HCM City – Vung Tau 2 Day River / Lakes Loop
Route Summary:
Duration: 2 days - 295 kms
These routes are mapped both ways on our site to give our customers options. The Lakes route is only 10 km longer but with plenty of off map trails through rubber plantations and around the lakes can take much longer. With a late start day 1 this would be the best option and get an earlier start back to Vung Tau day 2.
Click for Route details:
Cat Lai - Vung Tau via River
Distance: 145 kms
From the first right hand turn you get the feeling Saigon is well behind you and it’s game on.
Though at this point still a view to D7 over the river its a very different environment for the first timer out of the city. I remember it some 13 years ago fondly for that.
The first stretch of the river road was unsealed but generally pretty solid with plenty of pot holes but we were out of the rat race and into the fun. These days its all concrete so accessible even for scooters.
A lot of the land along the river is low lying wetland. Its an amazing area really considering its in such close proximity to the countries largest concrete jungle.
There’s always plenty to keep you interested. This isn’t a fast ride but one to relax and take it all in along the way.
(A, B, C, & D) Are all just way points on this one to keep you exploring off the main arterials. The coffee stop is a good one.
There is a short unavoidable stint on the QL51 before the left turn which gets you back on some quiet back roads again. The farmland areas this side of the highway are very different to the river section adding great diversity to the day.
(E) Is a winding bitumen road and the best of the ride if time allows. There’s plenty of off tracks and temples to explore up there also.
(F & G) Take you the best way into town and are two of the better seafood restaurants if a late lunch or early dinner is in order. The second on the water is my preference.
One of our preferred accommodation options overlooking the harbour and sunset. Vung Tau is on a peninsula and unique in Vietnam for a number of reasons. One most notable is that the sunrise is over the back beach and sunset over the front beach.
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These are supplied to all our touring bike customers.
(Excluded from the above itinerary)
Vung Tau - Cat Lai Ferry via Lakes
Distance: 150 Kms
One of many inaccuracies I hear from foreigners here is that the ride to and from Saigon and Vung Tau is terrible. On the arterials yes, but this diverse farmland ride through rubber, corn, banana, pepper, sweet potato and cassava is relaxed and interesting.
If you’re on a loop I likely had you on the river tracks down as it gets you out of the city traffic the quickest but this lakes run is my favourite. Be aware in wet season the trails through the rubber plantations are very slippery.
Plenty of great deviations off this map too so if you have time, follow it loosely and enjoy some exploring. Many of the trails aren’t on maps but it doesn’t matter you’ll pick it up again later.
(A) is a popular photo stop. Usually a lady set up there for a morning coffee too.
(B) takes you on the beach road through a fishing village and marks where you turn inland to the rubber plantations
(C) is a memorial cross in memory of the 18 Australian and 245 Vietnamese soldiers killed In the August 1966 Battle of Long Tan.
(D) and (E) gets you to the next lake though casava and pepper crops.
(F) A chocolate factory is your lunch stop on another lovely lake. Orders take a while but the food is good and the portion sizes very generous.
(G) takes you past two more lakes and is the point we turn left on some trails. Nothing technical but easy to map around it if necessary.
(H) is a random coffee shop marked only to take you around a favourite police haunt for their coffee indulgence.
(I) on the ferry and if returning to our D2 shop just 13km dealing with most riders daily reality here.
Log in below to view full route maps, accommodation and food information.
These are supplied to all our touring bike customers.
(Excluded from the above itinerary)
Log in below to view full route maps, accommodation and food information.
These are supplied to all our touring bike customers and excluded from the above itinerary.
