Motorcycle Tour Hanoi to Sai Gon via Ho Chi Minh Trail

Why is Ho Chi Minh Trail so well-known? The legendary trail served as the supply line to link the north with the south of Vietnam during wartime. It was constructed by hand under the fierce bombings and thus, was known as the “the greatest engineering achievement of the 21st century’. This is also the place where local people and soldiers carried supplies and weapons by hand, bicycle and truck for hundreds of kilometers for the army. It is truly a testimony to the ingenuity, fortitude, and commitment of the Vietnamese soldiers. A new highway was built on most parts of the original trail. There are some sections that offer interesting off-road routes for adventurous bikers to test their riding skills. The route will take bikers past Vietnam’s top attractions like Mai Chau, Tan Ky, Phong Nha, Khe Sanh, Hue, Hoi An, Kon Tum, Nha Trang and Da Lat.

“Do I need a motorbike license or which kind of motorbike license are legal to ride in Vietnam?” Is a quite popular question and it’s still complicated to give the clear answers.
Relating to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic in 1968, International Drivers Permits (IDP) are legal here in Vietnam if your home country has signed agreement at the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, and your motorbike license from your home country must be registered on the IDP. The UK, Australia and many other countries did not sign the agreement at the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and their licenses are not recognized in Vietnam.
So depending on from which country you get the IPD, you can ride in Vietnam legally or not; however, it’s just the law, it’s pretty easy on the road. The local people and policemen are quite friendly with foreigner tourists so if you can ride a motorbike well and especially with a local tour guide, NOBODY will care about your license or stop you when you are on tour with a local tour guide.
In addition, it’s now easier to Convert your regular motorbike licenses into IDP or local motorbike licenses in Vietnam that you can ride legally in Vietnam.

The most important thing is to make sure your Vietnam visa is stamped with the correct dates. The standard tourist visa is valid for a period of up to 30 days. If you’re going for less than 30 days you can either specify the exact dates, but it is probably best to ask for the maximum period to give yourself more flexibility. Processing normally takes between a week and ten days, but longer for overseas Vietnamese.

Specifically referring to the “guided” tours, this means that a motorcycle-riding guide, a support truck driver, or some combination of specialists in the area you’ll be traveling will be guiding you along the way. Guided tours typically have the hotel package, meals, and other features included in the tour, so without a doubt, this is the most convenient type of tour to take. For guided tours, simply reserve your spot in advance, show up at the airport on the designated date with your motorcycle gear, and we take care of everything else for you then. Just relax, ride, and enjoy! 

It’s exactly what the name implies: A group that consists entirely of just yourself, or just the group of friends, family, or coworkers that you’d like to share a great riding experience with. When you see a guided tour listed on our website with fixed departure dates, those trips are open to the public, so anyone from around the world could end up riding together to fill out the group. In between those “public” dates, we have many opportunities to guide your private group without allowing outsiders. Please keep in mind, the more people you have, the lower the per-rider cost for a private group tour. As there are common or “fixed” costs like the guide(s), their hotels, food, salaries, etc., the more people you have in your private group, the less of the “fixed” costs each rider needs to pay.

The most popular question and its hardest question is that “is it safe to ride in Vietnam?” It’s hard to give the correct answer because it’s depending on each rider’s riding skill or each person’s carefulness… but you should trust the ones who did a long motorbike tour in Vietnam. All the bikers after doing Vietnam motorbike tours with us usually say traffic in Vietnam is funny or crazy. Some people say you should forget all the rules when you ride in Vietnam “NO RULES in Vietnam”. It is almost right because the local people do not ride carefully, they get the license easily, some people can buy license easily so they don’t ride carefully with almost ‘No rules. We can say it’s not very safe to ride motorbikes in Vietnam. However, it’s only true for the one who ride themselves. If you can ride after a local tour guide who can take you on safe and unique routes, you will never die in Vietnam.

To book our trip, please select your preferred trip and click on “Book now” on web page. Our booking form wizard will automatically call the trip name and ask you to fill out some fields for information. Once completed filling the form, you just click Submit to send us your enquiry or reset to cancel what you have filled up. After receiving your reservation request, we will immediately make all the necessary arrangements in accordance with your request. This will take less than 1-2 business days, and we will send you our confirmation message by e-mail with all the details of tours, the booking status and also payment term.

Level 1 – These routes are the most basic we offer either as guided or self-guided trips. Such a route will be completely paved (except for a possible gravel driveway or road construction spot,) and generally don’t have much in the way of complicated twists and turns. Factors like altitude, weather, wind, traffic, etc. are of a minimum concern to the average motorcycle rider.

Level 2 – These routes are typically either completely paved, or almost completely paved, but may contain about 1-5% or so of simple hard-packed gravel/dirt necessary to proceed in spots along the same itinerary. (Customization may always be possible in

order to avoid this, so inquire further.) The riding will likely have some twists and turns, and factors like weather,

altitude, wind, and traffic are typically not a concern, but may not be perfect of course during your trip. (Please keep in mind, just because a tour might be a "Level 2" does not mean it is boring! All routes on our website are chosen for being the most fun, interesting, and beautiful ways to ride through each country or region shown.)

Level 3 – These routes can be anywhere from about 25-75% off-pavement (see your specific route’s description.) A significant amount of gravel, dirt, light sand, or riding on rocks can be expected, so generally speaking, motorcycle riders who have ridden on this type of terrain previously and successfully on the same or similar motorcycles won’t have a problem when on the motorcycles used for these routes. However, these routes might be graded as a Level 3 due to factors like rough weather, altitude, high winds, or some long days that will test a rider’s endurance.

Personal/travel insurance is not inclusive in this tour, it requires that you have adequate and valid travel insurance covering medical and personal accidents, including repatriation costs and emergency evacuation. We recommend using World Nomads’ travel insurance.

Motorbike.

English Speaking Guide.

All meals, water and soft drinks on tour.

Accommodation in Local home-stays and guesthouses – twin share.

Petrol, oil and mechanic on tour.

Riding gear: open / face helmets.

Rain poncho.

Spacious saddle bags & plastic bags to pack clothes in.

Bungee cords and tie downs.

Permits, tolls and entrance fees.

Most of our motorcycle tours in Vietnam are off the beaten tracks to noon touristy/ unknown attractions…so we hope you understand and do not expect too much to have luxury hotels with plenty choices of fancy meals. We do have some tours to big towns/cities in Vietnam where you can stay in luxury hotels with fancy meals are available…however, most of our tours have just basic hotels. We will surely choose the best hotel in the region where we stay but they’re just basic standard ones but as you know the experience to ride off the beaten tracks to these remote areas is worthless.

Accommodations:

As mentioned all of our motorbike tours are off the beaten tracks so we will do stay between hotels and home-stay.
+ Homestay: Staying at homestay is a special experience that you can’t miss during the bike tours in Vietnam. All the homestays are legally licensed by Vietnamese government to ensure the safety, hygiene…and they are well chosen by experienced guide team to make sure your stays are worthy, enjoyable and memorable. All the homestay we choose are nicely wooden houses, they are all traditional typical houses in the region with friendly hosts who can cook great local food that can meet expectation of any foreigners. In addition, the view of the homestay is of the important factors for to choose. Most of the homestay have a great view of countryside /nature and well connecting with the community.

+ Hotel: We would like to say again, during our Vietnam motorcycle tours, we will pick the best hotels in towns but they’re almost in the remote areas where you can only find the basic standard hotels: They all will have free Wi-Fi, hot shower, clean and western-styled toilet…and a great view of nature.

Every season in Vietnam has its own beauty and unique color. Spring is from February to April and you will see different shades of green everywhere in the north. This is usually the best time to ride.

Summer lasts for approximately 5 months through to the end of November. It is also the rainy season.

The scenery in the mountains is both colorful and diverse and that is when the rice harvest takes place. September and October you will see stunning views of the rice terraces where the whole landscape turns yellow. The experience is amazing. Winter starts from mid-November and lasts until early February.

You should book your own hotel in Hanoi, you can try websites like Agoda.com, Booking.com…They have competitive prices with what you can book in person. We will meet you and take you to our office where you will be briefed on the tour schedule. You will be given a map, all riding gear including wet weather gear, helmets if required, waterproof bags, and saddle bags.

* We don’t endorse them they seem to do a good job.

We can book you any hotel in Hanoi or in any other city that you request. We recommend a standard hotel (2-3) stars in order to save costs. The rates are usually $30-$50 USD per night.

We can also arrange airport welcome pickup and farewell departure to and from hotel, at your request.

In terms of costs, we cover everything except telephone calls, tips, souvenirs, alcoholic drink and personal medical insurance. As there are often some impressive minority crafts to be found in the markets or some more bizarre products of Chinese origin bank on US$150-200 extra.

In almost every situation, “YES,” you need to bring your own riding safety and protective gear, as most of our operations do not offer gear you can rent. Please confirm this with us as you’re selecting a trip, and also if you want some riding gear recommendations, prepare for every situation possible and make sure you’re well protected for riding.

This answer actually does not vary from tour to tour, as we hope you are in excellent physical and mental condition anytime you plan on riding a motorcycle. As with other topics, let’s discuss what shape you’re in and the type of tour you’re planning on to make sure there’s a match.  However, our “approval” of your condition does not take the place of a trusted doctor’s evaluation, which is something we strongly encourage you to seek before any tour or rental.