Sapa Local Trekking Adventures

We had a really great time doing the 3 days / 2 nights trekking with Nhu ! She really payed attention to us and our needs during the trek. She also answered all our questions and gave us many informations about the villages we were visiting. We would 100% recommend Nhu as a guide :) It’s a very complete experience : you can enjoy the mountain, see the rice field, the bamboo forest and eat local food. The homestay were nice with good view. Despite the weather (fog,rain) we still really enjoyed our experience !

Amazing day with our local guide. She truly helped us to better understand this region, how they live, etc. This is absolutely not only a trekking adventure but the discovery of a completely different culture and we loved it. I also tried to plant rice and that was an adventure!

Unforgettable experience with Sau and his wife. We went on a trek in August in the Sapa area, on the first day with his wife, an English speaker, and on the second day with Sau. Trekking is not too difficult as long as you like to walk and at the same time offers beautiful landscapes. We learn a lot with Sau and his wife, the meals are great and the welcome is impeccable! The icing on the cake: you have to laugh with Sau, in addition to being tireless, he is filled with humor and it is even he who teaches you French expressions 😅 Thank you blood 🩸💯

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Best trek of Sapa!! Sau is a love, he is at the top he takes you on a friendly, friendly and fun trek! The beginnings may seem a bit sporty but he takes so much care of you that everything becomes easy again! He treated me like a princess for the whole trek! He is super nice and has a lot of knowledge about Vietnam and the communities that populate it! He welcomes you home and his wife with so much kindness and friendliness! I recommend this trek times 10000! Besides, he knows all the refs and jul songs! Thank you for this experience 🫶🏻

This trek was great! Sau and his wife are very good guides, very friendly and they made us discover beautiful places!

Great experience! We were 12 French and the atmosphere was very nice. Sau and his family are lovely with us. The food, the scenery, the stories of Sau about his village... everything was perfect! I recommend 100%

It was simply beautiful, I do not have the words to describe what we experienced, it was great, incredible! Sau is a great guide, who knows the area as his pocket and besides, he speaks perfect French. The area was very slippery is muddy in some places, he was very considerate with us, everything went great. I recommend this experience a thousand times, this is the guide you need!:D

Superb trek, away from tourists with a guide who speaks extremely good French and is very welcoming. The food, the view, everything was perfect! Thank you, Sau!

We enjoyed our walk with Mu. She is a delightful, informative and articulate lady who taught herself English by talking to travellers. It was great to be welcomed by her family and the Mong people are certainly some of the friendliest and most people we met while travelling in Vietnam. I visited Sapa with a friend and we both expected the trekking to be more in nature. We walked along public roads and through some nice villages and would have enjoyed more of a challenge on our first day when the weather was great. We walked from Sapa town through built up areas before finally getting into the Mung Ha valley. Lao Cai and TarVan villages were a lot more touristy than we expected and although certainly not Mu’s problem, the litter in some areas was alarming. It would be great to see the local community get together and work on this as it’s clearly mostly being produced by them. Lots of waste is thrown into the river and it’s a real shame to see how dirty the waterways were. Watching kids paddle amidst the plastic was heartbreaking. The first days walking itself was fairly easy, mostly downhill and on paved roads for large sections of the day. Some parts involved small trails that were a bit slippery, but these areas were more beautiful and more fun for us. There were small shops selling drinks and refreshments throughout the walk. Extra drinks aren’t included in trekking price. Mu talked with us all the way about rice planting, clothes making and many other interesting cultural facts. We got blue hands from indigo leaves and shared stories as we walked. The day passed really quickly and we were really happy to learn so much from Mu. Food at the homestay was fantastic and definitely better than most of the restaurant food we’d had on this trip. As vegans, we appreciated the fresh tofu and endless local veggies. The homestay was modern and comfortable. We were expecting a little more rustic and authentic but it is clear that Mu and Sau are very comfortable and certainly doing better than most other local residents in the area. A big note for anyone thinking about the trek is that you will be followed by groups of local women for most of the walk. The ladies are kind, but persistent. We are travelling long term and didn’t have any space or need for the trinkets pushed onto us all day. We later found out that one of the selling ladies was actually Mu’s mother, so this left a slightly bitter feeling. There must be ways in which Mu and Sau could support their own family without the need for them selling to travellers booked on their tours. It actually felt like harassment at various points of the day and the pressure to buy wasn’t nice. Our second day was really different with thick fog making the visibility almost zero. We’d heard other people talk about how changeable Sapa’s weather is but the fog was actually surprisingly pretty. The mud however was insanely slippery and the trainers we had on simply weren’t sufficient in terms of grip to walk safely. We’d have appreciated knowing this before the walk as some parts actually felt a little dangerous. Mu was kind, patient and very supportive but because of the mud, we chose to cut the day short and ended up back in Sapa town just after midday. Mu arranged this brilliantly and we couldn’t fault her care and attention throughout. After we got back to Sapa town, we met up with friends in a local bar and although they trekked with another local guide, their pictures suggested they walked the same road as us. It seems as if this is common in Sapa with most guides walking the same route. Overall, I think we enjoyed some treks in northern Laos and some national parks more although Mu and her family helped us understand so much. If we visited Sapa again, we’d likely ask for a trek in a different area with less of the mass tourism feel.

It was good track in beautiful rice field terraces. The couple guide was very kind and they speak perfectly French to give you the best local experience ! 🇫🇷