Mu Cang Chai & Sapa 7-Day Private Tour: Khau Pha Pass, Fansipan & Ta Van
A 7-day private tour of the Northwest the long way round: over the Khau Pha Pass into the rice terraces of Mu Cang Chai for two nights and a full day on foot, across the O Quy Ho Pass into Sapa, up Fansipan by cable car, and down through the Muong Hoa valley villages before the expressway brings you back to Hanoi. Your own guide and driver, any start date. From US$1,084 per person for 2 travellers in 3-star hotels, less per person for larger groups.
Why travellers choose this trip
- Two nights in Mu Cang Chai, so you walk the terraces for a full day instead of seeing them from the car window
- Cross two of the great mountain passes of the north, Khau Pha and O Quy Ho, with stops at the viewpoints
- Ride the Fansipan cable car to the Roof of Indochina, with the funicular and buffet lunch included
- Walk through H'mong, Thai and Giay villages with a guide who explains daily life, from Lim Mong and Hua Khat to Lao Chai and Ta Van
- Private car and English-speaking guide every day, and every evening free to eat where you like
Price per person
Per person in US dollars, sharing a twin or double room, for one private departure. The price per person drops as the group grows, because the vehicle and guide are shared:
| Group size (adults) | 3-star | 4-star |
|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | US$1,084 | US$1,128 |
| 3 travellers | US$854 | US$898 |
| 4–5 travellers | US$815 | US$859 |
| 6–7 travellers | US$674 | US$718 |
| 8–9 travellers | US$620 | US$664 |
| 10 or more | Ask us for a quote | |
| Single room supplement | US$153 | US$191 |
Valid for travel until 31 December 2027, except Tet (Lunar New Year), Vietnamese public holidays and the Christmas–New Year peak, when hotels add surcharges and we requote. Children's prices are in the Age pricing table below. Send us an inquiry or message us on WhatsApp +84 988 660 505 and we confirm your price in writing within 24 hours.
Where you stay
Named properties are confirmed at booking; if one is full we use an equivalent of the same class. Mu Cang Chai has few hotels of international standard, so the same property is used in both versions.
| Place (nights) | 3-star | 4-star |
|---|---|---|
| Hanoi (2) | La Dolce Vita or Anise Hotel, Superior Room or similar | Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Centre, Deluxe Room or similar |
| Mu Cang Chai (2) | OSIMA Villas Mu Cang Chai or similar | OSIMA Villas Mu Cang Chai or similar |
| Sapa (2) | Sapa Lodge, Sapa Relax or Azure Sapa, Superior Room or similar | Highland Sapa Resort & Spa, Superior Room or similar |
Planning your trip? Read our Vietnam e-visa guide and the best time to visit Vietnam by region and month, or browse all Vietnam tours. Prefer Moc Chau and Pu Luong to Sapa? See our 7-day Northwest Vietnam tour, or take more time with the 11-day Northwest tour.
Tour at a glance
| Duration | 7 days / 6 nights |
|---|---|
| Type | Private tour — any departure day |
| Route | Hanoi → Nghia Lo → Tu Le → Khau Pha Pass → Mu Cang Chai → Than Uyen → O Quy Ho Pass → Sapa → Fansipan → Lao Chai & Ta Van → Lao Cai → Hanoi |
| Accommodation | 3-star hotels (2 nights Hanoi, 2 Mu Cang Chai, 2 Sapa) · 4-star version available |
| Meals | 6 breakfasts, 6 lunches (12 meals); dinners at your own choice |
| Driving | Day 2 about 7 hours with stops, Day 4 about 4.5 hours, Day 6 about 6 hours; other days short transfers |
| Walking | Moderate: a 4-hour trek on Day 3, walks of about 2 hours on Days 4 and 6, around 600 steps to the Fansipan summit |
| Best time | Mid-May to June (flooded terraces) and mid-September to early October (golden harvest) |
| Price | From US$1,084 pp (2 travellers, 3-star) · US$620 pp for 8–9 travellers |
| Not included | Flights, visa, dinners, tips, insurance |
- Car
- Trekking
- Mountain
- Gastronomy
- Temple
- Historical sites
Itinerary, day by day
A bowl of pho, the oldest pagoda in Hanoi and the Old Quarter on foot.
Your guide and driver meet you in the arrivals hall at Noi Bai International Airport with a World Mate Travel sign and drive you the 35 kilometres into Hanoi. The first stop is lunch, and it is the one Hanoi is known for: a bowl of pho, beef or chicken as you prefer, in a local noodle shop where the broth has been on the stove since before dawn.
The afternoon starts at West Lake, the largest lake in the city, where Tran Quoc Pagoda sits on a small island joined to the shore by a causeway. Its foundation is dated to the sixth century, which makes it the oldest pagoda in Hanoi. From there you cross to the Old Quarter, the merchant streets that still carry the names of the guilds that worked them, and walk down to Hoan Kiem Lake and the red Huc Bridge leading to Ngoc Son Temple. The tour ends at St Joseph's Cathedral, consecrated in 1886.
Check in at your hotel, where your guide goes through the week ahead and confirms the early start for the mountains. The evening is free for dinner at your own choice in the Old Quarter.
Flight timing: the day starts with lunch in Hanoi, so a morning arrival works best. If you land later, tell us and we adjust Day 1.
- Drive: airport transfer and city tour
- Meals: lunch
- Overnight: Hanoi (La Dolce Vita or Anise Hotel, 3-star; Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Centre, 4-star)
The longest drive of the tour, into the Thai rice valleys and over the Khau Pha Pass.
An 8 o'clock pick-up for the longest drive of the tour, around seven hours with the stops. The expressway takes you up the Red River as far as Yen Bai; from there the road climbs west into the Muong Lo valley around Nghia Lo, flat rice country farmed by the Thai, and then into the hills. Lunch is at Tu Le, a Thai village in a bowl of terraced paddies known across the north for com, the flattened young sticky rice made here at harvest time.
After lunch the road takes on the Khau Pha Pass, some 30 kilometres of switchbacks and one of the four great passes of the Northwest. From the top the whole valley drops away below you, and in the harvest season paragliders launch from the same ridge. On the way down you stop at Lim Mong, a H'mong village of wooden houses set among the terraces, where a local trekking guide joins the group to lead the walk through the village and its fields, before the last stretch into the town of Mu Cang Chai. There is time for a walk around the town, and the evening is free for dinner at your own choice.
- Drive: about 7 hours with stops
- Meals: breakfast, lunch
- Overnight: Mu Cang Chai (OSIMA Villas Mu Cang Chai)
The day you came for: H'mong villages, pine forest and terraces on foot.
The terraced fields of Mu Cang Chai were listed as a national scenic landscape in 2007 and raised to a Special National Monument in 2019, and they are best seen on foot. After breakfast the vehicle drops you at the H'mong village of Hang Co Vua, and you set off along a small trail through the rice terraces and into pine forest, with orchids on the trunks and birdsong in the canopy.
After about two hours you come down into Hua Khat, a Green H'mong village, where your guide takes you into the daily life of the families who built and still farm these hillsides. Leaving the village, the valley opens out below in contour after contour of terraces cut by hand into the slope. After lunch the vehicle takes you on to the viewpoints, including Mam Xoi, the rounded hill whose terraces look like an upturned bowl of sticky rice. Back in town, the evening is free.
The trek is around four hours on village paths and field dykes, with some steep, muddy sections after rain. Good walking shoes are essential. Your guide can shorten the route for anyone who prefers an easier day, with the vehicle meeting the group part-way.
- Drive: trekking day, about 4 hours walking
- Meals: breakfast, lunch
- Overnight: Mu Cang Chai (OSIMA Villas Mu Cang Chai)
Tea hills, the highest road pass in Vietnam and a Black H'mong village below Fansipan.
After breakfast you check out and drive north into Lai Chau province. At Than Uyen you stop among the tea hills for a look at the plantation and a cup of the local tea. The road then climbs the O Quy Ho Pass, around 50 kilometres long and the highest major road pass in Vietnam, crossing the Hoang Lien Son range at close to 2,000 metres before it drops into Sapa.
After lunch in Sapa a short transfer takes you to Sin Chai, a Black H'mong village at the foot of Fansipan inside Hoang Lien National Park. You walk through the village and out along a dirt trail between rice paddies and maize, following a narrow river to a suspension bridge, where you can call at the house of one of the few Black H'mong families living on that side. The walk loops back to the village centre and the vehicle returns you to Sapa to check in. The evening is free for dinner at your own choice in town.
- Drive: about 4.5 hours with stops
- Meals: breakfast, lunch
- Overnight: Sapa (Sapa Lodge, Sapa Relax or Azure Sapa, 3-star; Highland Sapa Resort & Spa, 4-star)
Up to the Roof of Indochina by cable car, then out along the O Quy Ho road.
At 8:30 your guide takes you to the Fansipan cable car station. At 3,143 metres Fansipan is the highest mountain in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the Roof of Indochina. The cable car opened in 2016 and holds Guinness records for the longest non-stop three-rope cable car, at 6,292.5 metres, and the greatest height difference of its kind, 1,410 metres. The ride takes about 15 minutes over the Muong Hoa valley. From the top station the funicular, included in your ticket, saves most of the climb, and around 600 steps take you up past the pagodas to the summit marker. Buffet lunch is served at the mountain restaurant, also included.
In the afternoon you drive out along the O Quy Ho road to the Silver Waterfall, which falls about 200 metres down the mountainside beside the road, then on to the Heaven Gate viewpoint at the top of the pass, looking down into Lai Chau. The last stop is the Rong May Glass Bridge, a glass platform hung from the cliff face and reached by a lift up the rock, timed if the weather allows for the late-afternoon light over the Hoang Lien Son range. Back to Sapa, with the evening free.
Fansipan makes its own weather and the summit can sit in cloud on a clear day in town. The cable car runs in cloud and the visit is worthwhile either way. Your guide checks the summit conditions each morning and can swap the morning and afternoon visits.
- Drive: about 60 km in the day
- Meals: breakfast, buffet lunch on Fansipan
- Overnight: Sapa (same hotel)
A morning walk through the Muong Hoa valley, then the expressway back to Hanoi.
Breakfast and check-out, then a walk of about two hours down into the Muong Hoa valley, the long terraced valley below Sapa. The trail runs through Lao Chai, a Black H'mong village, and on to Ta Van, where the Giay people live in larger houses on the valley floor beside the river. The paths are easy by mountain standards and the views across the terraces are the best in the Sapa area.
After lunch in Sapa you drive down to Lao Cai to see the border crossing with China, where the Red River enters Vietnam, before joining the expressway for the run back to Hanoi. Check in at your hotel, with the evening free in Hanoi.
- Drive: about 6 hours with stops
- Meals: breakfast, lunch
- Overnight: Hanoi (same hotel class as Day 1)
A free morning in Hanoi before your flight home.
Breakfast at the hotel and the morning is your own, with no programme and no guide waiting in the lobby. Check-out is by 12:00. At the time agreed the night before, your driver collects you from the hotel for the transfer to Noi Bai International Airport and your flight home. Late check-out and extra nights in Hanoi can be arranged on request.
Every day can be changed — tell us what you'd like to add or skip.
- Drive: 35 km to Noi Bai airport
- Meals: breakfast
- Overnight: —
What's included
Included
Six nights' accommodation in the hotel class you choose, twin or double share, with daily breakfast: 2 in Hanoi, 2 in Mu Cang Chai and 2 in Sapa (triple rooms available for three travelling together)
Meals as listed: 6 breakfasts and 6 lunches (12 meals), including the pho lunch on Day 1 and the Fansipan buffet on Day 5
Private air-conditioned vehicle with driver throughout, including expressway tolls and the Sapa local shuttles
Private English-speaking guide for the whole programme, except during free time
Local trekking guide for the group on Day 2
Fansipan cable car both ways, with the funicular and the buffet lunch at the mountain restaurant
Rong May Glass Bridge, Silver Waterfall and all sightseeing entrance fees in the programme
Than Uyen tea plantation visit with tea tasting
Two bottles of drinking water per person per day
Government tax, service charges and tour operator liability insurance
Not included
International and domestic flights, and airport departure taxes
Vietnam visa fee and any visa service charges
Travel insurance (we recommend cover that includes trekking and medical repatriation)
All dinners, drinks, and any meal not listed
Personal expenses
Early check-in before 14:00 and late check-out after 12:00
Tips for your guide and driver: the customary rate is US$9 per traveller per day for 2–3 travellers, US$5 for 4–9 and US$3 for 10 or more
Single room supplement, and surcharges for Vietnamese public holidays (30 April, 1 May, 2 September), 24 December, New Year and Tet
Age pricing
| Traveller | Age | Rate per person | Sleeping arrangement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infant (parents pay any entrance fees) | 0 to 2 years | No charge | No extra bed |
| Child sharing parents' bed | 3 to 10 years | $737 · 68% of the adult fare | No extra bed |
| Child in own single bed | 3 to 10 years | $932 · 86% of the adult fare | Extra bed |
| Child sharing a twin room with one adult | 3 to 10 years | $1,084 · 100% of the adult fare | Own bed in a twin room |
| Child 11 and over (adult fare) | 11 years and over | $1,084 · 100% of the adult fare | As an adult |
Frequently asked questions
US$1,084 per person for 2 travellers in 3-star hotels, or US$1,128 in 4-star hotels. The price per person drops for larger groups: US$854 for 3, US$815 for 4–5, US$674 for 6–7 and US$620 for 8–9 (3-star). For 10 or more, ask us for a quote. The single room supplement is US$153 (3-star) or US$191 (4-star). Prices include 6 nights' accommodation, a private guide and driver, 12 meals, the Fansipan cable car with buffet lunch, the Rong May Glass Bridge and all entrance fees, and are valid for travel until 31 December 2027 outside Tet, public holidays and the Christmas–New Year peak.
Yes. Only your group travels in the vehicle, with your own guide and driver, and you can start on any date. Because it is private, the guide stops wherever you want a photo or a break.
No. The whole tour travels by road from Hanoi, so there are no domestic flights. Your international flights are not included; the airport pick-up on Day 1 and the drop-off on Day 7 at Noi Bai are included. A morning arrival on Day 1 works best, because the programme starts with lunch in Hanoi.
Citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Nordic countries, Japan, South Korea and a number of other European countries can enter Vietnam visa-free for up to 45 days. Most ASEAN citizens get 14 to 30 days. Everyone else, including US, Canadian, Australian and Indian passport holders, applies online for an e-visa (up to 90 days, single or multiple entry) at the official portal evisa.gov.vn, usually issued in about 3 working days. Full list in our Vietnam e-visa guide at worldmatetravel.com/guide-for-vietnam-evisa.
Send an inquiry and we confirm the price in writing within 24 hours. Nothing is charged on this website. To confirm your tour, pay a 30% deposit by bank transfer or by Visa, Mastercard or Amex through a secure OnePay payment link that we email to you. The remaining 70% is due at least 14 days before you arrive. The deposit is non-refundable. If you cancel (in writing) more than 21 days before departure, you lose only the deposit, and any amount paid above it stays valid for 12 months towards another tour. From 7 to 21 days before departure the charge is 50% of the tour price, and within 6 days or for a no-show it is 100%. Groups of more than 8 people, and tours that include flights or Mekong river cruises, have different terms. Full details are in our Terms & Conditions at worldmatetravel.com/terms-and-conditions#cancellation.
Yes. Every day can be changed. You can choose the 4-star version, add nights in Hanoi or Sapa, shorten the Day 3 trek, or time your trip for the flooded or golden terraces of Mu Cang Chai. Tell us what you'd like and we send a revised quote within 24 hours.
Yes. Children under 3 travel free; parents settle any fee a supplier charges on the spot. Children aged 3 to 10 pay 68% of the adult price without an extra bed, 86% with an extra bed, and 100% when sharing a room with one adult. From 11 years, the adult price applies. The Fansipan cable car and Rong May Glass Bridge set child fares by height rather than age; where the child ticket is cheaper we pass the saving on.
The tour runs all year, but Mu Cang Chai changes completely through the seasons. The terraces are flooded and reflect the sky from about mid-May into June, and turn gold at harvest from mid-September to early October. Outside those windows they are green or bare stubble, and the valley is still a fine walk. July and August are the wet months in the Northwest, when landslides can close mountain roads for a few hours; your guide and driver adjust the day if that happens.
Day 2 is the longest drive, about 7 hours with stops on mountain roads over the Khau Pha Pass. Day 4 is about 4.5 hours over the O Quy Ho Pass and Day 6 about 6 hours back to Hanoi. Day 3 is a trek of around four hours on village paths and field dykes, with steep, muddy sections after rain; Days 4 and 6 include walks of about two hours, and Fansipan has around 600 steps to the summit. None of it is technical, but it suits travellers comfortable on uneven ground. If you are prone to travel sickness, bring your usual medication.
Breakfast and lunch are included every day except Day 7 (breakfast only). Lunches are set menus at local restaurants, served family-style with rice, soup and several shared dishes; Day 1 is a pho lunch and Day 5 the buffet at the Fansipan mountain restaurant. Dinners are not included, so your evenings are free and your guide is happy to suggest places nearby. Vegetarian, halal, no-pork and allergy requirements are straightforward if you tell us at booking.
Inquiry sent
Trips in the same destination
Shorter, longer, or the same country at a different pace.
Northwest Vietnam 7-Day Private Tour: Tu Le, Mu Cang Chai, Moc Chau & Pu Luong
FeaturedNorthern Vietnam 6-Day Private Tour: Sapa, Ha Giang Loop & Ban Gioc Waterfall
Featured5 Day 4 Night Sapa Trekking Tour with Fansipan Hiking from Hanoi
FeaturedSapa Trekking Tour 4 Days
Trip ideas twice a month
Where the weather is right, which routes are quiet, and what our designers are booking. Unsubscribe in one click.
