The far north is where the rubber meets the road for hardcore adventure junkies. If you were born to be wild, take your own Minsk motorbike; if you weren’t, go with a jeep and driver.
This site is broken into two sections: the Northwest Highlands, which include Lao Cai, Sapa, and the Dien Bien Phu Loop; and the North Central Highlands, a shorter route including Ba Be Park and the small towns of Cao Bang and Lang Son.
Sapa in the northern highlands of Vietnam on the Chinese border
In addition to breathtaking landscapes of the Tonkinese Alps and off-the-map destinations like Dien Bien Phu, one of the main attractions in the region is the villages of the ethnic minority hill tribes. The weather is much cooler here than in Vietnam’s often sultry lowlands and coastal plains, so bring some layers, and be ready for some good adventures.
The region’s most accessible and popular choice for luxury travelers, backpackers, and tour groups, Sapa can be reached by overnight train from Hanoi. With a range of good accommodations and dining, Sapa is a good base for trekking to hill tribe villages or as the first or last destination on a rugged highland adventure.
Hmong women in Sapa returning to their village, which cannot reach by road
Below I’ve outlined the long loop start ing in Hanoi and including the towns of Hoa Binh, Mai Chau, Son La, Dien Bien Phu (where the French forces in Indochina fell), and Lai Chau before crossing the high pass to Sapa. The trip is a real hoot and takes from 4 days to 1 week of adventurous road travel along some treacherous tracks through beautiful mountain scenery in the heart of the Tonkinese Alps. A trip around the loop is a great chance to experience Vietnam “off the track” and have contact with ethnic hill tribe culture.
Another route included in this chapter leaves Hanoi and heads directly north via the town of Thai Nguyen to the Ba Be Lake National Park, then to the riverside town of Cao Bang, where rural day trips take you to a stunning waterfall and to hill tribe markets, and finally to Lang Son, a provincial outpost, before returning to Hanoi. Different hill tribe groups call this region home, and weekend markets abound.
