Ho Chi Minh Trail Motorcycle Tour – 12 Days

The trail itself is not one road but a network, and the useful thing about this itinerary is that it picks the good parts. The tour leaves the operator's shop on the western outskirts of Hanoi at about 8.30am and is in the mountains within the hour, reaching a White Thai stilt house in Mai Chau by late afternoon. Day two follows the Ma river through bamboo forest to Ngoc Lac and then joins the Ho Chi Minh road to Tan Ky, which is where the historical trail began and where the riding starts to feel like the real thing. The strongest riding comes on days three and four. The stage into Phong Nha runs on repaired sections of the trail through increasingly green country, ending near the national park with an optional boat trip to a cave. The next day turns onto the western branch, the hidden line the US air campaign never located, more than two hundred kilometres almost entirely inside Phong Nha-Ke Bang with virtually no other traffic, before dropping into Khe Sanh and its museum. Day five leaves the trail for Route 9 along the Dakrong river, crossing the seventeenth parallel past the Hien Luong bridge and the Vinh Moc tunnels to reach Hue. Hue and Hoi An each get a full day with no long stage, which is unusual on a tour of this length and welcome by that point. Between them sits the coastal ride over the Hai Van pass. From Hoi An the route turns inland again for My Son and its Cham towers, then follows the trail through the Central Highlands to Kon Tum and Buon Ma Thuot, past rubber plantations, coffee fields and Bana and Ede villages. The short day to Lak Lake takes in the Dray Sap and Dray Nur waterfalls. The last stage runs from the lake down to the coast at Nha Trang through hot springs, K'ho and Cham villages and fishing settlements. The operator rates the tour chill level, with bikes chosen from the Honda XR150L, CRF250L and CRF300L. Guiding, mechanical support, fuel, gear, every meal, all accommodation and entrance fees are included. Insurance, drinks, tips and bike damage are not. An International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 convention is required alongside your home motorcycle licence.

Twelve days and roughly 1,965 kilometres from Hanoi down to the beach at Nha Trang, following the parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that are worth riding rather than the whole length of it. Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert starts in the Mai Chau valley, picks up the trail proper at Tan Ky, where the supply route to the south began, and then takes the western branch through Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a two-hundred-kilometre stretch the operator describes as almost empty of traffic. History is not incidental here: the route passes the Khe Sanh marine base and museum, the Vinh Moc tunnels and the Hien Luong bridge that once marked the border between north and south. Two full days off the long stages, in Hue and Hoi An, break the tour in half, and the last three days drop through the Central Highlands to Lak Lake and out to the coast.