Routes
Northern Vietnam Motorcycle Routes: Maps, Loops & Itineraries
Northern Vietnam is where most riders come when they want mountain roads, big scenery and days where the riding itself is the reason for travelling. The difficult part is deciding where to go. Hà Giang gets most of the attention, but it is only one part of a much larger riding area stretching from the Northwest mountains around Mai Châu and Sa Pa to Cao Bằng, Bản Giốc and Ba Bể in the Northeast.
This guide is here to help you choose the right part of Northern Vietnam for the time you have available. Once you have chosen an area, you can use our detailed route maps and loop guides to work out the individual roads, stops and overnight locations.
When you start planning individual riding days, it is also worth understanding your bike’s range and when to refuel on more remote roads. Our motorcycle fuel guide for Vietnam covers fuel range, petrol types, economy and sensible refuelling on longer trips.
Where Should You Ride in Northern Vietnam?
There isn’t one Northern Vietnam motorcycle route that is right for everyone. A rider with three days from Hanoi needs a completely different plan from somebody with ten or fourteen days, while an experienced rider on a CB500X may also make different choices from somebody taking their first mountain trip on an XR150L.
| Route | Best for | Allow |
|---|---|---|
| Northwest Loop | Sapa, Mu Cang Chai, Dien Bien Phu and long mountain touring | 8-10 days |
| Ha Giang Loop | Dramatic mountain roads and the most famous scenery | 5-6 days from Hanoi |
| Northeast / Cao Bang Loop | Quieter roads, Ban Gioc, Pac Bo and Ba Be | Around 6 days |
| Central North Loop | Experienced riders wanting a long mixed-region journey | 10-14+ days |
| Southwest / Black River Loop | A shorter first trip from Hanoi | 3-4 days |
| Laos Border Loop | Mai Chau, Pu Luong and quieter western roads near the Laos border | Around 4 days |
| Cat Ba / Ha Long Bay Run | Coast, island riding and an easier short trip | 2-3 days |
| Southern Run | A one-way journey from Hanoi towards Danang or farther south | 7-8 days to Danang |
The easiest way to start is to choose the part of the North that interests you most. Hà Giang has the famous high mountain roads, Cao Bằng and the Northeast are quieter and spread over a much larger area, while the Northwest gives you longer journeys through places such as Mai Châu, Mù Cang Chải, Sa Pa and Bắc Hà.
Hà Giang
Hà Giang is the obvious choice if you want dramatic mountain scenery packed into a relatively small area. Đồng Văn, Mèo Vạc, Yên Minh, Du Già and the roads between them give you plenty of options, which is why we don’t think of Hà Giang as one fixed loop anymore.
You can build three-, four- or five-day routes through the region and change the journey considerably depending on the roads you choose between each town. Our individual maps are designed to show these alternatives rather than send every rider around exactly the same circuit.
If Hà Giang is your priority, start with our Hà Giang Loop itinerary
If you are riding up from Hanoi rather than transporting the bike, see our Hanoi to Hà Giang motorcycle route map
Hà Giang is spectacular, but it is also much busier than it used to be. If you have enough time, I would seriously consider combining it with Bảo Lạc, Cao Bằng or Ba Bể rather than simply riding to Hà Giang and back.
Cao Bằng and Northeast Vietnam
Cao Bằng is becoming one of our favourite areas for independent motorcycle touring. The individual attractions are excellent — Bản Giốc Waterfall, Pác Bó, Phia Oắc, Trùng Khánh and the limestone valleys around the Chinese border — but the bigger attraction for a rider is the amount of good road between them.
It also works particularly well as a route-building region. You can connect Cao Bằng with Bảo Lạc, Ba Bể, Bản Giốc, Pác Bó and eventually Hà Giang, with several different roads available on some sections. That means you do not have to ride the same loop as everyone else.
For a complete trip from Hanoi, see our 6-day Northeast Vietnam Motorcycle Loop
For a closer look at the region itself, see our Cao Bằng Loop motorcycle guide
Northwest Vietnam
The Northwest feels different again. Here the distances are generally greater and the landscape opens out into long mountain valleys, high passes and larger riding days.
Mai Châu makes a relatively easy first stop from Hanoi before you continue towards places such as Tà Xùa, Mù Cang Chải, Sa Pa, Bắc Hà and the more remote parts of Điện Biên and Lai Châu. This region works particularly well if you have a week or more and actually enjoy covering some distance on the motorcycle.
Our Northwest Loop 10-day itinerary is a useful starting point if you want to understand how the main destinations fit together.
The Northwest is also one of those places where the route between the overnight stops matters at least as much as the destination. There can be a big difference between the fastest road shown by Google and the road we would actually choose to ride.
Ba Bể and the Connecting Routes
Ba Bể is sometimes treated as a destination on its own, but for motorcycle touring I think its real value is as a connecting point.
It sits naturally between Hanoi, Cao Bằng and the western mountain routes towards Bảo Lạc and Hà Giang. This allows you to build much more interesting journeys than simply riding from Hanoi to one famous loop and returning along the same corridor.
For example, a rider can travel Hanoi → Ba Bể → Cao Bằng → Bảo Lạc → Hà Giang and eventually return to Hanoi by a completely different route. The individual A-to-B maps become particularly useful when planning a trip like this because you can build the journey one section at a time. To start the example above, you could begin by looking at Ba Be Lake to Cao Bang and then build a whole northern loop from there.
Longer Northern Vietnam Loops
Once you have ten days or more, I would stop thinking in terms of individual loops altogether. Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Ba Bể and the Northwest can start to become parts of one much larger journey.
Our Central North Loop gives an idea of what becomes possible when these regions are connected.
For riders who would prefer to join an organised trip, our 14-Day Due North tour connects many of the major northern riding areas into one continuous route.
The advantage of having more time is not simply that you can go further. You can also take smaller roads, stop more often and change the route when the weather or road conditions suggest that another option would be better.
How Many Days Do You Need?
Three or four days is enough for a shorter loop from Hanoi, but you need to be realistic about how much of Northern Vietnam you can actually see. Mountain kilometres take considerably longer than highway kilometres, and you really need at least one day to get out of and then back into Hanoi. Trying to squeeze too much into a short trip usually means spending all day on the bike and riding past the places you came to see.
With five or six days, Cao Bằng, Hà Giang or a Northeast loop begin to become more practical. You can still cover serious ground, but the trip has enough space for waterfalls, caves, markets, villages and the occasional road that turns out to be considerably slower than expected.
Seven to ten days gives you much more freedom. You can link regions together, include rest or sightseeing time and choose roads because they are interesting rather than because they are the fastest way to the next hotel.
With ten to fourteen days, a proper Northern Vietnam circuit becomes possible. At that point I would normally build the trip around several regions rather than repeatedly returning towards Hanoi.
The mistake we see most often is not riders choosing the wrong region. It is riders trying to put too many regions into too few days.
Use the Route Maps to Build Your Own Trip
The itineraries on this site show how complete journeys can work, but they are not intended to be the only way to travel. We have been building individual motorcycle route maps because the most useful question when you are actually touring is often much simpler: What is the best way to get from here to there tomorrow?
Some locations have one sensible road between them. Others have two or three alternatives, with different combinations of scenery, road surface, distance and difficulty. Where those alternatives exist, our maps show them separately so that you can decide which route suits your bike, experience and available time.
You can learn how the system works in our Guide to AZ Motorbikes Route Maps.
This also lets you build a trip backwards. Decide where you want to stay tonight, look at the possible routes to tomorrow’s destination, then choose the road based on what you actually want from the day.
That is much closer to how we plan our own motorcycle tours.
Choosing the Bike and Planning the Riding
For most northern trips, a lightweight dual-sport such as an XR150L or XR190L is an easy motorcycle to live with. They are light enough for broken roads and tight mountain sections while still being capable of covering the distances required on a multi-day tour.
Larger motorcycles such as the CB500X can be very comfortable on longer routes and faster connecting roads, but weight becomes more noticeable if a mountain road turns rough, muddy or narrow. Your riding experience should therefore influence the route as much as the engine size.
Weather matters too. Northern Vietnam can change considerably through the year, and heavy rain can turn an otherwise straightforward mountain road into something very different. Landslides, roadworks, fog and wet polished surfaces are all reasons to keep some flexibility in the itinerary.
The same applies to daily distance. One hundred and fifty kilometres through the mountains can easily become a full day’s ride once you add breakfast, fuel, lunch, photo stops, roadworks and sightseeing. A good example is the Đồng Văn to Du Già route via Mèo Vạc. The distance doesn’t look particularly long on a map, but the mountain roads, viewpoints and stops along the way mean it can take most of the day. We would rather finish a day’s riding early and have time to explore than arrive after dark because an itinerary looked good on a spreadsheet.
Before setting off, also make sure you understand the licensing, insurance and riding requirements for Vietnam. A good route does not compensate for travelling with the wrong documentation or riding a motorcycle you are not legally entitled to use. You can get full information in our Vietnam Legal Vault.
Ride Independently or Take a Guided Tour
If you are comfortable planning your own accommodation and navigating day by day, Northern Vietnam is extremely rewarding to ride independently. The route maps on this site are being built specifically to make that easier, and our team can also give rental customers current advice before they leave Hanoi.
You can see the motorcycles available through our Vietnam motorcycle rental fleet.
Independent travel gives you the freedom to change your plan, stay somewhere longer or follow a road simply because it looks interesting. For experienced travellers, that flexibility is a big part of the attraction.
A guided tour makes more sense if you would rather concentrate on the riding and leave navigation, hotels and daily logistics to somebody else. It can also open up roads and stops that are difficult to identify when you are researching the country for the first time. Having a local expert on hand who can deal with any small issues and get on the spot mountain information can be invaluable.
You can see our current Vietnam motorcycle tours here.
Whichever way you choose to travel, don’t try to see the whole North in one trip. Pick a region that fits your available time, use the route maps to understand your options and leave enough space in the itinerary to enjoy the roads.
Self-Guided or Guided?
An independent rider has far more useful information available now than a few years ago. Our route-map hub contains individual road sections, loop maps and alternatives, so you can build the trip one day at a time rather than relying on a single line drawn across Northern Vietnam.
The important part is to use the map as a planning tool rather than a promise that every road will be perfect when you arrive. Heavy rain, landslides, construction and local roadworks can change the best route quickly, particularly in the mountains. If you rent from us, ask the Hanoi team about the current road situation before leaving.
A guided tour makes more sense when you want to use smaller roads without spending the trip researching accommodation, navigation and daily logistics. It is also useful for a group with limited time, because the guide can change the route when weather or road conditions make the original plan less attractive. If you are still deciding between the two approaches, our Solo vs. Guided Tour guide looks at the practical differences in more detail.
FAQ
What is the best motorcycle route in Northern Vietnam?
There isn’t one route that is best for every rider. Hà Giang has some of the most dramatic mountain scenery, Cao Bằng and the Northeast offer quieter roads and excellent border landscapes, while the Northwest works particularly well for longer trips through Mai Châu, Mù Cang Chải and Sa Pa. The amount of time you have is usually the best place to start when choosing between them.
How many days do I need to ride Northern Vietnam?
Five or six days is enough for one major region such as Hà Giang or Cao Bằng. Seven to ten days gives you more freedom to combine areas, while ten to fourteen days allows you to build a much larger Northern Vietnam circuit without turning every day into a long-distance ride.
For a practical example, see our 6-day Northeast Vietnam Motorcycle Loop.
Can I create my own Northern Vietnam motorcycle route?
Yes, and this is one of the reasons we are currently building individual A-to-B route maps. You can choose your overnight stops and then use the maps to compare the possible roads between each location rather than following one fixed itinerary.
Start with our Guide to AZ Motorbikes Route Maps to see how they work.
Can I rent a motorcycle in Hanoi and ride these routes independently?
No. Hà Giang deserves its reputation, but Cao Bằng, Bảo Lạc, Ba Bể and the Northwest contain some excellent motorcycle roads and generally see fewer riders. If you have enough time, combining two regions can produce a much more varied trip than simply riding one famous loop.
Our Hà Giang vs Cao Bằng comparison is a useful place to start if you are choosing between them.
Can I rent a motorcycle in Hanoi for these routes?
Yes. Most of these northern routes can be ridden independently from Hanoi if you have the appropriate experience and documentation. Bike choice should depend on your experience, planned roads, passenger and luggage rather than simply choosing the largest motorcycle available.
See our motorcycle rental fleet for the current bikes available.
Start Planning Your Northern Vietnam Motorcycle Route
Northern Vietnam is too large and too varied to reduce to one famous loop. Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Ba Bể and the Northwest all offer very different riding, and some of the best trips are created by connecting them.
Start with the amount of time you have, choose the region that interests you and then use our route maps to work out how you want to travel between each stop. You can follow one of our complete itineraries, build your own route from the individual maps or ask us about putting the journey together as a guided tour.
If you want to ride independently, start by looking through our Vietnam motorcycle rentals.
If you would rather have the route, accommodation and logistics organised for you, see our Vietnam motorcycle tours.