Meet in Ha Noi, bike check and install your gear on your bike, trip briefing and lunch in town, enjoy a walking tour, explore the Old Quarter of Ha Noi has 36 ancient commercial streets named after the products. Have dinner before a night train to Lao Cai with the team.
The train arrives in Lao Cai in the early morning. Your guide and driver will take you to a nice restaurant in town for a big breakfast before an hour drive on 40 km on the spiral road up to Sapa, and ready for the adventure to explore Ta Phin, the home of Red Dao Ethnic. Experience the daily life of locals, passing wooden stilt houses, through terraced rice fields, undulate the dirt tracks and concrete paths, cross the beautiful rural farms, see buffalo in areas. Ride past the abandoned colonial old church and strawberry fields and stop off the Red Dao community. Enjoy the warmth of local hospitality, learn more about the culture and the ways of living. Afterwards, we ride to Sapa town. Enjoy lunch in the city, and be free to explore the city on your own in the afternoon until dinner in town.
After your breakfast, we commence the ride from the hotel, undulating through the town a couple of km to get out of the city, then pass the tea plantations and cycle uphill to the Tram Ton Pass/ Heaven Gate, the highest mountain pass in north Vietnam. We are here for a half-hour coffee break to enjoy the breathtaking view over the Muong Hoa Valley and lush jungles stretching down to Binh Lu. Afterward, enjoy a long descent ride to Tam Duong township, a lunch break in town before a 25 km truly off the beaten track, and explore scenic villages of Na Hum and Ban Hon. The routes are dirt tracks and gravel roads are undulate through rice terraces, jungles, and small rivers.
The afternoon ride gives opportunities to visit tribes' homes along the way and admire the charming valleys' natural beauty. Make a stop at the community village of Lu tribes with a few Black Mong Ethnic people. Here we interact with locals, experience the culture and daily life of villagers and take a walk to explore a hundred preserving original wooden stilt houses. See how Lu tribes weave their costumes and learn more about how the family keeps and stores farm products for living until the subsequent harvest of crops. Then we continue our adventures through vast rural farms and see buffalos working on fields as we cross through the verdurous vegetation to Lai Chau.
Sin Ho town is situated in Hoa Lien Son Range, and it's one of the fascinating plateau regions in northern Vietnam that offers breathtaking mountain views, picturesque valleys, and lush rice terraces. Sin Ho remote Dist is populated home to colorful tribes of H' Mong, Thai, Dao, and the best time to meet them is in the Sunday morning market in town but less on the other days of the week. A wide variety of farm and handmade costume products are available here. The climate is pleasant, with an average annual temperature is about 18 degrees Celsius and an altitude of 900 to 1,800m, Sin Ho is one of the most pristine beauties for mountain bike lovers. The town is about 60 km from Lai Chau, and the roads are pretty good and smooth through mountains, and we challenge long passes.
We depart early today and cycle from the hotel as the weather is fantastic for challenging mountain passes through forest jungles. The first 10km is undulating and allows us to warm up the body, then ride uphills to Seo Lang with many stops to admire the incredible scenery along the mountain passes. From Seo Lang village to Sin Ho town, the roads wind through gentle hills descending the rural farms, passing stilt houses and rice terraces via many tiny hamlets. The sceneries are incredible to Sin Ho Valley township.
After a hearty breakfast, we bike through the town and its outskirts on almost flat roads through paddies before we undulate the jungles on winding roads, view the beautiful valleys and tiny villages along the way to Minh Thang. Follow the national 6, we enjoy the wilderness and incredible scenery of rice terraces and challenge some baby mountain passes, flower Pass and the spectacular winding road through the forest and down to Mun Chung villages. Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant in a small town.
The afternoon rides allow us to discover more the beauty of Nam Muc river with truly spectacular views, lush hills, lovely valleys, mountain views. Many roads are winding, curve and narrow roads along hillsides, gentle mountains where we stop and gaze down the valleys filled with rice terraces and small towns. In small villages, the people who live along roads are Black H'Mong, Black Thai, and Kho Mu Ethnic but more Viet Kinh people in small towns. There are several chances for us to meet colourful tribes in the hamlets. Our guide will figure it out timming, and we will hop on the vehicle and transfer to Muong Lay in the afternoon. Enjoy dinner in town and explore this tiny town on foot in the evening.
After breakfast, we start to rock and roll from the hotel. We cycle through the town, pedal along the river, just a couple of km, we get out of the town, past many small villages by waterways, enjoy a peaceful landscape along the river, cross the river to national road 12. Today's adventures will be on this road to Dien Bien Phu. Enjoy the ride through the natural beauty of diverse mountain regions, winding road green grassy hills, rice paddies, lush rural farms, challenge Ma Phi Ho Pass called Heaven Gate, undulate along mountain jungle with a lunch break in the tiny town of Muong Cha.
Muong Cha market finds various products from tribes, bamboo baskets, colourful tribal costumes, fresh agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables, and other simple household goods from different Ethnic groups. In the afternoon, the ride is undulating lush agricultural farmlands, pass Black Thai tribes sell products freshly on the roadsides, cross many rivers and small towns along rivers and the border. Check-in the hotel and dine in Dien Bien Phu City.
After a leisurely breakfast, we travel on the vehicle to visit Dien Bien Phu War Museum, then to De Castries Head Quarter Bunker. After the visit, we pick up the bike, cycle across the town to rural rice fields, ride to Muong Phang, visit the Viet Minh commander base of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, and pass many remote hamlets of tribes. Passing many tribal wooden houses on hillsides, explore rainforest jungles and the lowlands of Muong Phang, the backwaters of Ba Khoang Lake. Cross the lake on numerous suspension bridges, pass small fish farms and tiny villages, and explore locals' lives along the lakes. There are many stops, visiting local farms and admiring the peaceful scenery of the lake.
Afterward, we ride across the rice paddies to the former head Quarter base of Viet Minh that commanded the battle of Dien Bien Phu before 1954. Stop to visit the Muong Phang historical relic, a giant stone monument featuring a general military commander of Vo Nguyen Giap and many Viet Minh leaders after him. Then we stay on national road 279B to Na Tau village, and then we continue the ride, gear up the Tang Quai Pass and to Muong Ang, and break for lunch in town; following lunch, we enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery and verdant farmlands on the road QL279 to Tuan Giao.
Pha Din pass is 30 km with 1.680mm above the level sea. It had become a legend of Dien Bien Phu Victory. It was the small trails, and Viet Minh (the fathers and mothers of Viet Cong) made up of the small road to supply the weapons, food. It was the most challenging way to use human power to pull artillery from Som La Dien Bien Phu. It was the only main and shortest route to support Viet Minh to defeat the French in Dien Bien Phu during Indochina War.
Today's adventure is one of the most stunning ride of your cycling journey, and enjoy northern Vietnam's most incredible mountain landscapes. We cycle from the hotel, undulate a couple of km through tiny towns along the river before challenging the Pha Din legend Pass. There are 2 roads in between the middle part of the mountain top, and one is 13 km on a new road, and the old road is a well-maintenance smaller than the new one, similar distance without traffic at all. We challenge up about 13 km and enjoy cycling downhill 17 km.
Depends on your cycling skills and ability, you choose the route to challenge and enjoy one of the most beautiful and spectacular karst mountain passes in northern Vietnam. Afterwards, we enjoy riding downhill to the local market, Binh Thuan, our lunch break here. The afternoon' ride is beautiful as it's more leisurely than in the morning adventures. The ride takes us through Black Thai hill tribes, green valleys, and verdant fields of farm products. We will be back on the vehicle transfer to Son La city in the late afternoon.
Moc Chau Plateau offers rich fertile soils, and it has a cold climate suitable for various fruit orchards, tea, plum, avocado, and strawberry plantation. Moc Chau rural villages are also home to a variety of flowers vegetables. After early breakfast, we will transfer 2.5 hours Moc Chau and arrive in Phieng Luong, a rural village outside Moc Chau. We cycle on an old national road 6, passes many small towns, and through lush valleys, green hills, and extensive lush vegetation. Lunch is on the way in a small town. The areas provide a fascinating Plateau in North Vietnam for nature lovers to explore the vast undulating plain on snake roads. The routes are less traffic, and well-maintenance allow the support vehicle travelling and always behind us. Transfer to Mai Chau, check into the rustic homestay.
After breakfast, we enjoy a leisurely loop ride on concrete paths, through rice terraces to Poom Coong, to Lac villages. Visit family businesses selling Thai ethnic costumes and interact with villagers before we ride back to the hotel on a different route. Check out for a short transfer to Hoa Binh lake, then we ride along the lake, enjoy the beautiful scenery of the lake/ Da River through the lush jungles on snaking narrow roads. Then we ride into Ba Khan village, cross rice paddies, pass stilt houses, undulate through vast agricultural lands, tiny villages, and we end up cycling adventure at Phu Cuong market. Lunch en route before 3. hours transfer back to Ha Noi.
Ha Noi is Vietnam's capital city and political centre. The city offers examples of both contemporary and classical architecture, especially the Old Quarter of Ha Noi. Spend your time shopping until a transfer takes you to Noi Bai airport to catch your international flight home. Tour End!