Nestled high in Hoang Lien Mountain, Sapa Townlet is known as a beautiful and romantic resort which is 38km far from Lao Cai City. Built as a hill station during French colonial days, Sapa is a wonderful place to escape sweltering summer in Hanoi.
The first impression when you approach this town are some detached wooden mansions and villas perched on a hill top or hillside, behind thick pine forests and almost invisible on this foggy morning. Old and new villas with red roofs now appear and now disappear in the green rows of pomu trees, bringing the town the beauty of European towns. With fresh and cool air, the area boasts temperate-zone fruit trees bearing peaches and plums, and gardens for raising medicinal herbs. Sapa is also home of various captivating colourful flowers that can be found nowhere in the country with amazing colours and fantastic shapes.
Visitor to Sapa in summer can feel the climate of four seasons in one day. In the morning and afternoon, it is cool like the weather of spring and autumn. At noon, it is as sunny and cloudless as the weather of summer and it is cold in the evening. With no advance warning of a thunderstorm short and heavy rains may come at noon on any summer day but it is worthy to experience that special weather in 1 day.
Sapa is not only famous for stunning scenery of cascading rice terrace but also amirable for mysterious minority cultures. While visiting Sapa and its surrounding villages you will meet mostly with Black H‘mong & Red Dzao and the beautifully colourful Flower H’mong at the markets in Bac Ha. Like many ethnic areas in Asia, that is the women who run things in ground level. While women are industrious and spend most of the time at market or on domestic work, the men prefer smoking, drinking or sleeping. At weekend, visitors can have a glimpse of “Love Market” at the town centre - sort of a cross between a peacock mating ritual. For who loves the feeling of conquerring, climbing Mt. Fansipan – Vietnam’s highest peak at the elevation of 3.143m is a challenging choice that make your trip unforgetable beside trekking through ethnics villages.

The best time to witness the spectacular beauty of Sapa as well as the northern mountain is from September to November or from March to May, when the weather is fairly settled with dry sunny days and clear cold nights. In April and May, Sapa is blooming with flowers and green pastures.

Places to visit

Fansipan mountain peak- the highest mountain in Indochina
Fansipan Mountain is located 9km south-west of Sapa Townlet in the Hoang Lien Mountain Range. Fansipan is branded "the Roof of Indochina "at the height of 3,143m; Fansipan is to be approved as one of the very few eco-tourist spots of Vietnam, with about 2,024 floral varieties and 327 faunal species. The topography of Fansipan is varied. Muong Hoa Valley, at the lowest altitude (950-1,000m), is created by a narrow strip of land at the base on the east side of the mountain. Location: in southwest among Hoang Lien Son mountain range, nearby Sapa Conquering from Sapa, 2 options- 3 day trip depart from Tram Ton Pass, 4 day trip depart from Cat Cat.
Ta Phin village- Red Dzao people
Ta Phin village of the H'Mong and Red Dao minority people, a remote village around 12 kilometers from Sapa which still retains traditional customs and lifestyles of ethnic minority groups. The villagers will invite visitors to visit their homes to show how they live and what they have, and tell about their families. When heading off to Ta Phin village from Sapa, hiking up and down the 12 kilometers of hilly terrain is a good choice as travelers will see local people working in terraced paddy fields, or traveling back and forth from the market to their homes or tourist can stop to see an old French monastery. Especilly after a long day of walking on the windy roads and hills around Sapa town tourist can soak your bones and muscles in a traditional Red Dao herbal bath at Ta Phin. Location: 12 km north of Sapa.
Cat Cat village-Hmong people
Visitors to Cat Cat have an opportunity to admire a lively and colorful picture. the image of young women sitting by looms with colorful pieces of brocade . Besides the brocade weaving craft, many residents in Cat Cat are good at manipulating gold and silver jewelry, especially jewelry for women. Cat Cat are most attracted by its unique customs, including the custom of “pulling wife”. A man can ask his friends to lure a girl he likes to his house and keeps her there in three days. During these days, if the girl agrees to become his wife, a wedding will be held. However, the girl can happily go home after three days if she does not like him.g gold and silver jewelry. decorated with designs of flowers and birds. Cat Cat Village give us a great chance to discover countless unique features of H’Mong. Location: 3 km down the valley from Sapa.
Silver Water fall and Tram Ton pass
Eight miles (13km) from Sapa is the Thac Bac Water fall. You can get here easily on a motorbike or private car. This is one of the region's major attractions. It is possible to climb to the top of the waterfalls. From there, there is an excellent view of the waterfalls. If you come here, follow the road and you will get to the Tram Ton pass. Location: 12 km west of Sapa.
Ham Rong Moutain
Ham Rong mountain which means dragon jaw is a must-see for tourists when visiting Sapa. It's locally rumored that: once upon a time, there were a couple of dragons, so mad in love that while a biblical flood was rising but they didn't know. When awake, it's too late for them, so that they were washed away separately. Even now, turned into stone, but due to be natural instinct, the female always looks to her lover in the west, the Hoang Lien Son range. Lying close to Sapa Town, Ham Rong Mountain is nearly 2,000m high and looks very much like the dragon's head in the clouds. A climb to the peak is an excitement for all visitors. Visitors start to walk on stone steps, a winding trail higher up will help to see small streams lazily run through bushy foliages. About mid*way, visitors, taken by surprise, will be in orchid -gardens, more than 400 species are in colourful blooms. Then, visitors come to a mini plain of all flower Location ; Sapa town Admission.
Meet
Love Market
takes place on Saturday evenings. The love market of Sapa used to be the place to find a partner to get married. With the tourism, the real love market does not take place anymore but currently you can only see a representation of the love market. Young Red Dzao hill tribe used to come to Sapa to sing songs to the opposite sex. Girls sang the songs hidden in the dark, when a boy found them, and if they matched together, they disappeared into the forest for three days. Some of them got married after that.