Somebody else can drive. You just hold on and look.
What a four-day loop through the karst really costs. Whether you need a licence to ride pillion. Which pass is worth two days of your fortnight. Reviews of every motorbike tour you can book, anywhere.
A pass, a loop and an evening on the back of a bike.
The three motorbike days most riders book first, and what each one asks of you.
01The passEasy Rider private tour via Hai Van pass from Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An (1Way|Loop)Hue to Hoi An over the Hai Van, on the back of a local rider. No licence, no luggage to carry, one absurd coast road.
02The loopHa Giang Loop 4 Days 3 Nights Motorbike Tour with easy RiderFour days round the Ha Giang karst with an easy rider up front. Homestays, hairpins and the best road in Vietnam.
03The eveningHo Chi Minh City Street Food Tour & Sightseeing By MotorbikeSaigon after dark from a pillion seat, stopping wherever the plastic stools are busiest. Two hours, a full stomach.
Vietnam is the country motorcycle travel was invented for.
Seven in ten rides on this site are Vietnamese, and the reason is the roads: a karst loop in the far north, a pass in the middle, a delta at the bottom, all of it rideable by somebody who has never held a throttle. Three ways in, and what each costs to board.
Six places worth building a riding trip around.
A capital that moves entirely on two wheels, a delta city that eats standing up, a limestone loop in the far north, the pass between Hue and Hoi An, rice terraces above Sapa, and the lanes behind Hoi An. Six bases, and the best ride out of each.
Every motorbike tour is a version of one of these six days.
A loop that takes four days and a homestay. A pass you cross once and remember for years. A city night measured in plastic stools. A morning in the rice fields half an hour behind town. Work out which one you want and the booking makes itself.
Hanoi rides best at the two ends of the day.
All the Hanoi rides →
Out through the Old Quarter before the trucks wake up, or into it at dusk when the whole city eats on the pavement. In between, the Red River dykes and the villages nobody puts on a map. These three carry more riders than anything else in the city.
Dinner from the back of a bike
A rider, a helmet and six or seven stops: bun cha, egg coffee, a beer corner that spills into the street. You never park for more than fifteen minutes and you finish unable to move.
Out past the dykes to the villages
Twenty minutes of traffic buys you an entire day of rice paddy, ceramic kilns and Red River ferries. Bring sunscreen; the shade runs out somewhere after the second village.
Hanoi as the start line
Almost every northern loop leaves from here. The bike, the guide and the homestays are arranged for you; the only decision left is how many days you can spare.
The most-booked motorbike tours on the site.
Every motorcycle tour we have reviewed →More riders take these than anything else, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Ho Chi Minh City Street Food Tour & Sightseeing By Motorbike
Ride through Ho Chi Minh City, sample up to 12 local dishes, and visit markets, alleys, landmarks, and flower streets with a local guide.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Hanoi Motorbike Tour: Food, Culture and Fun by Vintage Motorbike
from $55
3
Saigon By Night and Street Food By Motorbike | Opt: Ao Dai Riders
from $37
4
Private Street Food Tour by Motorbike/Car with Local Students
from $45
5
Street Food Tasting & Sightseeing Tour by Motorbike
from $27
6
Top Notch Street Food Motorbike Tour In Ho Chi Minh City
from $29
7
Private Street Food Motorbike Tour in Ho Chi Minh City
from $55
8
Barcelona Private Tour by Sidecar Motorcycle
from $199
What a day on a motorbike actually costs.
Every ride on the site, grouped by price. A great many of the best ones cost less than a taxi to the airport.
City food rides, half-day countryside loops and a rental with the tank filled.
Full days with a rider: the Hai Van Pass one way, a Sapa waterfall loop, a delta run.
Multi-day loops with homestays and bags carried, and the guided expeditions in the mountains.
Saigon on two wheels makes sense of Saigon.
Nothing about this city works on foot. On the back of a bike the alleys open up, the traffic turns from a wall into a current, and dinner becomes six stops instead of one. Go at night; the heat drops and the pavement kitchens light up.
Every Saigon ride →
Three things a motorbike gives you that a minibus cannot.
Any coach can reach a viewpoint. A pass taken at the speed of the road, a rider who has ridden it a thousand times, and a sidecar that turns a city into a parade are not things you get through glass.
The Hai Van Pass
The old road over the Annamite spur was bypassed by a tunnel in 2005, which is the best thing that ever happened to it. Trucks go under; the pass is left to bikes. Cloud sits on the summit most mornings and burns off by eleven, so an afternoon crossing gets you the sea view and a morning one gets you the atmosphere. Either way you stop at the bunkers on the ridge, because everyone does.
- 1Easy Rider private tour via Hai Van pass from Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An (1Way|Loop)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,542 reviews
- 2Easy Rider From Hue Da Nang Hoi An Via Hai Van Pass With Mister T★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 769 reviews
- 3Hai Van Pass Motorbike Private Tour with Mister T Easy Rider★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 742 reviews
The Easy Rider
The idea started in Da Lat in the 1990s: a local rider takes you on the back, carries your bag, and knows which lane the bridge repair is on. You need no licence and no experience, you can look at the scenery the whole time, and you get a running commentary from somebody who lives on the road. It is the single best answer to Vietnamese traffic.
- 1Easy Rider private tour via Hai Van pass from Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An (1Way|Loop)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,542 reviews
- 2Ha Giang Loop 4 Days 3 Nights Motorbike Tour with easy Rider★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 972 reviews
- 3High Quality Small Group With Easy Riders 3 Day + Private Room★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 829 reviews
The Sidecar
A sidecar is slow, loud and impossible to ignore, which in a city is the entire point. You sit at knee height with your elbows on the rim while a driver threads a 1960s Ural or a restored Chang Jiang through streets built long before either. Barcelona, Prague and Oslo all run them; every trip ends with strangers photographing you.
- 1Barcelona Private Tour by Sidecar Motorcycle★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,750 reviews
- 2Paris Vintage Private City Tour on a Sidecar Motorcycle★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 417 reviews
- 3Paris Highlights city tour on a vintage Sidecar Motorcycle★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 168 reviews
The Hai Van Pass is the ride people plan the rest of the trip around.
Twenty-one kilometres of switchbacks between Hue and Da Nang, with the sea on one side and cloud coming over the top of the ridge. Most riders take it one way with their bags in a support car, stop at the old French bunkers, and finish in Hoi An by dark.
- 1Easy Rider private tour via Hai Van pass from Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An (1Way|Loop)from $55
- 2Easy Rider From Hue Da Nang Hoi An Via Hai Van Pass With Mister Tfrom $58
- 3Motorbike Experience Hue to Hoi An Over Via Hai Van pass with Amazing Easy Riderfrom $51
Four motorbike bookings that will not wait.
Most of this can be arranged from a cafe the morning you want to ride. These four cannot: they run on small groups, one-way logistics and a weather window that closes.
- 01Ha Giang Loop 4 Days 3 Nights Motorbike Tour with easy RiderSmall groups, one rider each, and every bed in the homestays is booked out in high season. Turning up in Ha Giang hoping for a place on tomorrow's loop is how people end up on a bus.
- 02Easy Rider private tour via Hai Van pass from Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An (1Way|Loop)A one-way crossing needs your bag moved to the far end and a rider free at both. That is a logistics problem, not a walk-up.
- 03Sapa Motorbike Tour With Local Guide 1 Day – Waterfalls, VillagesThe terrace roads above Sapa are ridden dry and avoided wet, and the good local riders have regulars. Pick your day, then book it.
- 04Barcelona Private Tour by Sidecar MotorcycleMost sidecar operators run two or three machines in total. When the pair are out, the day is simply gone.
What a motorbike tour actually asks of you.
Riding yourself in Vietnam means an international permit with the A1 motorcycle category endorsed, or your insurance is void and so is any claim. Riding pillion asks nothing at all: no licence, no experience, no confidence. Rain turns mountain hairpins from thrilling into stupid between May and September in the north, and any operator worth booking will move your date rather than send you up wet. Bags go in a support car on the multi-day loops, so pack a day bag and leave the rest.
By place — where the bikes are
By kind of ride — pillion, saddle, sidecar or dirt
The Vietnam run: six riding stops from the karst to the delta.
Just-reviewed rides, newest first.
Further back through the new ones →
Visit Villages, Terrace Rice Field with Easy Riders half day
Read our review →
Visit 5 Districts & The Hidden Gems In Saigon By Motorbike
Read our review →
Motorbike adventures on a dual purpose motorbike in the Garden Route and Karoo.
Read our review →
Motorcycle rental Trogir / BMW F850GS / Your own motorbike tour
Read our review →
7 Day Best of Transylvania Motorcycle Tour from Cluj
Read our review →
Angkor Wat Bakeng Sunset by Motorcycle Private Tour
Read our review →
