Tours - Light trekking + Local sightseeing

We start early to get the most out of the day. Also the valley looks great in the morning. Leaving Sapa town square we to head towards our first destination 6km away.

Y Ling Ho. We stop here for a few moments with a view the village with the most rice terraces in the whole valley. We may bump in to some locals who are interested to know who is in their village. We stop for around 10 minutes before heading off to our lunch time rendezvous.

We eat in San Sa Ho at a local restaurant. Food is choice of either Hmong food or Vietnamese. If you go for Hmong food - please try the pork belly with wasabi spinach (its our favourite). We have an hour for lunch.

Headed to Lao Chai we see the valley below again - this time the rice terraces are not so steep. Then we go to a Hmong family who will show us how they make traditional clothing. Our traditional clothing is made from hemp which you have seen growing along the way - depending on season of course. We stay with the family at their house for about 1/2 hr before heading to the next stop.

Setting off to Ta Van. To get there we can have two route options - one easy & one very hard that is high up the valley. If we stay high up on the harder trek - we get to see better views of the valley below. The easier one is also slightly shorter.

Arriving in Ta Van and staying at the lovely homestay of Mrs Yen of the Zay tribe. We have a little time before supper to explore the nearby Ta Van village which is highly recommended.

Supper and Mrs Yen ensures there will be plenty of good local food available. It’s quite a family atmosphere there and many other tour guides like to stop in to have chat with her.

Breakfast is a choice of French pancakes or a local food breakfast with tea and coffee of course. After breakfast we get a car to the Fansipan Cable Car.

To get to the top we need to get the train to the base of the cable car. We get the tickets from the station in the Sun Plaza, next to the town square. This scenic vintage style train takes 10 minutes to get there. The views of the valley below are amazing. We then get in the longest 3 rope cable car system in the world at 6.4km. This takes us around 20 minutes to get to the top. There we get to see the view of the town below and the mountains. There are many things to see here, highly recommended to take the funicular to the top as this saves around 1.5 hours of climbing steps! At the top there is a deck proclaiming you reached the summit of 3,146m above sea level.

Lunchtime at a local restaurant. Food selection depends on availability. Your guide will inform you of what is available and order for you. Remember we have the Glass Bridge to go to next so be wise with food and drink.

The Glass Bridge is a new attraction for Sapa. From the entrance a glass lift takes you to the observation deck and 500m walkway in the sky. Visitors are provided with covers to put over their shoes to protect the glass walkways. There is much to see and do here. If you are feeling braver than brave there the other activities are highly recommended. There are many opportunities to take photos of the views.

Alas now its the end of the tour and the car takes us back to the centre of Sapa.