Hoi An Easy Riders: A Small Local Chapter

HOI AN, VIETNAM – The story of Hoi An Easy Riders is much smaller than the better-known scenes in Da Lat, Nha Trang or Da Nang. From my experience, only a small number of riders operated regularly from Hoi An, and some were already older men who later retired. There was also an interesting connection with Hue: some riders from Hue moved into Hoi An, rented rooms there and used the town as a base for motorcycle tours.

A Small Easy Rider Scene

Hoi An became one of Vietnam’s best-known destinations for Western travellers, but it never developed a large Easy Rider community on the scale of Da Lat or Nha Trang.

From what I knew of the trade, there were only one or two regular riders based in Hoi An.

They were not part of a large organisation.

There were no large numbers of motorcycles waiting outside hotels. The business was much smaller and more personal.

That made sense.

Hoi An was already a destination in its own right. Foreign visitors came for the old town, the food, the surrounding countryside and the nearby beaches. Many travellers stayed for several days, but they did not necessarily come to Hoi An specifically looking for a long-distance motorcycle tour.

For the riders who did operate there, the opportunity was to offer something beyond the old town.

A motorcycle could take a visitor into the countryside, towards the coast, over the mountains or north towards Hue.

Riders From Hue in Hoi An

One of the less well-known parts of this story is the connection between Hoi An and Hue.

Some Easy Riders who came from Hue eventually stayed in Hoi An, renting rooms there so they could work from the town rather than always starting their tours in Hue.

This was practical.

Hoi An had a steady flow of foreign travellers, and the distance between Hoi An and Hue was manageable by motorcycle.

A rider could meet a customer in Hoi An, take the guest north through the countryside and across the Hai Van Pass, and finish the journey in Hue.

The following day, another arrangement could bring the rider back.

This created a small but useful link between the two cities.

It also shows how flexible the Easy Rider trade could be.

A rider did not necessarily need a formal office or large company.

A rented room, a motorcycle and contacts with hotels or travellers could be enough to operate.

The Roads Around Hoi An

The tours from Hoi An generally followed the geography of Central Vietnam.

The most obvious routes connected Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue.

The Hai Van Pass was an important part of that journey. For a foreign traveller, riding from Hoi An towards Hue was not simply a transfer between two tourist destinations.

The road itself became the experience.

The route could pass through Da Nang, climb into the mountains and descend towards Lang Co before continuing to Hue.

Other tours stayed closer to Hoi An, exploring the countryside and surrounding areas.

The important point was that these riders usually worked within a geographical area they knew well.

They did not necessarily try to compete with the long-distance routes developed by some of the earlier Easy Rider groups in Da Lat and Nha Trang.

A Different Range of Tours

This was also true of many Easy Riders working around Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue.

Their tours tended to concentrate on Central Vietnam.

Some journeys went as far north as Phong Nha.

Others went south and west towards the Central Highlands and, in some cases, as far as the Nha Trang area.

But beyond those regions, long-distance touring became less common.

There were several possible reasons.

Some riders built their business around their local knowledge. They knew Central Vietnam extremely well and could comfortably guide a guest through the roads, villages, history and landscape around their home region.

Others had families and responsibilities at home.

A motorcycle tour lasting two or three days was one thing.

Being away for a week or longer was another.

For some riders, keeping tours within a manageable range meant they could continue working while still returning home regularly.

So the geography of an Easy Rider business was not always determined by the motorcycle.

It was also determined by the rider’s life.

Why Hoi An Worked

Hoi An was particularly suitable for short and medium-length motorcycle tours because of its position.

A rider could reach Da Nang quickly.

From there, the roads opened towards Hue and the Hai Van Pass.

South of Hoi An, there were rural roads and coastal areas that offered a very different experience from the old town.

And for longer journeys, Central Vietnam provided access towards Phong Nha in the north or the Central Highlands in the west and south.

For a traveller, this meant that Hoi An could be both a destination and a starting point.

A guest could spend several days exploring the old town, then leave by motorcycle for another part of Vietnam without having to return to a major city first.

That flexibility was one of the strengths of the Easy Rider model.

The End of a Small Generation

The Hoi An Easy Rider story is also a story about age.

The riders I knew from that generation are now older men, many already in their sixties or beyond.

Most have stopped working.

That is a natural part of the history of the trade.

The same thing has happened in other parts of Vietnam. The men who started riding with foreign tourists decades ago are no longer riding every day.

Some younger guides have taken their place.

But the older riders carried something that is difficult to replace: knowledge built over decades of actually travelling the roads and meeting foreign guests.

Their experience was not simply about knowing which road to take.

It came from years of conversations, unexpected situations, mechanical problems, weather, changing roads and thousands of kilometres on Vietnamese motorcycles.

A Small Chapter, But Part of the Bigger Story

Hoi An was never one of the biggest Easy Rider centres.

That is precisely why its story is worth remembering.

The history of Easy Riders in Vietnam was not built only by the large groups.

It was also built by individual riders working from small towns, rented rooms and modest motorcycles.

Some were based in Hoi An.

Some came from Hue.

Others worked between Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue, taking foreign travellers through the roads of Central Vietnam.

Their tours were generally shorter than the great cross-country journeys associated with some riders in Da Lat and Nha Trang.

But they were part of the same evolution.

The Easy Rider trade grew because foreign travellers wanted to see Vietnam from the road.

In Hoi An, that idea took a smaller, more local form.

A handful of riders was enough.

And for a period of years, they gave foreign visitors another way to leave the old town behind and discover the roads beyond it.

Nam Ngo
11 September 2026