Riding a motorbike through Vietnam isn’t the easiest way to travel through the country, but it certainly is the most fun and adventurous way. But there are some things you should be careful of:
- In Vietnam you wont get a bike bigger than 150cc, because they are expensive there. But a normal 125cc has got enough punch for the roads there.
- Speedlimits are 40 in the cities and 60 on rural roads. But in the cities you won’t reach the 40 most of the time anyway.
- Try to rent/buy a reliable bike, maybe semiautomatic if you want to go to the mountains. It’s no problem to drive, even if you have only driven automatics so far.
- Fuel is cheap at about 16000 Dong / 0.60 € per liter and gas stations are easy to find.
- If you need a mechanic, they are on the side of the road nearly everywhere, just don’t get ripped off and discuss the price beforehand.
We did the following procedure for renting the bikes. I searched for a motorbike rental company on the internet and made sure the reviews were good. We found Tigit Motorbikes in Saigon and their approach was very professional.
We bought the bikes for 1000$/bike and they bought it back for 800$/bike after two weeks. This isn’t the cheapest approach, but the bikes were of good quality, the contact was easy and we could send the bikes back from Dalat via an agent. (additional 800000 Dong / 30€ for the train)
Try to keep away from the main highways, they are no fun. The AH1 is the biggest road which runs from Ho-Chi-Minh City to Hanoi and it is no fun to be there in the night / heavy rain, or both. The roads marked in orange in Google Maps are only for cars.
The Hay Van Tunnel between Danang and Hue is also closed for bikes, but the Pass is much more beautiful and swift to drive anyway.
Vietnamese people are carrying everything on their bikes, so don’t be amazed if you see them carrying up to five pigs or 20 chicken.
We didn’t think it was too dangerous to drive in Vietnam, all the drivers are paying attention to each other in cities and speeds are not too high most of the time.
Motorbike wooden ferryboat, because the bridge was in construction:).
So if you plan on riding a bike in Vietnam, just do it, it’s helluva lot of fun.
imaginationcorpse 