Tet Holiday in Sapa Vietnam

Sapa is one of the most breathtaking hill stations in Vietnam with impressive mountain landscapes, verdant rice terraces, unique stilt villages and colorful hill tribal cultures. The town has a lot of tourism attractions and Lunar New Year traditions awaiting for you to discover.

Tet holiday in Sapa seems to be so distinctive; it is not as crowded as weekdays. You may still experience the atmosphere of a cozy spring though the atmosphere is quieter. You will sense warmth spreading out all over from peach blossom, lights from street lamps at night at this mountainous area.

On the first day

You arrive in Lao Cai train station at around 7am by train or arrive in Sapa at 12.00 by bus.
Following your tour guide, you will walk from Sapa towards Muong Hoa valley where we can admire magnificient landscape. Here you will discover the wonderful scenery of Hoang Lien moutain ranges and meet Black H’mong tribes. Trek through terraced rice paddies and minority villages along the Muong Hoa River. Then crossing the suspension bridge towards the Zay village, arriving at Ta Van. As you walk through different hilltribe villages (Hmong and Dao people), our guide will explain customs or practices to you. Greatly, visiting Sapa in Vietnamese New Year, you will have a chance to experience in local activities in Tet holiday, especially experience homestay with local people where we have dinner cooked on a wood fire enjoying the company and hospitality of our Zay family.

You can enjoy traditional foods in Lunar New Year such as Chung cake, Te cake (Banh Te), Frozen meat (Thit Dong), Pickled onions (Hanh Nen), Dried bamboo (Canh Mang Kho) and so on. Tet holiday is the best time to be available these foods.

On the second day

8.30 a.m: Spending the morning visiting local market. Sapa markets in Tet holiday seems to be so distinctive, it is not as crowded as weekdays. Bac Ha markets in the Northern Vietnam are always the colorful meeting places for the hill tribes. This is the last market day of the year and a really a special time to visit. Ethnic groups such as Flower H’Mong, Nung, Day… concentrate on the market with beautiful traditional clothes. The market is a festival, people are happy to buy, sell, drink, shop…

If you can arrange free time to grace the New Year festival of H’mong people is Gau Tao. This  is one of the biggest festival organized by H’mong people to respect ancestors of harvest, cattle and to pray for babies and it demonstrates the features of H’mong culture in Tet holidays. The festival can long 3 days if it’s held every year or 9 days if the time period is each three year. In this festival, there are charm-transferring (giao duyen) singing, playing favorite games and activities
6.00 p.m: Having the good meal with traditional foods.
7 p.m: Ending the trip by transferring to station for overnight train back to Hanoi.

We hope that you will have an awesome trip with the strange emotion. With clean and such romantic atmosphere, Sapa is definitely going to be an interesting and full of a fun journey for New Year vacation.

In vietnamese: “Chuc mung nam moi” (Happy new year)

Please contact with us info@sapatoursfromhano.com for more information.