Three hours, three to five dishes, two wheels

At a glance

Duration

Three hours: 07:00 - 10:00 or 18:00 - 21:00

Size

Maximum 8 bikes, of which at most 6 self-ride

Starts

Hotel pick-up in Duong Dong

Ends

Back at your hotel

Activity

Level 1 of 5 pillion, 2 of 5 riding yourself

From

USD 39 per person

The times above are the morning session. Night Bites runs the same shape eleven hours later: pick-up at 18:00, the cafe at about 20:15 and back at your hotel by 21:00.

Two sessions, two different menus

The morning and the evening are not the same tour at different hours. Duong Dong eats different things at seven in the morning and at seven at night, so the dishes change completely. The lists below are what we aim for. The actual kitchens are fixed by our local team and depend on who is open and cooking well that week, so treat the names as the likely menu rather than a contract.

You eat three to five dishes, as tasting portions rather than full plates, and how many depends mostly on how fast the table slows down. The fifth stop happens when people still have room for it. Nobody is marched through a fixed count.

Every stop is a place where people who live in town eat on an ordinary day. That is the selection rule for this tour. Kitchens open, close and change hands, so this page names dishes rather than addresses, and the route can shift from one month to the next.

Pillion or self-ride: the choice that sets the price

There are two ways to do this tour, and they are priced differently because they cost differently to run.

Pillion is the version we recommend to most people. Your guide-driver knows the streets and does the parking, your hands stay free for food and photos, and you arrive at each kitchen hungry rather than tense from the traffic, which is how a food tour should feel.

Self-ride is for people who already ride a scooter at home, hold the right licence and want the experience of moving through town under their own control. It is cheaper because you are not paying for a driver on your bike, but it comes with conditions, and they are not negotiable on the day.

Self-ride: the six conditions

1. You are 18 or older.
2. You hold a licence that is valid for a motorbike in Vietnam. That means either an International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention, carried together with your original home licence showing a motorbike category, or a Vietnamese motorbike licence. You declare it when you book and show the originals at pick-up.
3. You sign a rider declaration when you take the scooter. It says that you take responsibility for your own riding, obey the traffic law and follow the guide.
4. No alcohol, at all, for the whole tour. Not one beer at the last stop.
5. Helmet on and fastened throughout, and you ride in line behind the guide. We take no more than six self-ride scooters in one departure.
6. A test ride of about five minutes before we set off. If any condition is not met, or the riding is not safe, the guide moves you onto a guide-driver bike and you pay the USD 30 difference.

Why so strict. Many countries issue International Driving Permits under the 1949 Geneva Convention, and Vietnam does not recognise that version, so a permit that looks perfectly official can still leave you riding without a valid licence. When that happens, travel insurance usually refuses to pay if anything goes wrong. Assume the travel insurance included in the price does not cover you as a self-rider unless you hold a valid licence.

The alcohol rule is not our invention either. Vietnam's 2024 road traffic law bans riding with any alcohol in the breath or blood - not a limit, a ban. A guide who let a self-rider have a beer would be letting them break the law, so the beer stays with the pillion guests.

If you are not sure which permit you have, check the convention printed on it before you book. If it says 1949, book pillion. You will enjoy the food more anyway.

The three hours, stop by stop

Most of the three hours is spent sitting at small tables rather than on the bike. The riding between stops is short, and it is how you get from one part of town to the next without losing half the evening to walking.

Day by day

Day 1

Duong Dong by scooter - Morning Bites or Night Bites

The sea urchin on the grill at night, or bun quay at seven in the morning

Morning Bites collects you at 07:00 and Night Bites at 18:00. Everything else runs on the same clock, eleven hours apart. At the hotel you get a helmet, a short briefing on how the bikes ride in line, and, if you are riding yourself, the licence check and a test ride of about five minutes.

In the morning the town is eating before work: bun quay, the noodle soup with a dip you mix yourself at the table, then banh canh with fish cake or crab, bun ken, and something in bread or sticky rice. Around eight we stop at a market or a food street where the morning is at its busiest. It ends at a cafe with iced coffee or a smoothie, and you are back at your hotel by ten with the day still ahead of you.

In the evening the menu turns to the sea: herring salad, sea urchin grilled with scallion oil, Ham Ninh crab or other grilled seafood, then something sweet - che or ice cream. The last stop is a cafe again, and this is the one point where a pillion guest may have a beer. You are back at your hotel by nine.

StayNot applicable - three-hour tourMealsThree to five dishes as tasting portions, one closing drink, drinking waterTravelShort hops by scooter around Duong Dong, inside the three hoursOn footAbout half a kilometre in total, between bike and table

Prices

If a self-rider is moved to a guide-driver bike on the day, because a condition is not met or the test ride does not go well, the difference of USD 30 is paid then. It is cheaper to book pillion from the start if you have any doubt about your licence. The prices page lists this tour alongside everything else we run.

Gallery

Who this tour is not for

• Children under twelve. The pillion option starts at twelve, and there is no child seat version. The street food walk on foot takes children from about seven.
• Self-riders without a licence that Vietnam recognises. An International Driving Permit issued under the 1949 convention does not count, and we will check at pick-up rather than take your word for it.
• Anyone who is genuinely frightened of traffic, even as a passenger. Duong Dong streets are busy, the rides are short but real, and a nervous passenger eats less and enjoys it less.
• People with a serious seafood allergy on the evening session. Night Bites is mostly seafood. There is a lower-seafood version - tell us when you book - but the morning session is the easier choice.
• Self-riders who want a drink with dinner. There is no alcohol for anyone riding their own scooter, and no exceptions at the last stop.