Day 1 Hanoi – Halong – Phoenix Cruises (Meals: B/L)
AM: We come to pick you up at your hotel from 8h00 – 8h30 for 3.5 hours bus ride through the country side of the Red River Delta to Ha Long City. Water buffaloes, paddy fields (rice transplanting time: February and June) and daily Vietnamese farmer life are on both sides of the way.
PM: Arrive in Halong City around noon, we board a traditional wooden junk and start the cruising trip to the centre of the bay. Fresh seafood lunch (vegetable menu available) is served while the boat is gliding out. Get ready for exotic photos and absorbing the most magnificent natural splendors, limestone bedrocks and sheer cliffs of tiny islands highlighted with fanciful names: Fighting Cocks (symbol of Halong Bay), Duck, Swan, Incense Burner, and Stone Dogs. Cruising around Ba Hang Floating village then spend about 20 minutes for bamboo boat to discover this area by your own way. After that, keep cruising to the most beautiful cave named Thien Cung (Heaven Palace Grotto) and explores huge chambers adorned with stalactites and stalagmites of all kinds. Continue to enjoy this relaxing cruise on the way back to Ha Long harbor, our waiting vehicle transfers you back to Hanoi. Trip ends at your hotel around 20h00-20h30pm.
Day 2 Hanoi – Sapa by Sleeping Bus - Short trekking to Cat Cat Village(Meals: B/L/D)
6.30 – 7.00: Pick up from your hotel/stay, get on big bus and depart for Sapa.
9.30: Follow the highway to Lao Cai city with the first comfort break
11.00: Second comfort break at Lao Cai city before approaching Sapa
13.00: Arrive Sapa Town with colorful traditional costumes of H’mong, Dzao, Tay ethnic People.
Welcome drink and itinerary briefing
Enjoy the lunch with local Vietnamese dishes, check-in procedures
14.30: A short drive to the gate of Cat Cat village which is home of Black H’mong ethnic people and is located near the bottom of a deep valley at the foot of Fansipan Peak. Our local guide will show you the daily life activities of the locals, trek down to the valley bottom to the waterfall where the French built a Hydraulic Power Station; stop for photo with bridge and waterfall then you will walk uphill for bus to pick up to get back to Sapa in the afternoon.
Note: Trekking distance is about 2.5 kms and it lasts for 2 hours
17.00: Come back to Sapa Town. Have dinner and overnight in hotel with night activities.
Day 3 Sapa - Hanoi by bus with a long trek Y Linh Ho - Lao Chai - Ta Van (B/L)
7.00 – 8.00: Have breakfast at hotel, check out the room and prepare light pack for trekking. (Big luggage keep in hotel store)
8.00: A short drive to Y Linh Ho then trek through the rice terraces and along Muong Hoa Stream to the Black Hmong village of Lao Chai to see the spectacular landscape of Hoang Lien Son Mountain after that heading to Ta Van village - home of Dzay ethnic people.
Trekking distance is about 9 kms and it lasts for 3.5 hours
11.30: Bus picks you up at Ta Van Bridge to Sapa.
12.30 - 13.30: Have lunch in the hotel.
13.30 - 14.45: Relax and leisure on your own, have shower in the public bathroom in the hotel if you want.
14.45 - 15.00: Meet all group members at hotel to get ready for Hanoi.
15.30: Get on bus to go back to Hanoi with two comfort breaks.
21.15: Back to your hotel in Hanoi. Recheck in and relax