Active Thailand Bicycle Adventure

Our Thailand Cycle Tour is a week-long itinerary designed to give a broad and culturally immersive introduction to the natural and human wonders of central Thailand, in an environmentally friendly way. It starts on the fringes of the Sankamphaeng Mountains and Khao Yai national park, one the country’s largest and naturally affluent. Home to roaming wild Asian elephants, black bears and swinging gibbons, the roaring waterfalls and forested hills of this area have been celebrated by Thais for centuries. Consequently, with the growth of Thailand’s tourist industry, this area become one of the most coveted for the eco interested visitor, and we’ve constructed our tour to give the most engaging environmental experience possible; taking you from the wild back-tracks of the Sankamphaeng foothills, to the metropolitan pockets of Thailand’s capital.

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Thailand Cycle Tour

North Eastern Thailand is the stuff of adventure. Off the typical backpacker trail of beaches and cities, this remote borderland area of river basins and rolling hills, feathers off southward into the metropolitan out-lands of the sprawling capital Bangkok. Watched over from the north by the lush green rises of the Phu Phan Mountains, the various centres of human activity found on the fertile grounds of the Khorat Basin are punctuated by the majestic pink and orange sunset glows that highlight the untouched, forest covered contours of central Thailand. Offering a perfect window into rural Thai life, with a cross section of sleepy, traditional tribal villages, and bustling agricultural market towns separated by wide expanses of rich and wild national park, the province of Nakhon Ratchasima is on the forefront of Thailand’s eco-tourism boom

The Itinerary

Sunday

Sunday is arrival day you can arrive into Bangkok any time before 4 PM. Please ensure that we have your flight details so we can pick you up from the airport.

If you are already in Thailand, consider adding on our Bangkok connection package so you can have the weekend in Bangkok with other Xtreme gap travellers. It’s a great way to kick off the travels and let loose before an active cycling adventure week!

Monday

The tour starts on a Monday, in the remote and beautiful area of Wang Nam Khiao, in the South Western corner of Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Here the most challenging cycle routes on the itinerary are combined with hiking and walking, to take you through the rolling foothills of the national park’s fringes, the roaming ground of all that’s quintessentially Thai: wild elephants, bear, bison, gibbon and tiger.

Accommodation is in the aptly named Forest View Resort, perched neatly on a shallow hillside with breath taking vista views.

After a brief morning introduction to the tour agenda, our first cycle (on the Monday afternoon) will be exploring the surrounding habitats. The area is covered with sporadic blankets of lush forest and hilly grasslands, so there’s plenty to keep even the most intrepid explorer busy. In the evening you’ll be treated to a traditional Thai meal, locally sourced and full of that much-needed, cycle-fuel nutrition. Students of local schools will also be there to perform the customary Thai dinner dance.

Tuesday

Begins with a cycle route that takes us through the local agricultural lands. You’ll rest along the way with wildlife watching opportunities and visits to the local eco tourist spots, including the mushroom farms and vineyards of Wang Nam Khiao, where locals have been making a living from the earth for centuries. You’ll have the opportunity to interact with these famously friendly people, taste their produce and see how they continue to utilise traditional Thai practices in their farming today. After lunch we visit a local conservation and jungle restoration project that has flourished in the region, where you’ll see how locals continue to utilise the jungle for their daily lives in a sustainable way. After returning to the accommodation you have the opportunity to get a traditional Thai massage, to squeeze those post-cycle knots from your muscles and get you ready for the rest of the week.

Wednesday

Our midweek destination is the Khao Yai jungle, where we take to the rough foot-hill tracks with mountain bikes. Before lunch we reach some the park’s famous waterfalls, nestled under the shroud of the jungle canopy. Here you can cool off with a swim under the shady protection of the forest roof before a picnic lunch and sessions with the local forest dwellers, who will explain what life is like in this environment, so indelibly surrounded by nature. The evening ends with some well-earned indulgence: a karaoke barbeque party back at the Forest Resort.

After Karaoke the night before, perhaps the last thing on your mind will be wine. But in our experience, the rich and sweet local delicacies found in the Wang Nam Khiao vineyards have a knack for changing one’s mind in this respect. We’ll cycle through the grape fields into the flower gardens, teeming with colour and life and glowing under the Thai sun. The day ends with a ‘sunset cycle’ up to a great cliff-top viewpoint where there’s a magnificent view, as the pink glow of the hot Thai day fades into night.

Thursday

We go from country to town, moving from the provinces North East of Bangkok, into the buzzing heart of the city’s less-visited Chinatown area. After checking into our hotel accommodation, we’ll cycle through the city, delving into the myriad of back streets and canals that make this such a twisting labyrinth of a metropolis. Perfectly suited to bicycle exploration, you’ll have plenty of time to seek out the nooks and crannies, before returning to the hotel for dinner at 6pm.

Weekend

From Saturday we wind down; with a check-out time of 11am, feel free to rest those biked-out muscles before leaving the accommodation. For the rest of the day, and on Sunday, you can explore the sprawling city of Bangkok, where world-famous historical temples are tempered by a buzzing modern atmosphere of street food vendors and hedonistic nightlife; there’s something for everyone here.

With this tour we’ve tried to open up the less-visited, eco tourist areas of Thailand, where natural beauty harmonises with traditional culture and human activity in a sustainable way. If it’s adventure in both nature and metropolis, along with raw, real life interfaces with Thai culture you’re after, then our Thai Cycle Tour is the perfect option; a rich experience of this fascinating country on the road less travelled.

Arrival

If you arrive into Bangkok on the Sunday you will be picked up and transferred to the Xtreme gap base in Singburi where you will meet up with the rest of the group. If you would like to add on a weekend in Bangkok prior to starting, you can upgrade and add on our Bangkok connection program. This is a group weekend experience in Bangkok where you get to see all of the sites and have a great laugh with a big night out on the Koh San Road.

Upgrades

With many of our Thailand tours you can bolt on extra weeks to custom build your own Thailand trip just ask us to create your own perfect itinerary.

Price

£799

Dates

You can start any Sunday of the year.