From Travellers to Hoi An Easy Riders

HOI AN, VIETNAM – From travellers to Hoi An Easy Riders, the story of motorcycle tourism in Central Vietnam took a different path from the older Easy Rider scenes in Da Lat and Nha Trang. Some Western visitors arrived in Vietnam as tourists, discovered the country by motorcycle, and eventually saw an opportunity to stay and build a business around the same experience. Their timing was also important, as Top Gear helped fuel international interest in riding through Vietnam, while major changes in Nha Trang later pushed more Western tourism towards Da Nang and Hoi An…

The Top Gear Effect

When Top Gear Vietnam Special was broadcast on BBC Two on 28 December 2008, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May travelled almost the length of Vietnam by motorcycle. Hoi An, Hue, Nha Trang and other major destinations were part of the journey. The programme gave millions of viewers a very different picture of travelling through Vietnam: not from behind the window of a coach, but from the seat of a motorcycle.

For people already interested in adventure travel, that kind of television exposure was powerful. Vietnam was no longer just a destination to visit. It became a place where travellers could ride, explore small roads and cross the country on two wheels.

From my own experience in the motorcycle-tour business, I believe some later foreign operators benefited from that wave of interest. They were not the original Vietnamese Easy Riders, but they understood what Western customers were looking for because they had travelled that way themselves.

When Nha Trang Changed

The motorcycle-tour business in Vietnam did not develop in isolation. Tourism markets were changing quickly.

By 2014, Nha Trang was attracting very large numbers of Russian visitors. Official figures reported that Russian arrivals to Khanh Hoa had increased by more than 50% in the first five months of that year, while several traditional Western markets, including Australia, France, Germany, the UK and the US, were showing declines.

The following year, Chinese tourism grew dramatically. In 2015, around 180,000 Chinese visitors arrived in Nha Trang, roughly five times the 2014 figure, according to local tourism officials quoted by VnExpress. Chinese visitors helped fill part of the gap left by declining Russian arrivals.

For the local Easy Rider and motorcycle-tour groups whose main customers had traditionally been Western backpackers and independent travellers, this was a difficult change.

From what I saw at the time, some Western travellers who might previously have spent time in Nha Trang were increasingly choosing other destinations in Central Vietnam, particularly Da Nang and Hoi An.

That did not mean Western tourists disappeared from Nha Trang. It meant the balance of the market was changing.

Hoi An Became a Different Opportunity

Hoi An had several advantages for motorcycle tourism.

It was already attracting international travellers, while Da Nang was developing rapidly as the main transport gateway for Central Vietnam. From Hoi An, a rider could easily reach the countryside, coastal roads, the Hai Van Pass, Hue and the mountains beyond.

For a foreign traveller who had already experienced Vietnam by motorcycle, this created an interesting business opportunity.

Instead of returning home after a holiday, why not stay?

Why not use your knowledge of Western travellers, your English, your own riding experience and your understanding of what tourists wanted to see – then work with Vietnamese riders who knew the local roads?

That model was different from the traditional Vietnamese Easy Rider story, but the basic idea was similar: a motorcycle was the product, the road was the experience, and local knowledge was part of what the customer was buying.

A Foreign-Run Motorcycle Business

One documented example is Hoi An Motorbike Adventures.

The company says it was established in 2009 by Australian Mark Wyndham and his wife Simone. Its own business profile describes Mark as an Australian owner-operator with extensive dirt and road-riding experience in Southeast Asia. The company developed motorcycle tours in Central Vietnam and worked with both local and foreign employees.

This is important because it shows that the foreign-run motorcycle-tour model appeared in Hoi An quite early. It also means we should not describe the company as a direct result of the later Russian and Chinese tourism boom in Nha Trang. It was already operating several years earlier.

But the wider market conditions continued to change.

As Hoi An and Da Nang became increasingly important destinations for international travellers, the environment became more favourable for motorcycle-tour businesses aimed at Western customers. Foreign operators who understood that market had an advantage: they knew how Western travellers searched for tours, what information they expected before booking and how to present a motorcycle trip as an organised travel experience rather than simply a ride on the back of a motorbike.

At the same time, Vietnamese riders provided something foreign owners could not easily reproduce — detailed knowledge of the roads, villages, food, language and everyday life.

The combination could work very well.

Not All Easy Riders Had the Same Story

This is where the history of Hoi An becomes different from the older Easy Rider story in Da Lat and Nha Trang.

The original Easy Rider model grew from Vietnamese riders taking foreign visitors on motorcycles and gradually developing a reputation through personal recommendations. In Hoi An, another model appeared alongside it: foreign travellers became operators themselves.

They were still outsiders when they first arrived. But after spending years in Vietnam, some became business owners who sold Vietnam to other Western travellers.

In that sense, they were both travellers and tourism entrepreneurs.

They had seen the opportunity from the customer’s side first.

And perhaps that was their biggest advantage.

A New Chapter in Vietnam Motorcycle Tourism

The story of Hoi An motorcycle tourism is therefore not simply about Vietnamese Easy Riders becoming successful.

It is also about how Vietnam’s growing international popularity created opportunities for people from outside the country to enter the same market.

Top Gear helped create a powerful international image of Vietnam as a country to explore by motorcycle. The changing tourism market in Nha Trang later altered where many Western travellers chose to spend their time. Da Nang and Hoi An benefited from the continuing growth of Central Vietnam as an international destination.

For some foreign travellers, the holiday eventually became a business.

They arrived as customers.

They stayed.

And some eventually started taking other travellers down the same roads.

Nam Ngo
19 September 2026