Vietnam Bike Tour: Saigon to Hanoi
Revel in Vietnam’s raw beauty as you ride the backstreets from south to north.
Located 130kms (81 mi) west of Nha Trang on the coast and 320 kms (199 mi) north of Ho Chi Minh City, in the Lang Biang Plateau lies the French resort town of Da Lat. Built in the early 1900’s, Da Lat sits 1,500 meters (4,921 ft) above sea level and has the nickname of ‘the city of eternal spring” for its consistent temperate climate and year long mist. In the city, you want to visit the art deco train station, the Hang Nga Guesthouse, and the Da Lat Market in Hoa Binh Square. A true mountain biker’s paradise, Da Lat offers year round trail riding for every level of rider. If you need a day off from riding you can cruise the markets, play a round of golf, or go whitewater rafting on the Lang Bian river.
Da Lat is full of charming French colonial buildings and has been used as a trade hub by much of the region's population for a long time. There are a number of minority villages in the surrounding hills that make for good day trips. The area is filled with singletrack trails that are sure to please even the most seasoned mountain bike riders. There are a multitude of tour operators in Da Lat that offer comprehensive tour packages that vary from half day sightseeing trips, to multi-day trips into the farthest reaches of the Central Highlands.
For the road cyclists, Da Lat is also charming, with its winding roads that take you from minority villages, to sprawling fields of temperate fruits and vegetables, to clear lakes, to mountain peaks. The highway from Nha Trang rises steeply into the hills as you go from sea level to 1,500 meters ( 4,921 ft) in a short 130 km (81 mi) length of road. Many tours from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh CIty will take you through Da Lat and the rest of the central highlands.