vietnamspirittravel - My Blog

Typical Vietnam package tours will include Central Vietnam as a must, boasts the most attractive destinations of the country, from the imperial city of Hue, former capital under Nguyen Dynasty in 19th century, Hoi An, known as Faifo, the historical trading town, central highland hill resort of Da Lat, famous as the city of flowers, Buon Ma Thuot where inhabited by Montagnards famous for elephant hunting and taming, Quang Binh with Phong Nha caves, one of the world heritages in Vietnam and the recently discovered Son Doong cave system, the world's biggest cave, and Nha Trang city famous for white sandy beaches.

Classic Vietnam tours usually start from Ho Chi Minh city or Hanoi capital, adventurous and travellers like going to Buon Ma Thuot for elephant riding, visit spectacular waterfalls in Lak lake and spend they night in long houses at Ban Don village of Ede people, especially Buon Ma Thuot is knowed all over the world for it's coffee, considered as one of the best coffe in the world

Also located in Central highlands is Da Lat, nicknamed as city in the mist, or called by foreign tourists as a Little Paris, belonging to Lam Dong province on the Lang Biang plateau, independent travellers going on holidays with families love Da Lat for it's romantic atmostphere. Differ from Buon Ma Thuot where is popular with young active backapackers travelling on Vietnam budget tours, Da Lat is suitable for families or couples going on honeymoons

Visitors to Da Lat love hanging around the Lake of Sigh, pine forest or enjoy a cup of coffee over Xuan Huong lake, right in the heart of the city. At an elevation of 1500m above the sea level, Da Lat used to be a very popular site in the Vietnam war when military officers from Sai Gon came on holidays and stay away from the heat, many villas of the high ranking officials of former Sai Gon administration were built in 1960s, most of them were seriously damaged or destroyed in the war time, most villas today were built in early 1990 when a lot of people getting more and more interested in this city.

Many tour companies offer short trips to from Ho Chi Minh to Da Lat as part of the Vietnam tour packages, it takes about 1 hour flight from Sai Gon or 6 hour drive. For Da Lat sightseeing attractions visitors are interested in Chicken village, Cam Ly waterfall or the central night market.

Temperature in Da Lat is cool through out the year, average 18-19 degrees Celsius, even in the hottest time of Summer, it is usually foggy in the early morning and then get clear in the day, there are about 1 week a month when the city is overcast with mist

Population of Da Lat is nearly 250.000, in the nearby districts there live people of ethnic minority groups.

Sapa is famous for Love Market, it's a festival, a weekend activity for young hill tribe people live in Sapa, on Saturday nights youngsters from surrounding villages gather in town for dancing, playing flute and court each other, they are from Red Dzao, Black Hmong, Dzay, Tay and Nung

Today, with throngs of tourists coming to Sapa the original activity has changed a lot, local authorities are planning to recover the activity as an attraction of Sapa

Budget and independent travellers take Sapa tours through their hotels in Sapa, as Internet access is easily available in Sapa most hotels offer online booking, other services can also be arranged by the hotels like Sapa trains, transfer from and to Lao Cai train station, many adventurous travellers go to Sapa by motorbikes, it takes about 1 day ride from Hanoi, or 2 days with an overnight stop in Yen Bai

To local tourists, Sapa is an ideal place for honeymoons, there are many young couple chose Sapa as their honeymoons, especially in Spring, the whole area is just like a big flower garden, local tourists tend to visit Ham Rong mountain, located in the heart of town, there is a big flower yard on top of the mountain, young people are always seen taking pictures in the spot

Young Vietnamese are also interested in Sapa trekking tours, especially school children from Hanoi, they come in big groups, most use trains, others go by motorbike, they choose the cheap hotels away from tourist centre, cheap and convenient, they visit Lao Chai and Cat Cat villages, visit hilltribe villages in the area.

A place very favourite with domestic travellers is Thac Bac or Silver Waterfall, about 15 km from Sapa town, near Tram Ton pass on the way from Sapa to Lai Chau, in June or July, rainy season, the waterfall looks like a white silver curtain falling down from mountain.

Ta Phin village with the old church is also an attractive site for tourists, in recent years more and more people choose to stay overnight at Ta Phin village as it has become a bit too touristy at Ta Van village, there are some villages in are chosen as Sapa homestay sites, beside Ta Van, Ban Ho is a good place for long trekkers, and now Ta Phin of Red Dzao people has emerged as an intersting spot for homestay in Sapa.

With an increasing number of tourists to Sapa, local children have learnt English from tourists, many young girls selling souvenirs to tourists have become tour guide, with their fluent English, deep knowledge of traditions and people, Hmong or Red Dzao girls have become professional tour guides for foreign travellers to Sapa

It's been a long way since Halong Bay Vietnam was opened to tourists in mid 1990s, before this time Halong Bay, known by local people as Bai Chay or Burning town, had few tourists, as the bay is located in the Gulf of Tonkin, during the 80s of the last century only foreigners form former Eastern Europeans could visit Halong Bay due to the sensitive relations between Vietnam and China

Halong Bay was officially opened for tourism in 1992, since then there have been a big development of Halong Bay travel, as there are more and more visitors go on Halong Bay tours on their vacations to Vietnam, smaller boats were no longer used by travel companies, the cruisers built in recent years can accommodate up to 50 travellers at one time, some boats offering Halong Bay cruises have facilities of a luxury 5 star hotel.

It costs about more or less than 100 usd/person for a 2 day cruise in Halong Bay, including all meals on board, transfers round trip from and to Hanoi, entrance fees and guide, travellers going 2 day tours will visit the most worth seeing part of the bay such as Amazing cave, Stone dog islet, fighting cocks.

Halong Bay tours start from Hanoi, after about 4 hours road travel visitors will arrive in Halong city, after check in the cruiser visitors will visit Thien Cung and Dau Go grottoes, enjoying fresh seafood lunch served on board, the boat will keep cruising taking tourists to beautiful areas such as a fishing village where local fishermen raise fish in big cages under their houses and sell to tourists, after a few minutes at the fishing village the cruise will keep sailing towads Titov island through Incense burner islet. Titov beach is an ideal location for travellers love Halong bay kayaking, there are hidden lagoons under mountain for kayak rowers to explore. Those active travellers who prefer kayaking in Halong Bay usually take 3 day tour and they will have a full 2nd day for kayaking, swimming and more relaxation on the bay. Towards the end of the bay all boats will go to one place designated by the authorities, for the night actitities travellers can join singing karaoke, and a fishing trip at night is something not to be missed

Early in the morning of day 2 passengers will take a Tai Chi excercise on the sun deck, it's quite a sight beholding the Sunrise from the sea while doing the Tai Chi. After some coffee passengers will have a light breakfast before continuing to Luon cave, in the morning when the tide is low visitors use small boats to get through a tunnel inside the lake inside, after that the cruiser will sail towards Bai Tu Long bay in the other side of the bay, after lunch on board the boat will go back to wharf at the end of the cruise.

Travel Vietnam has never been as easy as today, as the country opened it's border to the world in early 1990 there are millions of international visitors travelling Vietnam each year.

Bordering China in the north and Laos and Cambodia in the west, travellers can enter Vietnam by air or overland, as there are few choices for direct flights from big cities in the world to Hanoi or Sai Gon, visitors doing Vietnam tours usually fly to Thailand or Singapore, 2 big stops in the region before continuing to Vietnam, as Air Asia offers low airfares to and from Vietnam and Singapore and Thailand, budget travellers prefer to use this carrier for their Vietnam budget tours

Most visitors start their Vietnam package tours from Sai Gon and finish in Hanoi or vise versa. A trip to Vietnam can be combined with an extension to Laos or Cambodia with favourite destinations of Luang Prabang town in Laos and Siem Riep city with the temples of Angkor Wat

Travellers can also access Vietnam via borders from neighboring countries, from Laos one can cross Tay Trang border in Dien Bien Phu, 500 km from Hanoi or Cau Treo border gate in Ha Tinh, 300 km from Hanoi capital. As Dien Bien Phu and Ha Tinh are not among the most worth visiting sites in Vietnam the number of tourists through these border gates are quite limited. Some gates which are business and not for tourism such as Mong Cai, Lang Son or Lao Cai, mostly for business people from Vietnam and China

Travellers from Cambodia may get into Vietnam via Moc Bai border gate in Tay Ninh province, just 60 km from Ho Chi Minh city or via Chau Doc town in the Mekong Delta. As there are more and more travellers go on both Cambodia and Vietnam tour packages there is a big demand to enter Vietnam by boat from Phnom Penh, crossing to Chau Doc and then travel to Sai Gon by boat or road

Travellers to Vietnam need to arrange visas at border gates, many a Vietnam tour company offers Visas on arrival service, this service can save foreign travellers a lot of time and money. Arranging visas to Vietnam though local agents have become popular for travellers, especially those who live in the cities that are far from Vietnam embassy or consulates, it takes about 5-7 working days except Saturday and Sunday, depending on travellers' nationalities, singly or multiple entry...

There are a few airlines in Vietnam for domestic flights, biggest one is state owned Vietnam Airlines, other choices are Mekong Airlines or Jet Star, which operates only between big cities Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city or Da Nang, visitors doing Vietnam tour on tight budget tend to use Jet Star as this airline offers cheap air fares, the only problem with Jet Star is their schedules sometime change and may affect visitors plan.

As the hill side resort built by the French in 19th century, Sapa has become very popular to foreign travellers in recent years. In early 1990s when the firsts travellers going to Sapa, everything was simple, there were few hotels, mostly family guest houses, and Sapa tours were made by bus from Hanoi, there was no night train at that time, only cargo train running from Hanoi to Lao Cai.

Back in the 1980s, Sapa was knowned as a remote area in Vietnam where only hill tribe ethnic minorities live, few people went to Sapa because of road conditions. The public buses run only once a day from early morning until sunset to arrive in Lao Cai, from Lao Cai one has to stay overnight in Lao Cai, catch another bus from Lao Cai to Sapa, normally a trip would take 3 days from Hanoi to Sapa

Sapa trains at that time were not used by tourists, there was only day train, simple, dirty and packed with people, the train leaved 1 or 2 times a day from Hanoi, stopping in Phuc Yen, Viet Tri, Yen Bai, Phu Tho and Lao Cai

First groups of backpackers went to Sapa in 1995, bus was the only choice, the trips were organized by travel agents in Hanoi, in the Old Quarter, usually Sapa tours departed on Wednesdays or Fridays, if leaving on Fridays the trip would go to Bac Ha, famous for Sunday markets

The most worth seeing things in Sapa is the rice fields, or paddy terraces, and the best time to visit is September when the rice is ripe, the whole valley looked like a picture. Sapa trekking tours were popular activities for young people, it was really fantastic to walk in the hill villages, between the rice fields, through the bamboo forest, cut the rivers and streems and spend the night at homestay in surrounding villages.

Sapa homestay used to be a reluctant choice for tourists going to Sapa in those days, as there were few hotels in town the independent travellers had to find a shelter in the villages, there was no electricity, no heater, only some thin blankets, just imagine temperature in Sapa in wintertime is 4-5 degrees Celsius, sometimes it snows, most families in town must have a fire in the middle of the room, anytime they went out they had to dry their hands when they came back

Most travellers today going Sapa tours in 2-3 days, some people stay 4 or 5 days if they go trekking down to remote villages, there are Cat Cat village of black Hmong people, Giang Ta Chai and Ta Phin villages for Red Dzao people, Ta Van and Lao Chai villages for Dzay people, further out there are Ban Ho and Thanh Kim villages, inhabited by Tay people