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 lives and local cultures. Walk around the town and capture many photos of the wooden bridge and rice paddy fields. Afterward, we ride to the Thuan An beach, cross lush, fertile farmlands, rice paddies, and sometimes along the rivers. Visit tiny fishing villages along the lagoons and 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. Today we enjoy lunch a bit late because we want to offer you a big lunch at a seafood restaurant by the beach. The following lunch with an option:
1. 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.
2. Hop on the support vehicle, enjoy driving up to the top of Hai Van Pass where we see the breaktaking mountain scenery, and stunning landscape of Lang Co beach. Then resume the transfer to Hoi An.
After breakfast, be picked up at your hotel for a short drive to Hai Cafe for a brief introduction to your half-day cooking class. Then take a walk to the colorful central market with your chef cook, and experience the fantastic sights, sounds, and aromas. You can interact with the local sellers and select fresh produce and ingredients essential for Vietnamese cuisine. We board the Red Bridge boat for a 25-minute cruise along the Hoi An River to the Red Bridge Cooking School. This is a chance for local river life, and your camera should be ready for endless photos along the river bank. We'll explore the cooking school's herb garden on arrival before learning about some of Hoi An's and Vietnam's well-known dishes. The cooking lesson runs for about 2 hours – the Red Bridge chefs first demonstrate each dish before preparing the same dish ourselves. The class includes a brief introduction to Vietnamese food carving (plate decoration). Take a seat and enjoy the lunch that you have cooked. Then, return to your hotel by car, explore, go shopping, or perhaps visit a local tailor to get a custom suit or dress made.
From Hoi An- an ancient town, we cross Thu Bon River on the new bridge, travel to authentic villages, explore entirely villager life, enjoy an excellent opportunity to see many un-modernized towns, see thatch houses, buffaloes on rice fields, bamboo bridges, and remote hamlets. Many small markets and local homes make fishing nets on country roads through villages along the small rivers where locals will stop and see how locals do their business. Meet and chat with the friendly and welcoming locals at their homes. There will be many stops at historical sites and colorful pagodas. We have lunch at a local restaurant before continuing our fabulous ride through the farmlands. The road is natural countryside, lush farmlands. Seeing many unspoiled villages on your cycling routes is a great opportunity. Ride along a small river and then follow the minor road to the Sea mouth, take a ferry to Tam Hai Island, then the second ferry to the mainland, and continue to experience local life through rustic villages to My Lai village, visit the memorial before we rest on vehicle transfer to Quang Ngai.
After breakfast, we'll transfer to Co Luy Bridge for a morning cycle to Sa Huynh. We will see the ordinary people living in the backwaters. The area offers incredible views through the river network with photo opportunities of stunning scenery along old villages with lined bamboo trees. The varied bike routes also take you through nostalgic villages, ancient temples, and pagodas across the lovely countryside. Experience the culture, see the farmers harvesting rice crops, and see tranquil towns. Visit a traditional pagoda and pass by salt fields. There are many non-tourist areas and natural countryside to explore, past many small local markets, little towns, and lush farmlands.
Take a break for lunch on Sa Huynh beach, then a short transfer to Tam Quan for the afternoon coast route cycling. Enjoy slowly riding on small paths along lovely sandy beaches where locals enjoy swimming daily. Ride through Tam Quan small town, passing a lively tiny fishing village and fishing port before we speed up gentle hills to the coast. Most of it is easily accessible along narrow, leafy roads and an extensive network of dirt tracks. We travel through villages among coconut trees, past fishing villages, and rolling small hills in the afternoon. So you get to see the exciting places only the locals know, take a leisurely bicycle ride easily along picturesque coastal back roads, and witness the way of life of the rural area and lagoons. We make many stops to capture stunning landscapes that will be a treasure for your lifetime. Enjoy cycling along the fishing villages to De Ghi, where we hop on vehicles to have a transfer to Quy Nhon.
We commence the last day's ride after traveling on the shuttle Ganh Do township, where we'll cycle through little fishing village, then ride 1km on the small wooden Tiger Bridge, which goes over the Phu Ngan River to An Ninh Tay village. We'll continue riding and enjoying ocean views, seeing colorful circular bamboo boats at small fishing villages, and then exploring rustic farms at Da Dia Reefs. The seashore area is about 100 meters wide and 250 meters long, with an estimated 35,000 columns of basalt rocks. The rocks are dark lava columns with roughly flat surfaces of different shapes - round, pentagon, hexagon, polygon, etc. Stopp to take a walk down the areas for a short break and have a photo taken.
As planned, we cycle on narrow pathways along the local beaches and pass by some little markets to the lively lagoon. Another opportunity is to admire hundreds of floating fish farmings on the lagoon. Afterward, the ride continues, crossing the rivers and exploring idyllic villages on undulating paths, passing colorful ancient temples and pagodas. View the landscapes of nature through sweet potato fields, tapioca fields, and rice paddy in Tuy Hoa City. After lunch in Tuy Hoa City, we'll transfer a 2.5-hour to Nha Trang.
After breakfast, you'll transfer to Cam Ranh Aiport for a domestic flight to Ho Chi Minh. Be welcomed at Tan Son Nhat Aiport, and transferred to City center to check in the hotel. Spend the rest of explore Saigon downtown by your own.
After breakfast at the hote, you will transfer to Tan Son Nhat Airport for flight home. Tour Ends!
The off road sites were fantastic!
Hi Phuong,
Sorry for the delay in coming back to you, Van and Dat. Could you please provide this to Van and Dat as well.
Thank you Vietnam Cycling Tours for a great Vietnam experience. We can’t speak more highly of the trip and the whole experience. Having had the opportunity to undertake a cycling trip with my sons (10 years ago), I was a little concerned as to whether it would be as good as last time as we were travelling with close friends. The trip actually exceeded my expectations. It was brilliant.
The off road sites were fantastic, accommodation was great and the amount of information that Dat was able to share with us was so informative. We would highly recommend the experience. Thank you once again Phuong and Van for your efforts in undertaking the organising of the trip and being so understanding and patient in this process.
Donald Robinson – June 2024