Since a long time, Sapa has been recognized to be one of best stunning travel destinations in the north as well as the whole Vietnam, however, this places is a small, mountain town in Lao Cai Province. It is located about 350 km northwest of Hanoi, close to the Chinese border then “how to get here” is always a most concerned question amongst travel communities.
Located on high mountain with no airport, Sapa is accessible by road only. From Hanoi, the most popular way to get to Sapa is by overnight train. However, thanks to a new highway opening in 2014, Sapa can also be reached by buses / by private cars even with motorbikes which seem to be much faster.
1. Traveling to Sapa by train.
Traveling by train takes about 8-9 hours and the train only stops in Lao Cai, the province which Sapa belongs to. It then takes another hour to get to Sapa from Lao Cai station.
There are a number of tourists train operating the route from Hanoi. Each of these companies run a carriage which are all attached to the national train carrier. It is suggested that you book your ticket in advance, especially during peak time of the week such as Hanoi to Lao Cai on Thursday and Friday; Lao Cai to Hanoi on Sunday and Monday. This is normally due to the weekend retreat of local tourists, and also on Sunday there is a special market fair in Bac Ha which attracts many visitors.
* Train often departs at between 8:00pm and 10:00pm, and you can catch a good sleep before getting woken up by the beautiful mountain sceneray at dawn.
* There are also day trains which are not as comfortable as night train. It also takes longer time to travel as it makes more stops.
* Ticket for night train is $35-180/person/way (the most expensive one is Victoria express which is exclusively for in-house guests)
* Ticket for day train is $10-20/person/way
However, nowadays going by trains to Sapa is less attractive to tourists since this kind of travel takes so much time and a little bit costly than other means of transport. Therefore, doing by luxury buses is not widely chosen yet then instead of that the locals & tourists are choosing daylight & night shuttle buses running back and fort in between Hanoi and Sapa after every single 15 minutes.
2. Traveling to Sapa by buses.
In every 15 minutes, There will be daily buses departing Hanoi from many different points such as the old quarters, bus stations in My Dinh, Nuoc Ngam, Yen Nghia … to Sapa. One way trip takes between 6 and 7:00 hours.
You can select either Limousine Luxury Buses or Buses of Soft Sleepers to get to Sapa easily and booking bus tickets should be done through reputable travel agencies or ticketing offices to make sure that you’ll have the best services & comforts.
Traveling by bus is both fast and it goes direct to Sapa without stopping in Lao Cai as by train. If you take a private car ride, you can even reach Sapa in 5 hours. And nowadays we have cold bottled water and free wifi on the buses to ensure that our customers will be well taken care.
3. Traveling to Sapa by motorbikes
Recently there are so many adventure tourists selecting such a great flexible vehicle to get to Sapa from Hanoi. You can approach Sapa within 1 days from Hanoi if you can ride within 8 – 10 hours, however, most of people will spend at least 4 – 5 days to complete a trip to Sapa then loop back Hanoi. Kindly visit at this following sample trip https://indochinamotorbiketours.com/tours/best-vietnam-north-west-motorbike-tour-to-sapa.html and if you want to refer many other Sapa Motorbike Tours you can see at https://indochinamotorbiketours.com/sapa-motorbike-tours.html
4. Traveling to Sapa by plane
Government is now planning building up a new airport in Sapa in the upcoming years to serve urgent duties relating to national defense, emergencies, tourism … and we’ll keep you updated once this is happening, however, here is also a great news for those who want to shorten the time to get to Sapa in the future.
