Tours - Bac Ha Market + Can Cau Market

We start the tour early and either collect you from your homestay or hotel in the Sapa or Lao Cai area. We have a private car with driver to take us the 140km (3hrs) to the market. We aim to get there for around 10:00 as the best action is to be had early on!

Now we are here at the Can Cau market, the main focus of our day today. As you walk down the road into the heart of the market, there are stalls spread out on right hand side, mostly operated by Flower Hmong and Tay people. There are lots of beautifully coloured fabrics to see for sale at the market. Of the two markets this one is the more traditional with more traditional foods, incense sticks, spirit papers, birds (people here really love the sound of birdsong) and some say better quality livestock. With the help of the tour guide we can talk to many of the stall operators and swap stories.

Lunchtime! We drive the 20km to Bac Ha. We eat at a local restaurant which has not just the usual selection of local foods on offer like fresh pork, rice and steamed vegetables but we also have horse meat (thang co) to try as it is a local specialty.

Just next to the market is the elegant Hoang A Tuong Palace. The palace has an elegant courtyard as well as even a court room and prison cells! Used as Hoang family from 1921 to 1950 and finally becoming a national monument in 1999.

Ban Pho where you can walk around the village where Flower Hmong, Tay and Nung tribes live. The village is beautiful as is the Ban Pho valley, so it’s worthy of a photo or two. We can also see how they make the local rice wine.

Arriving at the homestay we have time to check in and relax for a few hours before supper.

The homestay has delicious local food that the family has cooked for us.

Breakfast is a choice of local style Pho or French pancakes (crêpes). There is also tea and coffee. Enough to fuel us for the exciting day ahead.

Now we are here at the Bac Ha market, the main focus of our tour. There’s no ‘main entrance’ to the market, because it’s outdoors. As you walk down the road into the heart of the market, there are stalls spread out on either side, mostly operated by Hmong and Dao people. There are lots of beautifully coloured fabrics to see for sale at the market. The traditional batik fabrics are made from hemp and dyed with plant based dyes. Lots of ethnic minorities are small farmers so there are lots of farming related things for sale too. Livestock is also traded here, everything you would expect - pigs, chickens, ducks, etc. With the help of the tour guide we can talk to many of the stall operators and swap stories.

We take a River Boat cruise on the Chay River nearby, we have half an hour to soak up the surroundings, seeing people farming the fields next to the river.

Lunchtime! We eat lunch at a local restaurant in Bao Nhai. There is the usual selection of local foods including pork, rice and steamed vegetables.

Driving to Lao Cai city we stop at the beautiful temple Den Mau to take some pictures. We are also able to see into China as the location is right at the border.

Alas now its the end of the tour. We can drop you off at your point of choosing back in Sapa or Lao Cai (if you are returning to Hanoi by train). If day-trips are more you thing in Sapa, we also have a waterfall tour.