Meandering the Mekong Delta 7 days

I can highly recommend this company. Very professional from the moment we booked, always answering our questions promptly. We had a brilliant guide Tha who was such fun and very professional. We did a 7 day cycle tour around the Mekong delta which took us as far as the coast and also the Cambodian border. Each day was different from the last and took us through beautiful vegetation and scenery. I really feel we got a good insight in to the real Vietnam. The hotels we stayed in ranged from basic to luxury, depending on the area we were in. Plenty of opportunities to try the food and local snacks. Cycling ranges from 2 hours to 6 hours a day, depending on itinerary. A well organised trip. 06 - 07 - 08 - 09 - 10 - 11 - 12 January 2020

Tracy Harmon party from UK

Just completed 7 day bike ride led by Phuc and van driver Loc. Mountain bikes were excellent as was the organisation of hotels, transport and meals.

The Mekong Delta is such a productive area on each day’s ride we saw something different as we meandered on our bikes through the villages on the backroads.

Phuc Le, our leader was a fountain of knowledge on not only the fruit and vegetables being grown in the delta but also on the history of Vietnam.

The guided bike trip exceeded all expectations and I would highly recommend it and Vietnam Backroads. 15 - 21 December 2020

Alison from Australia

Hello Van,

Our ride is now over and we take with us many great memories and lots of photos! Your staff Phuc Le and Loc were a terrific team. Phuc is extremely knowledgeable and communicative. I did mention a few small things to you this afternoon, and others may come to us in the next few days, while we are still in Saigon. If one thing stands out as missing, it was that we didn't receive Vietnam Back roads jerseys. We would've been proud advertisement's for your business back in Melbourne where we ride weekly with different groups...was that an oversight or should we have ordered them with the tour?

I wish you continued success with your business and will definitely consider other rides in the future. 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 12 December 2019

Regards

David Collison
Mobile: +61-409400.......
Email: drcollison@.........

David and Alison from Australia

Cycling from Ho Chi Minh to Ha Tien 4 days

Amazing trip surpassed expectations.
Bikes good quality and well maintained- we even travelled with a bike mechanic, and bikes were cleaned and serviced daily. Our guide was Phuc (happiness in English ) he was excellent, very knowledgeable and good fun- and lived up to his name.
Lunch was provided every day and always tasty the best was the authentic Vietnamese.
Day 1 small van trip and 25km cycle to Chu Chi tunnels, cycle through rubber plantations and stopped at rice paper making industry.
Day 2 we started cycling the Mekong Delta, another 45mins In van then started cycling, through rice fields, dragon fruit plantations and magic mushrooms !
Dinner was at the homestead - which was lovely with a swimming pool and air conditioning in room.
Day 3 delivered some different scenery and again our guide was great taking lots of photos of our whole family. Our hotel in Can Tho was smart and the city very busy, it was good to have the evening meal booked.
Lovely restaurant - but again we all preferred the traditional non- touristy cafes ! The next morning we went round the floating market - very interesting.
Day 4, great cycling we were all glad of our padded cycle shorts ! This is the night in Long xuyen where our best meal was - great food, and lovely eating with happiness(our guide). 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 November 2019

Jez Sherman of 5 from New Zealand

Dear Kieu

Thanks for your email. In the mean time back home and back to work.

We had a great time on our cycling trip, an exceptional experience:
- Phuc Le is indeed a great guide - took very good care of us, was flexible, shared very interesting information, knows his way around for nice backroads, etc.
- Very good driver - Always there on time and we felt very safe
- Coordination (you ;-) ) was also exemplary - responsive, patient, clear communication
- Great Trek bikes
- First two hotels were very good (the second one was the best one of our whole trip through Vietnam...), the last one was less
- Most restaurants were well selected, except for the one on the first night which didn't make us feel at ease - but as said, all the others gave us a good introduction to the local cuisine and its specialties

Bottom line, the 4 days with Phuc Le and Vietnam Backroads were the best part of our trip through Vietnam. Thank you very much !! 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 July 2019

Jan Denecker party from Belgium

Cycling Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh 3 days

For a unique and adventurous cycling experience from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh we highly recommend Vietnam Backroads. Our guide Van led our family of four throughout the trip. Van insured our care by providing a personalized and flexible tour according to our abilities and interest. We experienced rural life along the Mekong delta, stopping to eat fruit from local farmers, catching ferries with local, saying hello to many children, meeting a family, seeing duck herders, rice farmers, building, irrigation, floating markets and learning about life for people during monsoons and dry seasons. We stayed in comfortable hotels at night and the whole trip was supported by private transport of our luggage. An unforgettable experience all around. 03 - 04 - 05 January 2020

Sophie and family from Columbia

Cycling to Cai Be - Vinh Long - Can Tho

We did a 3 day 2 night tour of the Mekong. It ended up just being myself and my wife for the tour but our guide Dung was wonderful and it felt like we had another friend with us on the tour. The cycle tour itself was just perfect - about 20-30km per day of easy cycling on flat ground through lovely scenery. You can tailor this as required depending on fitness levels. It was a great way to see the more rural way of life in Vietnam. The home stay was excellent and included a cooking class which was good fun! Dung brought us for lunch and dinner every day and the food was wonderful! Our driver Mr. Loc was excellent also and navigated without an issue.

Thanks for a great tour! 27 - 28 - 29 December 2019

Elaine Martyn from Ireland

We had a wonderful trip. Mr Dung was an excellent tour guide who was very informative, knowledgeable, organised and also kind and funny. He really made the tour a stand - out experience for us and it is a highlight of our 4 week holiday to Cambodia + Vietnam.
Mr Lok is a very good driver and got us from Saigon to Can Tho and back with no problems. He was always on time with many cold bottles of water ready.
We loved the homestay on An Binh + all the food stops combination with Kieu before the trip was great.
One comment would be and it would be wonderful if you could make payment by Paypal or Stripe for the tour. 27 - 28 - 29 December 2019

David Duggan + Elaine Martyn from Ireland

Met my expectations very well. A great guide - Loc Ly and good quality bikes. He knew what we could do and took us on very interesting tracks and showed us charming villages. We were looked after very well on the whole trip. We loved this and pleased with Vietnam Backroads. We would definitely recommend this company to our friends. 21 - 22 - 23 April 2019

Anthony Francis Cotton party from New Zealand

Cycling Saigon - Ha Tien - Phu Quoc islands 4D/3N

4 of us booked Vietnam Backroads to do some cycling starting from HCMC and finishing up at Phu Quoc over a 4 day period. A mix of cycling and van with enough time to take in some local cultural visits. Our Guide was extremely knowledgeable, and good fun. Having the van with a driver within reach of us also made it very easy. Arrangements were well managed and the whole trip was a great experience. 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 November 2019

Andrew Clive Southern party from UK

Dear Kieu

Just a short note to say a huge thank you to Vietnam Backroads and to Phuc in particular for a fantastic few days cycling. The organisation was excellent and Phuc’s (and the driver’s) expertise, friendliness and knowledge made the whole trip run smoothly and great fun.

Please pass on our thanks to Phuc. I will ask him (via Whatsapp) but also you if it would be possible to send us a map showing broadly where we went.

Best regards and many thanks. 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 November 2019

Andy, Jon, Mark and Nigel from UK

Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh by bicycle & by boat

Mr Viet Tran really made the trip exceptional for us, he is a great guide- he know so much about Vietnam and he has a great sense of humour. Our driver was also very good, we felt safe with him and he was welcoming.
The tour was very interesting with a good variety of things to see. The local people especially the children, were very friendly and it was delight to meet them. It felt like we were meeting "real" people and seeing their lives, rather than something which was just touristy.
The food was excellent and Mr Viet was very good at showing us the best things to try and how to eat them. The hotels were good although the government hotel was more "basic" - still it was an interesting place to stay.
Thank you for a great trip - We will definitely write a good review on Tripadvisor for Vietnam Backroads. 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 December 2019

Simon Eliot Cox from UK

We had a great time with Vietnam Backroads, cycling three days from Saigon to Phnom Penh.

Viet Tran was our guide and he was exceptional, very knowledgeable, friendly and funny. Our driver was also good, very safe and calm.

The trip allows you to see real life in the Mekong Delta, it's really very interesting and feels authentic rather than a spin on the usual tourist merry go round.

Hotels, bikes and food were all great! Viet Tran was really good at selecting local specialities for us to sample.

Be aware that when you book you will need to pay a deposit on the phone. The company are 100% legit and reliable so don't let it put you off. 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 December 2019

Sally Tate party from UK

What a great way to learn about Vietnam culture and see how people live. Cong is an excellent guide and explained everything we saw. He did a great job getting fresh local fruits for us to eat, and took us inside little factories to see noodles being made, coconut fiber rugs and more. The paths took us through the beautiful countryside which we loved. Cong had a great knowledge of food, agriculture, life styles and shared this. He kept a good pace and watched out for our safety. Cong took us to some local restaurants on dinner great food and gave us tips on what went new together. His easy going, friendly manner. Our driver was great too navigating through traffic and was always there with cold drinks. A life time experience. Thanks! 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 June 2019

Jim Malloy from United State

This was a trip of a lifetime! We ended up riding with just my wife and I and our wonderful guide to Vietnam, Cong. He was awesome and took us to great places. When it rained we stopped at a local’s barn and he struck up a conversation, which led to cool coconut water and a warm visit till the rain stopped. We went at a great pace, visited local artisans, ate great tropical fruits, met Cong’s Grandmother and Father, saw awesome sights and ate delicious food. I can’t recommend Vietnam Backroads highly enough and if you schedule a ride, ask for Cong! We will consider a return trip for a longer ride as our life journey allows. Thank you so much for the great memories! 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 June 2019

Mr, Mrs Malloy from USA

Back roads of Ben Tre- Tra Vinh - Can Tho

We both thoroughly enjoyed our three day cycling trip around the backroads of the Mekong Delta. From the start, everyone was friendly and happy to talk to us (through our guide, Hai, as an interpreter). A farmer climbed a tree to give us a pomelo to taste, we were given dragon fruit straight from the plant, we ate fresh watermelon and sugar cane juice and were served coconut water from coconuts cut straight from the palm tree. It was these everyday things that interested us and Hai was very knowledgeable and happy to answer all our questions.

Our route was along paths and back roads and for most of the three days we never saw another tourist. We visited temples, pagodas, a floating market and crossed the delta many times on small ferries. The bikes were good and Hai was happy to make any small adjustments as required.

We were pleased we chose the homestay options (as opposed to hotels). The people were welcoming and the food was delicious. 18 - 19 - 20 November 2019

Kirsty and Simon Beecham from Australia

Biking Mekong Delta to Con Dao Island

We loved the trip! We appreciated the flexibility of the company and Mr Cong - from buying a new bike for our younger son when he was too small for the regular bikes, to dealing with our older son when he got sick during the trip. The back road trails were so much fun to ride along and we learned a lot about life in the Mekong Delta. Cong was Loc made us feel that everything was taken care of and we didn't need to worry about anything. 28 - 29 - 30 June 2019

Brendan Delehanty and Claure Jardine

We used this tour as a way to get from Ho Chi Minh City to Soc Trang to take the Superdong ferry to the Con Dao islands. It was the low season, so it was just our family of four. The tour was exactly as advertised: we rode almost exclusively on back roads with no cars and trucks, saw the beauty of rural Vietnam, and caught glimpses of what rural life is like. Our guide, Cong, was excellent. He adapted our trip perfectly when one of our kids got sick on the trip and he was happy to let our youngest son set the pace. Cong was endlessly helpful. He even helped us to plan how to get back to Can Tho after our stay on Con Dao, and he was always a wealth of information. The tour is expensive, even by North American standards, but the organization, the level of customization, and the ability to feel confident that you will have a great experience makes it worth the price. 28 - 29 - 30 June 2019

Brendan Delehanty family of 4 from Canada

Biking Ho Chi Minh to Ha Noi 15 days/ 14 nights

The cycling tour from Saigon (HCM) and the Mekong Delta to Hué and (with the AC sleeper train) to Hà Nội was an outstanding experience. It was a real surprise and went far beyond my experienced expectations. The seamless interaction between guide and driver were an astounding feat of logistics that no traveller could hope to achieve or plan. Having such reliable, punctual and knowledgeable guide eliminates burdens. From the traveller who now does not have to look for roads, signs and directions and -instead- can entirely immerse in the experience that Vietnam is: cycling in the mellow heat along orchards where all the fruits and spices of the world grow, rambutans, ridiculously large jackfruit, exotic durians, and fresh pepper and be absorbed in the Intricate networks of small paths between rice paddies as far as the eye goes, cross by ferry majestic rivers that ridicule our European “large rivers”, tiny, tidy hamlets where fresh sugar cane juice materialises right there and then when the craving comes, road-side lunch parlours that serve fresh local foods. very comfortable hotels to spend the night, and the discovery of many things that the traveller would not so easily visit or identify, such as Caudai temples, local markets, harvest folklores, flower greenhouses, huge coffee and mulberry plantations, cricket farms (the proteins of the future) and weasel (aka crap) coffee. Each day brought its particular vistas and interesting itineraries, inviting me to take over a thousand pictures to be able to linger a bit longer in the delights that this tour procured. 14 - 27 April 2019

Jacques party from Holand

This was the first time undersigned enrolled into a guided tour. The experience was very positive.
A - The days are well structured and start and end at impactful and meaningful times.
B - A dedicated guide overcomesall cultural and language obstancles any that travellers encounter
C - The all -inclusive farmula removes any burden on planning and orentation allowing thus the client to submerge him- & herself in the experence and culture
D - The flexible nature of the travel plan makes the experience very customised and exepceptionally personalised

+ This trip because of its physical nature (cycling + physical experience & activity) is not a sightseeing experience but a cultural awakoning very differenet from any ordinary from of tourism (classical tourism). It is living the natural region of culture

+ As the guide took well care of comfortable and stress free.

+ The back roads experience is a privileges experience and without guide culturally essential layer of the Vietnamese society.

Jacques Verraes party from Holand

Rider's Reviews