Yesterday was one of the best days ever! We rented mopeds and drove from Hue to Hoi An via the coastal, and sometimes, not so coastal road!
My friend Ciara, and her partner Amy, are also travelling in Vietnam and happened to be in Hue also so we met up with them. They had mentioned they were thinking of renting mopeds and doing the trip so I thought, why don’t we join them? So Ciara made enquiries with MotorVina Travel in Hue and for $22 each we could rent the bike and the gear (helmet and elbow/knee pads!) for the day and they’ll also take your larger luggage and drop it off at any location at your destination e.g. your hotel.
We collected our bikes around 8.30am from their shop in Hue on Thursday morning and we were on the road before 9am. We were a little apprehensive to begin with as Jamie and I had only tried the mopeds out once the night before down a little alleyway so you can imagine us trying to manoeuvre through the city the morning of the trip. Ciara and Amy had rented them before but Amy was still a little bit nervous; but we were all grand.
Jamie and I all ready for road
Amy, Ciara, myself and Jamie
We stopped for petrol not too far from the shop (as they were literally on the red when we got them!) and filled them up for 70,000 dong each (c. $3.16/€2.89), we did however later on top them up by a further 10,000 dong as we felt we were running low and wouldn’t make it to Hoi An.
We left Hue and headed north and finally drove towards the coastal road rather than the highway. The views were exceptional and the route was as follows;
Hue > Thanh Toan (6km)
Thanh Toan > Phuoc Tuong Pass (40km)
Phuoc Tuong Pass > Elephant Springs (13km)
Elephant Springs > Lang Co Bay (17km)
Lang Co Bay > Hai Van Pass (14km)
Hai Van Pass > Marble Mountains (34km)
Marble Mountains > Hoi (20km)
It was lovely to have the company, in fact I don’t think myself and Jamie would have actually done it ourselves. We wouldn’t have been confident enough to know the way! The two girls were great with their navigational skills in fairness!
Quick stop for lunch with this beautiful view
A total of 144km and we arrived in Hoi An around 5.30pm. When we arrived to our hotel Viva Homestay, Hoi An we contacted the guys in Motor Vina. They too have a shop in Hoi An so they dropped off our luggage and they took the bikes. Grand job altogether!
The highlight for me was by the far the Hai Van pass. Unfortunately my GoPro’s battery died just as we were moving on up the mountain however the iPhone photos did the job nicely.
The Hai Van Pass
The only thing that I didn’t like so much was running in to the city centre of Danang and getting caught up with all the mid-afternoon rush hour traffic. Oh mother of God, the roundabouts are something else altogether! It’s either go or be killed!
Other than that, if you’re ever in this neck of the woods be sure and rent a moped and do the route. I cannot recommend it enough!