Destination: Sapa

Nestling in a magically beautiful valley at an elevation of 1,500 meters, Sapa plateau is a pride of Lao Cai specifically and of Vietnam generally as being the country’s most incredibly picturesque hill station and is well off the beaten tourist track.

Location: on the slope of Hoang Lien Son Mountain, 37km from Lao Cai, 376km from Hanoi
Access: full day by car and 8 hours by train from Hanoi. Visitors may take the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai and take the bus to Sapa.
Main attractions: a colorful market of ethnic tribes (Black H’mong & Red Dao).
Sapa withholds visitors’ souls by its enchanting, grandiose landscape of infinite variety in a primitive environment, where nature has raised extraordinarily diverse ethnic groups preserving authentic cultures throughout generations, where people have created an incredibly rich architectural and historic heritage, and where tourists are warmly welcomed by friendly smiles.
The first thing visitors may fall in love with when approaching the town are scattered detached wooden mansions and villas perched on verdant hills, behind think pine forests and hidden in fog layers of the early morning, bringing the beauty of a European town. Casting eye-views away, visitors can witness a boundless terrain of cloud-capped peaks, crystal clear streams and steep terraced vegetable gardens.
There are some breathtaking natural landscapes to discover like Ham Rong Mountain, Silver Waterfall, Rattan Bridge, Bamboo forest, Ta Phin Cave and Sapa ancient rock field. Sapa in festival time Sapa is home to various ethnic minorities, each has developed their own language, lifestyle, costumes, as well as cultural customs and practices throughout many generations. When spring, the most beautiful time of the town, arrives, hundreds of flowers with captivating colours blossom, filling the whole town with the pink colour of peach, apricot, cherry, together with brilliant colours and fantastic shapes of orchirds.
And outstandingly amongst the beauty of natural figures emerge the splendidly colourful costumes of the ethnic people, who bring different kinds of goods to join the opening fairs. Market sessions are also a chance for locals to promenade and young men and women in colorful costumes to meet, date or seek mates. Among those, Bac Ha Market hosts the biggest fair near the mountainous highlands. As a district of Lao Cai province, nearly 80km from Sapa, Bac Ha situated in the highlands and is mostly populated by the beautifully dressed Flower H'Mong ethnic minority. More untouched and unoccupied than Sapa, Bac Ha boasts a very unique beauty of subtropical nature and people. Where traditional values and identities are well-maintained in kermises, the town offers tourists an opportunity to understand the local traditions and customs, taste local specialties, meet hospitable local people and explore the hidden charms of this “white plateau”.
The most remarkable feature of Bac Ha is its lively and colorful Sunday market, a regular rendezvous of ethnic minority groups to gather and exchange goods. On this occasion, all the paths leading to the town are filled with ethnic tribes of the Tay, Dao, Nung, Giay and Flower H’mong trek in on horses or water buffalo for the dawn-to-dusk sales in their colorful distinct costumes. Among those the Flower H’mong are the most vivid, with richly colored clothes of bright red, blue and pink, and skirts embroidered with delicate flowers.
Other noticeable and worth-visiting ethnic fairs include Lung Phin (on Sunday), Can Cau (on Saturday) and Coc Ly (on Tuesday). Can Cau Market Beside the markets, Bac Ha geographical formation also provides other interesting kinds of activities, such as trekking among the sugar hills to visit Phu La village, tasting Tam Hoa plums, a sweet and fresh local specialty, or discovering how the ethnicities make their reputable wine and how they grow corn on high mountains.