Motorcycle Tour of the Vietnam Central Highlands

(Dalat is 50 minutes by plane from Ho Chi Minh City; 7 hours by bus)

Follow days 1–3 of Essential Vietnam itinerary.

The back roads of Vietnam's cool Central Highlands are perfect for motorbike touring, with sweeping vistas, scenic lakes, and waterfalls, and lush tea and coffee plantations. (Plan to stop regularly to recharge with the thick, sweet and super-strong local coffee.)

Day 4

Fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Dalat, the former Le Petit Paris, built by the French as a health retreat in the early 1900s. Lunch at Le Cafe De La Post and then visit the nearby Dalat Crazy House and the Truc Lam Pagoda if you have time. In the evening, eat your way around the Dalat Night Market—don't miss the banh trang, sometimes called Dalat pizza.

Day 5

Meet your Easy Rider tour guides (many companies use this name to denote guided motorbike tours) for the start of your Central Highlands motorcycling adventure. Schedule the first day of your tour to include some of the Dalat highlights you might have missed, such as Bao Dai's Summer Palace and the Crémaillère Railway, before going to Lak Lake, home to the former elephant-hunting M'Nong people. Nowadays, the M'Nong's domesticated elephants spend their nights in the jungle in family groups and their days taking tourists around the lake and through the lakeside Jun Village.

Days 6–7

Set out early for another scenic drive, this time to Buon Ma Thuot, the coffee capital of the Central Highlands. Dine on the city's famous nem nuong, often translated as spring rolls, or at one of the city's barbecue restaurants. Most of Days 6 and 7 will be spent on scenic country back roads en route to Pleiku and then Kon Tum, stopping regularly to visit local families who farm coffee, silk worms, and tea.

The pretty and sleepy riverside town of Kon Tum, with its amazing architectural oddities—including the Wooden Church, which combines Roman and Bahnar architectural styles, and Indochine Cafe, made entirely of bamboo—is a great base for exploring some of the nearby ethnic minority villages, with their impressive rong houses. Ask to end your Easy Rider tour back at Pleiku on a Friday, to catch the weekly 45-minute flight to Danang.