Hanoi Co Loa Citadel Motorbike Tour with Female Riders

Why we built this tour

Cổ Loa Citadel is the oldest piece of urban Vietnam. The jeep tour there works and has worked. The female riders version of it exists because the legend attached to the citadel — King An Dương Vương, his daughter Mỵ Châu, the stolen magic crossbow, the love and the betrayal — is a story Vietnamese women tell differently than Vietnamese men do. We tested this. The guests agreed.

Our riders grew up with the Mỵ Châu story the way British kids grow up with Lady Macbeth. They tell it in the temple inside the citadel. On a quiet weekday morning, standing in that temple, hearing a woman in áo dài tell you the story of a Vietnamese princess betraying her father for love, in near-silence except for incense bells, is not quite like other tours.

What this tour means

The Mỵ Châu legend is older than Shakespeare by six hundred years. In the Vietnamese telling, Mỵ Châu is both innocent and guilty — she loved; she trusted; she gave away the thing that protected her father's kingdom; her father killed her for it, then threw himself into the sea. Her blood became pearls. Our female riders care about this story in a way that is apparent when they tell it.

Cổ Loa itself is a spiral fortress, three concentric earth walls, built in the third century BCE as the capital of Âu Lạc. Standing on the walls today, with the right guide, you can see the shape. Most visitors cannot. On a scooter arriving quietly, you have time to.

Key facts at a glance

The experience

The ride out passes over Long Biên Bridge, which is itself one of the oldest working steel bridges in Southeast Asia (1902). You will stop briefly for a photograph. Past the bridge, the roads are quieter and the scooter is faster. Forty-five minutes to the citadel.

At Cổ Loa: about an hour exploring the walls, the small museum and the temple. The temple is where your rider tells the Mỵ Châu story. On a weekday there are usually more incense vendors than tourists. Then the ride back, usually by a slightly different route past rice fields.

A day in the life

Minute-by-minute, in the order it happens.

1. Across the Red River — Leave Hanoi over Long Bien Bridge with views of banana farms below.
2. Village life — Rice fields, buffaloes and a lively local market.
3. Co Loa Citadel — Walk the ancient ramparts and visit the temple of King An Duong Vuong.
4. Lotus garden — Lotus tea, koi fish and a peaceful countryside break.
5. Egg coffee & Bun Cha — Return for egg coffee by West Lake and a Bun Cha meal.

From the tour

Real photos from recent female riders tours.

Who it's for — and who it isn't

The soundtrack of this tour

This tour has three distinct sound chapters: the city on the way out, Long Biên Bridge with its river and trains, the countryside with cicadas and the quiet of farmland, and inside the citadel grounds the sound of the earth walls — wind in bamboo, incense bells, your guide. The electric scooter leaves all four audible. The jeep's engine would not.

What's included — and what's not

Behind the scenes

Every vehicle on this tour is owned, registered and maintained by Eco Trip Asia — not rented from a third party by the hour. Daily pre-tour safety checks. Twice-yearly road authority inspections. One mechanic per fleet, who has been with us since before we had a licence number.

Your guide is on our payroll, not a freelance tour hunter picked up outside a hostel. Every guide completes a six-month training programme before leading a tour alone. The tour you take is the tour we would send our own cousins on.

Insurance: Eco Trip Asia's commercial passenger-service policy covers every guest for the duration of every tour (third-party and personal accident). First-aid trained guide. Emergency contact at the office +84 879 617 691.

Compare with sister tours

The Jeep Co Loa tour covers the same destination in an open-air UAZ-469. The Female Riders Bat Trang is the pottery-village day on the same vehicle.

For a specialist deep dive on the specific vehicle used on this tour, see our sister network sites: hanoijeep.com (UAZ-469 jeeps), biketourhanoi.com (VinFast VF DrgnFly e-bikes), hanoiatvtour.com (Sóc Sơn ATV & buggy).