DIARY / HA GIANG tour / Vietnam
Our 2024 Ha Giang Tour starts April 5th to 14th 2025 and is available at a special ‘Recon Tour’ price.
A valley near Sa’Pa, where our tour ends…
Speaking to a friend, I asked him if he knew anyone in Vietnam that might be good to reach out to about helping us create a tour over there. He recommended Minh Ha. I called him that day about us doing a tour, north of Hanoi, just he and I, visiting the amazing mountains near Ha Giang that I’d heard about.
‘Sure, we can do that, I know a great route.’
When is the best time to come?
‘Ah… well… now.’
I was there within a week.
Over the next 8 days I covered 89km with just under 18,000 meters of climbing, with Mr. Minh Ha, great companion and awesome guide, following behind in his van. We became firm friends over that week too. The star of the show though was the terrain, which left me pining for it almost as soon as I’d left Vietnam.
After Day 1, with me waxing lyrical about the countryside I’d pedalled through, Minh told me that each day following would be more and more beautiful.
It’s not that I doubted him, but it was difficult to believe - but he was right…
For the full itinerary of the tour, please click here.
DAY 3 / THAI NGUYEN - LANG SON / 165km / 2500 m
Day 3 of our official tour (Day 1 is arrival and rest, and we have a leg opener ride on Day 2 in Hanoi), this a real ‘ride into the extraordinary’, as we leave the provincial Thai Nguyen and gradually leave the urban behind to get a first taste of the rural north. The entire route is 95% tarmac and concrete road, and this section of 8km of dirt road on this day is rideable on a road bike with road tires. 32mm+ tires are recommended for the tour.
An 8km section of hard packed dirt provides some gravely fun on the way to Long Son.
DAY 4 / LANG SON - CAO BANG / 164km / 2894m
Strava entry for this day:
This ride brought Minh and I much closer to the karst hills we'd passed at a distance on Day 1. Here, on the way to Cao Bang, I could literally reach out and touch some as I sped along the short gravel secti0n in the latter part of the ride. I jokingly said to Minh at one point, 'I bet that if we asked a local how they feel to be living with all this beauty, they'll say 'what are you on about?'. Sure enough, when I stopped to refill my bottles, an older woman came out to chat to us, and Minh her the very question.
‘Living here? Beautiful? No, it's not beautiful - more beautiful over there', she said, pointing east, 'they have caves over there and waterfalls.' So there you go. Such a good ride today, perfect weather, fantastic flat dirt for a few km, and a great guide and companion in Minh. Breakfast was chicken pho, cos why the pho not? Dinner was beef and vegetables, rice and eggs, and it's all great, back o' the net, as they say in Ho Chi Minh City.
Rice fields abound in the fertile plains on the way to Cao Bang.
A drone shot captures the incredible landscape…
DAY 5 / CAO BANG - BAO LAC / 93km /2090m
Strava:
One of the most beautiful days I’ve had on the bike. Simply stunning. I started riding, up and up but gradually, through lush valleys framed by rising marble cliffs. Today was another decent chunk of climbing. On the final pass, which was steep and paved, six guys on big motos passed me. When I got to the top they all cheered and clapped as I passed, nice touch! The next descent was insane, 16 switchbacks on a road that resembled a building site - because it was…* Then the tarmac descent to Bao Lac, out of this world, hugging the hill side on a long, ribbon-like road, tiers of farmland below, hardly touching the brakes. Very special indeed.
*The road has been fully tarmacked since.
Minh’s drone captures the hairpins on incredible road.
Descent to Bao Lac.
DAY 6 / BAO LAC - DONG VAN / 95km / 2905m
Strava:
Set off at 6am to beat the heat that never came. The mountains were full of mist as the sun rose, magisterial in their disregard of this slightly fatigued (snake oil) pedaller. Passed through a village having their monthly cattle market, men gathered around cows, making bids, and on the other side of the street huge bulls being paraded to whoops and hollers, and magnificent the beasts were too. Women came and went from doorways with huge pots of some kind of sustenance being prepared for the cow boys, more than a few of them on the booze already, dressed up all fine but rolling ragged, and you can believe they've earned the right. Tough life this one, in these hills. Then it was on to the climb, which never really relented til the summit. The houses here belong to Hmong people, tribal people who tend to live isolated lives with their immediate families as opposed to in communal villages. The kids ran from their yards to high 5 me. The rain came for a while and it was welcome. The top of the climb was just ridiculous, too much to take in. I stopped a few times just to gawk in wonder. I tried but there's no way to capture the magnificence of the landscape, not by photos, except to take it in with your own eyes and senses. I haven't felt this way since I first rode in Mongolia. This is a curious and intriguing land, the north of Vietnam, and I'm in love with it.
Good morning Vietnam.
Up near the summit, close to Pavi Hmong Village.
DAY 7 / DONG VAN - HA GIANG / 135km / 3380m
Strava:
The best so far, big elevation day (for me anyway, apparently my biggest ever recorded by Strava), and felt good throughout. Vietnam keeps upping the ante with the beauty thing, today was somehow greater (again) than yesterday. The softer landscapes gave way to rocky, gnarled hillsides and thin country roads that wrapped around me and pulled me further into the fabric of this place. The descents around these parts are best described as alpine, and as the roads tend to edge along the side of the mountains, the line of sight is deep, so you can sweep around corners at high speed and use the whole of the road. I can't think of a better place to ride a road / all-road bike, it's near-perfect. The climbing is challenging but there are (so far) no crazy percentages.
Gnarled is the word.
We didn’t see a cyclist the whole week, and yet it’s a paradise.
DAY 8 / HA GIANG LOOP / 50km / 803m
This is the one route we did that slightly differs from the 2025 April tour route, as we tried a forest road that turned out to be better suited to a motorcross bike..! But we still had fun, and met some local kids who were buying sweets at their local store - they hung around us for a while giggling and laughing - it was a very nice day.
Finish school, stuff your face with candy, some things are the same the world over…
DAY 9 / HA GIANG - SA’PA 161km/ 2960m
A big day, this last day, as we rode out towards Sa’pa from Viet Quang, after a 40km transport from Ha Giang. This was the day my phone died so I didn’t get many images, and I was too tired afterwards put anything into my Strava ‘diary’. However, it was a great end to an amazing few days, and a totally unique experience, similar in some ways to riding for a week on the steppes of Mongolia, in terms of the peace of it all. Beautiful but in a much more rugged - even startling - way.
The sensations each day on this recce tour were intense at times, and it really was unforgettable.
Do please get in touch if you’re interested in joining us in April, 5th - 14th.
We’d love to meet you out there.
On the way to Sa’pa.
We’d like to thank Minh Ha for this incredible trip and Brendon for connecting us.