North Vietnam Family Explorer

We ride a total of 110 km over 4 cycling days. This tour is ideal for families that want to expose the young ones to bicycle touring while packing in a whole lot of North Vietnam's cultural and natural highlights. The riding takes place on mixed surface roads through flat and rolling terrain amidst scenic rural areas far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We include vehicle transfer at the beginning and/or end of each ride, allowing us to avoid busy main roads, keep the distances manageable, and focus on the most enjoyable routes.

Beyond the cycling, highlights include painting water puppets in the Red River Delta, taking a rowboat through the Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve, and visiting a wildlife rescue centre dedicated to endangered primates and pangolins in Cuc Phuong National Park. In the highlands of Pu Luong, we trek among the terraced rice fields, cool off at Hieu Waterfall, and cook sticky rice in a bamboo shoot.

The trip is fully supported, and your guide’s expert knowledge of the area and terrain means that you always know what is coming up in terms of distance and difficulty. This makes a tremendous difference, as does the constant supply of water and refreshments along the way.

**Suitability:* This trip is designed and suitable for families with children of any age. Besides a few inclines here and there, there are no sustained climbs and the rides are predominantly flat throughout. One exception is the ride in Pu Luong on Day 4, which has some tougher climbs, but they are optional. Navigating narrow lanes and occasional gravel, sand, or cratered country roads requires some handling skills but does not involve technical manoeuvring. The main challenge of the tour is keeping up stamina over back-to-back riding days and cycling in the tropical heat. The pace is leisurely and with plenty of refreshment stops so riders with less experience are more than welcome to join. The support vehicle is always nearby to offer refuge to any weary cyclists.

Biking Conditions: Our rides include a mix of paved roads in varying conditions. You can expect smooth tarmac and concrete interspersed with narrow village roads and country lanes containing potholes, road debris, or loose gravel. Although much of the route follows quiet countryside roads with minimal traffic, we regularly share the roads with cars, motorbikes, and buses. There are a few unavoidable sections along main roads, particularly when entering or leaving towns and near popular sites. We generally ride rain or shine, but route modifications can be made based on the guide’s discretion and your family's comfort level. It is all part of the adventure!

Accommodations: Accommodations on this tour are character-filled, well-regarded hotels at the 3- to 4-star level. Expect clean, spacious rooms with air conditioning, professional service, and swimming pools. Room configurations are based on double or twin rooms, with the option to add one or two extra beds where available. Connecting rooms are subject to availability and cannot be guaranteed. If your family's preferred room configuration isn't available at a listed hotel, we may need to switch to an alternative property (surcharges might apply). For larger groups or in cases of limited availability, we may utilise more than one accommodation or switch to an alternative property from the one originally listed in the itinerary.

Bikes

Bike hire is included in the tour. Child bikes are available. We provide hardtail mountain bikes from well-known brands. Child carriers (typically for ages 1-4) and trailers (typically for ages 5-11) are also available but limited in supply and weight limits apply - please let us know as early as possible if you'll require a carrier or a trailer and we will do our best to secure one for you. E-bikes are available for hire but only for adults.

Bike Repairs

Basic spares and tools are carried by the guide and on the support vehicle, though we cannot guarantee having spares for every conceivable problem. Carrying a basic tool kit, a spare tube and a pump while riding is recommended.

Safety

Wearing a helmet is required on all our biking adventures and is non negotiable. If you do not wear a helmet you will not be allowed to cycle. Your tour leader is trained in first aid and emergency rescue, but to a large degree you must be responsible for your own safety while riding. It is therefore compulsory that you take out travel insurance that will cover you for a mountain biking tour.

Guides

You will be led by a local English-speaking guide and if the group is 9 people or more we will add another guide to the tour. All our guides are well informed in the history, culture and religions of the area where you are biking and are skilled at passing that knowledge on to you. Your guide is also medically trained and an experienced cyclist, able to handle most minor repairs en route.

If this is the tour for you here's what you need to do to confirm your place:

FLEXIBLE BOOKING CONDITIONS

CONFIRMING YOUR BOOKING

Just complete our online booking form or send your booking details offline (email or post), and we will confirm your participation. No deposit is needed to confirm your place on a SpiceRoads tour.

You are advised to read our Booking Conditions in full before you make your payment and should you require further clarifications of any of the conditions below, please email us or call our office.

TRIP STATUS

There is a minimum number of participants (usually 2) required to enable the trip to go ahead. Once the minimum number is reached, the trip status will change from 'Available' to 'Guaranteed to Depart'. Once a trip is guaranteed to depart you are free to book your flights and make other travel arrangements. If the trip status is ‘Limited’ will mean we have only a small number of spaces available for booking. If you are unsure about the trip status, please email us or call our office.

BOOKING ONLINE

From the tour page, click the 'Book Now' link. All departures for this tour will appear, just select the date you'd like to travel. For the next steps, you'll need to know the names of the people travelling. If you wish you can also provide extra details such as passport numbers, height (for bike hire), or you can add that later by logging into Manage My Trip (we'll set up an account for you automatically if you don't already have one). Our system will contact you from time to time to fill in the missing information, as it will be required before departure. However, if the trip that you are booking offers a child discount, you will have to fill out the date of birth of each rider (so we can calculate the appropriate discount).

If you are having any problems please send us an email, or give us a call (+66 026 3295) and one of our travel specialists will assist you with your booking.

BOOKING OFFLINE

Just call us or send an email indicating which trip you want to join and we will happily send you a list of questions and process your booking for you.

DEPOSITS AND PAYMENTS

We do not require a deposit or full payment to book a place for you on a tour.

The balance of the tour’s cost (final invoice) will need to be paid 60 days before the departure date with fees for any bicycle rental(s), single supplement(s) and extra hotel nights.

In the case where a booking is made when there are less than 60 days until the tour departure date, the tour’s cost should be paid in full within 72 hours of receiving an invoice from SpiceRoads. Payment can be made by credit card using our online payment gateway or by bank transfer. When making payment online you will need to confirm that you have read these booking conditions during the "checkout" process, which equates to agreeing to the terms of services and stipulations as indicated in this document.

In all cases, tour fees need to be paid “in full” before participation in a tour. No person(s) will be allowed to join a tour without fully settling their invoice and receiving a confirmation number from SpiceRoads.

The exception can be made for last-minute miscellaneous fees that can be paid locally (visas, additional local hotel bookings, etc.) can be settled on the day of arrival.

FULL FLEXIBILITY FOR TOUR CANCELATIONS

If the tour is cancelled or postponed by SpiceRoads because we didn't make the trip numbers and the tour can’t run, we will make a full cash refund (by bank transfer or on your credit card).

If the tour is cancelled for any other reason, including due to Covid related travel restrictions, we will give you a full credit (with no deductions for admin or any other small-print item) to use on any SpiceRoads tour with no time limit. (Exceptions being flights, special permits and other non-refundable items and these will be advised when booking the trip).

Before paying for your tour, you can cancel your booking with no charge and up until 40 days before departure, you can change your booking to another travel date or move your booking onto another SpiceRoads tour with no charges.

If you need to cancel after you have made full payment, please see our cancellation policy.

Loyalty Riders Club

International Flights

Newsletter