The night before: 8:30 pm transfer to the Hanoi train station for boarding at 9:50 pm. You will be in shared AC soft sleeper cabins to travel North to Lao Cai town.

Today’s morning: The train arrives at about 6:30 am; look for the “Footprint Travel” sign when you exit the train station, as our guide will pick you up. Then take a morning drive through the clouds by car / van to Sapa (~ 1.5 hours). When you arrive in Sapa you will be taken to a local restaurant for a morning shower & breakfast.

We will then take short ride from Sapa to our trekking base where we start our trek up and down hills (~ 5 - 6 hrs) through terraced rice fields, bamboo ranges and many minority villages. Lunch break before we keep hitting the road to Ta Phin village. Our Dao host family will welcome you to their traditional home where we will share in an ethnic style dinner and stay the night.

At the first gleam of daylight, you will see and hear the sounds of morning village life. You can join your host family in some of their activities like feeding the animals, cleaning the houses, gardening or preparing breakfast. After breakfast, we could take a short morning wander around the village or resulting in more time spent with the host family.

You will be then supported by our car / van back to Sapa (30 minutes). When we arrive back in Sapa, check in to the hotel, shower, and pause for lunch on your own. At 2:30 pm we will take an easy walk (~ 5km) to Cat Cat village, homeland of Black H’mong hill tribe and to take part in a traditional ethnic music performance put on by the ethnic minority people. Your own dinner and evening, sleep in the hotel in Sapa.

Note: The music show in CatCat is closed on Wed afternoon, an alternative will be arranged.

Sunday is the common trading day of many tribes in the Northwest of Vietnam, Bac Ha is one of them. The market is filled with colors of different ethnic minorities coming from different villages and their trading activities are so vibrant, lasting from early morning till midday, from the hand-made fabrics to the dogs and buffalos.

 
We will leave Sapa early by 7:00 am so that we can be there on time, please pay respect to the locals here and ask permission before you taking photo of anyone.

Lunch in Bac Ha on your own account then we will do a boat trip along the Chay river, this boat ride is about 1,5 hour. We will then be picked up for our ride to Lao Cai. Dinner on your own well before the train leaves for Hanoi.

Arrive in Hanoi at about 5:00 am. Please find your own way back to your hotel, a taxi normally costs you a set of 50,000 VND.