Sapa, Vietnam, is a peaceful town located in the northern Highlands region near the Vietnam-China border full of stunning mountain and valley views, local villages among the terraced rice fields, and home to the tallest peak in Vietnam giving the location a cooler, comfortable climate compared to the southern region.
BOOK YOUR OWN TRIP TO SAPA
After spending several days in Hanoi, I was ready to leave the city and head north to the Highlands region to visit Sapa. When I was in Hanoi, I passed many opportunities to book an organized tour up to Sapa that included transportation, lodging, and local village treks. I am really glad that I did not book a tour and instead I booked everything on my own. This gave me flexibility to stay where I wanted, book the treks I wanted and stay longer if I chose to. I stayed three nights (one more than I originally planned). Once you are in Sapa, you will realize you may want to stay longer because it is such a peaceful place positioned high up in the mountains with unbelievable views of the valleys below. And it is cheaper to do on your own.
TAKE THE DIRECT BUS TO SAPA INSTEAD OF THE TRAIN
While the overnight train sounds “efficient” since you can sleep while traveling, I wouldn’t recommend this option for the following reasons:
- STILL HAVE TO TAKE A BUS FROM THE TRAIN: The train only takes you from Hanoi to Lao Cai. And you must board a 45-minute bus to Sapa once you arrive in Lao Cai.
- TRAIN NOT CHEAPER: The cheapest train berth is $33 while the bus is $16 (and you can get a nice hotel in Hanoi for less than the difference – $17 – so you aren’t saving money by traveling overnight
- DON’T LOSE A DAY TRAVELING BY BUS: The bus leaves at 7:30am and takes you directly to Sapa arriving at 12:30pm so you still have mostly a full day to explore (you don’t lose a day by traveling by bus)
- BUS IS MORE CONVENIENT: The bus company picks you up at your hotel while you need to travel on your own to the train station
- TRAIN IS LONGER: The train to bus travel time is 8 hours while the direct bus is 5.5 hours travel time.
QUICK TIP: Book the 28-seat bus with Sapa Express. Very clean buses and professional company, drivers, and guides. The bus has three seats across each row so you have a lot of room. The seats have great recline and great leg room (I am a tall guy so I usually try to find seats with good leg room). And the bus ends the trip HERE in central Sapa near many hotels.
H’MONG SWARM
Of the many ethnic groups that call the Sapa region home, the H’mong tribe is the most populous. They migrated to Vietnam and Laos from China in the 18th century. The tribal women wear beautiful bright, colorful embroidered clothing. Of course you can’t miss them once the bus arrives. They each have a huge bag of many things to sell to tourists. Once I walked off the bus, I was engulfed by the H’mong women attempting to sell me hand-made clothing items and overpriced treks to the villages among the rice terraces. The bus guide had already prepared everyone on the bus that this would happen and recommended we just continue on to where we need to go. I smiled at them and continued on to my hotel. A few of them followed me, but once it eventually became clear that I was not going to stop, they stopped bothering me.
BOOK A HOTEL IN SAPA TOWN WITH MOUNTAIN VIEWS
There are many lodging options in the Sapa area. I stayed at the Phuong Nam Hotel (I paid $11 USD and had my own queen size bed and spacious, private bathroom located within a five minute walk of the downtown area).
Of course it depends on what you want to do, but I would recommend stay in Sapa town (vs. outside of town) at a place south of the town’s center (the large square next to Notre Dame Cathedral) that has a nice view of the valley and mountains. You can find many luxury hotels all the way down to many budget hostel choices. You can use the hotel as your base and book many adventures / treks from Sapa town. Plus there are many dining and nightlife options in town. If you prefer a much quieter, remote experience, book a homestay in one of the local villages. There are many opportunities to find a homestay while you are in Sapa Town. Click here to find the some of the best spots in Sapa.
Booking.com
3 MUST DO’S WHILE IN SAPA
Of course there are many sightseeing activities in Sapa, however these are my three must do’s while visiting.
1. CABLE CAR TO THE TALLEST PEAK IN INDOCHINA
It seems like in most places with a “tallest peak” that humans feel the need to go to the top. It must be human nature to climb to the tallest points of interest. The Sun World Fansipan Legend cable car in Sapa certainly is a must that takes you to the Mount Fansipan, the tallest peak in all of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia). It feels a bit like a Disney World attraction and is expensive but I feel it is a must do.
In the center of town, for an additional charge, you can take a fun funicular ride to the base of the cable car. I feel this is worth the additional fee since the ride provides stunning views of the mountains and rice terraced valleys below. Once I arrived at the main cable car station, I thought I could beat the crowd in the funicular and get to the cable car to try to go up to the mountain with few people in my pod.
TALL WHITE GIANT GAVE ME CELEBRITY STATUS
As I turned the corner to the main boarding area, I just saw hundreds of people waiting in line. It was like a long line for an amusement park ride. But I had already bought my ticket and I wanted to go to the top (just like the hundreds of people waiting). I entered the long queue and quickly noticed I was the only person with light colored skin. The entire line was comprised of Chinese and Vietnamese tourists.
I stood out like a white giant, towering above everyone else in line by at least a full head length. My height and color of my skin (or maybe it was my dashing good looks – haha) drew much attention from the entire crowd. Almost everyone had glanced at me or continued staring at me. Some actually took photos of me as they passed. It quickly became annoying to me to be looked at and quickly reminded me how people that look different than others can feel in situations like this.
But then it all changed. I had passed a Chinese guy who was smiling at me couple times in line as we worked our way to the front of the line. On the third passing, he held out his hand since he didn’t speak English. It took me a second to figure out what he was doing but he wanted to give me a high-five. So I gave him a high-five with a smile. Everyone around us began to smile. You couldn’t help but smile after seeing this guy’s smile. He was very genuine and he could tell that I stood out so he wanted me to know that he accepted me with a high-five. Check out the fun experience in my video below.
The views from the top of the mountain were stunning. And there is much more to do than just see the views below. There are temples, a huge Buddha and other areas to walk around the top of the mountain. Be sure to do the loop on the backside of the top of the mountain instead of just going up and down the main stairway to the top.
QUICK TIP: Try to plan your cable car trip around the weather. While soaring above the clouds on a cloudy day can be amazing, it still is better to go on a clear day. The best views come mid-day when the fog has burned away and before the evening clouds come across the mountain tops. Most tourist groups will go in the morning or after lunch.
2. TREK THROUGH THE RICE TERRACES
Trekking through the small villages among the rice terraces in the valley is certainly a great sightseeing and cultural adventure. Most hotels have one to two day trekking tours that you can book the day before you decide to go on the tour. Some tours may be slightly better than others but you will see the same scenery as everyone else. You must get a local guide with a tour instead of hiking the rice terraces (and trespassing on local property) without one.
H’MONG WOMEN BECOME YOUR SHADOW
Don’t be alarmed when you start out to have a local guide plus one H’mong “follower” per tourist. They will follow you for most of the trip. They will ask your name and make small talk with you. And when the terrain is steep and slippery, they will help you traverse the trail (in sandals).
This is all part of the experience. Once you get to lunch, after they have trekked the entire way with the group and have helped you along the trek, they will try to sell you clothing and other items that they have “hand-made”. Yes, this is annoying (especially after experiencing many people trying to sell you items in Vietnam), but remember, this is their livelihood. They don’t really have other ways to make money. Even though you don’t really know if they actually made the item or if it was mass shipped from China, go ahead and make a small purchase. But remember they will try to get as much money as they can.
My advice is to have an amount that you don’t want to go above and just give that to them: take it or leave it (and don’t budge). I would say 100,000-200,000 dong ($4-$8 USD) is adequate as a price that supports them. The woman asked for 400,000 dong for a small purse, and I just gave her 200,000 dong. She smiled and took it. It will be a nice gift for my niece. I felt good about giving the woman something and she felt good about receiving. It was a win-win and a small cost to me for someone who needed it more than me.
QUICK TIP: Book a one day tour of you just want to see the rice terraces. Book a two day tour if you really want to stay at a local Homestay. But my opinion is once you’ve seen 3-4 hours of rice terraces, they all begin to look the same. One day is enough for stunning views and a decent cultural experience as you meander through the small villages. And book a tour that begins from Sapa Town and ends in the valley so you only have to walk downhill. A van will come pick you up to take you back (up) to town.
3. MOTORBIKE OVER TRAM TON PASS
While I really wanted to buy a motorcycle in Vietnam and explore the entire country on two wheels, I opted to take safer forms of transportation. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t experience two-wheeled adventures in different parts of Vietnam.
At 1,900 meters altitude (a little over one mile), the Tram Ton Pass is the highest road pass in Vietnam and referred to as “Heaven’s Gate”. And it was very close to Sapa Town. What a better way to experience the beauty of this gorgeous scenery other than a motorbike!
I rented a motorbike from my hotel for the entire day for $8 USD. I had met some friends on the rice terrace trek the day before so we all decided to rent bikes together and experience the pass.
It took less than an hour to reach the top of the pass from Sapa Town. We had lunch at a roadside restaurant at the top: Buffalo BBQ and sticky rice! So good!! We continued down into the valley on the other side as the curvy road hugged the mountain the entire way down.
QUICK TIP: There are two popular waterfalls (and one smaller waterfall) on the way to the top of the pass from Sapa Town. When you park your bike close to the waterfall, locals will charge you a small fee to park. It isn’t much (10,000 dong or $0.45 USD). But if you don’t want to pay, you can park a little further away on the side of the road for free.
LOCAL BBQ WAS MY FAVORITE DISH
Many tourist restaurants exist in Sapa Town. However, I found a restaurant gem (Duong Pho Quan) that was more of a local restaurant than tourist stop. Many kabobs had been prepared earlier and they grilled the items you picked at the front of the restaurant along the street. My favorite was these small ground corn balls on a stick (yellow item in the photo below). So good!! And the best part was the cost. I paid about $4 USD for 6 meat/veggie kabobs and a beer!
SAPA IS A MUST FOR YOUR VIETNAM LIST
Sapa reminded me of a small European mountain town. It was beautiful and had everything that I needed to have a relaxing but fulfilling adventure. It should certainly be on your list if you plan on visiting northern Vietnam!
