Northern Adventures
Activity: BikeHike Adventures
Location: Hanoi and Northern Vietnam
Tip: Be in moderately good shape for biking the hills
Pedal, walk and paddle your way through northern Vietnam for a closer look at various ethnic groups.
Sea kayaking
Sea kayaking
The experience: BikeHike Adventures offers a 12-day multi-sport tour that explores the country’s north on mountain bikes, by foot and aboard sea kayaks. Vietnamese guides lead small groups of between two and 12 on a circuit that stops in Sapa, Bah Ha and Lao Cai. Extensions are available to Hoi An in the central region and farther south to take in the Mekong Delta. Tours can also be customised for families, honeymooners or private groups.
Mixing with the locals to provide a deeper cultural experience is a key element in BikeHike’s tours, and they achieve this through their choice of transportation. Rather than sit on a bus to get from A to B, participants take local transport and use muscle power whenever possible to leave the beaten track and get the opportunity to interact more with the people.
Most days are spent in the outdoors, biking and hiking towards the next destination. Accommodation runs a range from two homestays in hilltribe villages and camping out to a couple of overnight train rides in berths and rooms in tourist-quality hotels. Back in Hanoi, the tour continues by rickshaw, and visitors can enjoy a water puppet show and the city’s several museums and restaurants.
In small groups making friends is easy
In small groups making friends is easy
How it helps: Canadian-based BikeHike has been flying the sustainable tourism banner for over a decade. It kicked off its Vietnam venture in 2004, when it joined with a Hanoi tour company that organises and operates the entire itinerary to ensure more of the revenue stays in the country.
BikeHike strives to respect the culture of the villages they visit by operating sensitive adventures that view local communities as partners. By keeping the group size less than 12 per trip, and generally around six to eight, travellers cause little disruption to the residents’ lifestyles, and leave a minimal ecological impact. The result: people on the tour gain a better appreciation of the environs.
Small groups also allow for greater flexibility and spontaneity. They make it easier to stop by a villager’s home, make impromptu visits to a village wedding, or peak inside rural schools.
BikeHike stands out as an alternative choice for its multi-sport tours or ‘self-propelled adventures’, so there is minimal time spent in carbon dioxide-emitting cars, buses and planes, thus reducing emissions that contribute to climate change.
Location and booking information
BikeHike Adventures
1807 Maritime Mews, Suite 200
Vancouver, BC, V6H 3W7, Canada
Tel: +001 (604) 731 2442
Fax: +001 (604) 677 5514
E-mail: info@bikehike.com
Web: www.bikehike.com
Map: Marker indicates Hanoi Airport not where the BikeHike Adventure is exactly …
Comments
Leave a comment or reply