When you’re in Vietnam, don’t forget about the Northern regions – there’s so much to do and see! One of the most popular places to visit is Sapa, a small town situated in the most picturesque landscape, surrounded by mountains and endless rice fields. 

How To Get Here

As Sapa is northwesterly of Vietnam, the best place to get here from – if you’re just exploring Sapa, is an overnight bus from Hanoi. The bus takes around 8 hours and its worth spending a little more on one of the luxury buses to get your own bed. I’d recommend booking on 12Go or through your hostel. 

Just to note, I didn’t notice too much on the way as I managed to sleep but on the journey back we travelled during the day so I wasn’t sleepy and I felt SO travel sick. The roads are so windy and Sapa is quite a climb, so I’d recommend taking some travel sickness tablets even if you’re not a usual victim! 

Where We Stayed

We opted to stay in Lustig Hostel. We were in one of the larger mixed dorms but it was surprisingly quiet and rooms were really clean, the beds were comfy with proper curtains and even a balcony with amazing views. Free breakfast was included and the hostel ran loads of tours & were able to book buses back to Hanoi etc! We really enjoyed the communal areas too – it had some seriously comfy sofas. This was so welcome when we arrived around 5am and check in wasn’t for hours, everyone was catching up on their sleep communally! 

However, as much as we loved the hostel, we really really wished we had planned ahead a little more and booked a homestay. We’d heard from people in Hanoi that they had stayed in homestay’s whilst here but as this was our second stop of SE Asia, I wasn’t sure of the process and was a little worried about the experience. I so wish I’d just trusted everyones advice because when we arrived and we saw some of the homestay’s whilst out & about, they looked incredible. Plus, everyone had hilarious stories about the homestay host’s and it sounded like we missed out on a real experience. So whilst the hostel was fab, definitely consider booking a homestay here.

Where to Eat

Sapa is famous for its hot pot dinners which are a mountain delicacy. If you’re not sure what a hot pot is, don’t be off put by the photos. It was a really unique way of having a meal as the meat or fish and vegetable sides come raw, accompanied by a delicious broth on a portable gas stove. Designed to be eaten slowly as the meat and veggies take a little while to cook and you need some patience for it. AKA don’t go too hungry because you’ll be starving by the time you’re eating and also, don’t go when you haven’t got very long! It’s a process than can’t be rushed, so plan for some time to eat and enjoy some delicious Vietnamese beer. If you’re there in good weather, lots of the restaurants have outside eating areas so you can enjoy the views whilst you’re cooking your fresh dins. 

One of the best restaurants to try in Sapa is ‘A Phu’. You’ll get a fab hot pot here! 

We ate in the hostel and a couple of other random places such as ’Little Sapa’ but I didn’t save anywhere else that we ate. As the town is pretty small, I’d recommend checking google reviews or asking in your accommodation for recs! If you’re in a homestay, I think some of your meals will be included too. 

How We Got Around

Sapa is really high in the mountains & also really hilly. We walked everywhere but it was a trek if we had our backpacks. You can hire peds, but I recommend not doing this unless you’ve driven them elsewhere before. The roads are not beginner friendly! 

If you don’t fancy walking and you also don’t want to hire peds, there were plenty of locals who offered ped taxi services. We actually used one after we had explored Cat Cat Village as it’s down a huge hill and we were struggling to walk back up after our sleeper bus night! The road to the village is also not very pedestrian friendly, this is the case in most of Vietnam, so make sure you keep your wits about you. A car drove past us on our last day and drove into my bottle that Mike was carrying so it was a pretty close call.

What We Did 

There is lots to do in Sapa, but the most popular activities are hikes. Thanks to the incredible mountains surrounding Sapa, the possibilities are endless. You can opt to do day hikes, or ones that last a few days with some overnight stays. If you don’t fancy doing anything organised, we didn’t as we decided we could use a map and get around ourselves, there are plenty of easy routes which involve walking through villages and rice paddies. One of the popular treks organised by the hostel, Mike found on All Trails so we downloaded that and did it this way instead. It saved us a quite a bit of money too! 

Sapa is home to a number of minority tribes. Some of them have opened their villages to tourists, such as Cat Cat Village which is home to the H’mong Tribe. We headed to Cat Cat as we’d read lots about it but in all honesty, I wouldn’t recommend it. It didn’t feel very genuine, it was expensive to enter and I have no issue with paying entrance fees but there didn’t really seem to be any locals actually in the village, just tourists who were paying additionally to rent traditional clothing for photos in the village. The village was full of souvenir stalls and cafes, and it was quite intense because it was really busy so any time you paused outside a shop or cafe, or glanced in the direction of one, the owners were very pushy and not very friendly. It didn’t give us the best vibe at all. 

I would recommend avoiding Cat Cat Village and being cautious of buying anything from anyone nearby the village too. If you want to visit a tribe village, there are smaller groups that can be visited with a local guide or as part of a home stay. I think this would have been a much better option and something that I’d do on a return to the area. 

Hans Hints

Don’t want to repeat myself too much here, but definitely consider a homestay, research some hikes before you arrive and use ‘All Trails’ when you’re out walking and if you’ve got experience with driving a ped, definitely hire one as you’ll have some incredible drives and because Sapa is truly worth a visit, I want you to get the most out of it when visiting.

Thanks for reading!