Cycling Dalat - Central highlands - Ho Chi Minh Trails - Hoi An

Ban Me Thuot is well-known in coffee plantations and is Trung Nguyen's famous coffee bean. Trung Nguyen is a Vietnamese business group that produces, processes, and distributes coffee. Trung Nguyen is the largest domestic coffee brand in Vietnam and exports its products to more than 60 countries, including major markets such as G7 countries. We have no excuse to taste coffee as much as possible here in Ban Me Thuot.

We will start today's ride a bit late and spend more time enjoying the views of Lake Lake, walking along the Lake, and experiencing the life of a fisherman there. Enjoy breakfast and coffee at the Lake, take the canoe back to the dock, and get ready for a bike ride to Ban Me Thuot. We ride through Jun and Lieng villages and take a ferry to scenic farmland where the Ethic M'Nong is cultivating and raising cows. It's an effortless ride, primarily flat with undulating countryside roads, passing lakes, tiny hamlets, and green pepper plantations to the outskirts of Ban Me Thuot. We get on vehicle support to the city center in 20 minutes. Check in at the hotel and have dinner in town.

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast and be ready to explore the highland villagers' life and spectacular scenery on winding roads up and down the vast coffee, tea, and green chili pepper plantations, along with Ethnic villages. There will be two sections for us to venture into the hamlets. 

Begin today's adventure with a vehicle transfer to Buon Ho's countryside, and we will get more dirt, as many routes lead you along paths and trails to remote villages of Cu Pon and  Ea H’Leo. It's about 40km in the morning, with serious hills. Do not worry! The support vehicles will go on and support us on bike routes. The afternoon gives you 25 km of riding on the gentle and undulating track, through rubber plantations, passing small local markets, and red soil farmland where avocados and bananas are well grown. Enjoy views of beautiful rural villages and immerse yourself in the culture of highland villagers.

From Pleiku to Ngoc Hoi is about 120km, and the ride is divided into two sections. In the morning, we visit the sea lake, and people live around. In the afternoon, ride to Kon K'tu village, a scenic suspension bridge, and a traditional wooden church. The rest of the day is spend in Ngoc Hoi town.

After breakfast, we check out of the hotel and transfer to a rural village, where we ride 20 km to explore the sea lake and enjoy the scenery of the lake and lush hill farms, including fruit orchards, rice paddies, and tea plantations. We then take a 1-hour transfer to Kon Tum. We stop at Rong Kon Ro Wang House and visit it before biking across the suspension bridge to Ba Na community in Kon Ko Tu village, Barna, and Jarai Ethics. It is a great way to see local life, passing friendly villagers and farmland and riding along Dak Bia River to Kon Ko Tu's oldest villages. We will stop at Rong House, a Kon Klor communal house built with local materials: timber, bamboo, and thatch. We continue cycling, cross another bridge to the city, and visit the massive traditional wooden church in central highland Vietnam. Break for lunch in town and prepare for the fantastic ride in the afternoon.

Following lunch, we'll transfer along the quiet road DT675, through small ethnic villages, past amazing landscapes, and into peaceful mountains. For the last parts of the day, we stay on smooth tracks that undulate through verdant vegetation, coffee plantations, rolling hills, and little villages, cross the river on a narrow suspension bridge, and end up the afternoon's ride at old Phuong Hoang Airport (Phoenix airport). Have a short transfer to Hoc Hoi township

Today we ride almost on the road of Ho Chi Minh- the former Ho Chi Minh trails. The quiet Po Ko River road offers scenic views, lush green forest jungles, and little hamlets. We race on hilly roads, not flat all but gentle, passing many small towns, rolling little hills, and rustic rice paddies to Dak Giel. It's 40km in the morning.

Dak Giel was known as the Prison during the Indochina War, and many Viet Minh were kept for many years. We break for lunch in town and hop on a support vehicle driving to the peak of Lo xo -Springs Pass. Avoid speeding up the serious hills and save time for the fabulous downhill ride to Phuoc Son in the afternoon. We ride down the Lo Xo Pass, enjoying breathtaking scenery and mountainous landscapes along the quiet road. We continue biking to Phuoc Son on a road with more down than up.

We'll choose the best route to Hoi An, where the scenery is super. Have a leisurely breakfast, check out, and depart at 8:00 am. Bike through the town, turn right, and keep biking to cross the calm river, then follow road 14E to Hoi An Seaside Ancient Town. The road along the lake, lush farmlands, sleepy villages, and jungles, then drops into lively villages along the rivers, dams, and hydropower stations, and passes waterfalls along the way. We end the ride here at Hiep Duc with a bit of a late lunch in town and rest on the support vehicle to Hoi An in the late afternoon.