Vietnam North Mountain Cycling

Northwest Vietnam · Vietnam

Challenging7 daysAsia~£500 est.

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Overview

The mountain roads of Vietnam's northwest stack more scenery per kilometre than almost anywhere you can legally ride a bicycle. The loop from Hanoi swings through Yen Bai and the Khau Pha pass, where the rice terraces of Mu Cang Chai cascade down entire mountainsides - pure gold at the late-September harvest - then on through Sapa beneath Fansipan, Indochina's 3,143m high point, to the battlefield basin of Dien Bien Phu and the long river valleys of Son La. Between the passes you freewheel through Hmong, Thai and Dao villages where the Sunday markets, Bac Ha above all, are a blaze of traditional dress. The gradients are the variable: passes here climb 1,000 metres and more, often steeply, and the reward is earned. Road surfaces swing from fresh tarmac to potholed gravel within a kilometre, so ride a tourer or hardtail with proper spares - rural mechanics can fix anything but stock nothing for modern groupsets. Time it for September-November (harvest colours) or March-April; the summer monsoon brings landslides. It is gloriously cheap: around £500 for the week in guesthouses, eating pho at plastic tables, with cash dong essential once you leave the towns.