Cycling 14D/13: See 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Overal, I thought this trip was great! Dat was fantastic guide, friendly, helpful, professional – and did a great job of introducing us to Vietnamese culture through some legends, food and explaning about argiculture.. What would have been nice is if we had more days with definite goals (I like cycling from one landmark to another landmark) even though it is difficult to balance with showing us the variety in the country personally. I would have like to learn more about how to say words properly(sh) in Vietnamese and maybe more still about the culture/history but I think that the balance was probably good. 10 - 23 Feb, 2016

The tour was very good – an excellent way to see many parts of the country in a two week period.
Dat was an exceptional guide. It is hard to think that that someone else could be better. He was very helpful in many ways, often doing more to help us than we would expect.
The biggest problem we faced was arriving at the hotel and finding it closed during th Tet holiday. It was nice that things worked out as well as they did.
If we were American, the tour value would be exceptional, but our Canadian dollar has fallen a lot in the last  few months so I can only say good. For what we received, it was certainly reasonable. If someone else,asks me, I will recommend your company – especially it Dat is the guide. 10 - 23 Feb, 2016

Hi Van,

On behalf of myself and my family I would like to say thank you to you and your crew for making our holiday in Vietnam a success.  The itinerary you planned for this trip, both the types of riding that we did and the activities involved, fit our needs perfectly - and Dat was an absolutely excellent guide - friendly, energetic, and both very knowledgeable and very helpful.  When things didn't go quite perfectly (like when the hotel we were booked into in Nha Trang was closed) we correctly had complete confidence that things would work out.  Overall, your support team took great care of us.

Because of the ages and commitments of our boys, this was the trip of a lifetime - it will very probably be the last time we will ever have to be together on a holiday excursion like this. I am happy to say that we picked the right country, the right company to help us, and the right tour!  As I said in my written evaluation, if anyone asks, it will be easy for me to recommend Vietnam as a destination and Vietnam Backroads as a tour company.

I hope that it is alright to add a couple of thoughts.

On your website I see that there are some pictures and videos of various tours.  I have many pictures to go through from our trip.  If you are interested, after I go through them I can send you five or six of ours that you can add to your collection if you wish.

A year and a half ago, Nancy and I did a bike trip in Albania that was advertised as a UN World Heritage Site tour.  (also an excellent adventure)  In reflecting on your tour, I wonder whether you might wish to consider using a similar title to describe the tour we took.  As we visited five UN world heritage sites (more than we saw in Albania), it would be a very accurate description and perhaps would draw more attention to the tour, at least for certain people. 10 - 23 Feb, 2016

Thank you Quang,
We are home now unfortunately, having just spent our first week back at work.

Matt and I thoroughly enjoyed our Vietnam Backroads trip, despite my feedback. Our tour guide Dat and Mr Van were fantastic in immediately recognising my limitations and adjusted the cycling routes and distances accordingly to more closely suit my abilities.
The tour itself was good value for money and extremely well organised with high quality, centrally located hotels and a never ending supply of delicious local food!
We loved our time in Vietnam and agree that cycling Vietnams backroads is definitely the best way to see the country.
We would certainly consider another trip with you (at a shorter distance!) and recommend Vietnam Backroads to friends and family. 16^th - 29^th Mar 2014

Hi Vietnam Backroads,

Yes - now safely back in the UK. Although there was some snow on the ground when we arrived home last weekend the temperature has just warmed up here and it is now slightly warmer than it was on our first day in Hanoi (17 degrees)!!

We continued to have a great time on our Halong Bay cruise and were looked after well by your guide in Hanoi who also organised a final airport transfer for us.
 
Mike and I have now reflected on the holiday and both of us were profoundly moved by the whole experience of Vietnam and Cambodia. In particular we found Vietnamese people to be very friendly and welcoming, the food amazing and the scenery spectacular and varied.
 
We were delighted with the service we received from Vietnam Backroads right from the first contact with you through to the biking trip and the end in Hanoi. It is hard to be critical because we know how much effort you all put in and we feel the trip was really good value for money. Mike and I both think that the trip was even better because Van was with us. As the owner he was able to decide to give us even more out of the trip (e.g food stops) than perhaps Harry could decide on his own on a set budget. The bikes were great, well maintained and the team did everything for us including lending us gloves/sleeves!  We went to some wonderful restaurants which we would never have found on our own and were amazed at the quality and quantity of food we were able to order within the package price (and more importantly Van/Harry would order for us which made life really easy and ensured we got to try local specialities). Similarly the drink stops were well organised and much more frequent than we anticipated and the unexpected fruit stops were great. The biking routes were brilliant and we felt we really got a chance to see the 'real' Vietnam.  Finally, the team were very flexible in changing itinery/hotels (e.g Hanoi) at short notice.
 
It is very difficult to find areas for improvement....on a minor point the hotel we moved to in Hanoi, although set in a spectacular location, was a bit run down and unfortunately they had drained the swimming pool for the season. However this had no impact on the trip as the weather continued cloudy until we left! We cant think of anything else we would change!!
 
All in all a brilliant trip and we hope to come back and do Laos at some time with you. Please give our regards to Van and Harry and show them the attached pictures. We would recommend Vietnam Backroads to anyone travelling to Vietnam and if you are able to send us some of your new cycling shirts we would happily wear them as an advert for thecompany. 1st - 14th April 2013. video clip Cycling with Vietnam Backroads
Add: 6 Heather Lea Avenue Sheffield, England S1730J

Hello Hue,

We are back in the flatlands, in Holland. We have wonderful memories of our trip in Vietnam, we are very happy about the holiday. This was the first time we were on a biking holiday and we were very impressed by the smooth organisation of Vietnam Backroads. We are very happy about every aspect of the holiday and don't know anything we are not happy - not even when we think very hard on it.

To be specific we are very happy about:
- the information before the trip (website, e-mails, adjustments on standard program).
- the bikes were of high quality and well maintained.

To be honest we were a bit worried about it in advance as it is so important for the quality of the trip. Even when the bike size was not correct for me on the first day it was solved the next day with a larger framesize.
- the mechanical skills of Van and Trang. They continously optimized the bikes for us.
- the routes and the maps by Van - they were really the backroads of Vietnam and we never had to bike on the busy and dangerous highways. The routes were easily adapted to the circumstances (longer or shorter trip). Combined with the mechanical skills this is for us the most unique features of this company.
- the chosen hotels. The only hotel which fell al little out of tune was the one in Hanoi.
- the information Trang gave to us about the history and culture of Vietnam.
- the safe driving of Mr. Huang. In a way we were always happy to see him as we knew that he would have fresh water and fruits for us ready. During transfers we felt always very safe.

One advice for booking the flight tickets: ask for the names as given in the pasports, since a change can cause problems at in checking for the flights. Another thing is that one request for not taking any more pictures of your guests should have been enough, and three requests is too many. We're happy to recommand your company to anyone who wants to cycle in Vietnam. We're certainly to return to your company one day to have another trip in Vietnam or Cambodia

Best regards, 23 May 2012.