Four days in Lao Cai for groups flying up from Da Nang: the terraces of Y Ty, the Sunday market at Bac Ha, the Muong Hoa valley and the border at Lao Cai.
Photo: Krisztian Tabori / Unsplash
Day 1
The group flies from Da Nang to Noi Bai in the morning, then drives up the Noi Bai – Lao Cai expressway, about five hours to Sa Pa with a rest stop in Phu Tho. We arrive in the early afternoon and check in, leaving time to adjust to the change in climate. Late in the day you walk the central square and the Stone Church of 1895, with a free evening at the Sa Pa night market.
Day 2
A full day on the Y Ty route, an upland commune on the border about 70 km of mountain road from Sa Pa. We pass through Muong Hum, stopping at viewpoints over terraces stacked up the hillsides; during the flooding season around May and June and the ripening season around September this is among the finest country in the north. You visit a Ha Nhi village of rammed-earth houses with thick walls and low pitched roofs, then walk out to the Thien Sinh bridge over the Lung Po stream, right on the border line. We return to Sa Pa in the evening.
Day 3
The morning follows the Muong Hoa valley down to Ta Van, a Giay village, walking the bunds between terraces and stopping at the ancient rock field. In the afternoon we drive about 110 km across to Bac Ha for the Hoang A Tuong mansion, a two-storey building mixing French and Chinese detailing, put up by a Tay chieftain in 1921. We stay the night in Bac Ha.
Day 4
The morning is spent at Bac Ha market, the largest upland market in Lao Cai, held on Sunday mornings, with a buffalo section, a Flower Hmong textile section and a food section serving thang co and men men. On the way back we stop at the Lao Cai international border gate, looking across the Ho Kieu bridge over the Nam Thi River. The coach reaches Hanoi in the afternoon and the group transfers to Noi Bai for the flight home to Da Nang.
This is not the standard Sa Pa route. We leave out Fansipan and Cat Cat village — the two stops almost every group makes — in order to spend the time on Y Ty and Bac Ha, which are what people ask about on a second visit to the region.
Y Ty is the point of the trip. The road in is about 70 km of mountain switchbacks and takes close to three hours each way, so it needs a whole day; in return it is the least visited terrace country in Lao Cai, with Ha Nhi villages whose earth walls are a hand’s span thick. Fog at Y Ty is dense and arrives without warning, and there are days when you see nothing at all. We say so in advance.
The last day depends on Bac Ha market, so departures have to fall on a Thursday for the group to be there on Sunday morning. If your dates cannot work that way, we switch to Can Cau market on Saturday and adjust the rest. There is a great deal of winding road on this trip, so anyone badly affected by travel sickness should think it over. Group size, accommodation standard and flight times are agreed before the contract is signed.
Domestic ToursA tight, well-paced long weekend — My Khe beach, the Golden Bridge on the summit of Ba Na, and one full evening in Hoi An under the lanterns.
Domestic ToursNorth along Highway 1 to the imperial city on the Perfume River, then into the limestone of Quang Binh for Phong Nha and Paradise Cave.
Domestic ToursSouth down the coast to the clear water of Ky Co, the windswept cliffs of Eo Gio and thousand-year-old Cham towers in the middle of Quy Nhon.