Since the highway Hanoi – Lao Cai was inaugurated, Sa Pa is becoming an attractive and convenient tourist destination for many travelers. First coming to Sa Pa, having good preparation and information which will help you to have the appropriate choice for an enjoyable vacation ….
Useful advice for the first arrive in Sapa: What to prepare? What to do before going to Sapa…
Since the highway Hanoi – Lao Cai was inaugurated, Sa Pa is becoming an attractive and convenient tourist destination for many travelers. First coming to Sa Pa, having good preparation and information which will help you to have the appropriate choice for an enjoyable vacation ….
The best time for traveling to Sapa is from September to November or from March to May. In this time, the weather is cool, the day is dry with sunshine and the night is a little cold. In April and May, Sapa is covered with colorful flowers and rice fields.
In August and September, the rice terraces are beautiful and for watching peach flowers you should come after Tet (Lunar new year).
The winter last from December to February, you can see the sunrise from the valley in the early morning. Recently, Sapa has its self ice and snow and sometimes it snows. This attracts thousands of tourists in this time, for the people who want silence should not come to Sapa in this time.
Looking for a place to stay with the reasonable prices for the time since the New Year 2015 is not simple. So, the first thing to do is hotel reservation in your travel plans before going to Sapa. Besides searching on websites selling rooms common as: www.agoda.com; www.booking.com; www.hotels.com; www.ivivu.com; www.chudu24.com …., through the relationship of friends, intimates, forum system, you can find the addresses, and contact availability directly to hotels, motels to book. An extremely important work is that you have to quickly agree on the price and payment of the deposit as soon as possible.
To avoid hard to find rooms on weekends and holidays, you can schedule a stay in Sa Pa in the early and mid-week days. Besides there is type of people’house staying (homestay) is a relatively attractive option for you really feel and experience the real life of Sapa.
From Hanoi to Sapa and vice versa you can determine in advance your plans to move in line with the actual conditions of you:
If You have a private car to take the initiative for the trip to Sa Pa, it takes just 4-5 hours for arriving in Sapa. However it should be noted that on the weekends and holidays vacations, vehicle traffic to Sapa is quite crowded so you need to actively update the parking spots near your accommodation.
Travel by train: You can select the type of train the day or night (schedule and detailed train schedule is here). The day train has only soft or hard seats; Night train allows you to set the bed chamber then move onto Sapa by bus running fixed routes with a frequency of 30 minutes starting from Lao Cai Station to Sapa stone church. Time cruise usually lasts for 8-10 hours so you need to calculate the time schedules and your travel accordingly.
Travel by bus: There are so many genuine luxury seats and sleeper bus going from Hanoi – Lao Cai and vice versa or running straight to Sapa. The advantage of bus is the time and the price which is shorter and cheaper than going by trains only about 5 hours, and flexible customer pickup point from the old city areas of Hanoi, the suburban area is located on the route , the main bus station in Hanoi such as My Dinh, Giap Bat, Gia Lam … in addition, some vehicles are exploiting the bus route runs from Nghe an, Thanh Hoa, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Quang Ninh , Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen …
If you travel frequently, choose small suitcase and quality. Vali barely tucked into the luggage compartment, but also large enough to hold clothes, personal items from 2 to 5 days. Going to Sa Pa, you should only bring a brown or black shoes. It will be cold in the evening, you should bring thin summer jacket. You should bring a scarf, gloves and warm woolen hat truth if going to Sapa in winter. Bring rain gear, sun umbrellas in case the weather changes. Please see more information about when to go to Sa Pa.
Also, you should bring one small backpack to carry your convenience the requisites for sightseeing trips, sightseeing, excursions to the villages and interesting sights.
Searching for tourist information through internet are the steps necessary and quite sufficient for your stay in Sapa. These places should have in your program:
– Ham Rong (Dragon mountain), Sapa Museum, Cau May (ratten bridge, Cat Cat, Ta Van, Ta Phin, ancient engraving stone, Tram Ton Pass, Silver waterfall, love waterfall, Fanxipan – Roof of Indochina.
– Bac Ha market, Border gate with China, for more information click here.
Lao Cai tourist information Centre and information couters which are located in the centre of Sapa as bus station, the lake and the church belonging to Lao Cai Tourist Information and Promotion Centre is the formal address, reliability and provide free advice Free information, maps, brochures for you in Sa Pa.
Before going to Sapa you should also learn the dishes, specialties that will indulge in your trip.
The specialty vegetables Sapa is characterized as temperate regions cauliflower, broccoli, beets, chayote, vegetable sprouts, mam da … The most special vegetable is “Ngong”, flower stabbed body of the old vegetable plants. There are many kinds “ngong”: Tall cabbage shoots, tall chayote shoots … being fried with garlic or various meats is the best. In addition, each traveler is still rumored that eating boiled chayote at Sa Pa is the best.
Sapa is famous for meat dishes “small pig”. Meat “pig stolen armpit” cat sipping cider with Sapa, bored, drink through the night yet.
By: Tuong Nguyen
Updated by: To Uyen
This is a very useful post for people who comes to Sapa. Thanks!
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