(Article written by Tigit Jon)
Tigit has both in-house guides and freelancers with whom we work.
On this page are short biographies of each guide explaining their areas of expertise. We will move tour guides around depending on which tour suits their skill set, and for this, we will be looking at whether the tour is offroad or onroad, the route, and also the customer style of writing in emails. Basically, we will attempt to link you to the tour guide that we think suits your needs.
You may also request a specific guide, and we will do what we can to cater to this!
Tigit guides
Giang born 1996 (Based in Hanoi and all Vietnam)
Giang has a diverse skillset in tourguiding. He knows Vietnam better than any other Tigit guide and has probably racked up the most Kilometres on a bike.
He can do both offroad tours and onroad tours. Because of his diverse route knowledge, he will cater the tour to your driving style. If you want hard offroad, then no problem. If you want beautiful views on the road, also no problem.
As Giang has aged, I have watched him go from a competitive boy racer to a tour guide who carefully analyses his client’s needs and cleverly manipulates routes to the group’s driving style.
Nguyen born 1997 (Based in Hanoi and all Vietnam)
Nguyen was hired at Tigit as a paperwork pusher. He kept asking to drive with me, and I didn’t take his requests seriously for many years. One day, I finally did a practice session with him, and I learned this guy was no longer for paperwork; he was now a tour guide.
He practiced motorbiking hard with Giang to get to where he is today. Due to his, let’s say, “intellectual background,” Nguyen can provide stimulating conversation on any topic while also providing any information you might want to know about Vietnam. He is our lead road guide, and I think his smooth, well-spoken background, is probably way beyond what a tourist would expect!
He has now racked up many thousands of kilometers on Vietnam’s roads. As his skill level has progressed, he is now able to take clients off-road as well!
Dung (Hanoi only)
Dung is a freelance tour guide that Tigit uses regularly. He also owns a truck, which is often used for support vehicle inquiries at Tigit. In general, the Hanoi tour guide market operates on freelancers, and having in-house guides like Tigit is unique. However, the demand for freelancers outweighs the supply, and good freelancers are very difficult to get hold of!
Due to Tigit being a “nice company” with clear and transparent rules, we keep freelancers happy and manage to get Dung guiding for us regularly. These freelancers are in the clutter of tours, and they know the best places to stay and all the secret routes.
Ben (Hanoi offroad only)
Ben from the UK teaches offroad motorbike lessons at Dirt Town Academy fulltime. This is a small motocross track in the heart of Hanoi city. He comes from a background of MX bikes and very nearly went pro back in the UK. Ben can do both lessons in Hanoi and offroad motorbike tours. We use Ben if the client is talented on a motorbike or wants to learn while riding.
It doesn’t really matter what your skill level is, if you ride with Ben you will finish the tour 10 times the rider that you were when you first arrived. To go along with Ben is to witness unbelievable riding skills, which will not only amuse you, but also all the children in the villages who go wild at his antics.
Whether you care or not, Ben is the number one rider in Vietnam, and tends to win all the competitions here! He is down to earth and not arrogant, though, and only wants to help people get better at bikes!
Petteri (Hanoi offroad only)
Petteri is from Finland and specializes in Hard Enduro riding. He likes to take people to Soc Son National park for training around 40 minutes from Hanoi. He teaches a wide range of skills from balancing to hill climbs, often turning the activities into games. For example, the “who can drive the slowest race.” Petteri is also a mechanic, and so it is very unlikely anything can go wrong on one of his tours!
Whether you care or not, Petteri tends to come around 3rd in most of Vietnam’s offroad competitions. That aside, he is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, when it comes to hard enduro.
Tung born 1980 (HCM)
Tung is an engineering person who appears to have unlimited free time. I don’t really understand his situation, but nonetheless, he seems to be available to run all the Tigit HCM offroad tours.
It is not his main job, so you can see the joy in his eyes when he is on a motorbike. This translates to the client driving around with a bubbly and happy Vietnamese engineer who is excited to be out of the office and into the great outdoors!
Clients love him; there isn’t much else to say!
Renzo born 22/06/1989 (All Vietnam)
Renzo is a Peruvian tour guide, but it doesn’t matter where he is from, as he speaks every language under the sun. Renzo is your man if your English is limited and you want French, Spanish, or any other language. He also speaks fluent Vietnamese. Overall, if you want the best explanation of Vietnamese culture and food, then Renzo is the tour guide for you.
Renzo runs his own tour company, “The Extra Mile.”
Tigit as a company is very much about the bikes and the roads; our guides don’t really specialize in the “cultural experience.” Therefore, we like to work with Renzo for clients who want a bit of a balance between bikes, activities, and culture.
That said, Renzo is a well-rounded guide who can cater to any tour requirement!
Tigit Jon
I don’t do guiding, but I am the route setter for all the offroad tours and most of the road tours.
Despite being a cynical expat who complains about everything, I try to look at Vietnam from a tourist’s perspective. I then provide training to Tigit guides explaining what I think a tourist wants to see and where they want to stay. Tour guides will then take my concepts and improve on them over time.
Tour guides at Tigit provide me with route debriefs and GPS logs of where they went and what they did. I will then analyze the data, interegate the guide, and try and make the entire company learn from the good parts and the bad parts of the tour.
Overall, though, especially when it comes to offroad, I am pushing Tigit to be the best offroad tour provider in the country. I am not a fan of the fake CRF 300L dual sport tours out there, and I am currently on a campaign to show off the best of Vietnam with my new Yamaha WR 155R fleet.
