Excursion
Mekong Delta Countryside Discovery
Meet your bike guides and drivers, and travel on a shuttle to the get way to Mekong Delta. Explore the Mekong Delta's rice bowl, cycle the open paths and on shady tracks, witness the daily life of the farmers, ride through the dense rural farms, pass the countless family farmland of orchards, vegetables. The morning adventurous is about 25 to 35 km with scenic scenery along the hamlets.
Enjoy tasty lunch at local in My Tho. The rest of the day is to explore Ben Tre countryside to Tra Vinh. Cycle along narrow lanes, through water palms, cross water channels by small ferries and passing many small hamlets. Stop at some small factories that produce oily and jelly products for local markets. Experience the living of locals. The routes are easy to navigate through the villages, with countless narrow bridges and branches. Finally, relax on the ferry to Tra Vinh.
The Khmer hamlets in rural Districts are so beautiful, tiny thatched houses amongst coconut trees. The bike routes are link hamlets to hamlets on small concrete, a network of agriculture canals with plenty of water for farming. You will immerse yourself into the Khmer cultures, meet the Khmer monks at the temples, see women on conical hats working on farms. Taste fresh fruits and local snacks at a small market before our lunch in the small town of Cau Ke. There is a transfer after lunch to the next town for the rest of the days' ride.
Then leisurely afternoon bicycle ride on a small track along the Mekong River. Pedal on paths along the Mekong River, weaving kids swimming on the river. The elderly are washing their clothes by the river. Taste some fresh grapefruit at local orchards, and carry on the ride to Binh Minh. A short transfer to Can Tho city to check in the hotel.
After your breakfast, we took a 30-minute boat trip to visit Can Tho's floating market. This is a large wholesale floating market with many boats advertise their produce by hanging it from poles high above the boat. Each boat has one type or more products on offer, pineapple, watermelons, sweet potatoes, and many kinds of farm products. Locals with smaller boats come to the wholesaler boats to bargain, buy the products, and then sell them back on land markets. Another sampan boat is steering around to sell noodle soup, coffee, bread, and lottery tickets.
Following the floating market, we visit the lively An Binh land market where local women buy things to prepare all meals for their families. Disembark your boat. Pick up the bikes, cycle on narrow paths through the backwaters of Phong Dien, and continue under the shady trails along the river and dense farmlands to Thoi Lai. Have tasty lunch at a local restaurant, take a nap on hammocks to get more energy for the afternoon.
The lush rice paddy fields and authentic hamlets offer different sceneries with country farms of fish, ducks, frog farms, ell farms. There are many for you to see along the rural villages. Ride across the vibrant rustic of Co Do Dist, enjoy cycling small wooden bridges through incredible agricultural canals. Break for coffee, snacks, and fresh fruits and continue to explore the last picturesque rural Lo Te-T-Junction, weaving "hello" kids finish from schools on pushbikes. Take a rest on transfer to Long Xuyen City.
Long Xuyen is the second largest in Mekong Delta after Can Tho. It is known as the smuggling city, and it has a long border to Cambodia and main transport waterways. Smugglers are the real racers, and they love speeding when they see the police. Cambodia imports plenty of secondhand electronic households goods and many others. Cambodians have also produced a lot of cigarettes. Smuggling is often happening when polices are not on the road.
After your breakfast, we continue our journey with a 20-minute drive to a rural village, and we explore the fertile land abandoned before 1975. All agricultural canals were built in 1980, which has led Vietnam to become the second country exporting rice after Thailand. The small roads are well-developed, and the network of rural roads is perfect and easy for us to navigate, mostly alongside canals and rivers. Ride past many bricks factories, rice husking mills, and ride deeper into hamlets, study growing rice and the work of agriculture, irrigation system. The local living we see today is more characteristic than the places you have seen in the previous days.
Lunch en route before a transfer to rual village near Nui Cam, we cycle to explore the life of Khmer near the border. Afterwards, we undulate the small road line-palm trees before crossing the rice paddy fields to Tra Su Natural Reserve. Take a sampan boat trip, take you through the forest, and take smaller canoes into small streams into condensed tree areas. Learn about hundreds of plants and animals in the region. You will transfer on winding roads to Sam Mountain. Check in the Victoria Sam Lodge, enjoy the sunset by the pool, and have dinner at the resort.
Chau Doc border town is small, and it is so important with two international border gates. The gateways to Cambodia are both waterways or overland. Most tourists love travelling by boat on the Mekong River.
There is no cycling at all today. Enjoy the sunrise, taste tea, coffee, breakfast, look over the Cambodian border, admire the vast lush rice paddies from the mountain. Check out at 8:30 am, enjoy an hour and boat ride to explore the daily life of people living at floating villages on the Basac River. Visit a catfish farm, experience the everyday life of Cham Muslims in the villages. Disembark your boat, take a rest on 4 hours driving to Saigon with lunch en route. Tour End!
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta, Vietnam, has complicated rural path network systems, well-developed and maintenance by governments. The region comprises 12 provinces: Long An, Dong Thap, Tien Giang, An Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang, Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, and Ca Mau, along with the Mekong Delta Capital of Can Tho. All country back roads are asphalt, concrete paths connecting villages to villages as it's a rural transports. The rest are dirt tracks, so do not worry about exploring the Mekong Delta by bicycle, even you are a beginner. Depending on each province's regions, lowlands, or jungles, and rural villages, our hand-picked routes are the best for your biking trips. Mekong Bike Tours
Flexible route - The most important key is to your trip
You do not have to ride the exact kilometer distance as it's showing on the daily biking of each itinerary. It will be flexible as you want. Even you could choose the longest distance that more than 80km per day if a whole day ride. You could spend more time cycling if you think the biking distance is too short! Or you can enjoy short routes and spend more time taking photos, stopping at villages/ small markets, or the home of locals to find something interesting.
Throughout the Mekong Delta and its rivers with thousand branches! You will ride on various roads; flat trails, paths, rural roads, and country back roads where they are too small for vehicles. However, the Mekong Delta River network has natural creeks and canals that small ferry boats are such essential ways of travelling in the countryside, and riders have no choice!
Cycling routes
We tailor-make unique bike trips depend on the specific route and terrain of your tour. Vietnam Backroads is the first cycle tour operator to explore and build up many adventure trips to Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Rach Gia, Vi Thanh, Cao Lanh, and Sadec and remote villages. Our top cycle tour operator and the pathfinder are Mr Van, nicknamed "Van the man" Each cycling route has to be meticulously well-scouted, investigated, scouted out, and mapped out beforehand by Mr. Van the man. Our guides are licensed, well trained in bike maintenance and navigation and know all routes as they are on their hands. All bike guides can tailor a custom route suitable to your wish and levels of cycling skills.
How were the backup vehicles support cyclists on the trip?
Most routes are small, narrow, just wide enough for two bicycles OR mopeds. There are vehicles to support riders on the entire trip (van/minibus to take up all cyclists and truck to carry all bikes and spare bikes), but they are too big to drive on, follow riders along through the countryside. Do remember! All support vehicles are permanently closed and not far from the group. Where are the support vehicles during the trip? Depends on routes, vehicles sometimes move along the high roads, second highways, or country roads as close to riders as possible. If one of the riders wants to relax on A/C vehicle, the tour leaders will find the shortest route that leads he/she to the support vehicles that are always on standby. That is very easy and also the way Vietnam Backroads organized.
- The weather in Mekong Delta has two distinct seasons. Rainy season from May to last November, and the dry season from May to last April. The weather will be more relaxed from November to February. In general, the preferred travel time is from August to April in both the dry and wet seasons. It will be more humid, a little bit hot from May to July, and farmers start to make rice crops this time of the year. Travellers can take bicycle tours in the wettest months from the last of May to August because the rains usually come in short, heavy showers, mainly in the afternoon, and only lasts for an hour, then sunshine turns back to normal.
Private Support Vehicles
We organize cycling holidays, cycling adventure trips and mountain biking tours. All are flexible with luxury, fully air-conditioned vehicles to support riders on the entire journey. It depends on how many riders are in the group, and the vehicle support services will be well-arranged to satisfy your travels. There are air-conditioned 16-seat van/minibuses to take up all riders, luggage, and a truck to hold all bikes during the trip.
Every morning, the vehicles will transfer you out of the bustling city, and then you will ride to explore the stunning countryside, and you will back on the vehicles to avoid traffic in town when the daily's ride ends in the late afternoon.
Every 20 - 25 km, the support vehicles will be waiting at the high road if you are tired and really would love to ride on A/C van. Your guide will escort you to vehicles easily because many country back roads are linked to the main roadways where keeping vehicles are on standby.
Then you can relax on a support vehicle when others in the group can continue cycling as long as they wish! You will meet the others at the next point/ destination where you love to re-join the group and continue to ride.
All your luggage/ suitcase and day bags are safe on the vehicles and well kept by the company's drivers and its team.
2 to 4 riders in a group
There is only one A/C 16 seater van to take up all riders, luggage & suitcases, and bikes. There are four rows of seating for passengers on the A/C 16 seater van. Two people sit on each row. The third row is for luggage and suitcases. The last row of seats will be folded up, so all bikes will be uploaded here.
A medium group tour: from 5 to 7 people
There will be two vehicles to support riders on the entire trip. One 16 seater van to take up all riders, luggage & suitcases. Another truck to carry all bikes, spare bikes, tool kits, icebox to keep cold drinks, and so on
A large group tour: 8 to 14 people
One minibus to take up all riders, including luggage & suitcases, and one truck to carry all bikes, spare bikes, water, cold drinks, and snacks...Iceboxes
A group has more than 15 riders and more than 20 people
We provide two vans and one minibus, and one truck to escort large groups of riders and help ensure their safety. Our pro guide will motivate a team with support vehicles to bring the best services to riders.
Giant MTB & Trek Hybrid MTB Bikes & Gears
Trek Hybrid MTB Bikes - Wheelsize 700c x45/1.95 - Gravel tires
Giant MTB Bikes - Wheelsize 27.5 x 1.95
