Top Spring break destinations with exotic experience in Vietnam – Part 1: Sapa

Spring break is coming quickly, it's an excellent opportunity for you and your buddies or your families to together embrace the warmer times ahead. From adventure-seekers to culture mavens, and beach bums to nature lovers, not many countries can satisfy all travelers’ tastes, but Vietnam can! Culturally diverse and naturally exquisite, overtly friendly and historically rich, the curvaceous country of Vietnam will serve you with tons of great ideas for family-friendly getaways for the spring. This series of spring break destinations will display the best places for travelling in Vietnam from March to April with all the details of the weather, attractions, and things to do, etc.

Sapa in Spring Break Holiday

1.Sapa – Spring break trip to the highland 

While the ripe yellow rice fields cover a whole land of Sapa, creating beautiful scenery that is hard to take your eyes off in the summer, SaPa in the spring becomes more and more gorgeous with thousands of blooming flowers. If you are interested in travelling to a mountain land in your spring break vacation, here are the reason why Sapa in Vietnam should be a tick in your travel list.

a.How is the spring weather in Sapa? 

When spring comes to Sapa small town from Feb to April, the weather becomes warmer and there are no cold things to "cut flesh" of winter. Instead, the rays of the sun shining in the daytime mixed with the chill left over from the winter will give you a new sense of a vibrant Sapa in spring weather.

At this time, the temperature in Sapa ranges from 15 - 18 0C. This is also a good time for travel experiences of tourists to Sapa. Especially at this time, there are often sudden spring rains, which will bring visitors a feeling of fresh.

The stunning view in Sapa

In particular, early spring in Sapa is a great setting. If you travel to Sapa in the spring, you will admire the early days immersed in the sea of clouds covering the hills, valleys and villages of Sapa. View from above, this whole beautiful town is like being covered by a white mist. The romantic scene appears from the far mountains, floating on each small street, mixed into the stands of indigenous people. Until dawn, the fog is still fragile, combined with the glimmering morning rays, creating stunning scenery that few places have. Sunny and mist together, pulling each other to the end of the horizon.

b. Attractions in Sapa in the spring 

* Sapa spring - the season of blooming flowers

Coming to Sapa in spring, visitors are immersed in the brilliant beauty of thousands of flowers blooming in the northwest sky. Across the roads, the streets, in the houses or in the forests everywhere are full of flowers.

The charming beauty of wild peaches in spring

Prominent among the quarter of flowers is the forest of peach blossoms and beautiful plum blossoms. These flowers have become a symbol of spring on the highlands. The ancient peach trees with moss are covered with shaggy stumps, striking among the young green buds are fragile fresh pink petals, bringing a gentle beauty, incubating make visitors come here as lost in wonderland.

Let’s take a quick glimpse to witness the fading peach forests on Ham Rong Mountain or on the way trekking through ethnic villages as Cat Cat, Lao Chai Village,…Bring your camera along, I bet it will not stay still.

*Sapa Spring - conquering Fansipan peak

Any visitors sketch out the voyage to Sapa all have desired to once touch the Fansipan peak – the roof of Indochina. Whether by hiking or cable car, this is extremely one of the goals should be accomplished by passionate juvenile on adventurous.

Top of Fansipan - the Indochina's roof

Usually, you will have to spend about 2 days 1 night for conquering Fansipan peak so you need to prepare carefully. With this arduous summit, health and a strong spirit ready to face difficulties play a vital role to subjugate. Some other personal possessions you need to bring are:
- Backpacks: Choose a large, sturdy backpack to hold a lot of furniture and beverage
- Shoes: Choose sports shoes, hiking shoes with thick soles to help slip.
- Stockings: Long and thick socks with a high neck to keep warm and prevent squeezing insects, you should bring 3 pairs to change.
- Raincoats: Bring 2 rain gear for precluding drizzle and hoarfrost.
- Clothes: Should bring sweat absorbing material, good elasticity, and ventilation. In addition to the summer clothes, you need a warm coat to prevent the weather from turning cold suddenly. Especially if going in the cold season you need to pay attention to keep the body warm.
- Other items: Phone and a spare battery for taking photos, multi-function knives, bandages and antiseptic, climbing sticks, gloves, a piece of rope ...

There is an easier way to conquer Fansipan peak if you’re not fond of challenging yourself with 2 or 3 days of hiking the mountain, especially when you have a family trip with kids. You can buy tickets for the cable car directly at the station, the adult fare is 600,000 / ticket including 2 turns up and down, tickets are magnetic and only valid for the day. On peak days, there are innumerable visitors come to the summit, so you may have to wait a few hours. To save time, you can order tickets online through reputable agents.

*Sky Gate

Sapa is the place to imprint the majesty of the mountains, and the location of the Sky Gate is a place where you can zoom in to see the vast valleys, the green terraces and the roof of Indochina - Fansipan peak. 

Heaven's Gate in Sapa

*Silver waterfall

For those who prefer to be close to nature and adventure, Silver Waterfall is the right choice. The feeling of standing at the foot of Silver Waterfall is extremely majestic and finds yourself very small. Each drop of water from a height of 200 meters tossing white foam creates a thrilling spectacle.

Thac Bac waterfall making its way down Ham Rong mountain

*Muong Hoa valley - Sapa ancient rock beach

Muong Hoa Valley is also known as Sapa Ancient Rock. Say this is an ancient stone beach because there are so many ancient stones with many different carvings lying mixed in the fields and grass. Not only beautiful but the rocks here have very strange patterns that so far humans have not been able to explain.

The captivated Muong Hoa Valley 

c.Sapa Spring- Immerse yourself in the special festivals 

Sapa spring is the season of festivals. When traveling to Sapa in the spring, visitors have the privilege of diving into the unique culture of the ethnic groups here. Each festival is a symbol of a unique cultural activity held by the people here for generations.

Ceremony of sweeping the village of Xa Pho people.

During the Sapa Break Holiday Trips, the village sweep festival will take place on the mid of the 2nd month of Lunar calendar.

Xa Pho people believe that the 2nd month of Lunar Year is the month when monsters and hungry ghosts come here to wreck their life, so they have to organize this festival as a message to acquire a peaceful new year full of joy, potentialities crops and non-perished animals.

The shaman in village sweeping festival 

At the beginning of the feast, denizens brought a bowl of rice, chicken, incense, and wine to the vacant land to perform the ceremony. All the mighty men worked together to slaughter pigs, chickens, goats and dogs. The shaman master is an integral part of the festival, he held wooden swords, a twig of leaves and the smear surface divided into each village to hold a sweeping ceremony.

Worship is the names of ghosts harmonize with their conception that they are called to present at the ceremony, then leave so as not to harm humans. In the end, all residents relished in nourishment together. You need to bear in mind that foodstuffs offered to the ghosts mustn’t be brought into the village. Then, the shaman put bamboo sticks and buried the dog's tail and ears into the ground to prevent ghosts from entering the town. He worshiped a bonfire and walked through it, then went home. Starting that day, the villagers abstained from letting people in. After three days, all activities back to the regular routine. 

The Xa Pho village sweeping festival fetches simple-hearted and well-meaning of joyful lifestyle.   

Dancing Festival

This is a festival of the Dao Do inhabitant living in Ta Van village. The time is held on the first and the second day of the Lunar New Year every year with the main content as "praying for the prosperous people" and "drinking water to remember the source". Coming to Ta Van on this day, you will have the opportunity to discover unique rituals and admire folk art with 14 extremely unique dances.

The Dao ethnic people perform an array of traditional dances

Gau Tao Festival

The Gau Tao Festival is the largest festival of the H’Mong people held on the 11th of the first lunar month. This festival is held on a large scale in many villages in Sapa with the Hmong people for a year.
Coming to this red-letter day, visitors can learn about the unique rituals and enjoy the colorful brocade of H’Mong girls in the dances. Or sink into the melodious sounds from the flute and aloof of mountain boys. The harmonious lyrics along with the melodious, low-pitched melody of the lute create the passionate harmony of the northwest mountains.

Gau Tao Festival

d.Tips for Spring break trips in Sapa

Transportation:

- In the spring of the New Year, the number of domestic and foreign tourists flock to Sapa, especially on the weekends. So you need to arrange your vehicle early to get ready for your trip.

- From Hanoi, you can go on a motorbike, or choose an overnight train (usually depart in the evening, with the price of more than 200,000 VND for soft seat train tickets and about 500,000 VND for wooden 4-seater train tickets).

- Or you can also choose a high-quality bed car with price from 200,000 VND to 300,000 VND / 1 way / 1 person with many brands such as Interbusline, Good Morning, Sapa Dragon, Green Bus, Queen, ... with both early morning and late-night trips

Sapa Hotels:

- From homestay, guest houses to 3-5 star hotels, Sapa has them all to fit your budget. Still, you’d better book a room ahead of time to avoid running out of room.

- In spring, the weather is humid and foggy, so hotel rooms are also affected. If you choose a 2-star hotel or motel, it is inevitable that the situation is wet. You should consider the hotel with 2-way air conditioning to help limit the humidity in the room

Read more:

• Sapa weather - Time for best Sapa tour in Vietnam
• The northwest loop tour 10 days in Vietnam 
• Vietnam tour package - Essential Vietnam with Sapa
• What to prepare, Sapa Travel Guide in the Winter Vietnam
• Top 5 Nightlife Activities To Enjoy Sapa