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Preparing your trip through Vietnam by motorbike can be challenging.

You need to make sure you have all you need before leaving, rent or buy your bike in a trustable place and carefully think about the itinerary.

After more than a month riding through Vietnam most epic landscapes, we are going to provide you with all the information you need to travel Vietnam by bike.

Can you imagine yourself going through completely lonely roads, passing by endless rice fields with exuberant limestones as a background and nobody else around? That is how it is going to be.

So keep reading, because we are going to make sure you have all you need before starting this terrific adventure.

Vietnam by motorbike- Introduction

When you travel Vietnam by motorbike, every journey is a wonderful adventure itself- from the crazy and chaotic Ho Chi Minh, to the curvy and scenic roads by the mountains.

Also, there are many parts of the journey where you’ll be there just by yourself. Isn’t that already awesome?!

In this post, we are going to give you all our best tips after crossing Vietnam by motorbike for a month. A colossal road trip of 2600kms, riding the classic Honda Win between lush green rice fields and dreamy landscapes.

Also, if you need more information about Vietnam, we have created a  complete guide which you can download in pdf for free! Check our travel guide to Vietnam here.

Lastly, we have also crafted a very useful ebook with a map, proposed itinerary, roads, places where to have some food, where to sleep, pictures and more. Check this amazing Ebook to travel Vietnam by motorbike by yourself.

If you want to know where to sleep when riding a motorcycle cross country or have a great itinerary with each journey detailed, we got you covered!

How to prepare to cross Vietnam by motorbike

preparing the motorbike in Vietnam

Every epic adventure has to begin somewhere. The beginning of this one requires a lot of investigation. What do you need to take, where to rent and which kind of bike to rent, price range, etc.

Keep reading and you’ll learn all you need for traveling Vietnam safely.

One thing we would recommend you though is, if you are not sure how to ride a motorbike, then you should not come here to learn.

What do I need to travel Vietnam by motorbike?

  • Travel insurance. This is a must to travel Vietnam safer. We did it with World Nomads and was a real peace of mind since we got pretty good coverage. Bear in mind there is no much in rural Vietnam, so traveling without insurance is not an option. You can quickly get a quote here.
  • International driving license. This is fast and easy to obtain but you should do this before you leave your country! In any case, if you drive carefully, they will hardly pull you over. But if you go through Mui Ne, then you have some chances of being stopped…
  • Sim card. They are pretty cheap and the internet connection in Vietnam is awesome, seriously. This will help a lot to find accommodation on the go and to check anything you may need.
  • Paper map. It can be useful if you lost or break your phone or simply run out of batery. Plus is very cheap.
  • Waterproof case for your phone (if your phone need it). If you use it as a GPS, is likely it will rain at some point, so this can be very helpful
  • Some good apps. Google maps, maps.me, scenic motorcycle, and whatever you use to check the weather.
  • Water.
  • Sunscreen protection.
  • Headlamp. It can be very useful.
  • Proper clothes. Sturdy shoes, long pants, a waterproof jacket, motorbike gloves and good helmet are some of the musts.

Where to look for the right motorbike

There are many places where you can look for a motorbike. Here are the ones we used:

  • Posters in the street or in hostels. You will find many posters and advertisements from people who traveled in a motorbike and they are now back willing to sell the motorbike
  • Talking to people in your hostel. If you are in a hostel you will have a better chance to find somebody who just came back and willing to sell their motorbike and practical tips.
  • Facebook groups. There are many facebooks groups where you can easily find info and people selling motorbikes. This one pretty active. Otherwise, just type “Vietnam by motorbike” on Facebook and check the groups.
  • Google it. In case you haven’t found any with the previous methods, Google will give you plenty of choices where to look.

Where to rent a motorbike in Vietnam (Our personal recommendation)

With the demand, comes the offer, but it also comes the scam. If like us, you are planning traveling Vietnam for a long time, do some proper research before committing to getting a bike which might be breaking up often.

After many hours of research and checking many different options our favorite place where to rent a motorbike is Rentabike Vietnam

Why? Simply because they offer reliable motorbikes and high-quality service. And not only that, they will help you in choosing the right bike according to your needs, and will even provide you with support on the road. How cool, right?!

Also, they always have some kind of promotion to get you a good deal. So just drop them a line if you have any doubts.

Should I buy or rent the motorbike?

Normally most of the people buy a second-hand motorbike to travel the country and when they end, they will sell it back. This means there are plenty of motorbikes being “recycled” all the time, which gives you a very competitive price, but also the chance to be scammed.

You need to consider if you want something cheap with a higher risk to break down, or still affordable and more reliable. For us the decision was easy.

If you go to Rentabike Vietnam, then they will already provide you with a nice motorbike in good shape. It is in their interest to have happy customers, so even though might be a bit more expensive, you know you are having something good.

You just need to contact them and tell them what you are looking for and your budget and they will deal with that and provide you with the best offer.

Also, we carried 2 backpacks and 2 smalls packs on our Honda Win. So if your question is what is the best motorcycle for backpackers? The Honda Win worked pretty well for us.

In case you just feel like buying the motorbike instead, that is also ok. Most of the people who do that are able to sell for a really similar price or even the same at which they bought it for, being the investment minimum. Imagine buying for 350$ and selling for 300$ or so. We know many people manage to do it.

The only problem with that approach is that you will need to allow some extra time to make sure you sell it before you leave.

How to choose the right motorbike?

Either if you buy or rent, you should examine the motorbike in detail. . We would recommend using this amazing infographic from ride expeditions to go through all the checks you should perform.

checklist for buying a used bike

By all means, regardless of the option you choose, ask to try it ALWAYS. You are going to spend a lot of time on your bike, so you want to make sure you are comfortable and also see if there is something wrong. Try it properly, don’t be scared. Test speed, brakes, light, etc.

Just bear in mind that all has its advantages and disadvantages. So make a list and try to find all the pros and cons to see which option works better for you.

Another important thing you should always ask is for the motorbike blue card. This is the ownership papers of the motorbike and the most important piece you should have with you.

Time to Leave- Vietnam by motorbike best tips

Make sure you have an itinerary

As we pointed before, planning an itinerary is very important. You should not leave until you have one. At the very least for the journey ahead. No need for planning a full week.

The main reason is that by the time you are tired of driving and decide you want to rest, you might find there is nothing in the next 150km around you. And is not that hard to happen, so do proper planning. It is ok to change it later, but it is good to have it as a baseline

We have provided one of the most classic itineraries that most of the people who travel Vietnam does, a bit further down. If you want to see the one we did exactly with the same stops and roads,  and much more useful information about the whole journey, you cant get our ebook to have access to all this information and much more.

Familiarize with your motorbike

Try to spend some time with the bike around the city before heading out with all your bags.

If you are inexperienced, all the extra weight of your bags, the crazy traffic from the city, the unfamiliar you are with that new bike, etc, can be overwhelming. So take one step at a time.

Take the motorbike around the city. Test the speed, brakes, learn where lights are, horn and every single bit of it. Get exposed a bit to the traffic.

The key here is the confidence and of course, being cautious.

Learn some basic circulation rules

The rule is that there is no rule. Haha, seriously.

The good thing is that we have been given common sense, so let’s use it.

From our experience, our recommendations would be:

  1. Stay focus on the road. A motorbike, a bike, a car, a kid, a goat, you name it. Anything could cross in front of you within a millisecond, so avoid distractions while riding.
  2. The most important one and the trick to ride Vietnam by motorbike is not to do any abrupt movements. They are so messy driving, yes. But stop and analyze them for a second. You will see that although one might cross from side to another without even looking, is because they do so little by little instead of all of a sudden. If you master that, there is nothing to fear. Remember, try to drive as much in a straight line as you can, avoiding any abrupt move and you and the people around you, will be safe.
  3. As an extension of the previous point, if you drive with a low profile, police will hardly stop you. It does not matter if you have a yellow dinosaur as a passenger as long as you are respectful with the traffic, they won’t mess with you if you behave (most likely).
  4. Use the horn. They use it, so use it as well to alert them if they are getting in your way or if they do something weird. Let them know that you are coming!
  5. Avoid riding at night. There are no lights on the road, and you will be driving through dirt roads at some point, so it can be dangerous. This is why you need to plan ahead!

Planning your motorbike itinerary.

getting ready for motorbike ride

Alright, so we have done the tedious part and we are ready to start the adventure of riding Vietnam by motorbike! A life-changing experience which you will never forget.

We would advise doing this trip with plenty of time. The most scenic and lonely roads are normally the ones which take longer to get from one point to another. That is why they will be mostly for yourself, although it will take you longer.

When building your ideal route, try to look for the balance. Sometimes is ok to take a faster route just to have more time to enjoy on your destinations in places like Hoi An to name one.

The classic Vietnam motorbike itinerary

The route below one of the easiest ones with a great balance of seaside and mountain, and the one we were planning on doing when we first arrived. But we end up doing a different one.

With this route, you can cover most of Vietnam highlights and still see really incredible landscapes:

Ho Chi Minh- Da Lat- Nha Trang- Buon Ma Thuot- Kon Tum- Kham Duc- Hoi An-Hue- Khe Sanh- Phon Nha- Vinh- Nin Binh- Hanoi

vietnam map

Our recommended itinerary

The highlights our itinerary were with no doubt the mountains and some mesmerizing isolated places.

The landscape was pretty awesome- through lush green paddy fields, massive limestones and rarely traffic.

Even though we did some journeys by the sea, we found the most beautiful and truly isolated places were by the mountain.

One of the things we liked the most, was the right balance of duration and kilometers of each journey, which is the hardest part. That allowed us to spend extra time in some rural escapes where there is almost nobody and in truly unique places with no tourism.

We rode for a total of 2,600 km full of pure adventure!

If you really want to make the most of your adventure and ride Vietnam by motorbike through really breathtaking places where there won’t be more people than yourself, you should take a look at our Vietnam itinerary.

There is no more Vietnam off the beaten track than this.

Only for the time you are going to save on looking for a balanced route with not a lot of kilometers good stops along the way, together with places where to stay and eat, is well worth it.

Conclusion

Although Vietnam by bike is a wonderful experience, if you don’t do it properly it can also be exhausting.

There are a lot of different routes, from different durations and different landscapes.

Just try to choose the places you’d like to visit and take into account the time it will take.

If you want to have a totally detailed itinerary, with the best routes, places to stay and eat and more, click the button below.

If you have any questions or doubts leave a comment below.

LET’S DRIVE!

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Are you looking for a great adventure in Vietnam? Check out this practical guide for renting and exploring Vietnam by motorbike. It also includes tips on where to rent, and great itinerary sample to explore the country. #vietnam #guide #itinerary #adventure #travelvietnam #vietnammotorbike
Learn everything you need to travel Vietnam by Motorbike. Discover whether if buying or renting, where to look for your bike, recommendation between scooters and the glorious Honda Win and some more information about the country to make the most of this adventure. #vietnam #traveltips #motorbike #vietnamtravel