#hueeasyrider

[hueeasyrider-blog]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0URz-75a_Q)

[hueeasyrider-blog]

Swimming in Elephant Spring - Hue Easy Rider

[georgie-m-blog1]

We packed a lot into our 6 day tour so I thought it best to summarise what we did, what was good and what to watch out for if you’re booking your own…

We went with three guides who all work with the Hue Easy Rider company - there are a plethora of companies but even more solo riders who claim to be “official” guides. I think the point to note is that there doesn’t appear to be any license or anything to be an “easy rider” so it’s probably just safer to go with a company. We met one Londoner who definitely had an unofficial guy and didn’t seem to be getting the same level of experience as us.

Ali and Naomi picked our guides so I wasn’t really involved but I think what was good about them was that we had two more mature guys with many years experience and a younger guy with excellent English. The combo meant that we felt comfortable that they knew what they were doing and we were also able to communicate with them.

Money-wise, it’s not the cheapest way to see Vietnam but we definitely felt like we got value for money. Just negotiate what you feel comfortable with and remember to check what’s included… ours included all accommodation, breakfast, water, snacks throughout the day, fuel and entrance to the pre-agreed tourist attractions. This meant for six days all we had to pay for was lunch and dinner. One thing to mention is that the Vietnamese aren’t massive hagglers - you’ll usually be able to get a small discount but often the price is the price so by haggling too much you might end up reducing the quality of the experience e.g. staying in cheaper accommodation. We also tipped 10% which we felt was fair given that the absolute cost was reasonably high.

The route we took started in Hoi An, where they picked us up at our accommodation, then we went through the central highlands for four days stopping at various attractions and plantations (all detailed in the posts below). We stayed in smaller towns, which were off the main tourist trail and ate local food each night - eating with the guides and letting them pick the places taught us more about Vietnamese cuisine then we would ever have learned on our own. The 5th and last night was in Da Lat, so back on the tourist trail, but well worth seeing for the night market if nothing else. We ended the tour in Mui Ne rather than Na Trang, which is the more usual destination. This was something that Ali and Naomi insisted on after reading lacklustre reviews about Na Trang and was definitely a great decision - we liked Mui Ne but, more importantly, the drive there was absolutely stunning! I would definitely recommend keeping that day in the itinerary rather than finishing in Da Lat which some people did.

It wasn’t all roses though and we came away with some good tips…

Our riders liked to ride quite close to each other (less than a bike’s distance apart) but with the weight of the bikes, our luggage and two bodies on each bike the stopping distance was quite considerable - after a couple of near misses we put a stop to this on the second day and, as we were paying them, they reluctantly obliged and adapted their style for us. This enabled us all to relax and also reduced the pace a little which meant we got to take in more of the views.

The other thing was on the itinerary… after the first three days we started to realise that we were skipping some attractions and sights so we took a bit more control over the itinerary for the last couple of days, killing a couple of things we didn’t want to do (like riding Elephants) and adding in a waterfall and the pagodas. We weren’t sure why these things weren’t originally included (possibly the budget) but it was well worth doing our own research and making the most of having private guides so we could shape our own trip.

The accommodation was probably the only disappointing thing - this likely had something to do with the budget, the towns we were staying in not being tourist hotspots and a lack of knowledge on our guides’ parts about what we might like. But it was all functional, clean (mostly) and not something that affected the trip. The only thought we had afterwards was perhaps trying to negotiate the accommodation out of the cost of the trip and booking our own…

Overall it was probably one of the best travelling experiences I’ve had and something I can highly recommend!