The half of the island with no tarmac
Phu Quoc has about 130 kilometres of sealed road and several hundred kilometres of red dirt behind it. The dirt is where the farms, the hamlets and the empty coast are, and a bike is the only sensible way to reach them.
At a glance
- Duration
- Eight hours, 08:00 - 16:00
- Group
- Maximum 6 riders, two guides above four
- Starts
- Our meeting point in Duong Dong
- Ends
- Duong Dong, about 16:00
- Difficulty
- Moderate on your own bike, easy as a pillion
- From
- USD 62 per person
What the riding is actually like
About 85 kilometres in the day, of which perhaps 45 are unsealed. The dirt is red laterite: hard-packed and fast where it is used, loose and corrugated where it is not, with sand patches near the coast that will move the front wheel if you are on the brakes. There are no hills of consequence on Phu Quoc and nothing technical. The difficulty is surface, not gradient.
If you have ridden a small bike on dirt before, this is an easy and very enjoyable day. If you have only ridden a scooter on tarmac, it is manageable on the automatic and we will put you behind a guide for the two loose sections. If you have never ridden at all, take the pillion option: you sit behind a guide who has done this route several hundred times, and you see exactly the same island.
We stop roughly every forty minutes. Total time actually moving is about three hours and twenty minutes, spread across eight hours, so this is not an endurance day.
A Vietnamese licence or a foreign licence with a Vietnamese-recognised international permit is legally required to ride here, and most travel insurance will not pay a claim without one. We do not check your paperwork and we do not pretend the rule does not exist. If you do not hold the right licence, ride pillion - it costs the same and removes the problem entirely.
Where the day goes
| Stretch | Surface | What is there |
|---|---|---|
| Duong Dong to Cua Can | Sealed, 12 km | Warm-up, coast road, one river bridge |
| Cua Can to Rach Vem | Dirt, 18 km | Pepper plots, forest edge, two hamlets |
| Rach Vem | Sealed at the village | The stilt houses and the shallow water |
| Rach Vem to Bai Thom | Dirt, 16 km | The emptiest road on the island |
| Bai Thom to the east coast | Mixed, 22 km | Cashew, a school, the lunch hamlet |
| East coast back to Duong Dong | Dirt then sealed, 17 km | Long views west |
The route changes when a road is closed for the APEC works, which happens with little notice and has affected the northeast twice this year. The guide will tell you at the brief what today version is. What does not change is that at least 40 kilometres are unsealed and that lunch is in a hamlet rather than on the tourist strip.
Day by day
North and east on the red roads
Meet at 08:00 in Duong Dong. Bikes are 110 to 125 cc, semi-automatic or fully automatic, maintained by our own mechanic and checked in front of you. Helmets are full-face and we carry spares in the support vehicle, which follows the route and carries the water, the tools and your bag.
The first hour is deliberately easy: sealed road north to Cua Can while you get used to the bike, then a short dirt loop through the gardens so the guide can watch how you ride before committing to the longer sections. If a rider is not comfortable, we swap them to pillion at Cua Can and there is no charge and no discussion.
Lunch is at about midday in a hamlet on the Bai Thom road: rice, grilled fish, greens and soup at a house that cooks for the road crews. The afternoon is the long way home down the east coast, which is the emptiest riding on the island and the part people talk about afterwards. We are back in Duong Dong by four, dusty enough that a shower is the first thing you will want.
Prices
| Group size | Pillion, per person | Own bike, per person |
|---|---|---|
| 1 traveller | USD 105 | USD 92 |
| 2 travellers | USD 84 | USD 74 |
| 3 - 4 | USD 71 | USD 65 |
| 5 - 6 | USD 68 | USD 62 |
There is no damage deposit and no excess trap. If you drop a bike on the dirt at walking pace, which happens perhaps one day in ten, we fix it and say nothing. If you write one off through something reckless we will talk about it, but we have not had to. Our other prices are on the prices page.
What the price includes
- A 110 - 125 cc bike, maintained by our mechanic and checked in front of you
- Fuel for the whole route
- A full-face helmet that fits, plus gloves
- A support vehicle following the route with water, tools and your bags
- One guide up to four riders, two guides for five or six
- Lunch in the hamlet, morning coffee and drinking water
- Transfer to the meeting point from Duong Dong and Long Beach
What it does not include
- Travel insurance, which you should check covers motorcycling
- Any fine you incur riding without a valid licence
- Alcohol
- Tips
- Riding gear beyond helmet and gloves - bring your own if you want more
Gallery
Who this day is not for
- Anyone without a licence who wants to ride their own bike. Ride pillion instead - same day, same price bracket, no legal or insurance problem.
- Travellers here between June and September. We do not run this day in the southwest monsoon at all, because the red laterite turns to grease and the risk is not worth it.
- People who have never ridden and want to learn today. We are not a riding school and a 45 km dirt route is not the place to start.
- Anyone who needs air conditioning during the day. You will be hot, dusty and in the sun for long stretches.
- Children under fourteen, including as pillion. We do not carry them on this route and no amount of asking changes it.
Questions travellers ask most
What happens if I cannot handle the bike?
We find out in the first hour, on purpose, on an easy loop near Cua Can where the guide can watch you. If you are not comfortable we move you to pillion there and the price difference is refunded on the spot.
This happens about one rider in fifteen and nobody has ever been embarrassed about it - the guides handle it as a routine swap.
Is it dangerous?
It carries the risks of riding a small motorcycle on unsealed roads, which are real. What we control: full-face helmets, maintained bikes, a support vehicle, a maximum of six riders, no night riding and no wet season.
What we cannot control: other traffic on the sealed sections, and your own judgment. If you would not ride a bike at home on gravel, take the pillion seat.
Can two of us ride one bike together?
No. Two visitors on one bike on this surface is how people get hurt, and our insurance does not cover it. One of you rides, the other goes pillion with a guide, and you can swap at lunch.
What should I wear?
Long trousers, closed shoes with a bit of ankle, a long-sleeved shirt and sunglasses. Not shorts and sandals, however hot it is - the difference between a graze and a wound is a pair of jeans.
Bring a buff or a mask for the dust in the dry season. We carry spares.
Read next
Tell us what you want out of the island
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.