Sa Pa is a beautiful little town in the mountainous northern Vietnam, where the roads are rougher and life is harder, but here the mother nature poured all her love lavishly! The natural beauty of this place is undefinable in words and must be experienced in person! If you want a few days off from the hustle-bustle of a city or have grown tired of too crowded tourist destinations, visit Sa Pa. Here the serene, green highlands generate the feeling of solitude and calmness. Here the happy and friendly locals welcome you to see the core ethnic culture of the region, which is so different from the rest of Vietnam. Which is why we think Sa Pa is a must visit.

To learn more on traveling to Vietnam click this link – Top 5 Travel Tips for Vietnam

Read this to know how we travelled from Hoi An to My Son

Know about our cruising tips to Lan Ha Bay (Ha Long Bay)

Sa Pa town falls under the Lao Cai province of North-Western Vietnam, very close to the Chinese border. To visit Sa Pa, the best option is to take an overnight train from Hanoi.

There are other options such as local day trains and sleeper or semi-sleeper buses that runs during the day time as well overnight, but we found out that the overnight sleeper train ride is the most comfortable means of travel.

There is no airport in Lao Cai, so train or bus are the only options. Also, make sure that you have at least 3  days kept aside to visit Sa Pa (that includes journey time plus time spent in the town).

The beautiful Sa Pa valley

Quick Tips:

  • Carry warm clothing with you while visiting Sa Pa. Because of the high altitude weather gets cooler at times, especially after dark.
  • For hiking, wear a sports shoe with good grips to walk comfortably on the muddy surfaces.
  • If you want to do a tougher trekking then its better to carry a trekking boot (but it would be an extra luggage, as you cannot use trekking boots in other parts of Vietnam). We did with comfortable sports shoes and it was just fine!
  • Always keep a rain jacket. You can expect sudden showers anytime!
  • Keep drinking water, hat, sunscreen and medical kit handy.

Getting there:

There are about 10 overnight trains to Sa Pa. All these trains run in between Hanoi city station to Lao Cai station. These are known as ‘luxury sleeper trains’ and are pretty clean and decent. It generally takes a bit more than 8 hours to reach Lao Cai station from Hanoi.

The ticketing choice comes with 2 types of berth options available – Soft berths with 4 Pax capacity, and VIP berths with 2 Pax capacity. The 4 berths cabins are nothing but 2 lower and 2 uppers berths accommodating 4 people in a cabin. The VIP berths have only 2 lowers berths in a private cabin and are double the cost of the 4 berth cabins.

Inside the King Express train, Hanoi to Sa Pa (4 soft berths)

Of all the trains, King Express is the most well known and it’s departure and arrival timings are pretty good. We have booked this train for both our onward and return journey. It started sharp at 10 Pm and reached Lao Cai around 6:15 Am in the next morning.

We did not experience any delays with King Express. The soft berths are decent and comes with clean sheets and a pillow. Only thing, people who are more than 6 feet tall, really need to curl-up in these berths. The maximum length of the berths are not more than 5′.10″ (feet).

Per head ticket cost for King Express (in a 4 berth cabin) was about USD 37.

There are other similar kind of trains like Orient Express, which costs a bit less and Fansipan Express, that costs a bit more than King Express. All these details can be found in this Vietnam Railways website and tickets can be booked from here as well.

The list of trains, Hanoi to Sa Pa (Lao Cai)

We have booked our tickets almost 30 days before our actual travel date, but we just got the payment confirmation through an email, where they have mentioned that the e-ticket would be sent 10 days before the travel date. And we got the ticket copy with boarding information and map of the station right before 10 days.

However, be noted that this e-ticket copy is not a boarding ticket. You have to take a print out of this e-ticket copy to the rail station at least 60 minutes before the boarding time, and get your physical boarding ticket from your ticket provider’s office.

In our case, we went to the King Express office in Hanoi station to get our physical ticket. While returning the King Express office was not in the premises of Lao Cai station, but in about a 3 mins walk from the station.

Lao Cai to Sa Pa transportation:

There are multiple options to reach Sa Pa town centre from the Lao Cai station and it takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  • Public Bus – that costs about VND 30,000 (these are pretty decent seater buses, operated from 6 Am till 6:30 Pm, hourly – every day)
  • Shared Mini Vans – that costs about VND 100,000 to 150,000 (these are private vans shared by other tourists)
  • Private cars – starts from VND 200,000 (ask your hotel to book it for you so that you get a good price)

We could have taken the cheaper public bus that runs from Lao Cai station to Sa Pa town centre. However our hotel was 10 kms away from the main town so we decided to book a car. It costed us 350,000 VND (about 15 USD). It took one and half hours to reach our hotel from the station.

But while returning from Sa Pa to Lao Cai station, we booked a taxi from our hotel to Sa Pa town centre (VND 150,000), and from there took the public bus to the station (VND 30,000).

Our Hotel in Sa Pa:

(D&D Eco Sa Pa, Hotel walkthrough. Video source – @snehpic)

We have stayed amidst sheer greenery in a lovely little hotel called D&D Eco Sa Pa, about 10 Kms away from the Sa pa town, where there was no hustle-bustle of a busy city life and no polluted, crowded streets but only a stretch of breathtaking landscape.

This lovely little place is owned by a very friendly person named Duc, who manages the hotel with help of a few other employees.

There were only 5 rooms and nothing else but green mountains and rice terraces surrounding this place, so there was solitude all along!

It was far from the town centre, so after dark there was nothing much to do but just relax, and occasionally chitchat with the hotel staffs and other travellers. We have made so many friends there, that if we ever travel back to Sa Pa, we would definitely stay at D&D Eco Sa Pa once again 🙂

Top things to do in Sa Pa:

Ultimate relaxation by getting out of the typical touristy circle is the thing that one can expect from Sa Pa. Since it takes a bit extra time to travel there, not every tourists in Vietnam end up visiting Sa Pa.

However, expect a decent crowd of adventure lovers as Sa Pa tends to attract travellers who like mountain hiking. We always crave for one or two noteworthy hiking adventures as we travel, which is why we did not want to miss Sa Pa.

#1 – Experience ethnic Vietnam!

Local villagers in Sa Pa

Sa Pa is famous for its natural beauty and rich culture, with handicrafts, music and local art made by the Vietnamese ethnic minority population, who stay in this mountainous region.

These local inhabitants stay in groups forming separate villages along the highlands of Hoang Lien Son range. Their culture is very different from the rest of the Vietnamese population.

Take some time to hike up to their villages or meet them in the open air handicrafts market in the town centre where you can learn about their living and dressing style, see their handmade artworks and experience some authentic local music.

#2 – Hike up!

One of the many hiking trails in the outskirts of Sa Pa town

Sa Pa is perfect for mountain hiking. Keep a day or two for hiking up the beautiful rice terraces and the lush green mountains.

Guided tours are arranged by English speaking locals from the Sa Pa town centre, and you may book a guide from your hotel.

However, we did not book any guided tours. We love our detours and plan our own little adventures our way!

Around 8:30 Am we started walking from our hotel and took a steep route to climb up the nearest mountain; lost our way while walking through a bamboo jungle and then found a muddy opening that led us to the most beautiful hill-top rice terrace.

It was otherwise a deserted area, apart from a few local villagers who were working in the fields. We asked them how to find the road to get back? None of them comprehended english but by gestures they made sure that we find our way to their village.

From the village we found a trail that came down to a small, almost deserted crossing. One end of this crossing went towards the town centre and the other end to our hotel.

This day, spent entirely in the serenity of the mountains and smiling locals was one of the best days of our entire Vietnam trip.

Make sure that you carry enough drinking water, hat, sunscreen, a light jacket and a small medical kit for emergency while you hike.

We found it absolutely safe to walk amidst these local villages and deserted mountain roads. We carried our cameras and drone with us and got the opportunity to take a few amazing videos and photographs on the way!

#3 – Eat authentic Vietnamese food!

Mouthwatering Vietnamese vegetable-tofu hot-pot and Rice Omelette

Sa Pa town centre have quite a few mentionable food joints and restaurants where you can savour authentic Vietnamese delicacy.

Don’t miss their famous hot pots, where you get to choose fresh vegetables, tofu and choices of meat if you like and they provide a small table top stove. You get to cook all the stuffs on your table and then serve the freshly stewed, steaming delicacy right into your own bowl.

Also, definitely try Vietnamese Pho.

#4 – Buy local Handicrafts!

Accepting a hand-knitted wrist band from a friendly villager, Sa Pa

In Sa Pa, you would be able to interact and buy beautiful handmade stitchings, knittings, wood carvings and various other local crafts directly from the villagers from their roadside stalls or from the open-air handicrafts market in the town centre.

Buying a few small handmade arts and musical instruments as souvenirs, greatly helps the local villagers to generate income from tourism as well as in preserving their ethnic art and culture.

#5 – Ride a Motorbike!

Motorbike ride in Sa Pa

Apart from everything else, if you are adventurous and love to roam round freely, book a motorcycle from your hotel, fill up the petrol tank and take a detour!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time riding along the rough mountain roads, occasionally stopping at local food joints for drinks and again riding towards the unknown through the rice terraces, villages, little streams and jungle. The experience was amazing!

#6 – Spend time around Sa Pa Lake!

The beautiful Sa Pa lake, Vietnam

The area near Sa Pa lake is beautiful and the water is tranquil. We loved our time strolling around the breezy lake, sometimes resting at one of the many restaurants. Few of the bars in this area have live music shows after dark which is a great experience.

#7 – Visit Fansipan!

Fansipan is the highest mountain peak of Vietnam as well the entire Indo-China peninsula. To visit Fansipan from Sa Pa, you must need at least one full day. That is only if you want to visit the peak by cable car ride or do a bit of a leisure trek which is doable in 12 hours.

But if you love mountain adventure, keep 2 days aside for a marvellous trekking up to the peak. It is a 10,300 feet high trek with a night stay at the camp.

We didn’t have enough time to visit Fansipan or do the trekking. But we are definitely going to do this the next time!

[fts_pinterest type=single_board_pins pinterest_name=lifeofhoi board_id=Life of Hoi pins_count=3]