You have already booked all flights ticket and planned the length of your trips inVietnam. Everything seems ready to go. However, in the last minutes, you find an amazing place named Sapa. It is a picturesque town surrounded by majestic mountain landscapes and neatly rice terrace, the highlight of Sapa is unquestionably the friendly and colourful local hill tribe people.
You have no idea how to manage time to step to Sapa when you are suggested to stay there more than one day.
Worry-free, guys!
You can absolutely travel to Sapa within a day!
You can absolutely travel to Sapa within a day!
~ 8:00 pm the day before
As you know that Sapa is a town in Lao Cai Province in Northwest Vietnam close to the Chinese border. It is located about 350km Northwest of Hanoi. Therefore, it takes about 6-8 hours to travel to Sapa, a long haul while you have limited time. Fortunately, the transportation from Hanoi to Sapa is mostly operated from the evening of the day before.
- By night train.
One of the most easy and convenient ways to journey up Lao Cai City is to take a night train. It’s more comfortable and safer than a bus or motorbike, and a lot cheaper than hiring a car.
Three sleeper trains leave Hanoi’s Main Station each evening, at 20:35 (SP7), 21:10 (SP1) and 21:50 (SP3). They take around 8 hours and 20 minutes to reach Lao Cai. The final 34 kilometres to Sapa is travelled by minibus or private transfer. The return journey departure times are 17:30 (SP8), 20:15 (SP2) and 21:00 (SP4) (trains have even numbers in the return direction). Buses leave Sapa at 17:00 from near the church.
The SP1, SP2, SP3 and SP4 mainly comprise privately run sleeper cabins and the SP7 and SP8 also have soft seats. Private operators include Livitrans, Hara, Orient Express, ET Pumpkin and Tulico.
- By night bus
If you can’t get booked on the train or want a cheaper option, the bus is an alternative but is less comfortable and less safe — although there have been no reported serious accidents on that particular route that I could find. Sleeper buses come in two formats: the most common is three rows of bunk beds running from the front to the back of the bus with a wide bed at the back, and the other has two rows of double size bunk beds or twin beds. Beds are far smaller than on the train, don’t go flat and have limited storage: bags are kept in the under-bus storage. The same issue of lack of sleep applies as for the trains.
Overnight sleeper buses, managed by private operators, run between Hanoi and Lao Cai. Hung Thanh runs two sleeper buses every day, at 19:00 and 20:00, from Hanoi’s Gia Lam bus station to Lao Cai train station. You will then need to change to a minibus to Sapa. The ticket price is 300,000 VND. Gia Lam bus station is around 5 km from Old Quarter, across the Chuong Duong bridge. Take a taxi or motorbike taxi or pick up a bus at the Western end of the bridge.
6:00 – Visit a weekly colorful tribal market.
The colorful tribal market
After leaving from the train to Lao Cai, you take a car to visit a festive tribal market. If the date falls on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, you will have a chance to bask in the vibrant colours of traditional hill tribe costumes. This is a good place for meeting the friendly people, taking photos and learning about the culture of the hill tribes living in the area. The colorful items are put on sale not just for locals but also tourists, particularly foreigners. However, you should remember to bargain when you want to buy your favorites, and the items at the booths located at the start of the path you walk on always have higher prices. Keep walking toward the end of the traditionally ethnic market until you find a real bargain.
Good to know: Tribal market schedule:
Tuesday: Coc Ly market
Wednesday: Cao Son market
Thursday: Lung Khau Nhin market
Saturday: Can Cau market
Sunday: Bac Ha market
12:00 – Lunch time
Are you hungry now? Yep, it is time for lunch. There are some famous restaurants in Sapa that provides you delicious Northern Vietnamese cuisine.
Red Yao House
Located in Thac Bac Street, very near to Victoria Hotel, Red Dao House is considered one of the best restaurants in town.
Enjoy you lunch with the authentically Vietnamese meal in a traditional wooden house with cozy and romantic atmosphere. This restaurant offers various cuisines, starting from USD 2 each for breakfast and USD 5 for lunch and dinner. There are local specialties such as pan fried pawn with garlic, roasted duck with honey, beef steak with mushroom sauce, and chicken hot pot. The menu also has wide choices for drinks with Vietnamese coffee, Vietnamese jasmine tea, Lao Cai beer, Red Dao wine, etc.
Nature Bar and Grill Restaurant
Nature Bar and Grill Restaurant will attract you by not only the delicious cuisines but also the modern design and dark wooden decoration with tables are put surrounding the fireplace. The restaurant serves a wide range of unique local dishes, however, hot pot and grilled meat with honey are among the most favorite. The menu offers great valued set meals including starter, main courses and dessert for only USD5-USD8 (without drinks).
13:30 – Half-day hiking in Sapa
Sapa, the land of hiking and trekking, you can find many routes for your half day trekking.
The most popular route of visitors in Sapa is Cat Cat Village, where the Black Hmong have been settled for centuries. Enjoy stunning views along the way of rice fields and the Hoang Lien Son Range. On reaching the end of the village, you will view a waterfall and an old hydropower station built by the French.
Ta Phin Village is also one of the suitable routes for half day hiking. Ta Phin is inhabited by the Red Dao minority group, one of the two largest ethnic groups living in the Sapa area. Stop by some local houses to meet the people and explore their culture, customs and traditions.
One more choice is Lao Chai village route along Muong Hoa Valley and Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range will bring you to a village of the Black Hmong ethnic group. It offers stunning scenery for photographers. If you have enough time, stroll down a dirt track to Ta Van Village of the Dzay people. Visit one of their houses where you can meet them and learn about their unique culture.
16:30 – Herbal bath and foot massage
After nearly a full day of sleeping on the train/bus, hiking to ethnic villages, a short break with herbal bath and foot massage is a perfect activity for you relax.
Sapa, especially Red Yao village is very well-known for traditional “herbal baths”. People boil a collection of fresh and dried plants and bark in a water filled giant wok, over a charcoal fire. You can enjoy the beautiful smell of these natural medicines as they are brewing. After several hours of brewing, the water is transferred to a wooden barrel tub. It is now ready for you to come and soak your bones in our Yao traditional bath and wash away your aches, pains, worries and woes all at once in the privacy of our new separate bathhouse.
Beside the herbal bath, one of must-try things is a foot massage. If you have been in Thailand and enjoyed the Thai foot massage, it is glad to say that Thailand isn’t the only country to hold copyright on cheap massages. You can find them in Vietnam too and Sapa has a few salon and massage parlors for you to try. Foot and body massages takes around $6 /hour and the Vietnamese are experts at making your feet and body feel like it has wings! It is easy to get addicted.
19: 30 – Night bus back to Hanoi.
After relaxing with herbal bath and foot massage, enjoying your quick meal, say goodbye to Sapa and back to Hanoi by a night train/bus.