SAPA, Vietnam

Sapa is an incredibly picturesque village that lies on the Hoang Lien Son mountain range near the Chinese border in NW Vietnam. It is called as "the Tonkinese Alps" You can see many hill tribe people, their villages, rice terraces, lush vegetation, and Fansipan, highest peak in Vietnam.

How to get here by tour
Very common and popular. Many travel agents organize tours from Hanoi. 4 days / 3 nights incl visiting the most famous Bac Ha Sunday market with $20-25.
How to get here by yourself.
There are many trains from Hanoi to Lao Cai. However almost all sleeper seats are controlled by travel agents. It is impossible to buy sleeper tickets. The seat tickets are available and a few 2nd class sleeper may be available at the train station without makeup.

From Lao Cai train station to Sapa
Many minibuses are waiting at the train station for Sapa. They are offering the service with 25-30,000D but local price is 20,000D. Bargain hard.

Arriving to Sapa
Your minibus stops at the area where many hotels are clustered. This is not the center. The minibus continues to travel. You may ask the driver to take you to the market or Royal Hotel, both are good starting points to look for a room. The entrance of the market is Cau May Street, where most budget accommodation can be found. More GHs are behind the market.
All rooms equipped with HW. Only expensive hotels have a/c but no need a/c. The view to the valley is the key to choose a room.

Weekends: always busy due to the Sunday market at Bac Ha, The most hotels put their prices up during weekend.
Tourist Peak & Dry Season: Mar - May, Oct - Nov. Good season for trekking.
Vietnamese Tourist Season: June and July
Rainy: June - August: and cold at night (Sapa is 1500m above sea level)
Winter: Jan - Feb: Cold specially at night. It sometime snows.

i Tourist Office: None: But you can get info at travel agents. Many in town. They all deal with trekking tours.
$ Agri Bank: M-F7:30-11, 13:30-16:30, Sa7:30-11:00, $1=16,103VD, US$ T/C -> VD com 1%
P Police: near the church.
H Hospital: 3km out from the town.
Hp Pharmacy: Many in town such as Cau May Street, the main street.
M0 Post Office GPO/ Telephone office: Summer 7:00-21:00 Winter 7:30-21:30

TRANSPORT
Train
There are many different classes for the train to Hanoi.
1. Hard seat, 2. soft seat, 3. fan hard bed sleeper, 4. a/c soft bed sleeper, 5 wood carnage, 6 Oriental Express carnage.
You can get 1 or 2 easily at the train station in Lao Cai and you can get 3 & 4 at Pathfinder(see below), but it is almost impossible to get "Wooden carriage and Oriental Express" classes. To get those tickets, ask at travel agents or your guest houses. When you order tickets, please make sure which class your tickets are for.
T Train Station: In Lao Cai. The most minibuses go to the train station. Tickets for night trains are sold after 16:30. Many people come so come early and stay in a line.
T1 Train Ticketing Sapa Pathfinder Travel: #13 Xuan Vien., T873468, sptravel@vnn.vn train ticket counter open only 7:30-11, 13:30-15:30. Ticket prices are offcial one. Commission for seat 7000VD, for sleeper 10,000VD
The cheapest tickets for lower class tickets.
Bus
B Mini bus to Lao Cai:
To Lao Cai: Mini buses leaves near the church when it gets full. Also you can get one in front of Royal Hotel.
local fare 20000/ tourist fare 25-30000D
To the border to China(called "guojing or goukyou")
Take a minibus heading to the Lao Cai train station. Get off just after crossing the bridge and walk to the left for 500m. Ask your minibus driver. Usually he will take you to the border.
B1 Bus station: near the entrace of Sapa. Bus only to Lao Cai. To Hanoi, you can get one from Lao Cai bus station.
B2 Tourist Bus:
Mini buses or jeeps organized by travel agents leave to Lao Cai and Hanoi.