Sapa travel

Sapa is beautiful year-round but there may be floods from June to September. If you wish to “date” with terraced fields, you should go in May – watering season or from the end of September to early October – ripe rice season.

Sapa offers accommodation for all tastes, from home stays in local minority villages to luxury hotels. Most properties are around the town itself within walking distance to the market, old church, and restaurants. The destination tends to be busy on weekends and quiet during the week due to heavy influx of domestic travellers. So when visiting the area, save money by scheduling your stay during the week or in months other than May, June, July and December.

Sapa serves unique dishes of local people in minority villages like Thang Co (horse soup), Com Lam (bamboo sticky rice), free-range pig, salmon hot pot, dried buffalo meat and many Asian or Western ones as well.

Private car, motorcycle, cable car.

Destinations in Sapa are not far away from each other, so you can rent a motorbike at the price of around USD 5 per day. Cable car in a round trip to Fansipan costs USD 26 per adult and USD 18 per child.

Hanoi – Sapa: 315 km

The only options are bus or train. Due to the rough road, it will take about 5 hours on the bus from Hanoi to Sapa.
There are two options for the train to Sapa. The traditional trains with soft seat and soft sleeper. You need to spend 8 hours on the train and then catch a bus because the train only stops at Lao Cai station (35 km away from Sapa). For a better traveling experience, try privately-run sleeper cabin for which you pay 8 – 12 USD more.

Most travelers choose to spend 2 nights in Sapa. With 2 nights, you can explore the town and do trekking to hill-tribe villages and areas away from the central town. If you can manage to visit Sapa in the weekend, stay another day to attend Bac Ha market.