“Can I ride a motorbike legally in Vietnam with my international driving license or with my home country license? ”could be the most popular question and it’s still the hard question to answer because it’s hard to find the official information from local authority or any office website of the government.

From the latest updates, the regulations for foreign tourists riding motorbikes legally in Vietnam with an international driving license were not consistent throughout the country. The requirements varied by region and were subject to change.

Generally, Northern Vietnam authorities allow foreign tourists to ride motorbikes with an International Driving Permit (IDP) in addition to their valid home country driver’s license, while other regions require a Vietnamese motorbike license to ride legally in Vietnam.

However, after over 10 years of riding motorcycle tours in Vietnam, we can tell the good news is police and local authorities are quite friendly with tourists so if you can ride a motorbike well and carefully after the local tour guide, no police will stop or care about your license. Especially with a valid international license, and if you don’t ride over the speed limit…you can ride to any places in Vietnam

So the answer to the question “Is international license valid in Vietnam” is YES. The ONLY problem is the INSURANCE, many travel insurance companies don’t cover this kind of trip if tourists don’t have Vietnamese motorbike licenses.

The biggest insurance companies in Vietnam are Bao Viet( National Insurance Company) and Gras Savoye Willis (French Insurance Broker). They are big in Vietnam but they won’t cover you if you have no Vietnamese motorbike riding license. To get a Vietnamese motorcycle license or convert your license to a Vietnamese one is complicated and takes plenty of time to do paperwork and wait.

The biggest insurance companies in Vietnam are Bao Viet( National Insurance Company) and Gras Savoye Willis (French Insurance Broker). They are big in Vietnam but they won’t cover you if you have no Vietnamese motorbike riding license. To get a Vietnamese motorcycle license or convert your license to a Vietnamese one is complicated and takes plenty of time to do paperwork and wait (from 5- 7 working days). It’s complicated becasue you need to have at least 3 month resident visa and you need to be here to do  payperwork yourself.

All meals on the tour are included in the tour price, vegetarian food can be accommodated. However, the drinks are not included. We would like to say the food on the tours is one of the most important reasons to make our clients come back for more. We serve almost local Vietnamese food on the tour. Generally, Vietnamese food is light but healthy and many choices. We can be sure all food is fresh and cooked by different way of the local. We sometimes choose a basic roadside restaurant for meals but the food is always fresh and plenty to choose from. Such as the famous PHO (rice noodle soup), BUN CHA (special noodles with grilled pork), NEM (Spring rolls)…The local people have different methods to cook so we can be sure you can have different food for each meal during the long motorcycle tours in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Motorbike Tour Expert team will always advise what to bring with you based on where your motorbike tour is heading, and when or how long your tours will be. Besides, All the Vietnam motorbike tours will depart from our bike store where we are ready helmets, gloves, and bright reflecting jackets…but we are sure that your things will fit you best so it’s very good if you can bring all your necessary things with you along the tour. Below is a sample list of what we need for a motorbike tour in Vietnam:

Motorcycle Gears: Motorbike riding jacket, helmet, gloves, boots (rubber boots for the rainy season in North Vietnam from May to September), summer gloves, balaclava, t-shirt, socks & underwear, long-sleeved shirt, turtleneck shirt, extra jeans, light jacket, leather chaps, zip-lock bags, riding boots, bandanas, sunglasses, and goggles.

Personal items: basic toiletries, emergency cash, sunscreen, and earplugs.
Emergency items: first aid kit, emergency contact number, list medical conditions, list medications, flashlight, chargers, and duct tape.

Miscellaneous: small towel, bath towel, trash bags, bungee cords, camera, and cargo net.

During the Vietnam Motorcycle Tours, we can store the unnecessary bags/suitcases with us safely at the office or bike store. For some riders who do the Ho Chi Minh trail motorbike touring or for riders who start and end the tour in different places, we can help to transport the bags/suitcases (or unnecessary things during the trip) from the starting point to the ending point with a friendly price.

There are 2 choices of accommodation when joining our tour, that is a hotel or a homestay. You can choose to stay in a hotel or a homestay based on your needs.

Hotel:

Our adventure is almost to explore remote places, so the hotels here are kind of small. However, it still has the standard equipment to fit your needs such as a good bed, warm water, clean toilet,… Besides, when you take a tour of a big city, there are also 3 or 4-star hotels.

Home-stay:

When choosing a homestay, you can immerse all the true culture of that region. All the families we choose to stay with have special permits from the local government so they’re certificated and they all have nice houses on stilts. You can take their food, and their places and feel the warm welcome from the locals. Below is the equipment you can expect to have at the homestay as private mats, blankets, mosquito nets, fans, and clean toilets… Moreover, when choosing to stay at a homestay, you can have a chance to see the great scenery and feel the peaceful atmosphere here.

Some foreigners say the traffic in Vietnam is “Busy”, “Crazy”, “Funny” or “Amazing”… and there’s no rule for traffic here, however, motorbikes, and scooters are still the kings of the Vietnam road…
All of our tours are guided by local experienced riders who know the traffic well and will show you some tips just to ride safely in the traffic here. In addition, we will do our best to keep you safe by taking you on our own routes to avoid as many of big and busy roads as we can.

We have no deadline to book our tours, you can book any time you want but we are sometimes too busy and NOT available if you book too late. Honesty, we’re not so big Motorcycle Tour Company in Vietnam, our bikes and guides are not unlimited. If there’s no Tour Guide or motorbike left, we will close the service immediately. So please remember to book a tour with us as soon as you can, we can say most of tourists booked with us before at least 3 – 6 months. The earlier you book the tour, the better we can arrange everything!