Northern Vietnam: Peaks & Passes Tour

Six nights in a loop from Hanoi, guided, 1,050 kilometres through the far north of Vietnam on a Honda CB500X.

Starting from Hanoi rather than Thailand is the distinction here, and it puts the group straight into the best riding country in the country: the mountains along the Chinese border, where the roads were cut by hand and the villages are a long way apart.

Thac Ba Lake opens it, reached past the tea plantations tended by H’mong and Dao families, with a homestay at Vu Linh on the lakeshore. Ha Giang follows, the gateway to the north, then Dong Van on the karst plateau, which is a world geopark of bare limestone towers and terraced smallholdings. Bao Lac comes next, then Ban Gioc, where the waterfall on the Chinese border is the widest in the country, and Bac Son, whose valley of paddy fields is among the most photographed views in Vietnam, before the return to Hanoi.

The Honda CB500X is included; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. The price shown is for one rider. The riding mixes good tarmac with light off-road sections, so no specialist experience is needed. September to November and March to May are the windows, with the terraces green in summer and gold just before the harvest, and the homestay nights are the part most riders remember rather than any particular pass. Seven days and a thousand kilometres is a steady pace by the standards of the region, with each day around five or six hours in the saddle.