Offroad to The North West

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Written by a Tigit guide and lightly edited by Jon. Keeping the language and grammar very Vietnamese! Enjoy.

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The North West is known as the best section for riding with rough roads and stunning views. It is also a very local area for travelers to explore, to see the real Vietnam.

For on-road riders, it would be very nice to ride on local, small, steep and curvy roads such as QL32, DT174, DT156,…
For off-road riders, even if you have done the whole the North by yourself or following Tigit recommendation maps, there are still many trails up in the moutains out there for you that are not on any maps. The trails still lead you to the same destinations you want, but have absolutely no tourism.

It is a serious adventure trip that everyone can dream about. Everything is very random, it can be easy, or, it can be difficult, it can be possible but it can also be impossible. No plan is a perfect plan.

The trails can be very different every time you ride, changed by the weather.
You have to make your decision to go or not to go. Sometimes you realize that it is even more difficult to go back after climbing up or going down a hill.

Hotel: Linh Hương hotel is the best in the town, VIP room costs 500.000vnd.

Food: Quán Bia Xanh is a local beer place where you can have good Vietnamese Foods.

This day is a good practice for newbie to get use to offroading. I used to ride with a few Tigit customers on their first day of riding a motorbike. It is only 4 hours on highway from Hanoi to Phu Yen but takes us up to 8 hours on trails.

Note: We now skip the section in Ba Vì National Park to save time for more riding in the afternoon.

Day 2: Phu Yen to Ta Xua

Hotel: We don’t have any recommendations for hotel in Tà Xùa.
If you don’t mind about hard mattresses, there are full of cozy homestays in the town.
Hotels are always full booking on Saturday, if you can’t find a room, go to Bac Yen for 20km more but half price cheaper.

Food: All homestay have good Vietnamese Food, my recommendation is hot pot with black chicken.

This day is very difficult for me to ride in wet weather, It is very cool to ride this map. It takes you 1 and half hour to ride straight from Phu Yen to Ta Xua but takes up to a full day of riding to climb over the moutain. Look at the pictures above to decide if you want to go or not.

Day 3: Ta Xua to Tram Tau

Hotel: Zoni Tram Tau is the best homestay you can look for.
Food: Vietnamese food at homestays.

This day map takes you through many peaceful H’mong villages, you can not imagine how locals live and ride on the trails everyday.

The map just updated, now we ride to Lang Cheu instead of DTT112. DT112 used to be very nice offroad trail but has been done already.

The plan: You ride from Ta Xua to Tram Tau, leave everything at the hotel then keep riding for a loop around the town, go for a hot spring before dinner.