Day 1: Hanoi – Mai Chau.
8:00 HTS tour guide will meet you in the lobby of your hotel for your North – West Adventure 7days 6nights travels. Journey along highway No.6 to Mai Chau, a small town nestled in the midst of a lush valley and surrounded by emerald-green rice fields. Enjoy the picturesque views of scenic landscapes, pagodas and rural villages. Stop along the way to visit the Muong tribe and then at Thung Khe Pass for spectacular views of Mai Chau Valley. Have lunch in Mai Chau then spend the afternoon trekking along the Song Ma River. Trek through terraced rice paddies and small villages, discovering the natural beauty of the valley and discovering the culture of the White Thai people living in the region. Stop at a Thai village for the night and have your dinner with a local family, and after your meal enjoy a live dance and music performance.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.
Accommodation: Homestay in Mai Chau.
Day 2: Mai Chau – Son La – Dien Bien Phu.
After breakfast with your host family, say farewell and drive to Son La. You stop along the way to visit villages of various tribes including the H’mong, Thai, Muong and Dzao, an orchard and a tea farm in Moc Chau plateau. When you reach Son La (200km from Mai Chau) you will enjoy a late lunch. In the afternoon, continue along the mountain roads that pass through North Vietnam’s stunning countryside. Pha Din Pass, well-known as a historical site during the 1st Indochina War, offers the most compelling views. It is a charming and dangerous pass, 1,300m above sea level with absolutely breathtaking views. According to local legend, “Pha Din” means the connection between Heaven and Earth. On arrival in Dien Ben Phu, check into your hotel and spend rest of day at leisure, exploring Dien Bien Phu township.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.
Accommodation: Hotel in Dien Bien Phu.
Day 3: Dien Bien Phu – Lai Chau – Phong Tho.
Dien Bien Phu is nestled in a heart shaped basin near the border with Laos, and a famous historical battleground, where the Vietnamese successfully defeated the French, marking the end of French colonial occupation.
Start the day early with a visit to the local market where you will meet charming Thai tribe people, dressed in their traditional costumes purchasing their farming needs.
You will then visit the Dien Bien Phu Museum and A1 hill, and continue on to the Dien Bien Phu Cemetery to observe a minute’s silence in memory of the heroes who laid down their lives for victory in the historical Dien Bien Phu Campaign. Visit General De Castries’s Bunker, Old Muong Thanh Bridge and Nam Rom River.
After your lunch, proceed to Lai Chau along an unsealed road, passing a series of ethnic villages, before continuing to Phong Tho, along scenic roads and crossing the junction of Da and Na Rivers by using the Hang Tom suspension bridge. From here, the road weaves its way northwards through the picturesque and steadily more spectacular Na River valley, past more ethnic villages of White Thai, Kho Mu and later Red and White H’mong minorities. Arrive in Phong Tho, then spend the rest of the day cycling around the village.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.
Accommodation: Hotel in Phong Tho.
Day 4: Lai Chau – Sapa.
This morning, leave Phong Tho for Sapa. The road is under repair and a bit bumpy at times, but the rough route is quickly compensated by the magnificent scenery of yawning valleys, winding rivers, and canonical mountains – a photographer’s dream. The drive to Sapa takes you up Tram Son – the highest pass in Vietnam – and views of the Fansipan Peak, known as “the roof of Indochina”. Stop on the journey to visit Heaven’s Gate and the Silver Waterfall. You arrive in Sapa in the afternoon and find it nestled in a sweeping valley near the Chinese border. Sapa, was built in 1922 was a French colonial hill station but now this quaint town is a trekker’s paradise, offering hiking routes through terraced rice fields and enchanting hill tribe villages. Enjoy a free afternoon to explore the colorful town on your own.Have dinner and stay overnight at your hotel in Sapa.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.
Accommodation: Hotel in Sapa.
Day 5: Sapa Trekking.
After breakfast at the hotel, begin your trekking, down the Muong Hoa Valley, continue on one of Vietnam’s most beautiful trekking routes. Walk through pine forests, past terraced mountain slopes and traditional Hmong villages. Along the way you will visit a village school and take a picnic lunch by the river’s edge. After lunch, continue trekking through the Zay village. You finish your journey at Ta Van Bridge, where your driver will wait to take you back to Sapa. Enjoy the evening free at your leisure.
Trekking: 5 hours downhill terrain.
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch.
Accommodation: Hotel in Sapa.
Day 6: Sapa – Free at leisure.
Today you are free, for personal discoveries of Sapa town, and its surrounds
Meals: Breakfast.
Accommodation: Hotel in Sapa.
Day 7: Sapa – Hanoi.
After an early breakfast at your hotel, you leave Sapa for the long and beautiful drive back to Hanoi. Enjoy many stops along the way, to savor the beautiful countryside where the landscape changes from arching mountains to the flat plains of the Red River Delta. Arrive in Hanoi in the late afternoon.
*Note: As a supplement, you can take the night train from Lao Cai to Hanoi for a more comfortable return journey, in an air-conditioned 4 berth sleeping cabin.
Distance: 340 km or 236 miles.
Meals: Breakfast.
Accommodation: N/A.
We chose the North West adventure tour as we wanted to see more of the country, that is, more than Sapa. A private tour with HTS Tours suited the 4 of us and we set of from our hotel on Hanoi with a tour guide and in an air-conditioned van and headed to the beautiful Mai Chau Valley where we did some trekking and bedded down with a White Thai family in their stilt house after a meal and a dance show by locals. Next day we headed to Son La and stopped along the way at some villages and some productive farms before lunching at Son La. After lunch we continued to Dien Bien Phu, a very famous place where the Viets conquered the French, causing the domino effect in neighbouring countries, and after booking into our hotel we explored the town a bit. The following morning we had a more comprehensive look around and headed of to Pho Tho to spend the night. We left the following day for Sapa and although the road was under repair the scenery continued to be stunning. We undertook some trekking to some villages around Sapa and met some ethnic minority people. The next day was free time to indulge in some personal discoveries and after another night in Sapa we began our journey back to Hanoi, stopping along the way to visit several sites.This trip allowed us to see the stunning scenery of the North-West and we met many different ethnic tribal people. It was a well run tour and the four of us enjoyed it so much.