Timeless Vietnam, Laos & Thailand

Seventeen nights in a loop from Chiang Mai, guided, 3,500 kilometres across Thailand, Laos and Vietnam over fourteen riding days.

Sukhothai comes first, the thirteenth-century capital that preceded Siam and a world heritage site, where the group swaps motorcycles for bicycles for a morning, which is the right speed for a site where the ruins are spread among trees and water rather than fenced into a compound.

Chiang Khan on the Mekong follows, then the border and the mountains of northern Laos, remote country with very little traffic on the roads. Vietnam comes next at Dien Bien Phu, where the French garrison fell in 1954 and the war in Indochina effectively ended, then the mountains around Sapa, the rice terraces at Nghia Lo and the limestone caves at Ninh Binh. Hanoi follows, which is a great deal of city to ride into, then the route turns back west to Luang Prabang and the mountains of Nan province.

The tour is guided; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. An International Driving Permit under the 1968 convention is required unless the licence was issued in an ASEAN country, which is worth sorting out well before departure. The riding is ninety-five per cent sealed with around five per cent gravel or broken surface, at 210 to 330 kilometres a day, so the daily distances are substantial by the standards of the operator’s shorter tours. The cool dry season from November to February is the window. Eighteen days and three countries at this price sits in the middle of the range, and the shape of it is a loop rather than a point-to-point, which removes the problem of getting home from somewhere awkward.