Sapa's top spots

Saturday market

Get to Sapa on a Saturday - surely the best way to acquaint yourself with the colourful local people who come in from surrounding villages to hawk their wares, bargain for produce or meet friends. The largest ethnic groups are the H'mong and Dzao people. The market itself is a riot of squawking chickens, stacks of sandals and various vegetable produce. Once you've wandered a bit and developed an apetite, eat in the food section along with the local families. There's good food in here for a cheap price and you may find yourself in conversation with some locals!

Fansipan

If you're up for an endurance hike of three to five days, consider setting out to Fansipan. This is the biggest mountain in this region and the views are striking. There are villages to pass through on the first day. Guides can be hired locally in town, but shop around a bit first.

Cat Cat

If you just want a quiet amble, then take a stroll out of Sapa to the small village of Cat Cat. It's one of the few villages you do not require a guide but you still pay 10,000 d (USD $1) entry. It's a lovely two-hour circuit through fields, across rivers, into the village and back. If you time it for sunset you get the best views and the locals will be heading home from their work in the fields. Plus there will be fewer tourists about. Families may wish to invite you into their homes, but it's usually to get you to purchase some handicrafts. Be respectful if they do invite you in, you do not need to feel obliged to purchase anything.

Village visits

There are a number of villages around Sapa that you can visit both with or without a guide. Cat Cat Village has already been described. If you wish to do a day walk, there are tourist offices in town that can set you up with the necessary guides and permits to visit them. The payment for the service is done in an effort to prevent the villages being over run with camera wielding tourists. If you do want to go to other villages without a permit ask at your guesthouse or at a tourist office for a map of the region and get them to mark off villages that you can visit. You will need some form of transport to get there, a bicycle could be fun but a lot of work on the many hills in the region. More fun would be a motorbike, that way you can tour at will and jump off for photos and visit villages enroute.

Waterfall

Thac Bac Waterfall falls from about 70m in height and is approximately 5-10km beyond Sapa. The road is pretty bad so you will need either a good motorbike (go slowly) or a vehicle to get there. It would be a long trek on foot but doable.