Above the Clouds: Exploring Vietnam's Most Beautiful Cloud-Hunting Destinations

Ham Rong Mountain

Ham Rong Mountain - with the image of natural cliffs stacked on top of each other forming the shape of a dragon's head, has become an eco-tourism area that attracts the most young people in Sapa. Past the ticket gate, you will see the stone stairs leading up to Ham Rong Mountain. Remember to arrange a reasonable time to fully visit this majestic mountain. It will take you about 2 hours to fully visit Ham Rong Mountain Ham Rong Mountain eco-tourism area was built to include 3 main areas: Ham Rong Flower Garden, Thach Lam Stone Garden, Ham Rong Peak. You will have the opportunity to see the panoramic view of Sapa town from above. This place is also especially popular with photographers because you can capture the frame of Sapa town hidden among the white clouds like a fairyland. To reach Ham Rong Mountain, it will take you a few minutes to walk to the ancient Stone Church, located near the center of Sapa town. If you rent a motorbike to actively move around, you can park it at the resort gate. The parking lot is run by the barbecue sellers themselves, but rest assured it won't be cut off. Parking prices will depend on the time of your visit. In case you do not know the way, rent a hotel far from Sapa town center, you can choose a motorbike taxi or taxi to get around. The locals are very familiar with the roads and because it is such a famous tourist destination, there is no one who does not know Ham Rong Mountain. The distance is quite short, so you can rest assured that you will leave the trip to the drivers. The central flower garden at Ham Rong Mountain is an area that owns flower trees skillfully arranged by talented artisans into the extremely beautiful and sophisticated word Sapa, with a very European and very strange Western style. You can climb up the higher stone steps to get a panoramic view of the beautiful flower garden. The flowers here are all imported from France, Russia... along with hundreds of Japanese cherry trees tested planted in Vietnam. There will soon be another European flower seed production area. You can freely buy flower varieties to plant at home to admire every day. Thach Lam Stone Garden seems to make you lost in a fairyland with stones that remind you of dragon claws and dragon scales, looking very unique and interesting. This area has many giant cliffs, which are natural creations, so you will be amazed by the wild beauty that nature bestows. Thach Lam Stone Garden is the most chosen place to check-in at Ham Rong Mountain because of its small, winding, romantic roads, the maze of rocks that you can't find the way out... Can you feel the enchantment of tree nature? Is there a mortar here yet? The Japanese peach garden at Ham Rong Mountain will bloom extremely beautifully on New Year's Day. There are also varieties of faded peach trees, deep peach trees belonging to the group of ancient peach trees with extremely wide flower canopy, big beautiful flowers, thick petals like peach blossoms. Every spring, the peach garden at Ham Rong Mountain is crowded with families and relatives coming to visit and enjoy the flowers, so the atmosphere is always bustling and full of laughter. The entire orchid garden has a total of 200 different orchid varieties. Because the climate is cold all year round at 15 - 18 degrees Celsius, this flower grows very well. Orchids are rare and expensive flowers because of the elegant and elegant beauty they bring, but taking care of them is quite difficult. You don't have to waste time looking for any orchid gardens in Sapa because Ham Rong Mountain is one of the places with the largest concentration of orchids. If you fall in love with this type of flower, you must definitely go to Ham Rong Mountain orchid garden once. in that life. Cloud yard, also known as Thien Dinh yard, is the "coordinate" for the best view at Ham Rong Mountain. Have you ever known the feeling of clouds curling under your feet, floating on the clouds? Looking down from San May, you will see all of Sapa town, Muong Hoa valley, Cat Cat village and even beautiful, poetic terraced fields. Follow the cliff and walk another 10 minutes to the brilliant Heaven Gate when the golden sunlight shines through the clouds. This valuable moment will become your unforgettable memory at Ham Rong Mountain. Many famous photographers from professional to amateur have traveled far and wide to come here to hunt clouds through their wonderful lenses. It will be more perfect, if you can wait until sunset, the sunset is more brilliant and perfect than ever. When coming to Ham Rong Mountain, you need to note the following points. Choosing the most beautiful time of the year to visit the peach blossom garden at Ham Rong Mountain is very right when you plan a spring trip with family, friends or colleagues. Ham Rong Mountain also owns many types of cold flowers of temperate climate such as hydrangea, dahlias... and countless other unique flowers. You should visit Ham Rong Mountain in March and April - the months when flowers bloom most beautifully in Sapa. At this time there is less fog so you can see more beautiful scenery. You can also take the opportunity from April to June to visit Ham Rong Mountain when you want to catch the scene of terraced fields in the rainy season, looking like magical silver mirrors. According to the experience of many backpackers from the travel association, you should avoid the months of July and August because at this time the road is very slippery due to heavy rain.

October to May

Sapa city

Located in the floating clouds, Sapa town looks like a foggy city, creating a charming landscape painting. Coming to Sapa, visitors can relax with the fresh, cool atmosphere, with many diverse nuances. Traveling to Sapa, visitors can travel by many different types of vehicles such as motorbikes, cars, or by horse-drawn carriage from Lao Cai city or Binh Lu (Lai Chau). Sa Pa has Ham Rong Mountain right next to the town, any tourist can go up there to see the panoramic view of the town, Muong Hoa valley, Sa Pa, Ta Phin hidden in the smog. Currently, with human hands embellishing, Ham Rong is truly a fruitful landscape of Sa Pa. Coming to Ham Rong, visitors feel like they are lost in a fairy garden, with clouds covering their bodies and bright, colorful flowers on the ground. In Sapa town there is also an ancient church made of stone, and from here going back to the northeast, on the way to Ta Phin cave, there is a monastery built almost entirely of stone on a clear, airy hillside. Going up about 3 kilometers we will see a cave. In the cave, many stalactites create interesting shapes such as dancing fairies, sitting fairies, distant fields, and sparkling forests. More specifically, when coming to Muong Hoa valley, there are 196 islands carved with many strange images of ancient inhabitants thousands of years ago, but many archaeologists have not yet been able to decode that information. The ancient carving site has been ranked as a national monument and is being proposed by our State to be ranked as a world heritage site. Here there is also Silver Waterfall from a height of over 200m, the rushing water creates the sound of mountains and forests. Sa Pa is also the "kingdom" of flowers and fruits, such as peach blossoms, large yellow peaches, small yellow peaches, queen plums, purple plums, tam hoa plums, gladiolus flowers, plum flowers, pear flowers, peach blossoms, chrysanthemums, roses... especially the immortal flowers that live forever. Coming to Sapa in the snowy season, visitors will also admire surprisingly beautiful natural scenery that few places have. The green color of rice fields on terraced fields is replaced by the white color of snow, creating an extremely majestic scene. There are beautiful and enchanting poetic scenes, there are herds of ancient roan cows wearing bells grazing leisurely, there are beautiful pine forests shimmering magically under the sunlight... Coming to Sapa, we can shake off all the worries of life, where time stops so we can leisurely and freely enjoy the sky and earth.

From January to December

Fansipan peak

Fansipan peak, also known as Phan Si Pang, Fansipan is located in Hoang Lien Son mountain range, the peak is far from TT. Sa Pa is about 9km southwest. Fansipan peak is adjacent to two provinces, Lao Cai and Lai Chau, in the Northwest region of Vietnam. This place has rolling mountain terrain, steep cliffs, and rough rocky roads. Fansipan's weather at night turns cold. The higher you go, the deeper the temperature drops. For every 100m you go up, the temperature drops 0.6 degrees Celsius. You can go to Fansipan at any time of the year, because every season Fansipan is beautiful in its own way. Spring (February - April of the solar calendar). In the spring, visitors to Fansipan often visit temples on the mountain to pray for good luck and peace. In addition, this season plum and peach blossoms bloom throughout the Northwest mountains and forests, and the weather is chilly, making many tourists excited. Summer (May - July of the solar calendar). Unlike the heat across the country, Fansipan's weather this season is cool (from 6 - 18 degrees). Fansipan with clusters of bright red Azalea flowers, ancient roses, climbing roses, blueberries,... competing to show off their beauty. Autumn (August - October of the solar calendar). Autumn is the season of ripe rice in the Northwest. Coming to Fansipan this season, you will admire the golden terraced fields as beautiful as in a painting. Winter (November – January). When winter comes to Fansipan, you will see snow falling as romantic as Europe in Vietnam. This is probably one of the things that makes Fansipan always receive special love from tourists in the winter. In particular, Fansipan Legend also organizes festivals and cultural events throughout the four seasons of the year. Spectacular scale, elaborate preparations such as: Rhododendron Flower Festival, Horse Hoofs in the Clouds Event, Ripe Rice Festival, Winter Festival, Flower Festival,... Currently, there are 3 main routes to climb Mount Fansipan. Each route will be suitable for different people. You can choose depending on the purpose, health and climbing experience of the group to choose the most suitable route. You can go on a Fansipan mountain climbing tour or go in a group, you need to pay attention to avoid getting lost in the group as well as carefully prepare your climbing gear before going. Below are 3 routes to reach the top of Fansipan including: Climbing Fansipan along Tram Ton road (this is the easiest choice), Sin Chai - Tram Ton route (normal difficulty), Climbing Fansipan from Cat Cat village (highest difficulty). Climbing Fansipan peak, you will enjoy all the wonderful things that the nature of the mountains and forests here have to offer such as: watching the clouds and wind blending with the trees and flowers in the forest, passing through giant rocks, deep holes, steep cliffs, or the red Rhododendron flower forest on the mountain, clouds covering the path,...

From January to December

Ta Phin village

Ta Phin village is not only famous for its pristine natural scenery, terraced fields, etc., but it is also a tourist destination for many tourists who want to come here to learn about customs and bold cultural beauty. national identity. Ta Phin village is located about 17km from the center of Sapa town in the opposite direction to Highway 4D. When going from Lao Cai city about 4-5km, there is a fork that turns onto a small asphalt road. Go a little further and you will see a small asphalt road. Toll booth, each person has a ticket for 20,000 VND, then turn left and go back to Ta Phin. To get here, you can rent a motorbike for about 120-170 thousand VND/motorbike or if you are afraid of steep mountains, you can rent a motorbike taxi or car in Sapa center. In many parts, the car runs along the hillside, on both sides are green terraced fields, the edges of the fields curl close to the back of the hill, creating soft, graceful curves like undulating waves in the valley. . This is a village of the Red Dao people that brings differences in house architecture, home decoration, writing, costumes, jewelry and especially customs and festivals. The goods Dao women sell are backpacks, travel jackets, scarves, handbags, etc. In particular, brocade is an indispensable gift for tourists every time they set foot in Sapa. The patterned lines shown on the brocade are the quintessence of a culture imbued with national identity, making Sapa brocade more different from brocades of other regions. Not only is it a place with majestic natural beauty, Ta Phin village is also famous for its medicated bath service to firm and healthy skin. The medicated bath price is about 80-100 VND/time or you can buy cloth sheets. Precious brocade as gifts for family and friends. Besides, in Ta Phin there are also many photography locations such as Ta Phin Sapa monastery and Ta Phin cave - where there is a limestone mountain range and a branch of the Hoang Lien Son range. With a height of about 5m and a width of 3m, it opens a path through the ground and there are many beautiful stalactites under the cave. Besides, there is a suspension bridge over Muong Hoa stream that brings attractive beauty along with azalea flowers as a highlight to attract young people to come here to check in. In Ta Phin village, there are also special dishes imbued with the traditional flavors of the people here such as braised armpit pork, stir-fried village chicken with lemongrass, pork soup cooked with bamboo shoots and dracontomelon,... Come to Ta Phin Sapa village , visitors will understand more about the customs, habits, and daily life of people such as wedding ceremonies, Bai Tram dance ceremonies, catching turtles, buying bells, singing love songs,...

From January to December

Cat Cat village

Where is Cat Cat village? Cat Cat village is a small village located in Muong Hoa valley in Lao Cai province; About 2km from Sapa town center. Cat Cat village has long attracted tourism enthusiasts because even though it is only a small village, this place is covered with the green of mountains and forests, terraced fields mixed with the rustic and simple features of the houses. Small is built from wood. Thereby, giving visitors a sense of simplicity in contrast to the hustle and bustle of the city. Directions to Cat Cat village. From Sapa town center, there are many different ways and means that you can experience to get to Cat Cat village: 1. Trekking For those who love enjoying natural landscapes and want to have a clearer view of the daily lives of local people, trekking is definitely a great choice for you! Trekking not only helps you improve your physical fitness, the authentic experience makes the trip more memorable, but it's also completely free. 2km is the distance from Sapa town to Cat Cat village, if you like it, you should try it once! If you love the beauty of Sapa and want to see more of the beautiful scenery here, you can see more about trekking at Ky Quan San - Sapa's paradise in the clouds and Bach Moc Luong Tu - one of the four highest mountains. our country. 2. Rent a motorbike For those who want to travel more conveniently, you can choose to rent a motorbike to cross the roads from Sapa to Cat Cat village. The road is not too difficult or rough and is short, so you don't need to worry too much. Just drive carefully and drive at a moderate speed. Motorbike rental prices in Sapa range from 100,000 - 240,000 VND/day. 3. Rent a bicycle In addition to trekking and renting motorbikes, we can also experience the bicycle rental service to go to Cat Cat village. Normally, hotels in the tourist town of Sapa will have this service available, you just need to ask the receptionist, rent a car and go. Bicycle rental prices in Sapa range from 120,000 - 150,000 VND/day. This is also a way to bring a new experience to your trip to Cat Cat village. If you have the opportunity, invite your friends to try cycling together! What time should you travel to Cat Cat village? Cat Cat village is located in the Northwest high mountains, so this place has cool air all year round, each season is beautiful in its own way with outstanding characteristics. Spring is adorned with peach and plum blossoms; summer of bright yellow mustard flowers; The autumn of the bright golden rice fields and finally the winter of white snow covering every scene like a movie scene. For those who have never seen snow, try coming to Sapa in December to see the cherry blossoms blooming amidst the white snow and immerse yourself in the highland festivals. What to do in Cat Cat village? Coming to Cat Cat village, there are many things worth experiencing. First of all, when coming to the village, people will buy tickets to enter the gate to visit. Tickets for adults are 90,000 VND/person and tickets for children are 50,000 VND/person. At the beginning of the tour, people will mainly move on foot and motorbikes will be limited in entering and leaving this place to avoid affecting visitors. One of the must-try experiences is renting ethnic costumes to transform into ethnic boys and girls in extremely special clothes adorned with hairpins. Next is to buy handicraft items made by the skillful hands of local people to bring back as gifts. Here, items such as earrings, bags, costumes,... look extremely unique and stand out thanks to the brocade patterns and motifs embroidered onto the products, bringing bold artistry and character. culture of highland ethnic people. Some notes when visiting Cat Cat village. Before going, choose clothes suitable for the weather to avoid cold or hot weather. Book hotel rooms in advance to ensure availability when traveling during peak season. Limit littering in public places to protect the environment, natural landscape and living space of local people. Plan in advance (like shooting angle, lighting,...) to have beautiful virtual photos Choose comfortable shoes, sneakers, etc. for convenient movement because the path in Cat Cat village will be uneven and sometimes slippery due to a nearby waterfall. Bring medication, sunscreen, sunglasses, and long-sleeved clothes to avoid the midday sun on the high mountains. Cat Cat village is one of the places you must definitely try when coming to Sapa to have the opportunity to see more clearly the lifestyle and culture of the H'mong ethnic people here along with the vast mountain and forest scenery. The terraced fields stretch out extremely peaceful and beautiful.