Sapa Hmong Homestay

🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️

I’m enjoying watching this scene

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5 PayseE

Sapa is frequently foggy – it’s water vapour, it’s not smog!

For those wanting to visit themselves, here are eight bits of advice when travelling to Sapa:

1 – Look for local expertise, preferably an experienced guide from the Hmong or Dao ethnic groups. This will open up greater cultural opportunities and make your time in Sapa more rewarding.

Please also bear in mind that all tour guides dealing with international travellers are required have a licence or work with a company who have an Inbound Tour Operator certificate. Without this, your trek will be illegal and almost certainly uninsured. Unfortunately, at this time, most freelancers are working illegally, and this comes with risks to you and your group. Avoid this by asking your guide their licence number.

2 – Choose your trek carefully. While villages like Lao Chai, Ta Van and Giang Ta Chai have developed to cater for tourists, they have lost their traditional charm. If you need WiFi, a hot shower and access to bars and a pool table, then these are the villages for you. They have a backpacker feel and are good places to meet other travellers. That said, they do experience a large volume of tour groups every day. These are the villages people are talking about whenever they mention that Sapa is too touristic. They are not representative of the wider area.

Likewise, Cat Cat Village is owned by a tour company and is an ideal option if you like the thought of dressing up in tribal clothes and seeing organised dances and routines with hundreds of other paying spectators. Think of this village as a an attraction. It has a theme park feel and is very busy, especially with Vietnamese day trippers. Because it features in many poorly written guidebooks, the village receives many unsuspecting guests hoping for authenticity. Cat Cat has been landscaped to include many sites for taking selfies with designated view points throughout. If you’re interested in nature, culture or authenticity, this place will not suit you.

Do some research and find a trek that suits your own needs. Because almost everyone goes to these few locations, it does mean that the all of the other villages are wonderfully authentic. If you want an off the beaten track adventure, away from tourists, look at organisations such as ETHOS who offer award winning private treks with experienced local guides to more remote areas. All treks and experiences are tailored to the needs of the traveller. They are heavily involved in the community and have been rated as number one on TripAdvisor for over five years.

3 – Ask your chosen guide / company where your money goes. In an area where 50% of the population are registered as poor, it is essential that any income from tourism spreads to more than one individual. Have a look at their literature or down their news feed on social media to gauge what they are like as individuals or as an organisation. Are they in tourism purely for profit or are they involved in community development projects like village clean ups or education for instance?

4 – Skip the well recommended but not particularly interesting Silver Waterfall. The Love Waterfall is a far more beautiful option with the added benefit of now having canyoning and abseiling as an activity. The walk to the Love Waterfall is very picturesque and the plunge pool makes a great place for a swim on a warmer day.

5 – Be prepared for a decent hike. Sturdy walking shoes are essential. That being said, you don’t need hiking boots. Depending on recent weather conditions, paths will be slippery regardless of what you have on your feet. If required, shoe hire is available in the Sapa area. Choose a hike and difficulty level that suit your personal fitness and adventure levels. Walking in a big group will mean your guide will choose a route that the least well prepared can manage. Alternatively, you’ll end up with an unpaid entourage of local ladies hoping to help you over the slippery sections in exchange for you buying their textiles. This can be eliminated by assuring a fair distribution of wages and choosing a private trek.

6 – Do the overnight experience. You can opt for a day trek, and I’m sure you’d love it, but staying with a local family, in their village, in their home, is incredible. See how they live day to day, meet additional family members and feel like part of the village. Check out the reviews for the top outdoor activities in Sapa and the homestays are very highly regarded by travellers, with good reason.

7 – Time your visit well. While Sunday plays hosts to the busiest market day, weekends see many more travellers, particularly Vietnamese from the lowlands. A typical weekend sees Sapa’s visitor numbers swell to almost ten times that of a typical week day. Hotel rooms become more expensive and the town feels much more hectic and noisy. Monday to Thursday is far quieter, more relaxed and altogether more pleasant.

8 – Consider an alternative to Mt.
Fansipan. Although the highest mountain in Vietnam, the cable car construction train at the summit takes away from the climb to some degree. Ascending only to find 50 others at the top taking selfies certainly spoils the ambience. Look at climbing other mountains instead. There are plenty that offer challenge, natural beauty, forests and are very rarely climbed. Examples include Bach Moc and Pu Ta Leng.

Finally, it is important to know that Sapa is a huge district with a central town and 94 villages and hamlets. All tour companies offering packages from Hanoi, booked from hotels in Sapa or organised in tourism information office in Sapa offer pretty much the same trek. This sometimes gives the illusion of over-tourism. They sell these tours to make a profit. Their objective is to minimise costs and maximise profits.

The great news is that you can trek almost anywhere else, stay in local homestays or walk in the 30,000 hectares of protected forest and you’ll really see the other side of Sapa. It is a place rich in wildlife and culture and it is very easy to do walks well away from places visited by tourists.

Those who have been to Sapa and say it’s too touristy either visited on a package tour and only spent time in the busy villages or travelled independently and stuck to the few villages recommended in the guide books.

Food wise – don’t miss the freshly made hotpot with local vegetables. Many places also sell rainbow trout spring rolls.

My name is aphong I transport tourists, anyone who needs to Vietnam please contact phone ++84914869140. Gmail [email protected]gmail.com , thank

Que bonito documental sobre Vietnam muy importante. difundir la cultura del suroeste asiático.felicitaciones . los saludo atentamente desde Medellín Colombia José Medina Valencia

Wow nice video
Tuyệt quá đi!

Dude you pronounce Hmong wrong. The “H” is silent.

When tourists book those trips with agencies, Hmong people get paid very less. It is much better and preferred by Hmong when booking directly with the family which approaches all the tourists when they arrive to Sapa. This review written based on personal experience and direct communication with few Hmong families. Beside that, thank you for sharing.

Hmong, h is silent mong

this is a very nice video

I was in Sapa last momth (July 2018). It was great! Only thing I didn't like – the rain. It rained a lot and when I went to Fanispan Mountain. I couldn't see anything , lol. I have also been to hanoi, Ninh Binh and Halong Bay. Check out my videos. Please subscribe to me and I will to you.

Hey, are you trekking in medium difficult path ?thank you

Its NOT H'mong! Its just hmong…

Beautiful. video too short. Love how natural and pure the land is. So peaceful.

Lol when he said H'mong, it made me giggle.