This 4 day biking tour allows you to delve into the mountain zone of Cuc Phuong National park where you have chances to encounter friendly Thai people, understanding their unique culture and life.
It is also a good time to absort the typical nature of northern Vietnam which changes beautifully from picturesque Pu Luong reserved area to primitive forest of Cuc Phuong.
The following itinerary is just an example of this biking trip. Travellers can customize their trip with
Vietnam Travel or
Tour to Vietnam
Detailed Itinerary:
Day 01: Hanoi - Mai Chau - Pu Luong
Enjoy the first scenic drive to Mai Chau, the gate to the Northwest of Vietnam. After 160km with a winding road thru stunning view of mountain, sugarcane farms, we will stop at Mai Chau, a hometown of White Thai hill tribe renown by their houses-on-stilts. Have a quick lunch here before taking a short walk around the village to see their daily work: embroidering and weaving Thai traditional costumes. After lunch, take a short ride along Ma River before off the main road and start cycling by mountain tracks, enjoying new and different images of landscape, rainforest, streams that cross over the path. After 20km cycling, we will reach Kho Muong, a peaceful village of Thai hill tribal people. We will overnight in home-stay supported by FFI (Flora and Fauna International). If time available, we can join the ordinary life of locals in their farming works, cultivation or herding buffalo.
Day 02: Pu Luong - Cuc Phuong National park
We will have a long hard day for cycling by leaving beautiful Kho Muong village to get up-and-down paths with messy mixture of rocky mountains and slippery soil, as well as winding and extreme ascending routes. In response you could have wonderful view of landscape with houses-on-stilts, rice terraced fields, farming work of local people. Stop en route for lunch at Pho Doan local market, then continue an easier cycling along a calm river, with stops for pictures or refreshment at bamboo water-wheels. The escort bus will meet you in the afternoon to head to Cuc Phuong National Park for overnight.
Day 03: Cuc Phuong National Park
130km south of Hanoi, Cuc Phuong is a typical limestone area and rainforest with an impressive collection of animals and plants. Seriously and carefully reserved by the government, Cuc Phuong maintains itself as home of some special primates and species including langurs, gibbons, macaques and fantastic birds including red-collared woodpeckers, limestone wren-babblers, fork-tailed sunbirds and many others. Full-day cycling in the Park under the umbrella of century–old trees to explore the forest and trails within the Park’s karst ecosystem will give us an overall conception of the nature protection in Northern Vietnam. Have dinner and overnight at the Cuc Phuong Guesthouse.
Day 04: Cuc Phuong - Hanoi
After breakfast, we will leave Cuc Phuong for a short ride to Hoa Lu, the ancient capital with the old temples dedicated to King Dinh and King Le reigned in 10th century. This is an outstanding switch from three-day cycling over the mountain and rainforest to a new discovery of the low plain land with 2-hour thru rural village, passing rice paddy fields and rural houses. Have lunch in Tam Coc before taking a 2- hour boat trip around an area where spectacular limestone karsts jut out from the green paddy fields Halong Bay of Vietnam, which gives this scenery the name “Halong-bay-in-land”. Late afternoon back to Hanoi.
