It is recommended that you extend your stay / check-out time at the hotel that you are staying at so that you can get a little added rest, shower, and change of clothes before boarding the train. Then, you can also leave your bags there during the day. If this option is unavailable or you don’t have a hotel, you can leave your luggage at Footprint. We will happily store it for you while you are on you trip for free. Tip: If you are to Sapa for trekking, we suggest you travel light ...

There is one train that journey from Hanoi to Lao Cai and vise-versa in the day, but there is no sleeper train during the day. It only has seats and no air-conditioning. We recommend you not take this train, Tip: We highly recommend taking the night train to save you time, visit more places in Sapa....

The best mean of transport to Lao Cai and Sapa is still the train, however, car or van can be also good to reach to this beautiful mountain town. It will take about 10 hours (not including possible traffic jams) in a distance of 400 km from Hanoi. Although, there is not much of sightseeing we can make en route. We strongly recommend to travel by train, but for some reasons, you would wish to travel there by car, please check with one of our travel consultants to see the road conditions since i...

It is 38 km from Lao Cai to Sapa, the road is constantly zigzag with steep up hills. As we approach Will gain about 1000m in elevation and reach Sapa town at 1600m. The views are spectacular. It is comfortable by AC can or car, our driver will bring you to Sapa in about one hour. Your guide will be waiting outside the train station pick you up. Look for the Footprint Travel sign with your name on it. Tip: Please get the guide’s name & his cell phone number from our tour operators in...

There are different types of trekking in Sapa and its surrounding mountains, so when booking Sapa tours or Vietnam tours including Sapa, you will need to check with our travel consultants to see which kind of shoes will work best. For the light or easy trek, we recommend using good sandals or walking shoes, but for intermediate and hard trekking trips, we have to use really good shoes or sport shoes which must have really strong grips for hiking up and down. Many of our past clients use their e...

There are different types of trekking in Sapa and its surrounding mountains, so when booking Sapa tours or Vietnam tours including Sapa, you will need to check with our travel consultants to see which kind of shoes will work best. For the light or easy trek, we recommend using good sandals or walking shoes, but for intermediate and hard trekking trips, we have to use really good shoes or sport shoes which must have really strong grips for hiking up and down. Many of our past clients use t...

Yes we will stay with the family in the same house providing we are a group of less less than 4. If we are more than four we will divide into smaller groups and stay with multiple neighboring families with homestays. We will normally enjoy dinner and sleep with one family, but sometimes, the neighbors want to share the tourism benefits equally, then cooking and eating is at one house but sleeping is at another....

There is a wide range of activities that we have participated in. Some of our guests have gone out in the fields and actually got into the mud and planted rice. Others, have befriended one of the young women and was taken to her house to have tea. Sometimes the guest are up for some more trekking and we go for a short walk in the mountains. And, others prefer to just sit and relax. Helping out with the cooking and some of the chores is encouraged so that you can get a better understanding ...

There will be a range of food at the homestay. For dinner there will be a mix of traditional Dao and Vietnamese. We bring a lot of food in from Sapa to share with the family and everyone gets a chance to share in the cooking. For breakfast, pancakes and bananas have become very poplular amongst the trekkers and homestays, although if you wish to have a traditional Dao breakfast that can be arranged. It is ususlaly rice, and an egg and some vegetables....

First off, you should go for a few walks before going trekking as it will help you get your legs back. For the homestay, there is not much preparation. Making sure that you have packed everything you need to make your stay more confortamble is most important. Bring a small bag with the clothes change of clothes. You should bring something warm, as the nights will cool off, sometimes dropping as mush as ten degrees. Other things you might want to bring with you are a mirror, toilet paper, your ...