Sensational Northwest Vietnam motorbike tour to Mu Cang Chai and Sapa

In the morning we start our motorbike tour by leaving Hanoi on dyke roads to avoid the heavy traffic around 9 am , we ride our motorcycles west to Mai Chau, an area of beautiful landscape and home to the Thai ethnic minority.

We will ride on Highway 6 passing extensive farming lands comprising a sea of paddy fields split by tree-lined roads punctuated by limestone karst scenery.

After a light lunch in Hoa Binh Province, we cross Thung Khe, one of the most beautiful mountain passes in North Vietnam then descent to the mountain valley settlement of Mai Chau. After dinner we join performance, where you can dance and share a range of special liquors (rice wine) with the locals. Overnight in a house-on-stilts of the Thai people.

Summary:
Distance: 160 km
Meals: Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Home-stay

Mai Chau is one of the closest places to Hanoi where you can experience a ‘real’ Montagnard village. In the morning we take a short walk around village to discover local life.

Life in the countryside starts early so by sunrise there is a wealth of activity. The Thai women are masterful weavers who ensure that there is plenty of traditional-style clothing to buy in the village centre. You will see women weaving on looms under or inside their houses in the village We can buy some handmade traditional-style clothing, knife or cross-bow.

After breakfast in home-stay, we say goodbye to villagers and leave Mai Chau around 10 am. We ride from Mai Chau to the direction of Moc Chau, where we have lunch. This highland town produces some of Vietnam’s best tea and is a good place to stock up. The surrounding area is also home to several ethnic minorities, including Green H’mong, Dzao, Thai and Muong. Moc Chau boasts a pioneering dairy industry that started in the late 1970s with Australian (and, later, UN) assistance. The dairy provides Hanoi with such delectable iuxur us as fresh milk, sweetened condensed milk and little tooth-rotting bars called “Banh sua”.

After lunch, we turn to the less travelled Road 43 leading to the Da River, crossing the reservoir of Da river at Van Yen ferry, then ride on a beautiful winding secondary road until Phu Yen mountain town (a district of Son La Province in the Northwestern region of Vietnam), where we stay in a basic guest-house.

Summary:
Distance: 140 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Guest-house

Continuing our motorbike tour on the almost empty Road 37 we enter mountains heavily populated with Black Thai people, who work on large terraced rice fields. The winding road passes through many Thai villages and fields and provides a great opportunity to watch country life passing by. We continue through rolling hills before rising up to the sugar cane growing areas on the cooler Son La plateau.

Late lunch in Son La City, the capital of Son La Province, before we visit The Old French Prison & Museum. It was once the site of a French penal colony where anticolonial revolutionaries were incarcerated. It was destroyed by the infamous “off-loading” of unused ammunition by US warplanes that were returning to their bases after bombing raids, but it has been partially restored.

Rebuilt turrets and watch towers stand guard over the remains of cells, inner walls and a famous lone surviving peach tree. The tree, which blooms with traditional “Tet flowers”, was planted in the compound by To Hieu, a former inmate from the 1940s. To Hieu has subsequently been immortalised, with various landmarks now named after him.
Overnight in Son La City.

Summary:
Distance: 160 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Hotel

Heading out northwest from Son La, the road crosses a series of mountain passes and areas of busy Black Thai activity. Children walk to school, kids tend buffaloes, women plant rice seedlings and men pull the buffalo. Then we come to the beginning of the very long and steep
Pha Din pass where at the top we have vast views of the surrounding mountains, then down the other side on very steep sealed road. Lunch in Tuan Giao.

Turn to the almost empty winding Road 279 leading to Pa Uon bridge. The first span of the Pa Uon bridge spanning the Da river got connected on Highway 279 in Chieng On commune, Quynh Nhai district, Son La province. The bridge invested by the Ministry of Transport lies within the food-avoiding highways and provincial roads project after the Son La Hydro-electric Power project had been deployed, contributing to forming the nearest road between Son La and Lai Chau provinces. The construction of the bridge started on May 28, 2007. It opened to traffic on April 30 and put into use in July 2010.

Continuing our mortorbiking on the empty winding road until we get Than Uyen Town, Lai Chau Province.
Overnight in Mu Cang Chai.

Summary:
Distance: 180 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Hotel

We head straight toward the main Fansipan Mountain range. There is also the option for a very challenging back route which takes us through several river crossings. The massive mountain range dominates the road until finally we must make a splendid climb up from Binh Lu and up to the top of the highest road pass in Vietnam (Tram Ton Pass).

Crossing into Lao Cai Province at over 2,000m the views looks out over the main range for miles and miles, before we descend to the mountainous Sa Pa valley. Sa Pa is located in Lao Cai Province, north-west Vietnam, and 350 km north-west of Hanoi, close to the border with China. Sapa is famous both for its fine, rugged scenery and for its rich cultural diversity. French used to consider Sapa as Summer Capital of Northern Vietnam in the early decades of the 20th century. Its naturally gifted beauty keeps attracting more and more people to spend their vacation there since then. Particularly, the place is the foremost choice for honeymoon couples!
Overnight in Hotel.

Summary:
Distance: 110 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Hotel

Depending on the group’s mood, we can either take it easy in Sa Pa town, or make excursions back to the top of the highest pass in Vietnam, or down deep into the amazing Sapa valley to do home-stay in peacefull village.
All options are dominated by the crest of the enormous Fansipan mountain range that looms over 2,000 metres above us. The entire region
is populated by Hmong, Giay, Tay and Red Dao people.
Stay in Sapa or home-stay in village.

Summary:
Distance: 40 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Hotel or Home-stay

Ride down from Sapa to Lao Cai City and then have a coffee-stop on the bank of Nam Thi river, which is Vietnam – China border. Enjoy your coffee while taking the view to China.
Head to Road 70 before turn to Bac Ha on Road 153.

Long touted as the weekend alternative to Sapa, this small highland town doesn’t have the same dramatic location of its more il-lustrious neighbour, but it is calmer when Saturday comes. It fills up to choking point on Sunday morning, when visitors flood in to meet the Flower H’mong at the morning market. Compared with Sapa, tourism is still in its infancy here and during the week the town has a deserted feel.
Bac Ha is a good base to explore the surrounding highlands. Around 900m above sea level, it is noticeably warmer than Sapa.

One of Bac Ha’s main industries is she manufacture of alcoholic home brews (rice wine, cassava wine and corn liquor). The corn hooch produced by the Flower H’mong is so potent it can ignite! Bac Ha is the only place in Vietnam where you’ll find this particular moonshine; there’s an entire area devoted to it at the Sunday market.
Overnight in Bac Ha.

Summary:
Distance: 120 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Home-stay

Get back to Road 70 and then ride down to Khanh Hoa T-junction, turn to Road 152, through palm forest all the way to Luc Yen and stay in a family in the Tay territory. It’s a great home stay and the hosts are very welcoming.

Summary:
Distance: 140 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Home-stay

Get on the road, take a half-day ride to our Dao friends’ village of Vu Linh, which by the side of Thac Ba lake, the biggest man-made lake in Vietnam. This artificial lake has an area of 23,400 ha and 1,331 islands and hills with diverse ecological environments. The water in the lake is blue and clear, and imprinted with the reflections of the surrounding ancient forest. The thousands of hills and islands feature caves such as the Hum, Cau Cuoi and Bach Xa.

After lunch, we take the boat ride, stop by an island for swimming and discover the particularities of this area: the way villagers paddle their boats, the exotic and odd animals living around, the quiet and peaceful beauty of this huge lake, the lifestyle of the Dao among the thousands of islets.

We will have an unforgettable dinner with the hosts, whose are really big drinkers and they party every day. The welcome is exceptional and we hope you will survive.

Summary:
Distance: 80 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Home-stay

After breakfast we ride southeast on Highway 2 and then branch off to the sleepy town of Phu Tho. We follow the edge of the Red River along the dyke, almost to the point where it merges with the Black River after which they flow together to Hanoi.

By now we are very much in the lowlands of the delta plains and the north’s main agricultural areas. Harvest time here is a sea of activity. Crossing the Black River by bridge, we pass through Son Tay and then return to Hanoi on the highway. We should be back to Hanoi before rush-hour (4 pm) because traffic’s getting busier and busier.

Summary:
Distance: 180 km
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch.

End of services

Note: We provide support truck (120$ per day) for emergency and for your safe riding in Vietnam – Most of other tour operators do not offer that. Contact us if you think it’s necessary.