About this Cycle Tour
Kanchanaburi has a rugged, beautiful landscape of mountains, waterfalls, caves and tranquil riverside settings that is a treat for nature-lovers and cyclists.
Kanchanaburi has a rugged, beautiful landscape of mountains, waterfalls, caves and tranquil riverside settings that is a treat for nature-lovers and cyclists.
Well equipped and very well supported by enthusiastic and engaged guides. Local treats at morning rest break were a winner.
Very well organised. Great customer service and friendly helpful guides. My guide Nick was great and looked after me well. My driver Mr Sit was attentive and made the road travel comfortable and safe.
Tours in: ThailandThailand - Bangkok
We ride on small back roads with little traffic and some short off road sections. The terrain is undulating with one major climb of 2 km, but just in case our support vehicle is always close by. This tour is suitable for anyone with minimum biking experience.
The trip is fully supported and your guide’s expert knowledge of the area and terrain means that you always know what is coming up in terms of distance and difficulty. This makes a tremendous difference, as does the constant supply of cold drinks and fresh fruit.
Suitability: This tour is suitable for riders with some biking experience. You can expect a fairly gentle ride each day with none of the distances being overly long. There are a few small hills, but these can be tackled by anyone with even a moderate amount of fitness. The emphasis on this tour is Thailand’s scenery off the beaten track.
Biking Conditions: This trip is a mixture of wide, hard-packed dirt trails, single track and smooth tarmac. An air-conditioned bus travels behind the group to support us, and participants can cycle as much or as little as they like and still enjoy the same views as the rest of the group.
We head west out of Bangkok and visit historical sights in Kanchanaburi - the War Museum, the War Cemetery and the famous bridge. We then board the local train for a stunning ride on the Death Railway. After lunch and a visit to Krasae caves we start biking along some great trails, passing by some teak plantations and small Thai villages, on our way to Prasat Mueang Sing. This historical site covering some 74 hectares is believed to have been used by the Khmer Empire as a trading point along the Kwai Noi River. We ride around the park and visit the museum before packing up the bikes and driving the short way to our riverside hotel.
Today we’ll spend most of the day on the bike as we cycle at a leisurely pace along some great trails. This ride is filled with a vast array of colours as we have the red laterite trails, the greens of the jungle and of course the blue skies. This trail has some stunning views of the valleys that surround this area and we ride through some great jungle and farmland. The cycling is a little more challenging than the previous day’s ride with some undulating terrain and a gentle climb of about 2 km (but can be avoided). This ride gives us a great chance to see the rolling hills that separate Burma from Thailand. We arrive at our riverside hotel by late afternoon and can choose to relax by the pool, or arrange to have a massage or take a boat trip to visit a Mon village.
The ride today is a bit more challenging. Although the ride is mainly downhill there are a few small uphills but nothing too strenuous. The main downhill needs to be taken with some caution as it is partly off-road and a little bit steep. The reward is to do some riding on the trail through primary jungle and follow a small river which meanders down to the river Kwai Noi and makes for a stunning ride. Once we have completed the ride we take a short hop across the river to visit Hellfire Pass, the name given to the 1000m of mountain cut through rock and soil with only the most rudimentary implements by prisoners of war. We also have a chance to visit the museum before a local lunch. After lunch we return to Bangkok and drop you off at your hotel.
Disclaimer: The adventure cycling tours we operate often go beyond the beaten track, and the countries where we ride are not always predictable. Due to these reasons, it is occasionally necessary to reroute or update itineraries. Our guarantee is that we will not change a trip unless for safety or to improve it. Our listed hotels are always accurate at the time of writing, but should we have to change any hotel, it will always be for a similar or better one.
Bike hire is included in the tour. The bikes are well-known makes of hybrid or mountain bikes (depending on the tour) with lightweight alloy frames, 24- to 27-speed gearing, v-brakes and Shimano components and front suspension.
Basic spares and tools are carried by the guide and on the support vehicle, though we cannot guarantee having spares for every conceivable problem. Carrying a basic tool kit, a spare tube and a pump while riding is recommended.
Wearing a helmet is required on all our biking adventures and is non negotiable. If you do not wear a helmet you will not be allowed to cycle. Your tour leader is trained in first aid and emergency rescue, but to a large degree you must be responsible for your own safety while riding. It is therefore compulsory that you take out travel insurance that will cover you for a mountain biking tour.
You will be led by a local English-speaking guide and if the group is 9 people or more we will add another guide to the tour. All our guides are well informed in the history, culture and religions of the area where you are biking and are skilled at passing that knowledge on to you. Your guide is also medically trained and an experienced cyclist, able to handle most minor repairs en route.
We recommend that you visit a travel medical doctor and ask about the following vaccinations: typhoid, polio, tetanus and hepatitis A. A certificate for Yellow Fever is required when arriving from an infected area within six days.
Thailand generally has a tropical climate with fairly high humidity. The North and Central region have a tropical climate with fairly high humidity. Northeast Thailand has a humid hot and dry weather alternatively with medium rain while the coastal areas of the east is humid and hot with intermittent rain. The South of Thailand has a tropical climate with fairly high humidity.
There are three seasons: from March to June it is hot and dry, with temperatures between 27˚C/80 F and 40˚C/104 F, with night temperatures in the 20s. The rainy season is from July to October, but temperatures are slightly lower, because of the effect of the rain. During this time it will not rain continuously, but in sharp bursts, and the sun can come out quickly. The cooler season is from October to February, with average temperatures between 20˚C/68 F and 30˚C/86 F.
Meals are included as per the itinerary where B = breakfast, L = lunch, D = dinner. Most meals are local and feature noodles, rice, curries, and soups. Any special dietary requirements can also be catered for as well. Please let us know at the time of booking.
Keeping you completely hydrated is a job we take very seriously. Cold water, some energy-restoring local fruit, and soft drinks are included in the tour price while riding. Soft drinks and other beverages during meals are not included. Beer is freely available everywhere but is NOT included in the price.
SpiceRoads does not require you to pay a surcharge for traveling alone. We will arrange for you to share accommodation with another traveler of the same gender and if we cannot match you up we will provide a single room at no extra charge. If you prefer not to share a single supplement is payable to guarantee your own room. The cost of the single supplement is listed above.
We recommend that you tuck away a few extra dollars, perhaps US$20 per day, for incidentals.
The Thai currency is the baht. ATMs, which are abundant, are the easiest ways to get Thai baht. Have a supply of US dollars in cash on hand, just in case your card doesn’t work. Banks or the rarer private moneychangers offer the best foreign-exchange rates. Credit cards are accepted in big cities and resort hotels but you’ll need baht for family-run guesthouses or restaurants.
If this is the tour for you here's what you need to do to confirm your place:
Just complete our online booking form or send your booking details offline (email or post), and we will confirm your participation. No deposit is needed to confirm your place on a SpiceRoads tour.
You are advised to read our Booking Conditions in full before you make your payment and should you require further clarifications of any of the conditions below, please email us or call our office.
There is a minimum number of participants (usually 2) required to enable the trip to go ahead. Once the minimum number is reached, the trip status will change from 'Available' to 'Guaranteed to Depart'. Once a trip is guaranteed to depart you are free to book your flights and make other travel arrangements. If the trip status is ‘Limited’ will mean we have only a small number of spaces available for booking. If you are unsure about the trip status, please email us or call our office.
From the tour page, click the 'Book Now' link. All departures for this tour will appear, just select the date you'd like to travel. For the next steps, you'll need to know the names of the people travelling. If you wish you can also provide extra details such as passport numbers, height (for bike hire), or you can add that later by logging into Manage My Trip (we'll set up an account for you automatically if you don't already have one). Our system will contact you from time to time to fill in the missing information, as it will be required before departure. However, if the trip that you are booking offers a child discount, you will have to fill out the date of birth of each rider (so we can calculate the appropriate discount).
If you are having any problems please send us an email, or give us a call (+66 026 3295) and one of our travel specialists will assist you with your booking.
Just call us or send an email indicating which trip you want to join and we will happily send you a list of questions and process your booking for you.
We do not require a deposit or full payment to book a place for you on a tour.
The balance of the tour’s cost (final invoice) will need to be paid 60 days before the departure date with fees for any bicycle rental(s), single supplement(s) and extra hotel nights.
In the case where a booking is made when there are less than 60 days until the tour departure date, the tour’s cost should be paid in full within 72 hours of receiving an invoice from SpiceRoads. Payment can be made by credit card using our online payment gateway or by bank transfer. When making payment online you will need to confirm that you have read these booking conditions during the "checkout" process, which equates to agreeing to the terms of services and stipulations as indicated in this document.
In all cases, tour fees need to be paid “in full” before participation in a tour. No person(s) will be allowed to join a tour without fully settling their invoice and receiving a confirmation number from SpiceRoads.
The exception can be made for last-minute miscellaneous fees that can be paid locally (visas, additional local hotel bookings, etc.) can be settled on the day of arrival.
If the tour is cancelled or postponed by SpiceRoads because we didn't make the trip numbers and the tour can’t run, we will make a full cash refund (by bank transfer or on your credit card).
If the tour is cancelled for any other reason, including due to Covid related travel restrictions, we will give you a full credit (with no deductions for admin or any other small-print item) to use on any SpiceRoads tour with no time limit. (Exceptions being flights, special permits and other non-refundable items and these will be advised when booking the trip).
Before paying for your tour, you can cancel your booking with no charge and up until 40 days before departure, you can change your booking to another travel date or move your booking onto another SpiceRoads tour with no charges.
If you need to cancel after you have made full payment, please see our cancellation policy.
The information in this document is given in good faith, and covers the average range of conditions likely to be found on this trip. Please note that the itinerary is subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances, however, we will always do our best to adhere to this original itinerary
Brilliant guide and tour