Opt 1: Biking route: Hanoi – Co Loa ancient citadel – Hanoi

Cycling in Hanoi

8:30Am Meet up at your hotel. After a short briefing about the bike, gears, and the biking trail, you will begin your adventure by pedaling from your hotel to the other side of the Red River. You cycle across the Long Bien Bridge, the first steel bridge spanning the Red River in Hanoi, built by the French (French architect Gustave Eiffel, 1899-1902) and named after Paul Doumer (Governor General of French Indochina).

Continue cycling to Duong river, crossing the countryside of the Red River delta, a good chance for taking nice photos and witness the rural daily activities on the farm.

Then take a local boat crossing the Duong river. You will arrive in the area where people live of agriculture. You cycle from villages to villages, through rice fields and friendly people. You will arrive Co Loa citadel around noon. This old fortress attracts many foreign tourists for its historical and cultural value. It would be interesting for you to find that this Citadel is not only built in a large scale, but also took a very long time to construct. Especially, it has also been the source of various relics of the Dong Son culture of the Bronze Age. This would be a precious chance to explore such large site and its beauty. This spiral-shaped complex will take you to the mysterious ancient Vietnam thousands of years ago.

Lunch will be served at a local restaurant or picnic lunch can be arranged.

After lunch, biking the road back your hotel or you can be picked up by our vehicle and transferred back to your hotel in Hanoi.

Opt 2: Biking route: Hanoi – But Thap pagoda – Dong Ho folk painting – Hanoi

07:30 Meet our tour at your hotel and transfer by car out of the center Hanoi to the dike of the Duong River (cross the Red River).  Then start cycling from to But Thap pagoda (20km). We ride along the Duong riverbank, enjoy the peaceful countryside the river meanders through with rice and corn fields dotted with rural villages, bamboo trees and old pagodas.

We visit But Thap pagoda, the most typical pagoda in Vietnam, But Thap is recognized as one of the country’s most important cultural relics. The pagoda was built under the dynasty of King Tran Thanh Tong (1258-1278), and rebuilt in 1647 in the Le Dynasty by the Chinese Zen Buddhist priest Zhus Zhus (Chuyet Chuyet in Vietnamese).

Have lunch at a local restaurant or family.

After lunch, we continue biking to Dong Ho Village, where locals practice a unique form of folk woodcut painting using natural materials, such as Diep paper made from tree bark, then mixed with powdered seashells and color from tree leaves, flowers, and even coal. There are only 3 families left still engaged in the painstaking craft, and you will meet a master craftsman to learn how to make the wooden block paintings. Continue exploring the village by bike, and discover villagers making other paper crafts. Then get on our car transferring back to your hotel.