Saigon to Hanoi

The trick to leaving Saigon is to avoid Highway 1. Ride east through Thu Duc to the Cat Lai ferry, which shuttles across the Dong Nai River all day and takes about ten minutes. On the far bank, follow the main road through Nhon Trach to QL51 and turn south. QL51 is 40 km of trucks and factory gates: not pretty, but wide, and bikes keep to the right-hand lane.

At Ba Ria the day improves. Ride on through Dat Do to meet the sea at Phuoc Hai, and the road then stays close to it past the beaches of Ho Tram and Ho Coc to Binh Chau. From there QL55 runs to the fishing town of La Gi, DT719 follows the shore to Ke Ga lighthouse, and the newer DT719B rolls through dunes and dragon-fruit farms into Phan Thiet. Mui Ne is 25 km further round the bay.

It is a long first day. Be on the ferry by 7am, or split it in two with a night by the beach at Ho Tram, Binh Chau or La Gi. Nobody will think less of you, and day two then starts with the best of the coast.

Leave Mui Ne eastwards on the coast road (DT716), past the red dunes and on to the white dunes and lotus lake at Bau Trang. There the route turns inland on DT715, crosses Highway 1 at Luong Son and joins QL28B, the direct road to the highlands.

QL28B crosses dry scrub and then climbs Dai Ninh Pass, about 15 km of tight bends, to a plateau of coffee and the Dai Ninh reservoir. The road was rebuilt between 2024 and 2026 and was reported fully surfaced by July 2026, with slope and safety works still being finished. It is narrow on the pass and shared with produce trucks and sleeper buses that overtake boldly, so hold your line and let them go.

At the top you meet QL20. Follow it through Duc Trong, staying on the old highway through Dinh An rather than the Lien Khuong–Prenn expressway beside it, and climb the pine-clad Prenn Pass into Da Lat. You will have gained about 1,500 m and lost about ten degrees.

QL27C leaves Da Lat to the north-east, past the greenhouses of Lac Duong and into the pine and cloud forest of Bidoup–Nui Ba National Park. The high point comes at Hon Giao on the provincial border, at around 1,700 m, often with cloud blowing across the road.

Then comes Khanh Le Pass: 33 km of almost continuous descent, with waterfalls on the cliff side and a great deal of air on the other. The road levels out along the Cai River through Khanh Vinh and the old citadel town of Dien Khanh, and the last few kilometres into Nha Trang are flat and busy.

The pass needs a caveat. Landslides in November 2025 closed it for weeks, and repairs ran through 2026. In mid-November 2026 it was shut every night from 6pm to 5am, and traffic was being held in batches while crews stabilised the slopes. February is normally dry here, which helps, but check the situation in Da Lat the day before and cross in the morning.

North of Nha Trang you join Highway 1 (QL1) through Ninh Hoa and Van Gia. It is flat, fast and busy, with rice fields and salt pans on the seaward side. The expressway running inland is not for bikes, and you will not miss it.

Beyond Van Gia, cars and trucks go into the Co Ma and Ca Pass tunnels. Two-wheelers are not allowed in, so you follow the signs for the old road instead: a short hop over Co Ma, down to the beach village of Dai Lanh, then about 12 km over Ca Pass, high above Vung Ro Bay. With the heavy traffic underground, it is one of the nicest stretches of Highway 1 in the country.

After Tuy Hoa the highway passes lagoons and fish farms to Song Cau. About 15 km beyond the town, fork right onto QL1D, which follows the shore for the last 25 km into Quy Nhon.

QL19 heads west from Quy Nhon across the rice plain of Tay Son, home of the 18th-century rebellion that briefly reunited Vietnam, with a museum to its leader in Phu Phong. Then the road tilts up. An Khe Pass lifts you onto the first step of the plateau and, an hour later, Mang Yang Pass onto the second, into red earth, coffee, pepper and rubber.

QL19 is the main truck road between the port and the highlands. It has been widened, but through 2026 there were repeated reports of broken surface on An Khe Pass and in the towns of Mang Yang and Dak Doa. Take the passes steadily and overtake slow trucks only with a clear view.

At Pleiku turn north onto the Ho Chi Minh Road (signed QL14 here) for an easy last 47 km. Kon Tum is small and friendly, set on the Dak Bla River, with a century-old wooden church and the tall thatched communal houses, called rong, of the Bahnar people.

North of Kon Tum the Ho Chi Minh Road runs through coffee country to Dak To, scene of some of the hardest fighting of the war in 1967 and 1972. A hilltop memorial with two tanks stands in the town, and an old airstrip lies nearby. At Ngoc Hoi a road branches off to the Laos border, and most of the traffic goes with it.

From here the road is yours. It follows a river valley to Dak Glei, then climbs Lo Xo Pass through thick forest on the flank of the Ngoc Linh massif, and comes down to Kham Duc, a small district town where a wartime airstrip once ran.

Lo Xo is prone to landslides. In late October 2025 slips cut the road for four days. February is dry season and the pass should be clear, but expect patched sections, gravel on the bends and the odd crew still at work.

The Ho Chi Minh Road continues north from Kham Duc down a narrow, forested river valley for about 55 km to Thanh My. Traffic is light and the riding is lovely, though this stretch was also damaged by slips in late 2025, so watch for repairs.

Just past Thanh My, leave the Ho Chi Minh Road for QL14B, which follows the river east towards the coast. It carries trucks from the Laos border, so give them room. From Ai Nghia the flat DT609 runs through Dien Ban to Hoi An.

It is a short day on purpose. Arrive by lunchtime, hand in your laundry and take a rest day or two. Hoi An's old town is closed to motorbikes for much of the day, so you will be walking it anyway.

Take the coast road north from An Bang, past the Marble Mountains and along Da Nang's My Khe beach. Cross the Han River and follow Nguyen Tat Thanh street around the bay to the foot of the pass.

Hai Van Pass is about 20 km of sweeping bends, rising to roughly 500 m, with the sea on one side and jungle on the other. Motorbikes are barred from the tunnel underneath, so this road belongs to bikes, fuel tankers and sightseers. An old brick gate and wartime bunkers mark the top. The name means "sea cloud", and in February the pass often lives up to it: one side can be clear while the other is in mist.

The road drops to the lagoon and beach at Lang Co, then it is 65 km of Highway 1 to Hue, including two short tunnels (Phu Gia and Phuoc Tuong) that bikes share with trucks. Hue deserves at least one full day off the bike.

QL49 leaves Hue past the royal tombs of Khai Dinh and Minh Mang, then climbs through plantation forest over three passes (Kim Quy, Ta Luong and A Co) to the Ho Chi Minh Road near A Luoi. It is narrow, with close to a hundred sharp bends in 70 km. Since 2026 articulated lorries have been banned from it in daytime, which helps a good deal.

A Luoi sits in the A Shau valley, once a key branch of the wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail. A Bia, the hill American soldiers named Hamburger Hill, rises to the west. From here the Ho Chi Minh Road runs north for about 90 km through forest and the villages of the Pa Co and Van Kieu people: one of the emptiest stretches of the whole route.

The road meets QL9 at Dakrong Bridge. Turn left and climb the last 14 km to Khe Sanh, a coffee-growing town on a cool plateau and the site of the 1968 siege. The small museum at the old Ta Con airstrip is just north of town.

The Ho Chi Minh Road West starts just north of Khe Sanh, beside the old airstrip. It is a narrow road of concrete slabs that twists through the mountains along the Laos border. The first 45 km take you through the coffee farms of Huong Phung and over Sa Mu Pass; then come some 90 km of ridges and river valleys to Long Son, the only village of any size.

Beyond Long Son the road enters Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park. For the best part of 80 km it winds between forested limestone hills with hardly a vehicle in sight, which is exactly why people come. It ends at Tra Ang junction: turn right for the 15 km descent to Phong Nha village. (Left leads to Khe Gat, with Paradise Cave a few kilometres along; save that for the rest day.)

None of it is technically hard, and it is surfaced all the way. What makes it demanding is the length and the emptiness. Riders average 30–40 km/h, so leave at first light, carry what you need, and if the morning is thick with mist or rain, wait a day or take the eastern road.

From Phong Nha it is 14 km to Khe Gat, a wartime airstrip, where you join the main Ho Chi Minh Road. It climbs the short Da Deo Pass and then runs through the limestone valleys of Minh Hoa with almost no traffic for the best part of 100 km.

The country opens out after that. Huong Khe (about 125 km from Phong Nha) and Pho Chau (about 180 km) both have fuel, food and guesthouses. The road is wide and smooth, with a few more trucks and a great many wandering cows.

Across the Nghe An border the road passes the tea hills of Thanh Chuong and reaches Tan Ky, where a monument marks "Km 0", the official starting point of the wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail. It is the longest day of the route by distance, but on this road a steady 45–50 km/h comes easily. If the weather is foul or you would rather not hurry, stop in Pho Chau.

The Ho Chi Minh Road continues north through the farm country of western Nghe An and into Thanh Hoa province: sugar cane, rubber and long straights past Yen Cat and Lam Son to Ngoc Lac. At Cam Thuy it crosses the broad Ma River.

North of Cam Thuy the limestone hills begin to close in. About 35 km on, leave the Ho Chi Minh Road for QL12B and head east through Nho Quan, the gateway to Cuc Phuong National Park. The last few kilometres follow Highway 1 and a side road into Tam Coc.

Traffic builds through the day, with quarry trucks and dust on the final third. The reward is waking up tomorrow among rice paddies and karst towers, with a rest day in hand.

Join Highway 1 at Ninh Binh and ride north for 30 km to Phu Ly. This is the old highway, not the expressway beside it: a busy dual carriageway with plenty of trucks.

At Phu Ly, turn north-west onto QL21B. It is a two-lane country road through Que, Van Dinh and Kim Bai: slower than Highway 1, but calmer, with villages, rice fields and the limestone of the Perfume Pagoda hills away to your left.

At Ha Dong the city takes over. The last 12 km along QL6 into the centre are dense, slow and oddly orderly: hold a steady line, make no sudden moves and go with the flow. Then park by Hoan Kiem Lake, take the photo and enjoy the moment. You have ridden the length of Vietnam.