Vietnam Adventure Travel and Tours

This 100-year-old hill station beckons visitors for various attractions: pleasant weather, captivating mountain landscape, the highest peak of Indochina for mountain climbers to conquer and cultural interchange meeting with the  montagnards from 5 minority ethnic groups.

• Tour code: VAT SPH
• Tour Route: Hanoi – Sapa - Hilltribe villages - Sapa - Hanoi
• Tour Duration: 04 days / 03 nights

Day 01: Hanoi – Lao Cai Railway station.
Our tour guide will pick you up to transfer to the Station and take the night train to Lao Cai, the railway station nearest to Sapa. Overnight on the train (No meal provided).

Day 02: Lao Cai - Sapa. Hiking in Sapa (Meals:B/L/D)
Arrive at Lao Cai Station at 06.00. Take a look-over at the border gate Vietnam – China hereabout, where Lao Cai (Vietnam) is adjacent to Hekou (China) and flows of visitors from Vietnam and China are intermingling in the town to make a fascinating ambience. After a breakfast of local food, depart to Sapa (40km mountainous road from Lao Cai) with stopovers en route to enjoy the scenery in the mist surrounding mountain peaks and the green of paddy fields.

Arrive in Sapa town at about 08.00. Leave your luggage at the hotel and hang around with your guide to Sapa market, where you can meet the local tribes and view their raw crafts made of wood, silver, dyed fabrics and so on. Afternoon hike downhill 4km to Cat Cat stream and waterfall. From the marketplace, walk down along a very nice path passing some ruins from the French time, from where you can see the Peak of Fansipan, the highest peak of Indochina (3,143m) in clear days. The path leads to the village of the H’Mong people, where you can visit their quaint house-on-stilts and experience their routine life with waving fabrics, dying clothes, cooking etc. Beyond the village you will find some cascades within a bamboo forest and a few forgotten buildings that served as the French power station during the 1920s-1930s. If you are still healthy and excited then, hike further westward from the power station toward Fansipan Mt. through meadows in the surroundings. Evening back to Sapa for dinner and overnight.

Note: In high season, the early check-in to any hotels (before 12.00 or sometimes 14.00) may be subject to a little surcharge not included in the Package.

Sapa, elevation 1,650m, a magical combination of alpine landscape, ethnic cultures, and bracing mountain air, was found by the French in 1903 and built as a hill station inside a beautiful valley in 1922. It’s home of various hill-tribe communities, it’s the only place in Vietnam that catches extremely rare snow flakes in winter, the base to start any conquest to Fansipan, the highest peak of Indochina (3,143m) via primitive forests and spectacular mountainsides. As in other far mountainous towns, where the hill tribal villages take some days to move to one another, Sapa has a weekend market, during which the town fills up with hill tribal people selling their wares. If you prefer to be apart from crowds of visitors who will also gather in the marketplace in weekend, visit Sapa on weekdays and hike to villages which are easily reached by trekking or a short trip by car, to reach the villages and hamlets of the colourfully-dressed H’mong, Red Zao, Dzay, Tay and Xa Pho people and spectacular green terraced fields along the roads.

Day 03: Sapa - More Hiking - Lao Cai - Train to Hanoi (Meals:B/L/D)
From Sapa, drive 15km northeast to Taphin, hike thru paddy fields and an old seminary in Taphin Valley, you will reach the villages of the H’mong and Red Zao people, who are skillful in dying and making clothes and embroidery by traditional, old silk thread. The women’s outfits here vary with silver-colored beads and coins, and it’s said that the health of a woman is equal to the weight of the counts she carries. Back to Sapa for a rest and a delicious lunch before heading south to another remarkable area at Lao Chai (10km from Sapa) and walk thru 3km to Tavan with visits to the villages of the tribal people H’mong, Tay and Dzay en route. Take your car to be back to Lao Cai Station for the train at 19.00 or 20.00. Dinner in Lao Cai. O/N on the train.

Day 04: Arrive in Hanoi
Your tour guide will help arranging taxi to transfer you to your accommodation in Hanoi before saying goodbye to you at Hanoi station.  End of services.

Trip Includes   

• Travel Insurance
• English/French-speaking guides. Other languages are available upon request.
• Twin-shared rooms at comfortable 2-star hotel in Sapa
• Meals as mentioned in the Program, from Breakfast on the 2nd day to dinner on the 5th Day. Special requirements (vegetarian, diet etc.) could be arranged upon prior notice.
• Land transfer by Russian Jeep or 4-wheel drive car in Sapa.        
• Two-way Train tickets (sleeping-berth with air-con) Hanoi – Laocai – Hanoi.     
• Admission Fees

Trip Excludes

• International flight from/to Vietnam and airport tax
• Visa arrangement.
• Accommodation in Hanoi
• Drinks and other personal expenses (laundry, phone calls etc.)
• Taxi on the last day (around USD 3-4 if you are dwelling inside Hanoi)