Bicycle Touring Vietnam

If you are considering bike touring Vietnam, then we say, good for you, you adventurous spirit! Vietnam is a spectacular destination, and traveling Vietnam by bicycle is the ideal way to get off the tourist path. Bike touring Vietnam could be hard though! Keep reading to learn if bicycle touring Vietnam is ideal for you.

What is in our guide to bicycle touring Vietnam?

1. Food & Drink Vietnam

2. Accommodation & Camping at Vietnam

3. Vietnam Roads & Traffic

4. Dogs & Other Dangers in Vietnam

5. Cycle Touring Budget for Vietnam

6.

We spent two decades bicycle vacationing in 22 countries around the world, including Vietnam. Bike touring Vietnam is highly challenging, both physically and mentally, but also incredibly rewarding.

This is the kind of thing you have to see when bike touring Vietnam!

Our Vietnamese cycle tour took us from Vietnam's northern border with China (where we cycled for 4 weeks ), along the shore to world-famous Halong Bay and to Hanoi, among our favorite Asian cities. From there, we went west, scaling the incredible heights of the Annamite Mountains, the most spectacular mountain pass we climbed in our 2-year tour.

We've also spent nearly a year complete in Vietnam, travelling in all sorts of ways.

On our bike tour in Vietnam, we adored:

· Finding our way along forgotten rice field trails

· Meeting local people who weren't involved in the tourist industry

· Navigating our way through Vietnam's strange and beautiful food culture

If you want to challenge yourself on a bike tour in Vietnam, here's...

FOOD & DRINK IN VIETNAM

If you are an omnivore and not squeamish about eating food you can't really spot, Vietnamese food will readily fill your hungry cycle tourist stomach.

From the cities and main tourist destinations, it is possible to find huge bowls of noodle soup, fragrant stir fries, and all sorts of beef for just a few dollars each meal. Breakfast bahn mi really are a great source of fuel for the road also, and generally cost 50 cents to a buck.

If you can discover the proper foods in Vietnam, they are yummy!

Outside the towns, omnivores might discover that lunch is weird bowl of noodles using god-knows-what indoors, while dinner may not be far better. Dog meat is very common (look for the words Thịtchó on restaurant signs) and in some specific regions, horse meat is also served. But if you eat meat already, what is the difference, right?

Vegans and vegetarians will have no problem getting fed from the big towns and tourist destinations.

For vegans, it's almost impossible find food away in the towns, if you don't talk perfect Vietnamese! Though tofu is very common, we still had to eat a good deal of eggs while bike touring Vietnam because we couldn't get any other protein.

We also had to undermine a few times and eat noodle soup that was clearly made with bone broth. Provided that we weren't shovelling hunks of beef into our mouths (which happened unintentionally over once)we felt lucky!

Great snacks are also somewhat hard to come by from the countryside. There are loads of strange crisps and other packaged crap, but you're better off stocking up on locally packaged nuts and dried fruits in roadside stalls once you visit them!

Before we have to Asiawe shipped all our camping gear home. Though some bicycle tourists do camp in Asia, we were more than happy to end up in a hotel or guest house each evening.

To begin with, it is not simple to find a camping spot where the entire village will soon come out to greet you and have a chat in Vietnamese.

This is what happened when Stephen stopped to fix a flat inVietnam.

Fresh water is practically impossible to come by too, so you are going to have to take a great deal of bottled water for you campsite. Also, it can be extremely hot and sticky in Vietnam, so it is pretty wonderful to have a shower available in the conclusion of the night.

Accommodation is plentiful, comfortable, and economical in Vietnam!

Plus -- and this is a huge plus -- accommodation in Vietnam is amazingly high quality and very cheap. For $10-15/night (or less depending where you are) you can find a clean, nice little hotel room having a private bath and breakfast included. Why would you wish to camp?

ROADS & TRAFFIC IN VIETNAM

We're not gonna lie, traffic in Vietnam can be a total fucking nightmare. Sorry for the language, however you'll also use that phrase several times while you're bicycle traveling Vietam!

However, as soon as you become used to the rhythm and rules of the street in Vietnam (which can be completely different than the rules at the west), it may be fairly entertaining!