Gravel Bike Adventures in Laos

Here at Velo Vietnam we love to ride the thousands of kilometres of smooth, high quality tarmac on offer in this amazing country. Designing cycling tours for roads is still our main gig, but that said, we’ve never been shy about riding on rough or dirt surfaces in pursuit of new destinations.

As people who enjoy the rough as well as the smooth, we’ve been delighted to see trends in the cycling world turn towards gravel in recent years.

Safe in the knowledge that cycling fashion had finally caught up with us, we put some serious effort into making our dream Gravel-Road mixed surface adventure ride a reality.

The first recon took us 1700 km from Hanoi to Vientiane via Luang Prabang and we have since taken a few small groups on different variations of this adventure.

After Vientiane we can take a flight to Champaasak, ride back eastwards over the Annamite Cordillera and down to coastal Hoi An and Danang for a total of around 24000 metres of gain.

Riding up one side of the mountainous spine that separates Vietnam and Laos and down the other is a uniquely satisfying thing to do.

This ride is at times grungy, but almost always spectacular and invariably fun.

In terms of surfaces it has a bit of everything: from brand new hotmix to roads blocked by landslides and washed out by floods.

It’s without doubt the most adventurous thing we’ve done to date, taking us into the deepest back country in both Laos and Vietnam.

If you like to ride gravel bikes and are up for a seriously challenging back country adventure in Vietnam, Laos or both, please get in touch and we can talk about making a tour for you and your riding buddies. Simply send is a mail at ride@velovietnam.cc or contact us via one of our social channels - links in our website header.