Best Of Northern Vietnam 6 Days

08:00 – Start your trip to Ri village in Ba Vi. After 1.5 hours driving, you will arrive at Mr Duoc’s house, where you will enjoy a welcome drink.

10:00 –  Visit the Tea Plantation in Ri Village. This is a green and peaceful place, where you will enjoy beautiful scenery of the village. The Tea Plantation contributes greatly in providing tea products for the whole north of Vietnam. You will get a chance to engage in harvesting tea leaves with local families, and you'll be shown how to pick the best part of the tree to create a wonderful beverage, Vietnam traditional tea.
Mr Duoc is a veteran from the Vietnam War and the owner of a large tea farm. He is also an expert in handling raw tea leaves, and he will show you the process to produce an exceptional tea product. You will have a great time listening to Mr. Duoc’s life stories, especially his experience during the war. Then, you will enjoy some great tea along with green lentils or lotus seeds, also grown by his family.

11:15 – Driving about 10 minutes to visit another host family in Moc Village in which you will participate in a fun cooking class led by the host. She will show you how to cook Vietnamese food, and you will have some time to enjoy lunch with food you've just helped make!

13:45 – After lunch, you have time to walk (or bicycle) around the village to explore the local culture and visit the local workshops. You can learn how to make tofu, make the traditional conical hat in Vietnam, unshell rice, and maybe see the workshop of a local worker who, for 70 years, has made and fixed all the farming tools in the village.

15:00 – You have the opportunity to embark on a 1-hour cycling tour through the beautiful rice fields and the villages. You can witness daily life of local people and interact with them. Mr. Chau, who will welcome you with fresh mint lemon juice, with all ingredients freshly picked from his own garden, will be your next host. Subsequently, you can experience a traditional foot soak in warm water with herbs, following the traditional recipes of Muong ethnic minority. This will ease you (and your feet!) after cycling around the village.
Your afternoon will end with a boat trip down the Da River on which you can appreciate the breathtaking landscapes and explore the local life along the riverside.

Time to bid farewell to your host family and drive back to Hanoi center. 

We will take you to a restaurant in Hanoi to have dinner. 

At around 20:00, you will be transferred to Hanoi train station. Overnight train trip to Lao Cai in shared sleeping compartments (sharing with other passengers in 2 lower & 2 upper berths per compartment). Train departs at approximately 21:15 hrs.

Notes:

- Our tour guide will not accompany during the train trip

- Train schedule is subject to change.

- Private compartments on request at surcharge.

- Train journeys are part of a great local experience. Cabins are shared with other local passengers (unless private cabin is requested and all berths paid for - with supplement). Restrooms at either end of the carriages complete the local experience.

Accommodation: Overnight train to Lao Cai

Activities: Day trip Ninh Binh, visit Hoa Lu ancient capital, enjoy a boat trip exploring Tam Coc "Halong Bay on land" and ride a bike to Bich Dong Pagoda. In the evening, transfer to the train station to catch a night train to Lao Cai.

Overnight train Hanoi - Lao Cai (4-berth soft sleeper, sharing cabin train)

05:30 ~ 06:00 Arrive at Lao Cai Train Station. Get picked up at the train station and transfer to Sapa. Early check in upon arrival is available with room occupancy (Surcharge applicable). Relax for a while to get ready for our full day tour.

9.30am: Meet up your local guide and start trekking. The first part is on the road but we soon turn to the right and walk on a small path down the valley to Y Linh Ho village settled down by the Muong Hoa River and from here to the Black H’mong village of Lao Chai. Black H’mong is one of the biggest minority groups in the Sapa area. They have their own language and traditional indigo blue clothing. The H’mong peoples have just recently changed their living way from sifting style into the sedentary one. There are still a lot traces of the past time can be seen: rudimentary houses, stone wall around homes… After this, you go on to Ta Van village (1.200 m) to visit Zay people. Zay is a fairly small minority group of about 38.000 people who live mainly in the mountains in Northwest Vietnam.

After visiting Ta Van village, the car will return you to Sapa. Free at leisure the rest of the day. Overnight at Sapa Hotel.

Accommodation: Hotel in Sapa

Activities: Full day soft trekking, pass along dirt tracks as well as through several villages of ethnic minority groups. Experience the culture of the local daily life styles and exclusion custom in Sapa

Trekking in Sapa with Ethnic people

Located just a bout 5km southeast of Sapa town, Ma Tra valley attracts visitors for its stunning scenery highlighted with impressive terraced rice fields. The Hmong peoples have changed from sifting lifestyle into sedentary one form early 20th Century and built terraced field to ensure their permanent earning by farming wet rice.

Trip commences from Sapa at 08.30am or 01.30pm by a 5km road transfer out of Sapa town. Then, walking starts from here downhill and crossing the stream to the other bank where Suoi Ho village beautifully sits on the top of a low hill. Spend half an hour to visit several local homes for deeper insight into local life before walking along a large path on hillsides which is paved with rock to get through Ma Tra village. This portion of the walk offers beautiful scenery of the valley and terraced paddies as well as flower farm. Transfer back to Sapa.

15:00 - 15:30 Driver will pick you up & transfer 5 hours to Hanoi.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation: Hotel in Hanoi

Activities: Join on a soft trekking tour to discover the untouched beauty of the villages in Sapa before heading back to Hanoi by bus.

Halong Bay is listed by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage and voted as a Wonder of Nature by the New7Wonders Foundation. You will spend a night staying in this world famous bay.

After breakfast in Hanoi, depart the capital for the 3hr 30mins drive to Halong Bay. Arrive to Halong City’s jetty (around noon) and proceed with check-in formalities. After a welcome onboard, lunch will be served while cruising towards the bay. In the afternoon, enjoy some sightseeing, on-board activities (depending on each boat’s itinerary), or just spend some time relaxing on the vessel. Towards the end of the day, the boat sets anchor for the night among the karst formations. Dinner is served on board.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Cruise in Halong Bay

Activities: Leave the city behind, drive through fascinating countryside to the dock where this Halong Bay adventure truly starts. Climb aboard a traditional junk boat – with its beautiful woodwork and beaming crew – and venture out into emerald waters of the bay.

Our tour guide will not accompany aboard the cruise in Halong Bay. Resident English speaking guide on board available.

Halong bay