Luxury for backpackers - Nice Sapa tour. Accomodation and sleeper bus was sublime. The treks are very easy. First, Cat Cat village which is very touristy but pretty. Then two guided village treks. You are followed by local women that pushes you to buy bags and jewelery from them which can be distracting and a bit much. Fansipan tour was amazing, and our guide, Chris, was sublime. He speaks perfect English, is fun, shares many stories and tips (and a great photographer!). Ask for Chris if you ever do Fansipan!

Sapa and the hotel were fantastic - Everything was well organized and planned out. I just had a few detailed things that didn't quite go according to my expectation. 1) Bus. For myself and my 2 kids the sleeper bus was great. The double decker bus had double bunks, cocoon like reclining seats that was very cozy. But if you're over 5'5" and above, you will not fit and will be miserable like my husband. If you're elderly with bad knees you will be miserable b/c it was challenging to get in and out of those cocoons. If we had a choice of type of bus, we would have chosen the coach with regular bus seats and not sleepers b/c like again, if you're not a tiny Vietnamese person, you won't fit into those sleeper cocoon beds. But the ride was smooth and they made a few restroom stops and way faster than a train. 2) The home stay is very rustic, more primitive than imagined. It's basically a barn/dorm with 20 mattresses on the floor with zero privacy. No drapes, no walls, all out in the open. At night you can hear everyone snore and fart. If you were a single lady traveling, I would be concerned about safety. It was freezing cold since we went during Christmas time. There's no insulation or heat. The thick blankets kept us warm but we wore and layered 3 days worth of clothes to sleep. I dont think the sheets, blankets or mattresses have ever been laundered. Since we wore many layers of clothes we didn't think too much about germs. I'm not sure if we had a choice of upgrading to a private home or rooms but the facilities we had was unacceptable for a family of 4. There was only 1 bathroom for over 10 people. Since it was Freezing cold, no one bothered to have a shower...even though we all needed one after the muddy trek. We couldn't wait for the hotel the next day. The hotel was great. We took long hot showers and had heat. The Homestay family were very nice and dinner was modest and breakfast were pancakes. I would have liked a more hearty breakfast since we trekked more that morning and needed more fuel. 3) Our guide the 1st day was really late picking us up at the bus. By the time we started trekking it got dark. The Good thing about trekking in the dark was that it's not possible so the guide called a van which took only 10 mins rather than another 1 hour hike to the home stay. 4) The last day on our own in Sapa was nice and relaxing. My only complaint was that we had to check out of the hotel by 12pm....but the bus was not leaving until 4pm. So we paid extra to have a late check out. Otherwise it was a great trip. Sapa is beautiful. Even in the winter, the rice terraces were impressive. I can only imagine how much more beautiful it would be in the summer and spring...but the heat and humidity would have been horrible. The native Sapa ladies who followed us the whole trip were charming. They helped carry my backpack and helped our group with the steep, slippery, muddy slopes. They work very hard for a few dollars so I didn't mind them tagging along the whole trip. They just want you to buy from them some souvenirs at the end of your trip. The trek was challenging and long b/c it's muddy and slippery with lots of ups and downs. We signed up for the medium level so was not surprised by how challenging it was with kids. There was an elderly large man in our group who was having some trouble and he said he signed up for the Easy Trek. So not sure if it was actually a very challenging easy trek or true medium level trek. Overall it was enjoyable and an experience. But I do have to warn people about the bus and the home stay so you won't be shocked and surprised like we were.

Nice trek but too short for us - The Hotel and Homestay were really nice. The view while trekking was good too, but it was way too short for us. Also we didn’t walk as much as they said we would. And the group was bigger on the second day than mentioned. Overall we just whished that we did a harder treck, but still enjoyable.