The Mekong Delta is certainly one of the highlights in southern Vietnam. A trip to this area is often in the itinerary during a visit to Vietnam. Unfortunately, it seems many visitors only stay for a couple of days, covering the main tourists’ centres like Can Tho, My Tho or Ben Tre. While these places are very interesting (and I love Can Tho), the Mekong Delta has much more to offer. And for me the best way to explore it is by doing a Mekong Delta motorbike trip. This way you can experience not just the sight, but also interact with locals and see more of the real rural Vietnam.
One very interesting tour is the Mekong Delta Border Loop, a tour from HCMC to the border of Cambodia and back to HCMC.
This trip provides the opportunity to see the typical sights of the Delta. This includes green and golden rice fields, streams, rivers etc and some of the tourists’ hotspots like Can Tho. But it also provides rare sights of hills and mountains – rather spectacular with the very flat surrounding of the Delta.
Length of the highlighted route: 800km
Scenery & Sites: Rice fields, rivers, streams, villages, markets, pagodas, hills, limited wildlife, historic sites
Sections for the Mekong Delta Border Loop
1. Part: HCMC – Ben Tre
2. Part: Ben Tre – Can Tho
3. Part: Can Tho – Tri Ton
4. Part: Tri Ton – Chau Doc
5. Part: Chau Doc – HCMC
Mekong Delta Motorbike trip
This proposed trip covers around 800km including detours to avoid the main roads (which I recommend). If you take the direct routes to the various places the trip could be reduced quite a bit.
For this trip I would suggest 1 day for each section, so a total of 5 days. It might sound a lot, but some of the roads are not in great condition and riding 150km here can take a bit longer. Also, consider adding one or two days to spend some time in one or two places. Can Tho is certainly a place worth two nights to be able to explore the floating market for example. Obviously, the more time you have, the more you can experience this beautiful area – as it has a lot to offer.
Unfortunately, Google Map does not recognise one ferry crossing, so it means I have included two separate maps.
