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2 Days / 1 Night
Daily Tour
10 people
English, Francais, Vietnamese
2 Day Ta Xua Off-Road Motorcycle Tour: Traveling to Northeast Vietnam on a motorcycle tour always brings us interesting experiences. Of all the hot spots in the area, Ta Xua located in Son La province is now becoming more and more popular with adventure-loving travelers, especially the young. Ta Xua is proudly praised as one of the most fascinating cloud hunting paradises of North Vietnam that everyone wants to come once in their life.
Start the day with a delicious breakfast, then we will depart from the office to the crowded city. Crossing the stunning Red River dams, we’ll head straight to Trung Ha bridge located in Ba Vi district via the Black River. Continue following well-known National Highway 32 and end up at Phu Yen.
Next, enjoy your lunch with your fellow drivers at a great local restaurant before heading to Bac Yen town through Giap wood. Well, that’s also the place where the true challenges begin. Get ready to commence your mountain trekking across a 12-km vertical distance.
The duty is even tough and dangerous for bikers to do on sunny and dry days. But, the breathtaking scenery will push your inspiration up.
Keep going, then, you’ll finally reach the destination right next to the dinosaur’s back. Enjoy a fun dinner with others, spend time on good beer, barbeque, and relaxation between the peaceful space of this pristine natural landscape covered by the white floating clouds.
Summary:
Distance: 179 km / Meals: Lunch, Dinner / Accommodation: Home-stay with several beds and mosquito nets.
The second day of your Ta Xua discovery trip will begin in early morning. Jump on your two-wheelers and take on the challenge to conquer the menacing “dinosaur’s backbone”. Open your eyes wilder to take all the majesty of nature amid the fluffy clouds and lush green dreamy valleys.
Go back to the hotel after taking amazing pics, then, have breakfast. Take a break before we proceed way back Hanoi.
The route from Ta Xua to Hanoi can be done into 2 choices below:
Route 1:
You and your group will backtrack to Hanoi in the early afternoon to dodge the rush hours. The tour is estimated to end at 3:30 pm at the office.
Route 2:
We can continuously embark on one out of the top 4 North Vietnam’s “riders’ graveyards” to challenge ourselves through 35 km of legendary bumpy dirt roads and extreme off-road distance. This experience will add nothing but a bit more perfection and thrill to your life-time short motorbike tour. Motivate yourself to put your fear in control and overcome the difficult task that many bikers have given up before.
At the end of the short trip, you’ll be on the way back to stunning Hanoi. We ensure that a 2-day journey mixed of excitement, thrill, danger, romance, and tranquility as well will create a totally different experience compared to others you have ever had before.
Now, you have got the ultimate guide to best prepared to conquer even the toughest and roughest mountainous area of North Vietnam. Always have fun and enjoy your trip!
Summary:
Distance: 179 km / Meals: Lunch, Dinner / Accommodation: Home-stay with several beds and mosquito nets.
Ta Xua is a highland commune in Bac Yen, Son La, famous for being a beautiful cloud hunting paradise. Ta Xua travel experiences will help you have a perfect trip.
Located in a remote highland commune in Bac Yen district, Son La province, Ta Xua has a total area of about 44km2 located at an altitude of 1.500m to 2000m above sea level.
This place is also surrounded by small mountain ranges of Bac Yen district, surrounded on all four sides by high mountains, so the valley of Ta Xua always has dense fog and winding clouds.
Ta Xua is mainly inhabited by H'mong ethnic people. Previously, people relied on agricultural production from terraced rice fields or raising livestock...
In the past, Ta Xua was known as the place that produced ancient Shan Tuyet tea and delicious hawthorn fruits. However, since emerging with the name "Ta Xua cloud paradise", this place has become a tourist destination attracting a large number of tourists. The exact place that young people often choose to hunt clouds in Ta Xua is the top of a small mountain range, which is said to be the lowest of the 10 highest peaks in Vietnam.
Ta Xua peak is surrounded all year round by billowing clouds, flying layer after layer like ocean waves crashing against the mountains. Therefore, visitors who come here at any time can enjoy beautiful scenery.
However, the time when Ta Xua attracts the most tourists is probably November to April next year. Coming to Ta Xua around this time, you can easily see the most beautiful images of clouds because the temperature is low and the humidity is high, so clouds easily form. However, some days it may still rain in the morning. Visitors should monitor the weather forecast to see if it will be sunny because clouds will look better.
From Hanoi to Ta Xua, visitors can choose many different means of transport such as motorbikes or passenger cars. If traveling by motorbike, you follow Highway 32 to Son Tay Town, cross Trung Ha Bridge and then go to Thanh Son and Thu Cuc. At Thu Cuc intersection, you go through Phu Yen and you will reach Bac Yen town. From here, you continue to go another 3km to reach Ta Xua.To have a convenient trip to Ta Xua cloud hunting, visitors need to prepare some thick, lightweight clothes for easy movement such as wind jackets and thermal shirts. In addition, you should also prepare a raincoat to avoid unexpected rains or sometimes the weather is foggy in the morning.
As a remote and dangerous tourist destination, most of Ta Xua still does not have a diverse and rich hotel system like other tourist destinations. Coming to Ta Xua, tourists often stay in homestays, homestays or camp overnight outdoors.
On the way to conquer Ta Xua peak, visitors can almost easily see images of clouds covering the valley. Some of the most beautiful Ta Xua rattan hunting spots include the Ta Xua junction to Hang Dong (about 3km), the center of Ta Xua commune, the Ta Xua junction to Xim Vang (about 3km), from the restaurant. Lunch in the center of Ta Xua commune, go along the small road along the mountain, camel rock, catch the sunset on top of the wind...
“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 of Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert 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.
Airport transfers are not included in the price of this tour, however you can book for an arrival transfer in advance. In this case a tour operator representative will be at the airport to greet you. To arrange this please contact our customer service team once you have a confirmed booking.
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.
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