Sapa hill tribe villages – Trekking tour 2 Days

GROUP TOUR – TOUR CODE: VID01S

Sapa trekking tour, at the elevation of 1,600m, is famous for all foreigners in term of ethnology and scenery. Sapa is 1 of the only 2 destinations of Vietnam you can see snow during some precious days annually. The weather is 10-25 Centigrade with low humidity, offerring Sapa cool atmosphere all-year-round and making this town “the leisure capital of North Vietnam during summer”.

PRICE

US$ 55 per person
Single supplement surcharge: US$ 15
This Sapa group tour will offer you the must-see hilltribe villages around Sapa town.

HOTEL UPGRADE OPTIONS:
If you’d like to upgrade the 2nd night from Hoang Ha 3-star hotel to another, you pay the surcharge as follows:
– Cat Cat View 3-star www.catcathotel.com : + US$ 20/ per person
– Sunny Mountain 4-star www.sunnymountainhotel.com : + US$ 30/ per person

INCLUSION

• Hotel in Sapa town (Twinshare room) – Priority: Hoang Ha 3-star hotel – Add:No.8B Thac Bac Street – Sapa town center.
• Air-conditioned van or minibus shared with other passengers.
• Local English speaking tour guide.
• All meals as indicated in Sapa: 2 x B (Breakfast); 2 x L (Lunch); 2 x D (Dinner)
• Admission fees to sightseeing places.
• Free luggage handling in hotels.

EXCLUSION

• Private taxi & our supporting staff picking you up from your hotel in Hanoi center to your compartment on the train ! Yes, exactly, our staff will say goodbye to you at your berth on the train compartment and help you the boarding procedures before the train leaves. If you’d like to book this service, a surcharge of US$ 23/ group of 2 tourists, or US$ 30/ group of 3-5 tourists will be applied.
• Train tickets Hanoi – Lao Cai (Sapa): 1-way ticket = US$ 40/ person (4-soft-sleeper cabin) or US$ 85/ person (2-soft-sleeper cabin). There’s 1 VietnamCheapPackages staff meeting you at your hotel to give you the ticket.
• Drinks, trekking gears & other personal expenses.

Sapa hilltribe villages nestle among Muong Hoa valley is home to Hmong, Dzay, Tay, Xa Pho, Red Dzao ethnic people. This is also a paradise for trekking tours with beautiful landscape and many chances to intermingle with local traditions.

TOUR PROGRAM

DAY 1 SAPA – Y LINH HO – LAO CHAI – TA VAN VILLAGE – SAPA (L,D)

6km of walking down to the south east of Sapa along the side of Muong Hoa valley to Y Linh Ho village of the Black H’mong. Continue on 2km of trekking down to Lao Chai village of the H’mong. Lunch at a local family, and then walk through terraced rice fields to Ta Van village of the Dzay minority people where we stay for the night. It gives you a worth chance for you to learn about the local house architecture which is full of their daily life styles and exclusive custom. Enjoy the landscapes.
Homestay overnight at the Dzay local house.

DAY 2 CAT CAT – SIN CHAI VILLAGE – LAO CAI – HANOI (B,L,D)

Check-out the hotel after your breakfast, then you can leave your big luggages in the hotel lobby.

A walk down to the South-west of Sapa (around 4 km) to visit Cat Cat village of the Black H’mong. Relax at the food of the stunning waterfall and the vestige of a hydroelectric power station that was constructed by the French during the colonial time in Vietnam. Enjoy picnic lunch by the side of the river, and then next 6 km to Sin Chai, the village located at the foot of Fansipan Mountain, “the roof of Vietnam and Indochina”. From here you can enjoy the grandiose stunning landscapes. Car to return to Sapa for dinner. Bus to Lao Cai Train Station or return bus to Hanoi (booked by yourselves).

There are 4 trains from Hanoi to Sapa and return every night. In fact, most are 1 or 2 compartments (tourist train) attached to a state-run SP Train (normal train). The tourist trains have been upgraded since 2007 catering foreign tourists to Sapa hilltribe villages daily.

BEFORE TOUR

Don’t confuse between Sapa and Lao Cai. Lao Cai is a city, and Sapa is a town. Both belong to Lao Cai province, Northwest of Vietnam. And Lao Cai Train station (in Lao Cai city, 38km from Sapa town) is end point of all trains from Hanoi. The trains come to Lao Cai and from Sapa, you take a bus transfer to Sapa nearby.

Train tickets are often sold old quickly for Friday (for direction from Hanoi to Lao Cai) and Sunday (for direction Lao Cai to Hanoi). If you want to travel on the same days, you should book soonest as possible.

Train in Vietnam is different from train in Europe. Although overnight trains Hanoi – Lao Cai is the 1st choice for travelers to Sapa, we have to warn tourists about this. The width of rail lines in Vietnam is 1m40, narrower than in other neighbour countries (in China: 1m60) and in Europe (1m80 – 2m00) hence the train fluctuates during it runs. Due to the size of track gauge, Vietnam train runs slower at around 50 – 70km/ hour only.

However, train facilities from Hanoi – Lao Cai – Hanoi has been upgraded since 2007 for foreign tourists. Each compartment can be compared like “a 3-star hotel” with air-conditioned cabin, soft-berth with linen, pillows, sheet and duvet and an individual reading light. There’s a free water dispenser at the end of the corridor for both boiling and cold water, handy if you have bought some powdered soup, instant coffee or hot chocolate with you, or have bought some dried noodles from one of the stalls at the station. Most trains as ET-Pumpkin, Livitrans, Orient Express, Fansipan offer complimentary mineral water in-compartments. Each coach has 1 housekeeper and 1 train customer service onboard. No windows are open by night so your sleep is 100% safe.

Another transportation for Sapa trekking tour is buses from Hanoi, which is comfortable enough for tourists from. If you want to change, we propose the Hanoi – Sapa 2 Day tour by bus.

DURING TOUR

Muong Hoa valley is home to dozens of hilltribe villages surrounded by Fansipan mountain. Don’t miss the chance to intermingle with hilltribe people during trekking, tasting their foods and knowing more about stitl-houses and terraced rice fields “the masterpiece of Hmong people”. If a local invite you a cup of rice wine, kindly don’t refuse because in their thinking, your refusal is impolite in any terms. 75% of cereals of the region is for making rice, which is something a bad habit of locals, but this is traditional and actually, the local government can’t persuade them to give up drinking daily.