Discover the rustic Vietnam, enjoy the dramatic landscape where colorful hill tribes inhabbited for many generations. Vietnam Northwest region is the place for your off-road trip to loop around. You will definitely fall in love with attractive Vietnam after the tour.

1. Vietnam off the beaten track tour
Loop Vietnam Northwest
Discover the rustic Vietnam, enjoy the dramatic landscape where colorful hill tribes
inhabbited for many generations. Vietnam Northwest region is the place for your off-road
trip to loop around. You will definitely fall in love with attractive Vietnam after the tour.
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Email: info@customvietnamtravel.com
Office: No 116/32/76 An Duong, Tay Ho, Hanoi, Vietnam

2. • Trip's length: 7 days
• Trip Themes: Local life & Culture, Local food, Community, Explorer
• Transport: car/mini bus
• Places visited: Mai Chau - Son La - Dien Bien - Lai Chau - Sapa
• Tour operates: all year around
• Start / End cities: Hanoi / Hanoi
• Accommodation: home-stay: 2nts; hotel: 4nts
• Price from: Available on request
Detailed itinerary
Day 1 Hanoi – Mai Chau [L, D]
Early morning, the guide and driver come to pick you up for a overland drive to Hoa
Binh province. Out of the bustling streets of Hanoi and wind your way through villages,
rice paddies with stops on the way for taking photographs. Arrive at a village of White
Thai people in Mai Chau Valley around noon. Have lunch with local food at the village.
In the afternoon, together with your guide, take a gentle trek to explore the surroundings
with thatch roof villages, fruit and vegetable gardens and rice fields. This is a great
chance for you to learn the daily life of the locals. Back to the family for dinner and enjoy
the traditional music and dance. The show is performed by the local boys and girls.
Overnight on stilt house.
Approximately 135 km from Hanoi, Mai Chau is the heart of a beautiful valley that is a
world away from the hustle of Hanoi. The modern village is an unappealing sprawl, but
as you emerge on the rice fields and rural living is transformed into a real paradise. It’s a
stunning area, and the most people here are ethnic White Thai, distantly related to tribes
in Thailand, Laos and China.
Day 2 Mai Chau – Son La [B, L, D]
After breakfast at the village, morning drive ups the mountains, heading for Son La. Have
a stop at Xa Linh for a short walk to visit Pacon village and Xa Linh colorful market
(market only on Sunday) where the H’mong people live. You will have a great view
through the windows of the car with plenty of green tea plantations at the side hills at
Moc Chau, you can have a short break at a local shop for a green tea and milk cakes as
these are the specialties of the area. Lunch at Yen Chau town. In the afternoon, you can
have another stop for visiting the Black Thai people who live in some hamlets with turtle
shell roof house-on-stilts. Arrive at Son La city, visit Son La Former Prison built by the
French and Museum of ethnology preserves revolutionary remains and exhibits precious
objects introducing the historical and cultural traditions of the 12 ethnic groups living in
Son La. Check in a hotel and overnight at Son La.
Day 3 Son La – Dien Bien Phu [B, L, D]

3. The road trip goes on after your breakfast; today drive is also very stunning with high
passes cutting through steep mountains. Along the way, you can witness homes of many
hill tribes authentic in lifestyle and colorful in costumes. A daily market at Thuan Chau
town is also worth visiting. After passing Pha Din Pass, you will have lunch at Tuan
Giao. In the afternoon, the drive continues along a small river where you can learn how
the Black Thai people use the traditional water wheel to transfer water into their rice
fields. Arrive in Dien Bien Phu City. Check in your hotel. Dinner and overnight in Dien
Bien Phu.
Day 4 Dien Bien Phu – Lai Chau [B, L, D]
After breakfast, you will visit the last bastion of French power in Indochina. Monuments,
museum and preserved bunkers tell the story of the final and victorious liberating battle
of 1954. Then drive to Lai Chau (Former Tam Duong). En route, you meet numerous hill
tribes minorities of Red H'mong, Dao, Mang,..and watching the picturesque terrace fields
drifting away beside the car windows in Sin Ho township. The way up to Sin Ho is
beautiful. Beside Sapa, it is one of the highest towns in Vietnam, very cold in winter.
Lunch at a local restaurant in Sin Ho. Arrive at Lai Chau town (former Phong Tho).
Overnight at Lai Chau.
Day 5 Lai Chau – Sapa [B, L]
This morning drive offer you a spectacular landscape when you are climbing one of the
highest passes in Vietnam, Tram Ton Pass with the top reaches to 1800 meters above the
sea level, it is at the side of Hoang Lien Son National Park where the roof of Vietnam
located. There is time for photo opportunities on the way and a visit to Silver Water Fall
before arrive at Sapa Town. Lunch in Sapa. Check in your hotel. In the afternoon, climb
to the summit of Ham Rong Mt. to admire the panorama over the township of Sapa and
Muong Hoa valley. Free time for the evening and dinner at your own account. Overnight
in Sapa.
Day 6 Sapa Trek [B, D]
A full day explring Sapa and the surroundings with rice terraces and hill tribes’ villages,
the car will be available any time to pick you up from some trekking points. Tonight, you
will experience another night at a local home-stay in a village of Dzay people.
Day 7 Sapa – Hanoi [B, L]
After breakfast at the home-stay. You have 400 km to go so you are advised to start
driving at 7:30 o’clock down hill to Hanoi. Lunch at midway. Arrive in Hanoi late in the
afternoon. End of service.
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