Travelpack

Highlights: Hanoi - Lao Cai - Sa Pa - Ha Long - Ninh Binh

Hotels:
Hanoi - Super Hotel Hanoi Old Quarter 3* (Superior Room)
Train - Chapa Express (Superior - 4 berths/cabin, sharing)
Sa Pa - Sunny Mountain Hotel 3.5* (Deluxe Mountain View Room)
Ha Long - Aclass Cruise / Legend (Deluxe)
Ninh Binh - Ninh Binh Legend 3.5* (Superior Room)

Itinerary:

Day 1: Hanoi Arrival
- Arrive Hanoi by flight.
- Your guide and private car will meet you and transfer you to your hotel for check-in.
- Rest of the day is free at leisure.
- Dinner at local restaurant.
- Overnight in Hanoi.

Meals: Dinner

Day 2: Hanoi
- Half day city tour in Hanoi.
- With a millennium-long history, Hanoi is a city of lakes, shaded boulevards and public parks dotted with French-style buildings and historical monuments. During the half-day city tour, you’ll see cultural and historical highlights, comprising Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh’s former residence, Presidential Palace (for outside photo taken), One-pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature, Hoan Kiem Lake, and Ngoc Son Temple. The tour gives you time for shopping and socializing with local people.

- Lunch at local restaurant.
- This evening you depart from Hanoi on a sleeper train to Lao Cai.
- Overnight on train.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch

Day 3: Lao Cai - Sa Pa
- Arrive Lao Cai and meet your local guide.
- Enjoy breakfast at local restaurant then depart to Sa Pa for check-in at hotel.
- The day is devoted to a beautiful hike through the breathtaking scenery of Sa Pa valley. Start by road that descends in the wake of the street Cau May (6 km) En route, admire the rice terraces hidden behind mist of the morning, a truly awe-inspiring sight.

Follow a small track and cross Muong Hoa River and pass well tended rice terraces on your way to the Black Hmong village of Lao Chai. Continuing through the colorful rice terraces you will reach the village of Ta Van Giay. As you continue your trek along the Muong Hoa River you will cross a small suspension bridge, roughly 2km from the settlement. Here you can discover a fascinating collection of rock carvings. These engravings depict some beautiful images of man, stilt houses and some beautiful decorative patterns. We lunch in a home in the village.

After lunch the walk continues through a bamboo forest to Giang Ta Chai, a Red Dao ethnic minority village. After taking a rest nearby a waterfall to refresh, you start climbing uphill to a road where the car is ready for your journey back to Sapa.

- Overnight in Sa Pa.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch

Day 4: Sa Pa
- Met up at your hotel in Sa Pa by local guide and driver for a short road transfer along the national road 4D northeastwards to the trekking point. - Trekking uphill on a large and rocky path for 2 hours along the narrow valley which runs between two high mountains passing two hamlets of the Black H’mong of Sa Pa Commune: Sau Chua and Sa Seng. The H’mong peoples here have just recently change their living way from sifting style into the sedentary one. So there are still a lot traces of the past time can be seen: rudimentary houses, stone wall around homes… Lunch break in the village.

After Lunch, continue along the same trail gradually uphill the Den Thang mountain for an hour to Hang Da Village of the H’mong which sits at 1,800m height and over looking down the Muong Hoa Valley. Paying visit to several local homes.

Leaving Hang Da and enjoy easy walk on high elevation for half an hour which offers great view of Muong Hoa Valley until arriving to Thao Hong Den, another village of the Black H’mong. Paying visiting to several local homes. This portion of the trek offers chances for taking the best photos of landscapes.

- Getting downhill for another hour along a dirt track to Pho Village at the center of Hau Thao Commune.
- Picked up and transfer back to Sa Pa.
- Overnight in Sa Pa.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch

Day 5: Sa Pa – Lao Cai on train
- After breakfast, depart to one of the several minority markets in the region. Depending on the day, markets can be held in different villages. Here you will meet various ethnic minorities who come to exchange not only the goods but also the gossips from their own community.

Tuesday: Coc Ly market
Wednesday: Cao Son market
Thursday: Lung Khau Nhin market
Saturday: Can Cau market
Sunday: Bac Ha market & Muong Khuong market & Muong Hum market

- Evening transfer to Lao Cai station for overnight train to Hanoi.
- Overnight on Train.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch

Day 6: Hanoi – Ninh Binh
- Early morning arrival in Hanoi.
- Refresh and enjoy breakfast at local restaurant then leave Hanoi for Ninh Binh.
- This trip will take you through rural northern Vietnam to Ninh Binh, some 100km (62 miles) south of Hanoi, offers a world of natural wonders and cultural heritage to explore. Stop by Hoa Lu, the capital of Vietnam in the 10th century, known to travelers as Vietnam's 'inland Halong Bay.'

After visiting two temples in commemoration of King Dinh Tien Hoang and King Le Dai Hanh in the ancient capital, you will enjoy the amazing boat trip to visit Trang An grottoes which is a gathering of 31 valleys, 50 cross-water caves, and home to 600 kinds of flora and over 200 kinds of fauna, many of them in the Red Book of Vietnam. While rowing through Trang An grotto in the quiet, fresh air of the highlands, with only the sound of birds and the oars stirring the clear water and surrounded by magnificent forested mountains upon which graze white goats, you will enjoy a heaven on earth.

- Transfer to hotel for check-in.
- Dinner at hotel.
- Overnight in Ninh Binh.

Meals: Breakfast / Dinner

Day 7: Ninh Binh - Ha Long
- This morning after breakfast, you will leave Ninh Binh for Ha Long. Ha Long Bay is one of the most magnificent scenic spots in all of Vietnam and was recognized as a world natural heritage site by UNESCO in 1994.
- Halong is a picturesque bay with almost 2,000 islets rising from the clear emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin.
- Cruise for 2 days in the tranquility of Ha Long Bay.
- Overnight on board.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Day 8: Ha Long – Hanoi Departure
- Continue cruising and disembark in the late morning.
- Upon disembarkation you will be met and transferred back to Hanoi airport for your departure flight to the next destination.

Meals: Brunch

Offer Includes

Meal Plans