Sapa Trek & Bac Ha Sunday Market 5 days

Sapa Trek & Bac Ha Sunday Market***Code: SB03Routes: Hanoi night train to Lao Cai – Sapa – HanoiDuration: 3 daysFeature: This 3-day 4-night tour is a wonderful offer from Footprint. Including not only trekking to the hidden villages and staying at their home, but also a visit to one of the most colorful tribal markets in Vietnam. Bac Ha is a rainbow of culture and local trading activities. Different tribes and villages all congregate here only on Sunday to do their business. Please schedule your departure from Hanoi on Thursday night so you too can participate in this renowned market.Difficulty: (2/5)Itinerary in Detail:Day 1: Lao Cai – Sapa, trek to Ta Phin (4 hours)Lao Cai, Sapa trck to Ta PhinThe Night Before: Transfer from your hotel to the Hanoi Train Station for boarding at 9:30 pm. You will be in shared AC soft sleeper cabins of 4 to travel North to Lao Cai town.Today’s Morning: The train arrives in Lao Cai at about 6:30 am where your Footprint guide will welcome you. Look for the “Footprint Travel” sign when you exit the train station. Then take a morning drive through the clouds by car / van to Sapa (about 1.5 hours).When you arrive in Sapa you will be taken to a local restaurant for a morning shower & breakfast. Then we will take short ride from Sapa to our trekking base where we start our trek through terraced rice fields and Hmong villages. Chances to meet and talk with locals working in the fields are plentiful. We will break for a picnic lunch en route then continue trekking to Ta Phin village of the Dao people (4 hours). Your Dao host family will warmly welcome you to their traditional home where we will share in an ethnic style dinner and stay the night.Included: Transfer(s), train ticket, tour guide, morning shower, all meals, entrance fee(s), homestayDay 2: More trekking and back to SapaSapa trekking tour At the first of gleam of daylight, you will see and hear the sounds of morning village life. You can join them in some of their activities, like feeding the animals; cleaning the houses, gardening or preparing breakfast. After breakfast, we will complete our trek on a valley route to the main road (4 hours) linking Lao Cai and Sapa. Alternatively, for this long trek, you can choose take a short morning wander around the village for about 1 hour, resulting in more time spent with the host family and other villagers. For both options, you will be supported by our car / van back to Sapa (30 minutes).When we arrive back in Sapa we will check in to the hotel, shower, and break for lunch. At 2:30 pm we will visit the gardens of beautiful Ham Rong mountain & take part in a traditional ethnic music performance put on by the ethnic minority people. Then return at your own leisure with free time to discover the secrets of this colorful town. Overnight at the hotel in Sapa town.Included: Transfer(s), tour guide, breakfast, entrance fee(s), hotelDay 3: (Sunday) Sapa - Bac Ha market, night train to HanoiBac Ha market and night train to Hanoi » more Sa Pa picturesGet up early for breakfast, check out of the hotel, and then drive to Bac Ha market (106 km). Just before reaching the market we will see colorful activity. Beautiful Flower Hmong people carrying hand crafted products or pulling dogs or buffalos, all on their way to the market. You are free to wonder around the market and become a part of the trading activities. Please be respectful to the locals as they are reluctant to have their photo taken without permission. You can have lunch at one of the market stalls inside the market for more of a traditional taste. In the afternoon we transfer to Lao Cai town. Dinner here on your own before boarding the train at 8:50 pm back to Hanoi. Arrive in Hanoi by 4:30 am. Please find your own way back to your hotel, a taxi normally costs you a set of 50,000 VND.Included: Transfer(s), train ticket, tour guide, breakfast, picnic lunch, entrance fee(s)Group size & Cost:Your group size (cost is per person) 2 3 - 4 5 - 6 7 - 8 S.S*First class Prices are being updated.Please send your price request on this tour NOWSuperiorDeluxe* S.S is used for Single Supplement, means the single using his/her own room.Prices do not include: Insurance, drinks, other personal expenses, tips are welcome!Trip Notes: * Hotel: o First class is Sapa Bamboo or Royal View hotel ** (sapatravel.com) o Superior is Chau Long hotel *** (chaulonghotel.com) o Deluxe is Victoria hotel **** (victoriahotels-asia.com) * Sleeper Train to Sapa: Please click here for more information. * Car / Van Quality: Using new AC car or van depending on your group size. * What to Bring: Passport, change of clothes, sun-glasses & hat, towels, toiletries, sun-block, insect repellent, flashlight, proper footwear, sleeping bag, camera, raincoat or umbrella, cable locks for luggage, personal first aid kit & medicines, small VND notes for buying drinks. * Please Travel Responsibly: The small things you do will make a big difference! * Booking Terms & Conditions: Tour itinerary and tour prices are subject to change without notice. Please click here for more information.For other tour options in Sapa: go on longer treks, visit Sunday markets, conquer the summit of of Mt. Fansipan, or to tailor-make your own tour, please contact us.

Sapa Information

Despite its commercialization during the last seven years, Sapa is still a must-see on any northern Vietnam itinerary. On a clear day you will treated to views of steeply terraced rice fields, towering verdant ridgelines, primitive mud-thatched villages, raging rivers and astounding waterfalls.Nestled high in the Tonkinese Alps near the Chinese border, Sape was built as a hill station during French colonial days, to serve as a respite from stifling Hanoi summers. These days, weekends are still the biggest draw in this crumbling hill-tribe center. Visitors from the capital flock to Sapa for a glimpse of the famed "Love Market," a trek to local hill tribe villages, or an ascent of Vietnam's highest peak, Fan Si Pan.Some eight ethnic groups inhabit Lao Cai province: Hmong, Dao, White Thai, Giay, Tay, Muong, Hao and Xa Pho. The most prominent in town are the Red Dao, easily identified by the coin-dangling red headdresses and intricately embroidered waistcoats worn by the women, and the Hmong, distinguished by their somewhat less elaborately embroidered royal blue attire. Groups of ethnic Hmong youngsters and women can be seen hauling impossibly heavy, awkward baskets of wood, stakes, bamboo, bricks, mud and produce. Deep in the valleys surrounding Sapa, the Muong Hoa River sluices a wild, jagged course among Giay, Red Dao and White Thai settlements, their tiny dwellings poking out of the neon rice fields like diamonds on a putting green. One- to four-day treks are offered by a handful of outfitters. Guests sleep in tents or in the homes of villagers, their gear hauled by Hmong porters. Be warned: Despite what the local innkeepers will tell you, both the Hmong and the Dao really do not enjoy having their photographs taken unless they're paid for it. It's a certainty that any brochure you see of smiling, care-free ethnic hill people was shot under a Screen Actors Guild contract.Sa pa is famed for its "Love Market" – sort of a cross between a peacock mating ritual, a Middle Eastern arms bazaar, an Amish square dance, a bad Pavarotti concert and Bangkok's Patpong (except here the people wear clothes). On Saturday nights, Red Dao hill tribe youths of both sexes congregate in a weekly courting rite, singing tribal versions of Loretta Lynn love songs to woo the opposite sex. The songs are highly personalized and boast of the composer's physical attributes, domestic abilities and strong work ethic. While Dao women are indeed highly industrious, the men, it seems, prefer to spend most of their time drinking, smoking opium or sleeping, only occasionally slapping the rump of a lethargic bovine moving more slowly than they are. Few of their songs, though, are about drinking, smoking opium, sleeping or slapping rumps.Topping out at 3,143 meters, Fan Si Pan has become the Mount Everest of Vietnam, with queues of yuppie trekkers in their latest TravelSmith "totally-packable" rainwear forming mountaineering traffic jams at base camps. Footprint Travel can arrange guided ascents.Sapa itself is a somewhat bedraggled village meshing crumbling, mildewed French colonial architecture with the pencil-thin, brick-and-concrete mini-hotels that have become so ubiquitous in recent years all across Vietnam. This neglected, cultural mishmash would be an eyesore in any place less spectacularly scenic than Sapa. Because of its Shangri-la-like setting, Sapa actually seems quaint – a tranquil, restful village. Which is, of course, what the French originally intended the place to be. Amenities are limited unless you choose to stay at the Four Star Victoria Sapa, a sprawling alpine campus nestled discreetly into a hillside in the center of town.The best times of the year to visit Sapa are in the spring and fall. Summers tend to be rainy and muddy, while winter temperatures can drop to the freezing mark (Sapa ushered in 2000 with snow!). Weather really does make a difference here, because the spectacular scenery is all but blotted out when there is cloud cover and rain. Ignore the other Nikon-toting tourists in the villages and get out into the countryside, where you just may still catch a glimpse into hill-tribe life of a couple of centuries ago.

3 days – 4 nights group tourin Sapa

Maximum: Group of 8 tourists on tour Visit 6 villages (Cat Cat, Y Linh Ho, Lao Chai, Ta Van, Giang Ta Chai, Su Pan) of 3 different minorities (Black H’Mong, Dzay, Red Dao).Rice filed on the road to GiangTaChai village Get started: Sapa trekking tour’s taxi take you to Hanoi Railway Station for the night train at at 9:30 PM to get to Laocai Station. Sleep on the train.1st day:Arrive in Laocai early in the morning. Bus to Sapa, and breakfast. Start walking to Catcat village for the H’mong minority, the power station and the waterfall and then go along a beautiful valley between mountains for the next village called YLinhHo. Getting down to Laochai village and then stop at Tavan village for the night in a Dzay family. 2nd day:Get up early in the morning for fresh atmosphere in the countryside. Breakfast and continue for the next village of the Red Dzao minority (GiangTaChai village). Visit silver waterfall and a nice rattan bridge. Cross the river and go up to the mountain for SuPan village and then take a jeep back to Sapa. Check in hotel.3rd day:Free to discover the town of Sapa. Shopping at the market. In the afternoon, take bus to Laocai Station for the night train to Hanoi.(air-con. berth). The end of the tour. Rate in USD per person - Validity until 31 Dec 2008 Currency Converter - Number of Persons -Class 1 2-3 4-5 Single SupSuperior 155 139 132 25Book nowAccommodation offering in this trip: ( click to see hotel )Sapa Superior BambooTour includes:- Train tickets 2 ways (soft sleepers, aircondition cabin 04 berth)- Tranport by bus Laocai - Sapa, Sapa - Laocai.- Accomodation at hotel- All meals on tour except for last dinner.- Entrance fees to the villages.- English speaking guide.- Jeep go and back as timetable. (Motorbike for group of 1 person)Excludes:Insurance,Drinks, Phone calls and other private expenses

Cancau , BacHa & Cocly Markets, Sapa tours

Night 1 ( Friday) : Hanoi -Laocai ( Overnight on the train )8h30pm Sapatours 's taxi take you from your hotel in Hanoi to Hanoi Railway Station for the night train at at 9:30 PM to get to Laocai Station. Sleep on the train.(4 people/cabin or 2 people/cabin on request).Day 1 (Saturday): CanCau - BacHa:Picked up at Laocai Train Station to transfer to CanCau market. It takes more than 2 hours to get to CanCau - a small market situated in a valley surrounded by mountains and only 7 km from China. The market deeply shows the typical cultural features of the minorities in remote mountainous areas in Vietnam. Further more, you can enjoy seeing boys and girls in colourful costumes - different colours of the mountains. They attend the market in the hope of finding "the other halves of their lifves" and this is also the time for them to chat, to exchange everything among different ethnic peoples through cups of wine sold in the market. Say goodbye to the market and transfer to BacHa. On the way, spend time visiting a village of the Flower H'mong and then check in hotel in BacHa. Free to explore the town. Lunch in CanCau or in BacHa and dinner in BacHa.Day 2 (Sunday): Visit BacHa market - Sapa townVisit one village and an old building called The H'mong king's house. Breakfast and the beginning of the day on which you visit a big market filled with many different hill-tribe peoples. This is the most colourful market in North Vietnam. At the market, you have chance to enjoy BacHa people's simple but unique kinds of food with special wines made from rice, cassavas, corn and different sorts of fruits such as plumps, apples, peaches... talking to the minorities through the guide's interpretation. Leave the market for the H'mong King's house (King Hoang A Tuong) built by the French colonists and the Chinese in 1920. Return the town for lunch. In the afternoon, spend time visiting another village (BanPho village) Say good bye to BacHa and get back to Sapa. On the way back, drop in to see the Vietnamese and Chinese Harbor Mouth in LaoCai. Reach Sapa late in the afternoon. Check in hotel in SapaDay 3 (Monday): Sapa - Muonghoa valley - Tanvan villageCheck out hotel and start a trekking trip towards Muong Hoa valley to visit 4 villages of the H,mong, the Dzay people with around 17 km of trekking. Enjoy beautiful landscapes, terraced paddy fields. Discover the live of the people with different cultures. Have dinner and spend the night at the family.Day 4 (Tuesday); Sapa -Cocly Market ( night train to Hanoi )Leave from the village early at 6:30 AM for CocLy market, which is situated far from Sapa. Enjoy the peaceful life of 6 different minority peoples (Flower H'mong, Black Dzao, Tay, Dzay, HaNhi and Nung). The market is the chance for the minorities to meet and share joy and sorrows after the crops, to exchange one another's experience. Say goodbye to the market and get down onto a boat along Chay river. You are bound to feel great and find yourselves smaller among high rock mountains and to be surprised at white and breathtakingly waterfalls. The Fairy Cave is located deeply in the rocks. Get off the boat to visit a village of the Tay Minority (TrungDo village) by the river. After the boat trip, visit a small town - BaoNhai and then take jeep back to Laocai Station for the night train to Hanoi. Have dinner before getting on the train.Arrive in Hanoi roughly 5:30 AM. The end of tour.

Hotels in Sapa

Name Rating Address NotesVictoria Hotel Hotels in Sapa > Victoria Hotel Hoang Dieu, Sapa Town, Lao Cai DetailsChau Long hotels Hotels in Sapa > Chau Long hotels Address: 024 Dong Loi Sapa Lao Cai S. R. Vietnam DetailsSapa hotel Hotels in Sapa > Sapa hotel Ngu Chi Son Street, Sapa Town, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam DetailsGoldsea hotels Hotels in Sapa > Goldsea hotels 58 Fan-xi-pan sapa Town Lao Cai Province Vietnam DetailsAuberge Dang Trung hotels Hotels in Sapa > Auberge Dang Trung hotels 7, Muong Hoa, Sapa town Details

Conquer the top of Mt. Fansipan 4 days in Sapa Vietnam

Conquer the top of Mt. Fansipan 4 days***Code: SF04Routes: Hanoi night train to Lao Cai – Sapa – Fansipan – Hanoi (Northwest)Duration: 4 daysFeature: Sapa is a beautiful former French hill-station. At an altitude of 1,650 m Sapa boasts warm days and cool evenings and all day fresh air. Nowadays, Sapa has become a favorite destination due to its inspiring scenery of mounatin ranges and terraced valley floors dotted with small ethnic villages. Sapa is home to several of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minority groups, each with their own distinctive dress, customs and dialects making it a colorful mosaic of culture.Sapa is also renowned for its trekking. With South East Asia's highest peak, Mt. Fansipan (3,143 m) providing the perfect backdrop for some great trekking routes. This 3 day trek with outdoor camping offers all of the challenges and rewards of any hike. And, at the summit you be one of the few to have reached up and touched the clouds marking the roof of Indochina.Difficulty: (5/5)Itinerary in Detail:Day 1: Lao Cai – Sapa, hike up to an elevation of 2700madventure tours to Sa Pa Vietnam The Night Before: Transfer from your hotel to the Hanoi Train Station for boarding at 9:30 pm. You will be in shared AC soft sleeper cabins of 4 to travel North to Lao Cai town.The train arrives in Lao Cai at about 6:30 am where your Footprint guide will welcome you. Look for the “Footprint Travel” sign when you exit the train station. Then take a morning drive through the clouds by car / van to Sapa (about 1.5 hours).Arrive in Sapa at 7:00 am, have breakfast, a short rest and some last preparation for the challenging hike. Transfer by jeep / van to the starting point at Tram Ton Pass which is 15 km from Sapa town. Start hiking through the jungle rain forest along wild mountain streams. Break for a picnic lunch in the middle of an evergreen forest. More hiking to an elevation of about 2700 meters where we will make base camp. Local Hmong porters will help us to set up camp, start a small fire and prepare dinner. Share stories of past journeys and cultural myths under the stars before retiring for the night.Included: Car / van, train ticket, entrance fee(s), tour guide, porter, camp, shower, permits, all mealsDay 2: Summit and conquer Mt. Fansipantours to Fansipan Sapa Vietnam Breakfast at the first sign of daylight then final preparations for today, the longest day of hiking to the summit of Mt. Fansipan. The first section is steep and very challenging as we weave our way through the bamboo forests. At some points we are even forced to use ropes and harnesses for safety. We are rewarded with all our hardships forgotten and with the impression of standing on the top of Indochina.After a picnic lunch and a rest at the summit, we begin our descent to base camp. Clean off and refresh at a mountain stream while our Hmong porters set up camp and prepare dinner. Overnight again under the stars with the satisfaction of the day's accomplishment.Included: Entrance fee(s), homestay, tour guide, porter, camp, permits, all mealsDay 3: Back down to Sapa. Overnight in HotelSapa trekking tours in Vietnam Upon leaving the base camp, we begin walking downhill back to Sapa town. The steep trail is somewhat arduous but we have great opportunities to get some fantastic views from our vantage point. See the surrounding mountains, terraced valleys and quiet hilltribe villages far in the distance. Picnic lunch on the way, then we will be picked up in Sin Chai village and transferred back to Sapa town.When we arrive back in Sapa we will check in to the hotel take a shower and a rest. Your full afternoon is free in town for relaxing, shopping or befriending some of the local children. Dinner is on your own, overnight in a hotel in Sapa town.Included: Transfer, hotel, entrance fee(s), tour guide, breakfast, lunch, porter, permitsDay 4: Visit the surroundings of Sapa. Night train back HanoiVisit Sapa, train Sapa to Hanoi Vietnam » more Sapa picturesWake up in Sapa town, breakfast at the hotel then enjoy the morning with some of your new friends that you may have met the afternoon before. Today your guide is available to you for the whole day, although, you have the entire day for free time and visiting the lively markets. Some suggestions include a visit to the orchid gardens of Dragon Mountain, or a cultural day trek to Taphin village.In late afternoon, depart from your hotel for the Lao Cai train station at 5:30 pm. The train leaves Lao Cai at 8:50 pm and arrives after a pleasant sleep in your first class, shared AC soft berth to Hanoi by 4:30 am. Please find your own way to your hotel, a taxi normally costs you a set of 50,000 VND.Included: Car / van, train ticket, tour guide, breakfast, lunchGroup size & Cost:Your group size (cost is per person) 2 3 - 4 5 - 6 7 - 8 S.S*First class Prices are being updated.Please send your price request on this tour NOWSuperiorDeluxe* S.S is used for Single Supplement, means the single using his/her own room.Prices do not include: Insurance, drinks, other personal expenses, tips are welcome!Trip Notes: * Hotel: o First class is Sapa Bamboo or Royal View hotel ** (sapatravel.com) o Superior is Chau Long hotel *** (chaulonghotel.com) o Deluxe is Victoria hotel **** (victoriahotels-asia.com) * Sleeper Train to Sapa: Please click here for more information. * Car / Van Quality: Using new AC car or van depending on your group size. * What to Bring: Passport, Change of clothes, Sun-glasses & hat, Towels, Toiletries, Sun-block, Insect repellent, Flashlight, Proper footwear, Sleeping bag, Camera, Raincoat or Umbrella, Cable locks for luggage, Personal first aid kit & medicines, small VND notes for buying drinks. * Please Travel Responsibly: The small things you do will make a big difference! * Booking Terms & Conditions: Tour itinerary and tour prices are subject to change without notice. Please click here for more information.For other tour options in Sapa: go on longer treks, visit Sunday markets, conquer the summit of of Mt. Fansipan, or to tailor-make your own tour, please contact us.