Vietnam, Sapa
Itinerary
Day 1: Arrived Hanoi, spa, dinner, R&R at Old quarters
Day 2: Depart Sapa early in the morning, Lunch, Fansipan, Dinner & R&R at Sapa Town.
Day 3: Cat Cat Village (half day). Can go for Glass Bridge + Silver falls (half day) but we choose to do massage and R&R in Sapa town
Day 4: Brunch and check out hotel. Transport back to Hanoi. Arrived Hanoi in the evening, dinner and weekend market
Day 5: Early Cho Dong Xuan, Brunch and late check out. Off to airport. Advisable to spend another full day in Hanoi to explore the place.
If you have longer holiday...
Day 6: Join a 2D1N Halong Bay + Tam Coc (in-land Halong Bay) at the east of Hanoi.
For Hanoi details, please check my Hanoi blog
Sapa
In Summer, to escape the heat, Southern Vietnamese has Dalat and Northern Vietnames has Sapa.
Sapa, known to be a popular summer escape destination for northern Vietnamese. It has gained its popularity of rice terrace trekking place and outback ethnic villages for the foreigners.
Sapa town has almost the same height altitude of 1500m (4921 ft) as Dalat, it has cool weather all year round which ranges between 12 to 23°C. Apr to August has moderate and rainy climate and wet foggy climate between Sep to Mar. Though the popular month to visit Sapa is in October where the rice terraces are ready to harvest and golden in colour. Do check out on the rainfall month before you plan for your holiday as certain months has higher rainfall and thus make trekking a super muddy activity. Do prepare wet and muddy attire if you choose to go on these months.
How to get to Sapa?
It is incredibly easy to plan for this trip. All I did was to book air tickets, hotels in Hanoi and Sapa. Transport to and from Sapa can be booked via KLOOK. Whatever else you need or want to do in Sapa, you can get it on the go with the help of your hotel reception or book via KLOOK. From your last minute guide for your trekking to transport booking in Sapa. Everything can be done on the go.
From Hanoi, you can either:
1) Take an overnight train to Lao Cai and transfer to Sapa town via car/van. Trains usually leaves Hanoi at 9pm in the evening and arrived Lao cai at around 4.30am in the morning. You will then need to take another transport, about half an hour car ride, from the train station to Sapa town.
2) Take a 5 hour private hire transport (Dcar/ MPV) or 6 hour public (sleeper) bus.
Overnight train may looks luxurious and provide some saving in terms of time and (1 night) Hanoi hotel stay. But duration is longer than taking the bus or private transport. There has been complaints like having difficulty sleeping on the train due to the movement and noise. To add on to the insufficient sleep, one has to catch another transport to Sapa town at wee hours of the day.
Alternatively, you can take the 5 to 6 hours road transport at different departure time. There are basically 2 types of transport
1) Dcar (9 seater comfy van) or private hire MPV
Pros:
- Door to door pick up at any hotel in Old quarters and drop off at the Sapa Hotel.
- 5 hours ride with 2 toilet breaks.
- Booked via KLOOK cos no difference in price as compared to book direct from their website. Safer to book via KLOOK app with verified payment gateway. Confirmation will be sent via WhatsApp the day before departure.
Cons:
- Can't choose seats via KLOOK even with online customer service request.
2) Sleeper bus (e.g. Sapa Express or Interbus line):
There are 3 types of buses. Normal tourist bus (45 seaters), sleeper bus (3 rows - half inclined seats) and Cabin bus (single cabin seat). Do check out from Sapa Express site or book via Klook (interbus)
Pros:
- Overnight bus to Sapa town without having to transport.
- Many time slots to choose from. Both day and night.
Cons:
- you will have to navigate in their website and not too sure of the payment security. They have an app but only for those with Vietnamese phone number, if you have a prepaid phone card and booking in Vietnam, shouldn't be an issue.
My choice:
The advantage of planning your own trip is to be able to customise. I have chosen:
- Hanoi to Sapa via Dcar
- Sapa to Hanoi via Cabin bus
for my friends to experience both mode of transport.
Dcar from Hanoi to Sapa was selected as we were taking the early morning 6.30am bus. Having a door to door tranport makes traveling easy and less tiring. Unless you booked a hotel that is close to the pick up point for cabin bus, it won't be fun lunging your luggage early in the morning.
We took the 1.30pm cabin bus from Sapa to Hanoi. The fully inclined seat was comfortable but wasn't too comfy at times when we need to sit up for some reading. I prefer the cabin bus from HCMC-Dalat where one can comfortably adjust the seat.
Overall, for this trip, I prefer Dcar more than the cabin bus for this trip.
Where to stay in Sapa?
There are many accommodation options in Sapa that won't cost an arm or a leg. Ranging from homestay to atas hotel. I would categorised based on:
1) Rural/ scenic/ home stay
- Relax/ peaceful lodging and greeted with beautiful scenery when you open hotel window/ door but transportation may be an issue if you don't have your own private transport.
2) Town (around Sun Plaza)
- Easy access to places. Grab/taxi are not so readily available. You will need to request for the hotel to book for you. Taxi are metered.
My choice:
I chose to stay in Cat cat Art d'Gallerie hotel. Generally cos it has a mountain view and we have booked the beautiful 2 bedroom villa (penthouse) which comes with a living room. Location was walking distance to Sun plaza for us to catch the funicular to Fansipan and walking distance to Cat cat village. These are the 2 main attractions that were in our to-do list.
Places to visit in Sapa
Fansipan (highly recommended)
Fansipan mountain (3,143 metres) is the highest mountain in the Indochinese Peninsula (comprising Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), hence its nickname "the Roof of Indochina".
Getting to Fansipan is really easy and you don't have to make any pre-booking. You can either buy the tickets at the ticketing counter or via Klook when you arrived at Sun Plaza. Do purchase the funicular + Cable car + one way peak tram tickets.
From Sun plaza, take the Funicular
You will arrived at a very nice rose garden with instagram-able site between the funicular and the cable car ride, don't be distracted when you are going up the Fansipan. You will still have time to do these photo taking when you are coming down.
Take the cable car up
Bring warm wear as it can be very windy and cold up in the mountain.
Take note:
Last cable car up to Fansipan is at 4.30pm and last ride down is at 6pm. Do take note of the time when you visit.
Cat Cat Village
Although Cat Cat village is rather commercialised and supposed to be easy to walk. I find that it is not recommended for elderly as there quite a lot of steps downhill and uphill. Even if you choose to walk down and take motorcycle up the hill, there is still quite a lot of walking. There are quite a number of instagram-able sites within the village.
View if you chose to walk to Cat Cat village instead of taking taxi
Sapa Town
Sun Plaza
Walking around the small little town
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