Sapa and Mu Cang Chai are located in far Northwest Vietnam. They’re well-known as the best beautiful Rice Terrace in Vietnam & in the world. If you like photography, nature and people’s culture, mix with a little challenging but freedom on a motorbike, this Motorcycle Sapa -and Mu Cang Chai 5 days tour is designed for you.
You also have the chance to meet the friendly ethnic people in the mountainous area, who still keep their unique and interesting customs and culture.
Our program has well organized and flexible for every driving skill level, so if you want to save your health, time & cost, it is also a good choice.
Noi Bai International Airport (Google Map)
Your hotel in Hanoi
An English speaking guide will collect you from your hotel in Hanoi at 21:00 and take you to Hanoi Train Station for the overnight train to Lao Cai.
6 a.m – 7 a.m: Meet our guide in the Lao Cai station, have breakfast and prepare to get the motorbike.
7.30 am: Drive the motorbike to Sapa(30km) and discovery around the Sapa Town
We’ll start our Vietnam motorcycle trip-Sapa- Mu Cang Chai by riding our motorbikes down the valley to visit Lao Chai village of BlackH’Mong people. We will follow the hidden trekking path of local people, ride through the rice terrace route, narrow local path. It will be challenging with beginner rider, but it’s also very interesting for experience riders.
When reaching the village in Lao Chai – Ta Van, you will explore the traditional culture of Hmong and Day people, like art performances for festivals or some holidays and exchanged the knowledge and experience about how to cultivate hemp, weave brocades and print beeswax on the cloths. Our tour guide will take you to visit one of the typical Black H’mong house and tell you a story about the H’mong people are living here.
We will keep on riding down the hill, enjoy the fantastic open views in Ban Ho the most beautiful valley. Continue to travel a loop from Ban Ho- Nam Cang- Ban Ho, our guide will lead you to ride on the stunning rice terraces small road, through the village of Mong & Dao ethnic people.
Come back Ban Ho village, stay in a wooden stilt house of Tay people, enjoy the local Vietnamese dinner.
Sum up:
Ride distance: ~90km
Route: Concreted road, narrow and winding, hilly but not too steeply
After breakfast, you can ride up to the Seo My Ty ( or another place similar) on the way back to Sapa. This area still keeps the original Sapa, on the hidden way in a high area, less touristic. We can spend time for lunch in a traditional Hmong house, experience the local life.
We’ll ride back to Sapa.
When coming back to Sapa town, you can choose some option:
P/s: Because it’s optional, so the extra fee is 35usd/person~700.000vnd/person
2. Ride motorbike to Heaven Gate in O Quy Ho pass – one of the four greatest and longest passes), spend more time to enjoy landscape and majestic of Hoang Lien Son – it’s located 11km far from Sapa town. On the way, you can take a short walk to visit Silver Waterfall or Love waterfall.
You can choose to visit Glass bridge – the tallest bridge in Vietnam – 2200m above the sea, 60m length.
P/s: Because it’s optional, so the extra fee is 18usd/person~400.000vnd /person.
( P/s: in Day 3, you also come back this route, but there isn’t much time spent in this pass, so we can arrange to guide you here, to have more time to enjoy the scenery of O Quy Ho pass)
After breakfast, we start to head to Heaven Gate, where you will be amazed by the breathtaking view of mountain surroundings including Fansipan, the highest peak of Indochina. The route connect Mu Cang Chai to Sapa is one of the most beautiful mountain roads for Motorbike in Vietnam. You will drive to Than Uyen, where you will meet the ethnic people, who are trading in the town’s small market in their black traditional dresses.
Our guide will take you to visit the tea plantation, a bike ride around the Tan Uyen town, a demonstration of the tea making process, and about a dozen cups of the local green tea! You will have an experience, how to tell when tea leaves and buds are ready to be picked and how to tell its quality grade.
We will drive to Ban Thai village, the village of White Thai people, one family here will be our host today.
Option 1:
The rest time of the day, you can choose Hiking activity, follow the village of Flower Hmong people, see the overview of rice terrace, town, explore and discover the real-life of local people. Our guide will show you to visit a house, explain the culture and difference between Hmong people groups.
It takes around 2,5-3hrs ~8km go up the mountain, through the forest, muddy path, through villages.
Option 2:
If you are skill & experienced driver, want to challenge your riding, we can choose to ride a motorbike on the trekking route to Sang Nhu village– where is a perfect place to see the sunset and stunning rice field. It’s also challenging for your riding skill with mud, high and winding road.
Ride motorbike around the Mong village with the beautiful rice terraces as La Pan Tan, Che Cu Nha… We will follow the local path on the field, through the forest, to see the breathtaking view of the mountain and amazing rice terraces.
You will have a chance to explore the culture & local life of Mong and Thai people, such as music traditional, agriculture tools and experience the farming works with farmers. Our journey is very flexible and depends on the real local life, you will have unique experiences.
Then we continue to run over the Khau Pha pass (one of the four greatest passes in Northern Vietnam) The ride is on some of the most scenic roads which offer a lot of stops for pictures. We’ll cross Tu Le, the two remote lands of Yen Bai province where the black H’mong, Dzao and Thai people can make wonderful rice terrace in the mountains.
Arriving Nghia Lo town, stay in a homestay of Thai people or hotel
Having a short walk around the villages of the Thai people in the morning, feel the peaceful life of the local by walking around the valley and then start the motorbike ride back to Hanoi at around 9 AM. You will continue to explore the oldest tea forest Suoi Giang, a special landmark of the Yen Bai Province with the famous hun dreds-year-old tea. You will enjoy a cup of tea, and relax and see the Nghia Lo valley down. You will then leave Suoi Giang, returning to Hanoi.
We can arrange some offroad. We expect to arrive Hanoi at 5-6pm. Our guide say goodbye and see you next trip.
Option 2:
If you are too tired and don’t want to ride motorbike more to Hanoi, we will ride 80km from Nghia Lo to Yen Bai city, then we will using bus transfer you and your bikes to Hanoi.
The extra fee is 7usd/person for bus ticket + 13usd/bike.
“Incredible impromptu road trip!”
I contacted Ms Nghia last minute when I was in Sapa cause the weather was not in my favour and I wanted to get out of there. Had a Sapa – Mu Cang Chai – Hanoi route in mind, to travel by motorbike. I enquired with other tours and the price they quoted was quite high. Ms Nghia came up with an itinerary for us, along with the a reasonable price, inclusive of bike rental, accommodation, food & bike arrangement to be transported back to Sapa.
I had an incredible time riding through the mountainous road with sharp bends and ever-changing horizon which forever left me in awe, especially the abundance of rice fields and terraces from Sapa – Mu Cang Chai. Not to forget the unpredictable weather. It was an amazing 3 days, of new sights and experiences! Staying in hom stays & Definitely one that I wouldnt forget!
Thank you Ms Nghia for making it possible and for the efficiency, taking good care of me and my friend throughout the 5 days! ????
Amazing tour & guide ( Motorbike Sapa and Mu cang chai)
My husband and I did a custom tour with Nghĩa for 6 days and 5 nights. I wanted to visit Yen The’s precious gem market for business research and purchase so we left at 5 am the first day by motorbikes and arrived in Yên Thế about 2.5 hrs later. Nghia and I had fun looking at cut stones and made our purchases. There were a lot of money on those small wooden tables and I wished I could buy more. We spent the rest of the day riding around that area and came home to Nghĩa house for a hot pot dinner with her family! Our tour combined bus & motorbike rides and hiking through Mù Cang Chải, Sapa and surrounding valley. We had the best time visiting hill tribes people, staying at 2 homestays, seeing the beautiful scenery and shopping! Everything was taken care of for us. Throughout, Nghĩa was thoughtful, informative, attentive, helpful and fun! We really got along well & we felt we have made a new friend. We highly recommend Nghĩa and Zonitrip!
