Vietnam Bike Tour: Saigon to Hanoi
Revel in Vietnam’s raw beauty as you ride the backstreets from south to north.
An easy ride out of Hanoi, the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay is a must for anyone cycling in Vietnam. Take a day or two to take in the sights of this unique yet quintessentially Vietnamese landscape. Paddle your way through the labyrinth of limestone spires while searching for the ‘descending dragons’ who are the mythical creators of this land.
A site of international trade for thousands of years, Ha Long Bay is rife with artifacts, shipwrecks, cave paintings, and almost every other kind of evidence left behind by civilizations of the past. Roughly 1,600 jungle-topped islands can be found in the bay, and many of them are hollow. A good guide can take you to a few of these caves where you can spend an entire day wandering in and out of the limestone caverns.
There are plenty of boat tour operators who will escort you out into the bay and take you to many of the thousands of islands found in Ha Long Bay, and Cat Ba is the largest of these islands in the bay. Cat Ba features the wonderful Cat Ba National Park and Maritime Reserve, which is a great place to spend a day watching the monkeys play in the treetops and spotting exotic birds.
Set sail in an authentic junk ship and take in the romantic sea air found nowhere else but in Ha Long Bay. It’s worth noting that if you’re looking for white sand beaches the north coast and Ha Long Bay are pretty much devoid of beachfront. The rugged terrain and maze of limestone columns are more for exploring by boat than for laying in the sun.
Enjoy the rich history and mythology that surround the creation of this fantasy landscape and visit the floating villages of the fishermen who’ve been fishing this bay for generations. Make sure to bring your camera as Ha Long Bay will set the backdrop for some of your most memorable moments in Vietnam.