Mu Cang Chai to Sapa: Tea Hills and Rice Terraces

Every part can be changed to suit your group.

1. Day 1 Hanoi to Long Coc Tea Hills and Nghia Lo

   We leave Hanoi at around 8:00 AM and drive to Long Coc, a valley of rounded hills covered in tea bushes. We walk through the plantation and learn how tea is grown and processed, then have lunch in a local home. In the afternoon we continue to Nghia Lo and arrive at a Thai family homestay at around 3:00 PM, with time for an easy sunset bike ride through the rice paddies. Dinner and overnight in a stilt house, sleeping on mattresses in a shared space. The tea pickers of Long Coc are mostly from the Muong ethnic group, and if you arrive early you can see them working among the bushes with baskets on their backs. In Nghia Lo, the Thai stilt houses stand at the edge of the rice fields, and the evening ride is one of the most peaceful moments of the trip.

   
2. Day 2 Tu Le, Lim Mong Valley and Mu Cang Chai

   After breakfast we drive about 1.5 hours to Tu Le, where the landscape turns into layer after layer of rice terraces. We walk through the Lim Mong valley, visiting Thai and Hmong villages along the way, and stop for lunch with a local family. In the afternoon we drive on to La Pa Tan, take a gentle walk among the terraces and spend the night in a homestay. The terraces of Tu Le and La Pa Tan are carved into steep hillsides and shine like mirrors when filled with water in spring, or turn gold before the harvest in September and October. Our homestay is run by a Hmong family, and dinner is a good chance to ask about their farming year and their festivals.

   
3. Day 3 Mu Cang Chai over the O Quy Ho Pass to Sapa

   A two-hour morning walk takes us to a nearby Hmong village. We then drive to Than Uyen for lunch and a short stroll, before crossing the O Quy Ho Pass, with wide views over the Hoang Lien Son mountains. We arrive in Sapa in the late afternoon. The evening is free. The O Quy Ho Pass crosses the Hoang Lien Son range and is often in the clouds, so the views change all the time. We stop at viewpoints along the way and at the Silver Waterfall before arriving in Sapa. In the evening you can walk around the small town, its lake and its busy night market.

   
4. Day 4 Walking the Muong Hoa Valley

   From Sapa town we walk down into the Muong Hoa valley, following paths between rice terraces and gardens with the Fansipan range in the background. We visit Black Hmong and Giay families in Lao Chai and Ta Van villages and share a home-cooked lunch, then continue on foot to the road where our driver waits to take us back to Sapa. Lunch is cooked by a local family in Ta Van, often with vegetables from their own garden and rice from their terraces. Along the way you will see women embroidering hemp cloth, children playing by the streams and buffalo working in the fields. The walk is about 12 kilometres, mostly downhill, at a comfortable pace with many stops.

   
5. Day 5 Sapa to Hanoi

   A free morning to explore Sapa at your own pace. In the early afternoon a comfortable shuttle bus takes you back to Hanoi along the mountain roads, with two rest stops. Arrival in central Hanoi is at around 8:00 to 8:30 PM. The bus is comfortable and reliable, and the journey takes about six hours. If you prefer, we can arrange a private car instead, or a night train from Lao Cai. Your guide will help you check out of the hotel and walk you to the bus station before saying goodbye.